• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.63-82
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• 2016

Individuals gather information online to resolve problems in their daily lives and make various decisions about the purchase of products or services. With the revolutionary development of information technology, Web 2.0 has allowed more people to easily generate and use online reviews such that the volume of information is rapidly increasing, and the usefulness and significance of analyzing the unstructured data have also increased. This paper presents an analysis on the lexical features of expert product reviews to determine their influence on consumers' purchasing decisions. The focus was on how unstructured data can be organized and used in diverse contexts through text mining. In addition, diverse lexical features of expert reviews of contents provided by a third-party review site were extracted and defined. Expert reviews are defined as evaluations by people who have expert knowledge about specific products or services in newspapers or magazines; this type of review is also called a critic review. Consumers who purchased products before the widespread use of the Internet were able to access expert reviews through newspapers or magazines; thus, they were not able to access many of them. Recently, however, major media also now provide online services so that people can more easily and affordably access expert reviews compared to the past. The reason why diverse reviews from experts in several fields are important is that there is an information asymmetry where some information is not shared among consumers and sellers. The information asymmetry can be resolved with information provided by third parties with expertise to consumers. Then, consumers can read expert reviews and make purchasing decisions by considering the abundant information on products or services. Therefore, expert reviews play an important role in consumers' purchasing decisions and the performance of companies across diverse industries. If the influence of qualitative data such as reviews or assessment after the purchase of products can be separately identified from the quantitative data resources, such as the actual quality of products or price, it is possible to identify which aspects of product reviews hamper or promote product sales. Previous studies have focused on the characteristics of the experts themselves, such as the expertise and credibility of sources regarding expert reviews; however, these studies did not suggest the influence of the linguistic features of experts' product reviews on consumers' overall evaluation. However, this study focused on experts' recommendations and evaluations to reveal the lexical features of expert reviews and whether such features influence consumers' overall evaluations and purchasing decisions. Real expert product reviews were analyzed based on the suggested methodology, and five lexical features of expert reviews were ultimately determined. Specifically, the "review depth" (i.e., degree of detail of the expert's product analysis), and "lack of assurance" (i.e., degree of confidence that the expert has in the evaluation) have statistically significant effects on consumers' product evaluations. In contrast, the "positive polarity" (i.e., the degree of positivity of an expert's evaluations) has an insignificant effect, while the "negative polarity" (i.e., the degree of negativity of an expert's evaluations) has a significant negative effect on consumers' product evaluations. Finally, the "social orientation" (i.e., the degree of how many social expressions experts include in their reviews) does not have a significant effect on consumers' product evaluations. In summary, the lexical properties of the product reviews were defined according to each relevant factor. Then, the influence of each linguistic factor of expert reviews on the consumers' final evaluations was tested. In addition, a test was performed on whether each linguistic factor influencing consumers' product evaluations differs depending on the lexical features. The results of these analyses should provide guidelines on how individuals process massive volumes of unstructured data depending on lexical features in various contexts and how companies can use this mechanism from their perspective. This paper provides several theoretical and practical contributions, such as the proposal of a new methodology and its application to real data.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.40-48
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• 2010

Objectives The purpose of this study is to get the basic information about the actual amount of consumption of the Health supplements and Herbal Medicines. Also, we investigated the consumption differences according to the regions. Methods 500 questionnaires were handed out to parents of elementary students in O O, Gyeonggi-do province, and 331 questionnaires were collected and evaluated for this study. Results Among the 331 students, 58.4% were female, and 41.6% were male. The percentages of the subjects consuming health supplements and herbal medicines were 67.4% and 59.2% respectively. The maximum period of taking the health supplements were from 1 month to 6 month (49.5%), and the maximum period of taking the herbal medicine was within one month (55.6%). The total cost of the health supplements was less than 100,000won (43.7%), which was the most common while herbal medicine cost was between 100,000won and 200,000won (40.6%). The most common age of consuming the health supplements and herbal medicine for the first time was six to ten years old (47.3%); the case of herbal medicine was one to six years old (64.0%). Most of people purchased health supplements from pharmacy (48.0%), and purchased the herbal medicine from the oriental medical clinic (61.8%). Among those people who purchased health supplements, they bought nutritional supplements (82.8%), red ginseng or ginseng products (43.4%), plum extract products (10.9%), and chlorella products (6.8%). The reason for consuming health supplements was to be healthier even though there is no ongoing illness (47.1%), which was the most common reason. The reason for consuming herbal medicine was to cure weakness (39.3%). For the responses about effectiveness after taking medications, people thought herbal medicine seemed to be more effective compare to health supplements (72.3%, 63% respectively). Only 1.4% of the subjects consuming the health supplements showed adverse effects while herbal medicine showed 4.6%. The most common adverse effects were 'general reaction' caused by the health supplements and dermatologic problems caused by the herbal medications. Conclusions Among 331 subjects, the percentage of consuming the health supplements (67.4%) was higher than the Herbal Medicine (59.2%). The total consuming cost of the herbal medications was higher than general health supplements. Also, the maximum period of consuming the health supplements was longer than herbal medications. Therefore, it is shown that herbal medications have no price competitiveness compare to health supplements. The age of using the herbal medicine for the first time was younger than the health supplements. Even though many people can purchase both health supplements and herbal medication from pharmacies and local oriental medical clinic, it is also shown that some people thought that the health supplements should be purchased from oriental medical hospital (13.9%). The most commonly taken forms of the health supplement was nutrition-supplying products, and the second common health supplements were ginseng and red ginseng. The health supplements were commonly consumed for preventing illness and for maintaining healthy life rather than for cure diseases. On the other hand, the herbal medicine was more commonly consumed to be taller or to treat diseases. More than half of the entire people replied as 'satisfied' for their purchase. Some adverse effects and general reaction were common with the subjects consuming health supplements while dermatological adverse reaction was common with the subjects consuming herbal medications.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2012

Personalized smart devices such as smartphones and smart pads are widely used. Unlike traditional feature phones, theses smart devices allow users to choose a variety of functions, which support not only daily experiences but also business operations. Actually, there exist a huge number of applications accessible by smart device users in online and mobile application markets. Users can choose apps that fit their own tastes and needs, which is impossible for conventional phone users. With the increase in app demand, the tastes and needs of app users are becoming more diverse. To meet these requirements, numerous apps with diverse functions are being released on the market, which leads to fierce competition. Unlike offline markets, online markets have a limitation in that purchasing decisions should be made without experiencing the items. Therefore, online customers rely more on item-related information that can be seen on the item page in which online markets commonly provide details about each item. Customers can feel confident about the quality of an item through the online information and decide whether to purchase it. The same is true of online app markets. To win the sales competition against other apps that perform similar functions, app developers need to focus on writing app descriptions to attract the attention of customers. If we can measure the effect of app descriptions on sales without regard to the app's price and quality, app descriptions that facilitate the sale of apps can be identified. This study intends to provide such a quantitative result for app developers who want to promote the sales of their apps. For this purpose, we collected app details including the descriptions written in Korean from one of the largest app markets in Korea, and then extracted keywords from the descriptions. Next, the impact of the keywords on sales performance was measured through our econometric model. Through this analysis, we were able to analyze the impact of each keyword itself, apart from that of the design or quality. The keywords, comprised of the attribute and evaluation of each app, are extracted by a morpheme analyzer. Our model with the keywords as its input variables was established to analyze their impact on sales performance. A regression analysis was conducted for each category in which apps are included. This analysis was required because we found the keywords, which are emphasized in app descriptions, different category-by-category. The analysis conducted not only for free apps but also for paid apps showed which keywords have more impact on sales performance for each type of app. In the analysis of paid apps in the education category, keywords such as 'search+easy' and 'words+abundant' showed higher effectiveness. In the same category, free apps whose keywords emphasize the quality of apps showed higher sales performance. One interesting fact is that keywords describing not only the app but also the need for the app have asignificant impact. Language learning apps, regardless of whether they are sold free or paid, showed higher sales performance by including the keywords 'foreign language study+important'. This result shows that motivation for the purchase affected sales. While item reviews are widely researched in online markets, item descriptions are not very actively studied. In the case of the mobile app markets, newly introduced apps may not have many item reviews because of the low quantity sold. In such cases, item descriptions can be regarded more important when customers make a decision about purchasing items. This study is the first trial to quantitatively analyze the relationship between an item description and its impact on sales performance. The results show that our research framework successfully provides a list of the most effective sales key terms with the estimates of their effectiveness. Although this study is performed for a specified type of item (i.e., mobile apps), our model can be applied to almost all of the items traded in online markets.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.379-394
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• 1994

The purpose of this study was to identify the correlation between the factors influencing on housewives' decision-making processes of organic foods and the relating variables, and the 5 stages of decision-making processes of the EBK model is utilized in this study. The sample was selected from 411 housewives living in Seoul from 1st of September through 20th of September, 1993. Frequency, Percentage, Mean, Factor analysis, One-way ANOVA, Duncan's multiple range test, t-Test, Correlation, Multiple regression analysis and Path analysis were measured. Major results are as follows: 1. Purchasing motivation of the organic foods were in order of the health care, nutritive value and taste care. 2. The major informations source for the knowledge of organic foods were in order of TV/radio, newspaper/magazine, recommendations informations and advice through a family/friends/acquaintances. 3. Evalution criteria in shopping of organic foods, the total degree of consideration over the purchasing factors of organic foods was fairly high level: consumers thought much of the sanitation/freshness, nutritive value and the food safety. In this regard opinion leaders was dominantly mass media. Consumers have a tendency to purchase organic foods in consideration of their children and husband. 4. Major place to purchase organic foods are super markets and department stores. And When shopping organic foods, housewives by all means confirm the check points in their own mind, which were expiry date, manufactured date and packing condition, but unexpectedly manufactured company was out of concern. 5. Housewives usually satisfy with decision after purchasing organic foods, while they were fairly unsatisfied with the price, quality, incomplete description for ingredients and manufactured date. 6. The variables influencing to the sincerity when selecting the most desired organic foods is how be cares about the natural freshness of the foods and the types of residents in order. Another interesting tendency is the richer they are very considerate to decide. It is to say the people who cares more about the natural freshness is the sincerer when making decision and also the class who lives in the apartment house enjoying high income do not easily accept the product quality.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 2018

Most people today search for information on the Internet about the goods or services they want to purchase and then assess the replies posted by other people who have experience with those goods or services. These replies serve as an important reference point that can affect purchase decisions. Replies are divided broadly into two types: first, market normative replies about whether a person experiences satisfaction with (or more than) the price paid for goods or services (positive) or not (negative); and the second is non-market normative replies about whether the goods or service provider morally deserves the profits gained from providing them (positive) or not (negative). Previous studies on replies have focused on market normative replies (whether the food is delicious), and there have only been some studies on the effect of non-market normative replies (the owner is morally good). This research was undertaken to re-examine the effect of market normative replies identified by previous studies in a restaurant visit intention evaluation (Experiment 1), to examine the effect of non-market normative replies not investigated in previous studies (Experiment 2), and to compare the effect of market normative replies and non-market normative replies (the meta-analysis) In conclusion, restaurant visit intention was stronger when market normative replies were positive (delicious) than when they were negative (not delicious) (Experiment 1). Furthermore, restaurant visit intention was stronger when non-market normative replies were positive (the owner is moral) than when they were negative (the owner is immoral) (Experiment 2). On the other hand, it was found that restaurant visit intention was stronger when non-market normative replies were positive than when market normative replies were positive, and restaurant visit intention was weaker when non-market normative replies were negative than when market normative replies were negative. This implies that people are more likely to be affected by non-market normative replies than market normative replies. In addition, this study suggested that the mood changed more before and after checking non-market normative replies than before and after checking market normative replies, and due to this difference, people could be affected more by non-market normative replies than market normative replies.

• The Journal of the Korean Institute of Forest Recreation
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.11-22
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• 2018

This study analyzes the economic feasibility on the transition of production structure to increase income for a local forest village in Laos PDR. The study area was the Nongboua village in Sangthong district where the primary product is rice from rice paddy. Possible strategies were considered to increase the villagers' revenue, and Noni (Morinda citrifolia) was production in the short-term. We assumed that the project period was for 20 years for the analysis, and a total of 1,100 Noni tree was planted in 1 ha by $3m{\times}3m$ spacing. This study classified basic scenario one, scenario two, scenario three by the survival rate and purchase pirce of Noni. Generally Noni grows well. However, the seedlings' average survival rate (= production volume) was set up conservatively in this study to consider potential risks such as no production experience of Noni and tree disease. The scenario one assumed that the survival rate of Noni seedlings was 50% for 0-1 years, 60% for 0-2 years, and 70% for 3-20 years; the scenario two, 10% less, i.e., 40%, 50%, and 60%; and the scenario three, 10% less, i.e., 40%, 50%, 60% and purchase price 10% less, i.e., $0.29 to $0.26, respectively. Our analysis showed that all 3 scenarios resulted in economically-feasible IRR (internal rate of return) of 24.81%, 19.02%, and 16.30% of with a discounting rate of 10%. The B/C (benefit/cost) ratio for a unit area (1ha) was also analyzed for the three scenarios with a discounting rate of 10%, resutling in the B/C ratio of 1.71, 1.47, and 1.31. The study results showed that the Nongboua village would have a good opportunity to improve its low-income structure through planting and managing alternative crops such as Noni. Also the results can be used as useful decision-making information at a preliminary analysis level for planning other government and public investment projects for the Nonboua village.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.15-30
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• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate the utilization and satisfaction of meal-kits according to food-related lifestyle among total 357 adults who had experience in using meal-kits. This study can provide basic data for effective menu composition and directions toward improvement. The participants of the study were classified into 5 groups 'health-type group', 'economic-type group', 'safety-type group', 'tasty-type group' and 'convenience-type group'. The 'tastye-type group' were found to spend more on purchasing meal-kits than other groups with the higher proportion(36.66%) of spending '30,000-50,000'won(p<0.05), which is the highest price category. The important factors that contributed to purchasing a meal-kits were 'taste'(50.98%), and 'economic-type group' showed the highest tendency of considering taste (58.46%). About half(49.02%) of the respondents preferred 'Korean-food' for meal-kits as for the type of food. All groups highly preferred 'meat'(42.58%) as the main ingredient, particularly the 'tasty-type group'(53.33%)(p<0.001). The 'tasty-type group' showed the highest satisfaction on 'convenience of cooking'(4.05), and 'convenience-type group' showed the lowest satisfaction on the 'origin of ingredient'(2.98) among groups (p<0.01). The overall response indicated that most respondents are willing to use meal-kits in the future (97.20%); and 93.28% of respondents would recommend the purchase of meal-kits to others, where 'convenience of cooking/purchase' was the factor contributing most for recommending(67.23%). Taken together, 'taste' was the most important factor for all groups. And 'Convenience of cooking' was the factor contributing to satisfaction most while 'origin of ingredient' contributing the least. It is recommended for the growth of meal-kits industry, to improve the quality of the meal-kits products and develop various menus.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.6
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• pp.152-171
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• 2002

This study analyses the avatar service, which is recognized as an alternative strategy of animation industry. The research questions of this study are following: (1) How have the avatar services been developed and what are the present dominant types? (2) Which structural characteristics of e-business environment are needed for the success of avatar services? (3) What is the economic characteristics of avatar business model? To solve these research questions, the basic conditions and the structural characteristics of avatar services have been investigated. In the first place, two forms of avatar service are classified. One is the internet service site whole primary service is to provide chatting service based on avatar service. The other is the portal site in which many kinds of products and services are presented as bundles to meet the needs of internet users. So avatar service is one of bundles which those portal sites are providing with. In this study, the big five internet service sites are selected based on the profits they earned through the sales of avatar service. The result of analysis is that the pricing strategy of those big five sites is very different from those of traditional off-line markets. The pricing mechanism are based on the value which internet users endow with the avatar items, not based on the costs of making the products. Avatar is the representative informative goods. The informative goods have the original cost structures, constant fixed costs and zero marginal costs, so the providers of avatar services make much of the subjective values of consumers. The sayclub, which is the most successful avatar service site and earn the average sales of 3 billing won a month, takes the aggressive strategy of pricing avatar items at highest price in the industry. The avatar service providers which make lots of profits are planning of making differentiate the services, introducing well-known brand items and star-named items. Nevertheless, the fact that the members of the sayclub are not decreasing means that the network effect of the site is so strongly manifest. Moreover, the costs the members have paid for the avatar items are so big not as to switch from one site to the other site, it can be very costly. These switching costs are endemic in high-technology industries and digital contents industries. It can be so large that switching suppliers is virtually unthinkable, a situation known as 'lock-in'. When switching costs are substantial, competition can be intense to attract new customers, since, one they are locked in, they can be a substantial source of profit. The consumers of avatar items have switching costs if they subscribe for the new avatar service site. The switching costs can be subscription costs as well as the costs of giving up the items they already paid for. One common example of switching costs involves specialized supplies, as with inkjet printer cartridges. In this example, the switching cost is the purchase of a new printer. The market is competitive ex ante, but since cartridges are incompatible, it is monopolized dx post. So the providers of printer/cartridges set pricing printer so cheap and cartridges expensive. On the contrary, since the avatar service can be successful with the strong network effect, the providers of avatar services have to compete aggressively for new customers. So they allow the subscription at a low price(almost marginal cost) in the early market. The network effect can be maximized when the members are sufficiently growing. The providers which have the monopoly power with sufficient subscribers. begin to raise the prices over the lifetime of the product and make profits.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.43-58
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• 2020

This study was conducted to investigate adolescents' food purchasing attitudes and related factors in the aim of improving youth's ability to purchase food properly and providing basic data on educational program development regarding dietary life. Total 476 adolescents residing in Daegu area participated in this study, and followings are the summary of the results. In terms of concerns in food purchasing, adolescents put priority in order of price(3.81±0.64), taste(3.70±0.72), safety(3.52±0.78), health(2.93±0.92). With respect to food purchasing attitudes, a significant differences were found in economic concern(p<.05) by gender and by the amount of allowance; preference(p<.01) and safety(p<.01) by school year. The analysis of environmental factors affecting food purchasing attitudes revealed that adolescents were most influenced by their parents(3.44±0.62) in food purchasing, whereas friends' influences(2.43±0.60) were relatively low. Regarding the effect of environmental factors on food purchasing, significant differences were found in parents(p<.05) and brands(p<.05) by gender; friends(p<.01) and parents(p<.05) by school year; friends(p<.01) by the amount of allowance. Food purchasing attitudes represented positive correlation with parents, advertisements and brands(p<.001). In addition, regression analysis showed that parents and advertisements affect adolescents' food purchasing. Conclusively, adolescents appear to prioritize price and taste, and they were influenced most by their parents when purchasing food. Therefore, parents, serving as a consumer role model, should instruct their children to learn considerate attitude in food purchasing.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.160-174
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• 2005

Despite the decrease in the number of children due to low birth rate, the domestic children's apparel market has been achieving steady growth as family income is rising thanks to more opportunities for working women, parents spend more on their children, and they prefer brand products that make their children look special. In addition, the market is suffering from hard competition as large enterprises have joined the race. The present study purposed to survey the children's apparel market in Korea, which is in a transitional period, and to contribute to the development of the market with Korean brands. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century based on the current state of the domestic children's apparel market and, based on the findings, forecasted the future trend of children's apparel brands, suggested improvements for expected problems, proposed standards for coping with changes such as diversification, high quality and differentiation in the children's apparel market, and provided consumers with information on how to purchase products. According to the result of analyzing the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century, brands are categorized largely into four types - life cultural brands, functional product brands, character brands and brands advancing to China. Life cultural brands equipped with all necessities for children are expanding, and with the deepening social problems of environmental pollution and the reduction of the child population, functional products made of environment-friendly materials are spreading widely, targeting infants and children. Furthermore, for extending age targets and diversifying products, children's apparel is using characters. The use of characters is expected to have a considerable effect on the growth of brands because children are more subjective as consumers than before and they are more easily persuaded with characters. Domestic children's apparel brands advancing to China have a high expectation of success in overcoming the limitation of the local market that has reached its peak and growing into global brands. Korean apparel makers are struggling to overcome the depressed domestic market, to recover consumers' consumption, to cope with market opening, to pursue high value of sensibility and to expand the seniors' market, etc. In this situation, future trends of children's apparel brands will be the expansion of family brands, brand totalization, quality price, niche market (pre-teen market), etc. In response to these trends, we made the following suggestions for improvement. 1. Children's apparel brands are evolving into family brands as well as into total brands through voluming. Today, however, apparel makers are advancing to the children's apparel market with the concept of adults' apparel and, as a result, children's apparel is merely adults' apparel of reduced size, having problems in design, color and materials. Thus, apparel makers must develop design considering the wide range of size and the characteristics of children's apparel, strengthen sourcing abilities to create revenues, and make thorough survey of customers to find common denominators between adults' apparel and children's apparel considering that characteristic that the target class is different from the buyer class. Furthermore, they must make active investments in human resources, develop outstanding products through advanced planning and design, and support marketing techniques and management systems to stores. 2. As the declining birth rate will continue to have a negative effect on the market, it may be difficult to expand the market size but there is still a margin for growth through high-sensibility and high-quality products. The competitiveness of brands is determined by their market shares. Accordingly, concepts should be specialized according to lifestyle, customers' diverse needs should be satisfied, and cross-coordination should be achieved within a brand. 3. Considering Korean parents who do not spare investment in their children despite shrinking consumption, functional products must be high value-added goods that can enhance efficiency. However, in the current situation of the infants' apparel industry where a textile manufacturer supply its products to multiple brands, it is difficult to develop unique products only based on materials. Thus, it is considered urgent to appeal to consumers not by relying on materials only but by finding methods of applying their own characters to children's dress.