• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.301-316
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• 2016

Due to the dramatic increase in consumers' price sensitivity and growing importance for global retailers to create relevant price strategies, this study investigates the global pricing strategy of the main SPA brands such as ZARA, H&M and UNIQLO. Based on price information shown on official website, the study developed SPA brand index by using exchange rates in terms of US dollars and ratio of differences between the local price and the US price. These figures were compared with GDP per person data in order to analyze each brand's price level against the income level. The study also compared SPA brand index with Big Mac index to identify the difference in price levels between the fast fashion market and the fast food market. ZARA and H&M were mostly targeting Middle East and Asia as a high-price market when considering index only. After taking the income level into account, however, Asia came out be the highest price market and Middle East was similar to the US market. On the other hand, UNIQLO targeted Asia as the lowest price market and the US and EU as the highest in terms of index only. But, Asia came out to be the highest price zone after considering the income level while the price of the US and EU was reasonable. Comparison with Big Mac Index indicated that most of Asia had a higher price level of the fashion market than the food market, whereas most European countries had a similar or high-price level of food market.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.45-60
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• 2015

Emotional consumption value orientation has played a significant role to have a direct effect on making purchase in our lives. And emotional value has been dealt within the SPA brand contexts recently. Therefore, the current study investigates how SPA brand consumers' emotional value consumption orientation has affected brand loyalty, with a focus on mediation effects of marketing mix attributes assessment. Results of this research are as follows. First, there was a significant difference between Zara and Uniqlo on the assessment of marketing mix attributes. Second, emotional consumption value orientation had significantly impact on brand loyalty for both Zara and Uniqlo. Third, multi-regression analysis was conducted to find out the mediation effect of marketing mix attributes assessment in the relationships between emotional consumption value orientation and brand loyalty. For Zara, hedonic promotional and pricing attributes of products and place show full mediation effect on brand loyalty. For Uniqlo, utilitarian, hedonic and pricing attributes have impact on brand loyalty. The current study strives to find out how emotional consumption value orientation attected the consumer evaluation process and purchase behavior in the contexts of SPA brand product purchase. Product assessments have stronger effect than place, and hedonic attributes have stronger effect on brand loyalty in comparison with utilitarian attributes. Also, hedonic attributes of product and place have stronger effect on brand loyalty in comparison with utilitarian attributes.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.175-189
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• 2013

This study was aimed at finding the effects of consumer experience related to experience providers of apparel companies on brand loyalty. The participants of this study included experienced SPA fashion brand shopping female consumers who are between the ages of 20 to 50 residing in Seoul. A total of 285 questionnaires were used for the survey of this study. Methods of data analysis included. The result of this study revealed the 9 factors of experience providers in apparel companies: co-branding, advertising, visual/verbal identity & signage, design & quality, physical environment, people, emotional environment, websites, and sales promotion. The 5 factors of consumer experiences were behavioral experience, relational experience, affective experience, intellectual experience, and sensory experience. The experience providers of the apparel company had a significant impact on consumer experience of SPA, such as behavioral experience, sensory experience, affective experience, intellectual experience and relational experience. Of all, consumer experience of SPA as well as behavioral, sensory and affective experiences had a positive impact on brand loyalty. In conclusion, experience providers, at the disposal of the apparel company, are tactical implementation components for creating consumer experience. Therefore, the marketing strategy of apparel companies should be focused on eliciting affirmative responses from consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.334-346
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• 2014

Green marketing is efforts to achieve the environmental responsibility in all marketing activities. This study investigates the contribution of SPA fashion brands' green marketing activities to consumers' green behavior and the brands' growth as well as the natural environment. Green marketing activities are classified by product relevance and consumer participation. An online survey is conducted using scenarios developed according to the two (high/low product relevance) by two (high/low consumer participation) research design. Green consuming intention and brand attitude are compared by product relevance and consumer participation. The positive effects of product relevance and consumer participation on green consuming intention are found. The positive effects of consumer participation and the interaction effect of product relevance and consumer participation on brand attitude. Based on the results, this study suggests effective green marketing activities for fashion brands.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.343-355
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• 2014

This study explores the characteristics of fashion flagship stores from the consumer's viewpoint, examines the differences by brand type in the flagship store characteristics, store experience, in-store emotion, and the post-visit brand response, and compares those of the flagship store with other stores of the brand. Flagship stores of the four brand types including luxury, SPA, retail, and national brands were selected for the online survey. Data from 537 respondents who visited and selected one of those stores were analyzed. Five factors including facility/service, scale/product lines, brand identity, location, and publicity were extracted from the characteristics of flagship store. There were differences in the perceived flagship store characteristics by brand type; The luxury and retail brands were more highly perceived in facility/service comparing to the SPA brand. Store experience and brand response were also different by brand type; Perceptions of the luxury brand were also higher than of the SPA brand. Overall, consumer responses to the luxury brand were higher than to the SPA brand. Consumer responses to the flagship store were higher than to other stores of the same brand. The study discusses further implications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.190-203
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• 2015

The fashion industry has been rearranged by Global SPA brands (like ZARA and H&M), which are powerful retailers that integrate the value chain ranging from manufacturing to sales. SPA brands can offer good quality of clothing at a reasonable price by cutting the margin between the supply chain. They are also called fast fashions since they make expedited efforts to respond to market trends and consumers. Despite the slow growth of the fashion industry in Korea, as global SPA brands rapidly expand market share, traditional fashion companies have launched several SPA brands such as MIXXO and SPAO (E-LAND), 8SECONDS (CHEIL INDUSTRIES). The few academic studies on this subject are focused on the analysis of secondary data such as news and books. The current research is qualitative and empirical attempts to explore the success factor of SPA brands with analysis of 1:1 in-depth interviews with experts who have worked for global SPAs such as Uniqlo, H&M, and ZARA, based on the grounded theory. The main phenomenon was shown to be that global SPA brands were popular since they offer a variety of products with a large assortment at reasonable and cheap prices in a large scale and multifunctional retail store. Most of them displayed main phenomena that can be realized due to the purchasing cycle of clothing that is shorter with consumers' regarding clothing as consumables. Global SPA brands had three types of marketing strategy: sellable product, sales strategy according to consumer response, and multifunctional stores. Each global SPA brand developed marketing strategies based on core competency and national conditions. The three success factors shorten the consumer decision making process of clothing. This study concludes with implications for practitioners of SPA brands born in Korea.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.139-156
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate various information relating to research on the dimensions of clothing used in the sale of products via the internet that used to target global SPA((Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel) brands sold in Korea. A total of 12 SPA brands including seven global SPA brands and five national. SPA brands were surveyed in this study. Brands were chosen net sales and consumer preferences the last three years. In all SPA brands, literal size designation such as S, M, L and numeric size designation such as 0, 2, 4 or 32, 34, 36 etc. were mixed, but in case of Jean, the size codes mark waist circumference were dominant. European size codes were more common in case of European brands while literal codes were more dominantly used for American size codes with in the US brands. By reviewing the measurement information of the body and product size, the product measurement methods of UNIQLO, FOREVER 21 and TOPTEN were much more accountable and excellent than other brands. However, most of the others didn't offer proper information such as pictograms or figures about measurement methods relating body sizes and product sizes. In addition, most of global SPA brands offered size conversion chart which consumers could reference, however of none of the national SPA brands offered a conversion size chart on their website. Regardless of the type of clothing, the coverage of clothing size was higher than in global SPA brands such as H&M GAP compared to national SPA brands. In particular, 8seconds did not present apparel size ranges that fit consumers' individual clothes sizes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.62 no.8
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• pp.28-44
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• 2012

The aim of this research is to examine the tendency of national tastes reflected in global SPA brands based on the theories of Gans' taste culture and Bourdieu's cultural capital. In this study, the leading global SPA brands such as H&M, ZARA, GAP and UNIQLO can be considered as a representative taste culture as well as an icon of popular culture in the $21^{st}$ century global fashion and also the aesthetic taste of each brand differentiated from their national aesthetic values based on socio-cultural backgrounds. H&M represents fashionableness, practicality and environmental friendliness based on naturalism, democratic humanism, and functional practicality of Sweden. ZARA emerges as the most trend oriented brand as well as customer centered on the basis of cultural diversity, passion and glamorous artistic sensibility of Spain. GAP shows American iconic style, which is the functional sports casual wear, originated from American leisure culture and mass production. Lastly, UNIQLO represents high-tech functionalism and practical simplicity based on Japanese delicate workmanship and simple, concise lifestyle while relatively does not much follow the fashion forward trends. Consequently, the national taste has been proved as a solid foundation to identify each global brand. This should be the key component also applied to Korean global brands for developing their concepts and strategies more successfully based on our own national aesthetic taste.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.161-175
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of perceived sustainability management fit of SPA brands on consumer purchase intention. A survey was conducted targeting women in their 20s and 30s from April 27th to May 6th 2013, and a total of 350 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA, simple regression analysis and multiple regression analysis were carried out using SPSS ver 21.0. The results of this study are as follows. First, fit of all three areas- economic, ecological and social-of sustainability management activities have a significant impact on consumer perception on sustainability activities. Second, perceived sustainability activities by SPA brands are found to have a positive effect on brand attitude, brand trust and consumer satisfaction. Third, brand attitude and consumer satisfaction forged by perceived sustainability activities by SPA brands have a positive impact on consumers' purchase intention. Based on the result of this study, the following marketing implications can be suggested. First, SPA brands need to be more active in all three area of sustainability activities while coming up with measures for differentiated social sustainability activities. Second, SPA brands need to meet their primary obligation by providing consumers with quality products at a reasonable price. Third, SPA brands need to recognize the potential value of sustainability activities as a driver of a longstanding relationship with consumers as well as long-term profit and value creation, leading to a great financial performance.

• Design Convergence Study
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.45-57
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• 2018

Sales for SPA brand names of private label apparels are on the rise in the domestic clothing market. The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of SPA brands and how each color system is proposed within the BI system. In this study, 8 brands were selected as the most popular SPA brands in Korea and abroad with stores based on brand power and sales and preference by consumers. Therefore, among information factors such as brand identity (BI) and color characteristic. sign system, package, and environmental factors, buildings facade and interior design of eight brands were investigated. Research into color application of BI revealed that four brands used red colors with different tones with different identity differentiation. For the other four brands, the company applied BI designs that gained the brand's character such as a black-and-white or dark blue one. Thus, it is considered important to select BI color in order to differentiate and enhance preferences in brand identity.