• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
• /
• v.66 no.3
• /
• pp.75-92
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to prove how sociocultural perspective of obesity, differences in consumers' perception of body and attitudes of accepting obesity affected individuals' clothing behaviors through cross-cultural studies. The data collected were composed of 612 Korean and US consumers in the 20's and 30's that had experiences in purchasing plus-size products. The results were as follows. First, BMI index was lower in Korean consumers than the US consumers, but Korean consumers received more stress from being overweight compared to the US consumers, and had a more negative attitude about their body. Second, although Korean consumers had lower BMI index and degrees of obesity than US consumers, they were severely stressed by obesity and were found to have a higher level of dissatisfaction with their bodies. Third, Korean consumers responded more sensitively to obesity and had a tendency to display a more negative attitude regarding obesity, and a more passive dependence on clothing. Forth, differences in the body shape were reflected even in wearing evaluation, and US consumers showed a more positive attitude toward evaluations of size suitability and fitness. Fifth, the plus-size market for Korean consumers was still not active, and most products purchased were generic brands obtained from online shopping malls through the Internet. However, in the case of the US, in which the ratio of obese people is high and the plus-size market is growing, consumers were purchasing plus-size brands through various distribution online and offline channels. Sixth, Korean consumers were less satisfied than US consumers with shops, sizes and fitness; however, they were more satisfied with design factors. Finally, it is expected that this study can offer practical implications for marketers and product developers running plus-size market for young obese consumers in their 20 and 30s.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2017

The objective of this study was to explore the role of familiarity in cross-cultural product perception and perception changes according to food systems (hot sauce and spicy-chicken) in Korean and US consumers. Free choice profiling was conducted by Korean and US consumers on four spicy-chicken samples made using four hot sauce samples. Half of the hot sauce samples were selected to be more familiar to US consumers and vice versa to Korean consumers. A previous study that investigated cross-cultural perceptions of the same four hot sauce samples in US and Korean consumers was incorporated in this study. For distinct sample differences, US and Korean consumers perceived products similarly. However, for less obvious differences, flavor familiarity seemed to affect consumers' product perceptions. In addition, product perceptions changed more dramatically according to food systems for familiar samples in each country. The findings of this study show that consumers' product perception can be affected by flavor familiarities.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.26-40
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the fashion lifestyle variable of global consumers and to compare among US, Chinese and EU consumers. The data were collected in US(n=749), China(n=702) and EU(n=1083) from 2008 to 2010. For analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, K-means cluster analysis and chi-square analysis of SPSS 18.0 are used. The research results are as follow: First, it is shown that significant lifestyle factors of global fashion consumers are "adventure seeking", "fashion-oriented", "conspicuous consumption", "leadership", "brand-oriented", and "DIY". As a result of the cluster analysis of lifestyle types, four cross-national market segments are identified. These segments can be labeled as follows: "conservative fashion-oriented group", "passive consumer group", "neutral consumer group", "active fashion-oriented group". Second, findings also reveal that fashion lifestyle segments had meaningful differences between nationality and by year. Third, the US consumers tended to have conservative fashion-oriented lifestyle in 2008, however global consumers were changed to have active fashion lifestyle in 2010. This research will be useful to global brands in planning marketing strategies by offering specific information for global consumer fashion lifestyle.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.493-501
• /
• 1996

An understanding of consumers' evaluative processes and the consumer variables that influence cross-cultural evaluations of foreign products is essential to effectively penetrate international markets. This study compared consumers in two developing countries, Korea and Mexico, regarding their product evaluations and purchase intentions for US Levi's jeans. Both Korean and Mexican consumers are generally quality and price conscious. Korean consumers appeared to be more value-conscious than Mexican consumers. Mexican consumers exhibited high level of brand and prestige conscious behavior. Findings in this study support that culture bound consumer characteristics vary from country to country resulting in differences in perception of quality, value and purchase intentions for a particular product. The perception of product quality differs from perception of value and subsequent willingness to buy. For a comprehensive understanding of consumer purchase behavior, the impact of value-conscious attitude on percetion of quality and on purchase intentions should be examined.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.559-573
• /
• 2008

Internet apparel businesses are required to provide various kinds of consumer information which includes both product information and customer service information. "New Age Elderly" who become an aged man in 21th century are familiar with internet and other high technological tools from their life time experience with technological development and ready to enjoy the convenience the technology offers. As a preliminary step to develop internet consumer information model for elderly consumers, this study examines the US and Korea apparel e-tailing sites targeting elderly consumers. Ten Korean sites and nine US sites were selected and compared for their provision of consumer information in terms of contents, ease to access, and the completeness of the information. Results of data analysis indicate that elderly market in Korea is not yet clearly defined compared to the US. In Korea, elderly consumer market is considered as a part of middle-aged market, and there was no unique target marketing efforts observed. Korean sites are better than the US's sites in terms of shopping information, while the US sites offer detailed information about the company, and customer service information. In both countries, fashion related information is lacking and failing to satisfy fashion conscious elderly consumers. Managerial implications were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.24 no.9
• /
• pp.127-134
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to understand the purchasing intentions of Chinese consumers to Huawei and other domestic brands in the context of the current Sino-US trade war. Taking the mass consumers as the research object, this paper designs Likert five-level scale to investigate consumers' purchase intention of domestic products in the future, and uses SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 statistical software to analyze and process statistical data. Using questionnaire survey and exploratory factor analysis, this paper constructs a model to analyze the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on consumers' purchase intention. By summarizing the overall purchasing intention of consumers, it is concluded that the development of domestic brands in the context of trade war is facing difficulties and challenges in the future, but at the same time, we must seize the opportunity of consumers' ethnocentrism under this background to positively influence their purchasing intention, make up for shortcomings, eliminate overcapacity, and seek greater development through technological innovation.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.923-936
• /
• 2012

Apparel companies define their target customers to integrate consumers' needs into their product development processes. The sizing standards play a significant role in ready-to-wear garment business. Consumers' body build and sizes are different according to gender, age, and body type. The consumers' morphological feature of the one geographical area has changed with immigration, aging, and lifestyle change. In this study the way of defining body types in the standard garment sizing systems published in USA., UK, Germany, Japan, and Korea were compared. The results of this study show that most of the systems classified the body types by the index value. The chest-waist drop value was used for men's body type classification. Women's body types were defined by hip proportion. The hip-bust drop value was used for it. German and European garment sizing systems provide a wide range of men's body types. US men's garment sizes are developed for very conservative body type. US women's garment sizing system has had clearly defined women's body types. The Misses body types projected in the US garment sizing system had changed as women's waist girth got bigger compared to the past. In 2011 the US Misses sizes were divided into Curvy Misses size and Straight Misses size by the hip-waist drop value. The Curvy Misses sizes have smaller waist girth and larger hip girth than the Straight Misses sizes.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.99-110
• /
• 2014

Flounder was selected as one of the 10 strategic export aquaculture products for seafood export expansion in 2013. The flounder aquaculture industry has promoted export market diversification and product diversification from live to processed goods as a it's main strategy. The purpose of this study is to find an improvement plan for export expansion to the United States, as it emerged as a new target export market for the flounder. A summary of the key findings is as follows. First, the western region of the United States prefers to consume live and fresh flounder, whereas the eastern region prefers to consume fresh flounder. Second, because of it's high quality, Korean flounder is favored in the western region of the United States despite it's high price, whereas in the eastern region of the United States, where production volume is high, Korean flounder has to compete with US flounders because of it's high price. Third, according to the survey results, US consumers tend to enjoy seafood, as well as flounder cuisines. Fourth, the main consumption place of flounders by US consumers are restaurants, and they prefer to consume them in the form of sashimi and sushi. Fifth, 70% of US consumers expressed willingness to consume flounder when eating out. which shows great market potential. However, the high price of Korean flounder and limited size of the live fish market act as major obstacles to expanding export volume. To expand exporting Korean flounder, continuos efforts such as price reduction, exporting highly fresh fish, the co-development of processed food with the US are needed.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.75-84
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing on loyalty in US online shopping malls. The study proposed a model to investigate the relationship among quality of sites, satisfaction, attitude, and loyalty. The hypotheses were examined by analyzing a structural equation model. 280 US samples were used for the final analysis. The results show that this model demonstrates good fit for the samples. The ease of use was found to be a significant variable in their satisfaction, while it did not have the direct effect on attitude toward the sites. The information quality was found to be a crucial variable in consumers' satisfaction and attitude toward the site. Satisfaction directly affected attitude as well as loyalty, and attitude also directly affected loyalty. Thus, the structural relationship among the variables of customers' loyalty was verified. This research provides practical insights into US consumer behaviors that would be beneficial to marketers when they make decisions for the US e-commerce market.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.285-296
• /
• 2016

This study was conducted to obtain a better understanding of American green tea consumers for increasing Korean green tea sales in the US market. In doing so, this study investigated green tea choice attributes of US consumers and segmented them based upon their perceptions about important attributes of green tea. A factor-cluster segmentation approach was used for this study. An exploratory factor analysis identified five green tea choice motives: 'Sensory', 'Diet', 'Price', 'Health', and 'Brand'. Based upon these five choice attributes, cluster analyses classified all respondents into four homogeneous subgroups: 'Highly motivated', 'Taste/Price oriented', 'Health oriented', and 'Brand oriented'. Cross-tab tests proved that green tea consumption and purchasing patterns were significantly different among the four clusters. In particular, two cluster groups representing 'Highly motivated' and 'Health oriented' groups were found to offer the most utility for further American green tea market segmentation research. Findings show that American green tea consumers include a wide range of age groups and they usually buy green tea at grocery markets. Managerial implications for all cluster groups based upon their unique characteristics are provided. Korean green tea companies can apply these findings in order to develop more effective and efficient marketing strategies to attract American consumers to buy more Korean green tea.