• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.21 no.10
• /
• pp.109-121
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to verify whether avatars that embody different brand concepts offer different experiences to users. Furthermore, this study explores the relationship between user identification with avatars and their actual brand purchase intentions. Research design, data and methodology: The research design employed a between-subjects approach, with two independent variables: brand concept and avatar. The measured dependent variables were brand experience in extended reality (XR) and purchase intention. Additionally, brand attitude served as a control variable. Results: First, in virtual brand spaces with symbolic benefits, ideal avatars were found to elicit higher levels of brand experience than actual avatars. Specifically, participants reported elevated levels of entertainment and relational assembly experiences in symbolic brand spaces. Second, this research reveals that the relationship between users' identification with avatars and their intention to make actual brand purchases is mediated by brand experience in XR. Conclusions: The findings suggest that ideal avatars evoke higher levels of brand experience within symbolic brand spaces, particularly in entertainment, relational connection, and a sense of community. Furthermore, this study establishes the role of brand experience in XR as a mediator between avatar identification and purchase intentions.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.11-22
• /
• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how brand-related user-generated content (UGC) influences consumers' brand attitude and behavioral intention in the context of the Metaverse, and the mediating role of virtual brand experience, perceived information usefulness, perceived interactivity, and attitude toward advertising. Research design, data and methodology: The study was conducted using a survey with 239 questionnaires from frequent social media users in China and hypothesis testing through AMOS 26.0 structural equation modeling. Results: The findings suggest that (1) brand-related UGC positively influences brand attitude and behavioral intention through virtual brand experience, perceived information usefulness, perceived interactivity, and attitude toward advertising. (2) The study identified the fully-mediated effects of virtual brand experience, perceived information usefulness, perceived interactivity, and attitude toward advertising in the impact of brand-related UGC on brand attitude and behavioral intention. (3) The mediating pathway with the most significant impact on behavioral intention was the virtual brand experience and attitude toward the advertising, followed by the effect of the virtual brand experience, perceived information usefulness, and perceived interactivity on brand attitude. Conclusions: This study presents UGC as a new type of digital promotion that can positively impact the effectiveness of brand advertising in the Metaverse.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.82-93
• /
• 2024

This study confirms how brand experiences perceived by consumers in the metaverse affect their pleasure and behavioral intentions (intention to use the platform, and purchase the virtual product). The results of this study are as follows. First, consumers have sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences while interacting with fashion brands in the virtual space of the metaverse. Second, in the metaverse, consumers experience pleasure when they have various brand experiences including those mentioned above. Third, the pleasure gained through consumers' brand experiences has a positive effect on their behavioral intentions, including their intentions to use the platform and purchase the virtual product in the metaverse. This study is academically meaningful in strengthening brand experience-related research and expanding into the metaverse context through empirically verifying the influence of consumers' brand experiences on pleasure in the metaverse. Also, related fashion companies will be able to use the results of this study to strategically create consumers' sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences to elicit pleasant emotions from consumers in the virtual space of the metaverse.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.47 no.5
• /
• pp.891-906
• /
• 2023

The essence of fashion brands' marketing with metaverse-based virtual spaces is to capture more potential consumers and boost the sales of companies' virtual and physical products. However, existing research has not fully addressed customer responses and behavioral outcomes regarding fashion virtual brand spaces. This study uses flow theory to address this gap and explores the factors that lead to the flow experience in virtual brand spaces. It also establishes the causal relationships between the flow experience, satisfaction with virtual spaces, the intention to purchase virtual products, and the intention to purchase actual products. We chose "Ralph Lauren World" of Ralph Lauren on Zepeto as the virtual brand space for this study and analyzed 239 valid data sets. We tested the hypotheses using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping for the mediation analyses. The findings indicate that the flow experience in virtual brand spaces positively and indirectly affects the purchase intention of virtual products via satisfaction with virtual brand spaces. In addition, virtual space satisfaction had an indirect, positive effect on actual product purchase intention through virtual product purchase intention. The research emphasizes that the purchase intention of virtual and actual products has a positive causal relationship.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.387-395
• /
• 2022

This study empirically studied the effect of the characteristics of consumer experience in a virtual store in the metaverse of a fashion brand on consumers' perceived utility and self-congruence for the medium. As a result of the analysis, all three factors (reality, ubiquity, anonymity) of the fashion brand metaverse virtual reality store experience had a significant positive effect on the perceived avatar consistency. On the other hand, realism and ubiquity had a significant positive effect on perceived fun, but the effect of anonymity on perceived fun was not significant. On the other hand, perceived avatar identity was found to have a significant positive effect on perceived consumer-brand self-congruence. Finally, it was found that the perceived fun in the metaverse fashion brand virtual reality store had a statistically significant positive effect on perceived consumer-brand self-congruence.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.129-150
• /
• 2023

Purpose - This study is based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and aims to explore the decision-making mechanisms of consumers participating in value co-creation activities within virtual brand communities. Methodology - The research involved a comprehensive survey of 405 participants from various virtual brand communities. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis, applying SPSS and AMOS to test the hypotheses. The study focused on community rules and regulations, community experience and community trust. Results - The research found that community rules and regulations significantly impact subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, but not directly influence consumer attitudes. Community experience positively affected consumer attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Community trust was found to positively influence these aspects of consumer decision-making. However, a gap was identified in the direct influence of perceived behavioral control on actual consumer behavior. Implications - The findings of this study contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of factors affecting consumer behavior in virtual brand communities. It underscores the necessity for community managers to develop strategies that consider these internal decision-making mechanisms, facilitating more effective community engagement. The study also identifies a potential area for future research in the direct influence of perceived behavioral control on actual consumer behavior.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.299-307
• /
• 2019

In this study, we experimented with experience of digital signage using Virtual Reality technology, and the difference between presence and interactivity in brand experience and digital signage attitude. We conducted a two-way MANOVA analysis with cognitive presence, emotional presence, and media presence as the independent variable and interactivity level(high vs low) as dependent variables and the brand experience and attitude as dependent variables. First, cognitive presence was found to be most effective through behavioral experience when low interactivity. Second, emotional presence also has a positive effect on emotional experience when the level of interactivity is low. Third, media presence has a positive effect on emotional experience if the level of interactivity is low. This study suggests a communication strategy to communicate presence according to the characteristics of media strategy and technology through appropriate level of interactivity when using digital technology. Future research requires a qualitative approach rather than a quantitative one in terms of interactivity.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.567-576
• /
• 2022

This study aims to determine the effects of the experiences of ZEPETO platform users on their attitudes and purchase intentions. A survey on 10-20 Korean and Chinese virtual fashion consumers was conducted. Brand experiences were independent variables, and offline purchase was the dependent variable. The results showed that, first, among the four factors of the brand experience, Korea and China have the highest explanatory power. Second, the brand experience of Korean consumers significantly impacted their brand attitude. Additionally, cognitive and emotional experiences of the brand positively impacted their brand attitude. Third, the brand experience of Chinese consumers significantly affected their brand attitude, and among the sub-factors of brand experience, cognitive experience positively affected brand attitude. Fourth, the brand experience of Chinese consumers significantly influenced their offline purchase intention, and among the sub-factors of brand experience, cognitive experience positively influenced their offline purchase intention. Overall, an emotional branding strategy that provides brand and product information must be implemented for the Korean market encouraging consumers to develop a positive and emotional connection with the brand. The Chinese market would benefit from formulating a reliable branding strategy that easily provides a wide range of brand and product information focusing on cognitive experiences.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.185-190
• /
• 2022

Since COVID-19, digital transformation has been taking place in the entire industry, and Metaverse is attracting attention as an untect service. Therefore, this study aims to find out about brand experience marketing cases using metaverse targeting beauty brands. This study reviewed previous studies related to metaverse marketing and beauty brand marketing. SK-II, Christian Dior used VR technology to provide users with contents and experience of brand products, and L'Oreal, Sephora, Laneige used AR technology to provide virtual makeup applications. It's believed that this experience marketing will have a positive effect on customers' purchase intention and its importance will increase further to target Z Generation. It's expected that this study can be used as related data in the metaverse and experience marketing of beauty brands, and research on metaverse marketing should be continued in the beauty field.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.70-87
• /
• 2023

Today, VR, AR, and MR technologies that travel between real world and virtual world are rapidly developing. These technologies are adopted in luxury fashion brands for virtual fashion shows and runways, virtual retail shops and virtual fitting services. Despite its growth potential and social importance, virtual fashion space has been studies insufficiently. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the consumer experience on the virtual fashion space types, components of virtual fashion space, perceived value, and continuous usage intention. Prada, one of the most active luxury fashion brands in the VR field, was selected as the stimulus for an in-depth interview. Participants experienced virtual fashion show space through VR device (Oculus Quest 2 from Meta) before responding to the questions about their experience. Results showed that material space was more like virtual whereas perceptual space felt like reality. Participants could imagine about more virtual image from material space and more real image from perceptual space elements. Moreover, perceptual space enhanced the immersion, presence, and interactivity compared to material space. Most participants perceived that the virtual fashion show was useful and playful, leading to the continuous usage intention. It implies that improvements for some technical limitation from VR device and virtual contents can provide quality consumer experience in the future. Based on results of this study, fashion companies can establish useful marketing strategies for consumers' immersive and playful experiences when introducing virtual fashion space.