• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.272-285
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• 2012

The purpose of the study is to examine the role of consumer perceptions of websites' entertainment and informativeness in developing their attitudes (attitude toward the retailer and attitude confidence toward the product) in the context of apparel e-tailing. A structural equation model was developed for an empirical test based on the literature on uses-and-gratifications and attitude confidence. A sample of 119 consumers who live in the United States participated in the online survey. The results generally supported the proposed model. Specifically, the analyses revealed that consumers' purchase intention toward the displayed product is positively influenced by their attitudes toward the retailer and by their confidence in their attitudes toward the product. Interestingly, only one of the two cognitive antecedents, perceived entertainment, has a positive impact on consumers' attitude toward the retailer. Perceived informativeness, however, had a positive impact on attitude confidence. These findings suggest that consumers who have high perception of an e-tail website's entertainment are more likely to exhibit favorable attitudes toward the e-tailer, while consumers who have high perception of an e-tail website's informativeness are more likely to hold strong confidence in their attitudes toward the product displayed on the website. Both consumer attitudes toward the e-tailer and their attitude confidence lead to their purchase intentions.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.145-157
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of interactivity on consumers' mental imagery, attitude toward a product, confidence in evaluation and purchase intention. The proposed model was examined by conducting an experiment using mock apparel websites. A total of 1,009 female college students enrolled at a major midwestern university in the USA participated in the experiment. A structural equation model was used to test the model. The results of the study indicate that interactivity positively influenced mental imagery, attitudes toward a product imagery, and confidence in evaluation. The structural equation model also revealed that mental imagery positively influenced attitude toward a product and confidence in evaluation. Finally, the results show that attitude toward a product and confidence in judgment positively affected purchase intention. The study provides valuable theoretical perspectives which aide in the understanding of the effect of interactivity on consumers' cognitive and behavioral responses, and helps retailers develop effective marketing strategies.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.31-51
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• 2014

This study examined the effect of product presentation on consumers' affective/cognitive states and purchase intention. The design of the study was a one factor(product presentation: garment presented flat vs. garment presented on models without faces vs. garment presented on models with faces) between-subject design with a moderator (involvement: high vs. low). A sample of 429 female college students participated in this online experiment. The results show the effectiveness of using a realistic human model on apparel websites. Also, consumers who are highly involved with clothing generally exhibit more positive responses than those who are less involved. Overall, these findings provide empirical support for the Stimulus-Organism-Response model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and contribute useful knowledge regarding website design for online apparel retailers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.916-928
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to investigate the differences in online visual merchandising practices of online apparel retailers between Korea and China. The 40 websites based on the sales were selected with 5 retail stores per website. Totally, 200 online retail stores were analyzed by content analysis and chi-square test. As a result, 8 online visual merchandising factors were extracted: convenience, product presence, product information, service, interest, participation, aesthetics, and fitness. There were significant differences in all 8 factors of online visual merchandising practices of apparel retail stores between Korea and China. The contribution of this study is to supply for understanding of what are the online visual merchandising composition items and factors and how they were used differently between Korea and China in a real situation of online visual merchandising.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.23-34
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to e${\times}$amine the effect of visual imagery stimulated by product information on consumer responses in online shopping conte${\times}$ts. Dual coding theory provided the theoretical framework of the study. The proposed model of the study was e${\times}$amined by conducting an e${\times}$periment using mock apparel websites with a between-subject factorial design: [2 (pictorial information: detailed views vs. no detailed views) ${\times}$ 2 (verbal information: detailed descriptions vs. abstract descriptions)]. A total of 439 female college students participated in the e${\times}$periment, and 433 responses were ultimately used to test the hypotheses. The findings from the results revealed: (1) the main effects of the pictorial and verbal information on visual imagery, and (2) positive relationships between (a) visual imagery and mood, (b) visual imagery and perceived product quality, (c) mood and perceived product quality, and (d) perceived quality and purchase intentions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.56 no.2 s.101
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• pp.70-82
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze the trends and features of male fashion and hair style image and thereby, determine the relationship between fashion and hair styles, and thus, provide for some basic data for future studies about male hair styles as well as for new male hair style trends. For this purpose, relevant literature was extensively reviewed including some visual materials. The major references for this study were domestic and foreign books, journals and preceding studies about fashion and hair. The visual materials referred to for this study were domestic magazines specialized in fashion and hair, visual data supplied by hair product brands, Korea Beauty Parlor Journal, Beauty and Cosmetic Newspaper, Beauty Today, and such fashion special websites as $S{\cdot}F{\cdot}I,\;C{\cdot}F{\cdot}T$, firstview.com, fashionwide.com, etc. Based on the results from a questionnaire survey of master or Ph degree holders of apparel science, reputed designer were sampled and then, 80 works were finally sampled from their collections published between January, 2002 and April, 2005. As a result of analyzing the images shown in modern male apparel and hair style fashions by classifying them into natural, restored, folklore and eclectic ones, it was confirmed that both male apparels and hair styles have been reinterpreted in modern terms depending on social and cultural settings to be expressed as new styles, and in particular, that male hair styles have evolved diversely into new styles depending on fashion tendencies, while having been versatile in some relationships with their fashion tendencies.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.82-100
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• 2015

Mobile fashion apps present much opportunity for marketers to engage consumers, however not all apps provide enough functions for their targeted audience. This study aims to determine how mobile fashion apps can be used to build brand community with consumer engagement. Qualitative data on fashion mobile apps were collected from the Apple app store and Android market during the spring and summer of 2015. A total of 110 fashion mobile apps were collected;, 50 apps were identified as apparel brands that either manufacture or sell apparel to consumers, which we categorized as "brand" fashion apps, and the remaining 60 were categorized as "non-brand" fashion apps. The result of the study can be summarized as below. The 60 non-brand fashion apps were grouped into 5 app types: shopping, searching, sharing, organizational, and informational. The main functions are for informational use and shopping needs, since at least half (31 apps) are used for either retrieving information or for shopping. However, in contrast, social networking and location were infrequent and not commonly utilized by these apps. The most common type of non-brand fashion apps available were shopping apps;, many shopping apps enable users to shop from several different websites and save their items into one universal shopping cart so that they only check out once. Most of these apps are informational and help consumers make more informed decisions on purchases;, in addition many offer location services to help consumers find these items in store. While these apps perform several functions, they do not link to social media. The 50 brand apps were grouped into 5 brand types: athletic, casual, fast fashion, luxury, and retailer. These apps were also checked for attributes to determine their functionality. The result shows that the main functions of brand fashion apps are for information (82% of the 50 apps) as well as location searching (72% of 50 apps). Conversely, these apps do not offer any photo sharing, and very few have organizational or community functions. Fashion mobile apps and m-marketing elements: To build brand community, mobile apps can be designed to motivate consumer's engagement with brands. The motivations of fashion mobile apps are useful in developing fashion mobile apps. Entertainment motives can be fulfilled with multimedia attributes, functionality motives are satisfied with organizational and location-based features, information motives with informational service, socialization with community and social network, learning and intellectual stimulation from informational attributes, and trend following through photo sharing. The 8 key attributes of mobile apps can correspond to the 4 m-marketing elements (i.e., Informative content, multimedia, interactions, and product promotions) that are further intertwined with m-branding elements. App Attributes and M-Marketing aim to Build Brand Community;, the eight key attributes can impact on 4 m-branding elements, which further contribute to building brand community by affecting consumers' perceptions of brands preference and advocacy, and their likelihood to be loyal.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.4-14
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• 2010

Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. This study addresses the specific types of collaboration used in the fashion industry while also examining strategies that have been most successful for fashion companies and perceived benefits of collaboration from the customer perspective. In the present study we define fashion companies and brands as collaborators and their partners or stakeholders as collaboratees. We define collaboration as a cooperative relationship where more than two companies, brands or individuals provide customers with beneficial outcomes utilizing their own competitive advantages on an equal basis. Collaboration strategies entail information sharing and other varied forms of cooperation that are mutually beneficial to the company and stakeholder groups. Through collaboration, fashion companies have pursued both tangible differentiation, such as design and technology applications, and intangible differentiation such as emotional and psychological benefits to customers. As a result, collaboration within the fashion industry has become an important, value creating concept. This qualitative study utilized case studies and in-depth interview methodologies to examine customers' attitudes concerning collaboration in the fashion industry. A total of 173 collaboration cases were identified in Korean and international markets from 1998 through December 2008, focusing on fashion companies. Cases were collected from documented data including websites and industry data bases and top ranked portal search sites such as: Rankey.com; Naver, Daum, and Nate; and representative fashion information websites, Samsungdesignnet and Firstviewkorea. Cases were collected between November 2008 and February 2009. Cases were selected for the analysis where one or more partners were associated with the production of fashion products (excluding textile production), retail fashion products, or designer services. Additional collaboration case information was obtained from news articles, periodicals, internet portal sites and fashion information sites as conducted in prior studies (Jeong and Kim 2008; Park and Park 2004; Yoon 2005). In total, 173 cases were selected for analysis that clearly exhibited the benefits and outcomes of collaboration efforts and strategies between fashion companies and stakeholders. Findings show that the overall results show that for both partners (collaborator and collaboratee) participating in collaboration, that the major benefits are reduction of costs and risks by sharing resource such as design power, image, costs, technology and targets, and creation of synergy. Regarding types of collaboration outcomes, product/design was most important (55%), followed by promotion (21%), price (20%), and place (4%). This result shows that collaboration plays an important role in giving life to products and designs, particularly in the fashion industry which seeks for creative and newness. To be successful in collaboration efforts, results of the depth interviews in this study confirm that fashion companies should have a clear objective on why they are doing the collaboration. After setting the objective, they should select collaboratees that match their brand image and target market, make quality co-products that have definite concepts and differentiating factors, and also pay attention to increasing brand awareness. Based on depth interviews with customers, customer benefits were categorized into six factors: pursuit for individual character; pursuit for brand; pursuit for scarcity; pursuit for fashion; pursuit for economic efficiency; and pursuit for sociality. Customers also placed more importance on image, reputation, and trust of brands regarding the cases shown in the interviews. They also commented that strong branding should come first before other marketing strategies. However, success factors recognized by experts and customers in this study showed different results by subcategories. Thus, target customers and target market should be studied from various dimensions to develop appropriate strategies for successful collaboration.