• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.19-35
• /
• 2018

This study explores the effect of information direction and order of cosmetics power bloggers on consumer responses. A total of 488 undergraduate students participated in experiments with mock-up stimuli of sunscreen product reviews by power bloggers. The study was conducted with four stimuli of product review posts (i.e., positive reviews only, positive-negative reviews in order, negative-positive reviews in order, negative reviews only) of the power bloggers. The results showed a significant difference in consumer responses according to information direction and order of product reviews of the power bloggers. Specifically, negative reviews were considered more objective and more useful than positive reviews were. However, positivity of reviews is crucial in generating more positive attitudes toward products, greater purchase intention, and greater word-of-mouth intention. In regard to information order, the negative-positive reviews generated more positive attitudes toward the product and greater purchase intention than did the positive-negative reviews, emphasizing the importance of ending product reviews with positive information so as to create positive responses. Referring to the findings, power bloggers and marketers using bloggers as a promotional tool would benefit by carefully designing information content in consideration of an appropriate direction and order of information to better fit their purpose.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.36-45
• /
• 2018

Recently China has become one of the major markets for luxury brands. In addition, practicing social responsibility by manufacturers of luxury brands has become ubiquitous because consumers' perception of such practices may affect their purchase decisions positively. This study explored Chinese shoppers' perception of luxury brands' social responsibility practices and their information seeking behavior. In this study, value congruence was used as a theoretical framework. Twelve participants were selected out of customers in a shopping mall in Beijing, and they were subject to in-depth interview. The interview consisted of open-ended questions about perception of luxury brands' social responsibility practices, sources to access such practices, and the degree of personal value congruence to such practices as well as demographic information. Qualitative approach was used to analyze the data. Half of the participants indicated their awareness of the social responsibility practices of luxury brands, which sets up a foundation for understanding importance of luxury brands' social responsibility practices. Approximately half of the participants preferred to learn about luxury brands' socially responsible practices online especially via social media. These findings imply that Chinese luxury shoppers' trust and preference for the companies would be enhanced by effective development and advertisement of companies' social responsibility practices, and thus provide luxury companies with useful information on marketing strategies.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2017

The proliferation of social media has given rise to the new consumer group, namely, social consumers. This study identified the distinct characteristics of social consumers (i.e., online social search, online social navigation, online social connection) and examined the impacts of social consumer attributes on the engagement with fashion brands via brands' SNSs (BSNSs). A sample of 141 U.S. consumers who had browsed and/or participated in a fashion brand's BSNS (i.e., the Facebook page for fashion brands) was used to examine hypothesized relationships. The analyses involved running a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation modeling. The result indicates that the impacts of the social consumer attributes on the benefits of BSNSs (i.e., experiential and functional benefits) as perceived by consumers were significant, except the link between online social connection and functional benefits. In addition, consumers' existing relationship with a brand served as a moderating variable, strengthening the impacts of social consumer attributes on BSNS benefits. The perceived benefits of BSNSs positively affected perceived relationship investment which in turn influenced brand loyalty. Practical marketing suggestions are provided for fashion brands.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.59-65
• /
• 2017

Fashion professionals these days agree that changes in the fashion business are essential and highly value creativity as a genuine source for generating new ideas in fashion products as well as fashion business practices. As fashion professionals deal with problems of which solutions do not exist or that need innovative solutions for brand or product differentiation in the fast-paced environments, interest in creativity and creative problem solving in the field has increased; therefore, fashion educators have realized that there has been an increasing need for incorporating creativity or creative problem solving into the fashion curriculum. In this study, the researcher intended to review previous research on the use of creative problem solving in classrooms in various disciplines including the field of fashion education to provide insights and suggestions for fashion educators to integrate creative problem solving into the fashion education curriculum. Previous attempts to apply creative problem solving to solve issues in fashion classrooms have mostly limited to promoting divergent thinking techniques. It is suggested for fashion educators as well as fashion students to consider creative problem solving as a process consisting of the four distinct stages in which both divergent and convergent thinking techniques should be properly utilized stimulating various thinking strategies.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.44-58
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this research is to explore how Millennials mitigate perceived risks that occur during online apparel purchasing decisions through social interactions based on social learning theory. Also, this research investigates concerns generated from interactions with others when consuming apparel online. An exploratory investigation was undertaken with 78 undergraduate students using an online survey that included open and closed questions. Qualitative data revealed positive relationships between consumers' social interactions and purchases of apparel products online. Specifically, information searches through social interactions with trusted individuals utilizing online channels were found to validate purchasing decisions and alleviate perceived risks with purchasing apparel products online. However, consumers were also concerned with certain interactions due to the lack of credibility regarding reviewers, channels, and conflicting information. These findings provide an insight into millennial consumers' learning processes through consumer-to-consumer interactions in social media environments for apparel purchases. As online and mobile shopping along with consumers' social media usage for interacting continue to increase, these research findings guide retailers how to turn their attention to investing and utilizing these channels to enhance millennial consumers' positive purchasing experiences online.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2017

The purposes of this study were to explore (1) how fit reviews differ among height groups and (2) how overall numerical ratings differ depending on height groups and ifferent types of fit reviews. Content analysis was used to analyze systematically sampled online consumer reviews (OCRs) of formalwear dresses rented online. In part 1, 201 OCRs were analyzed to develop the coding scheme, which included three aspects of fit (physical, aesthetic, and functional), valence (negative, neutral, positive), and overall numerical rating. In part 2, 600 OCRs were coded and statistically analyzed. Differences in frequency were not found among height groups for any types of mentions (negative, neutral, and positive) in terms of the three aspects of fit in the OCRs. Differences in overall mean ratings were not found among height groups. Interestingly, valence of each aspect of fit reviews affected mean numeric ratings. This study is new in examining relationships among textual information (i.e., fit reviews), numerical information (i.e., numerical rating), and reviewer's characteristic (i.e., height). The results of this study offered practical implications for etailers and marketers that they should pay attention to the three aspects of fit reviews and monitor garments with negative fit evaluations for lower ratings. They may attempt to increase ratings by providing customers recommendations to get a better fit.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.36-52
• /
• 2017

In this study, we tried to understand preschooler clothing trends and identify the purchase behaviors of various consumers, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents, who are the main consumers of the preschooler clothing market. We conducted in-depth interviews with consumers who were interested in preschooler clothing, purchased it frequently, and bought preschooler clothing within the last three months. Their purchase motivations and purchase behaviors were analyzed through exploratory and inductive analysis. The analysis was conducted by integrating categories into one process centered on core categories through open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The results of this study included that 1) a variety of clothing purchase behaviors appeared as a central phenomenon, 2) the causal conditions that contributed to this phenomenon were the buyers' childcare experiences, purchase experiences, the personal consumption values of individuals, and income levels, 3) in response to the central phenomenon, the parents' action/interaction strategies were acceptance and rejection of purchased clothing, 4) contextual and Intervening conditions affecting action/interaction strategy were family environment changes, the VIB (Very Important Baby) phenomenon, parents' clothing involvement, and the relationship with the buyers, and acceptance by the users, and 5) as a result of the strategy expressed as acceptance and rejection, various clothing behaviors emerged. In this study, we identified that there are various influencers, apart from parents, involved in children's clothing consumption. Therefore, we need to keep in mind that various purchase behaviors and clothing trends that appear during one's childhood may affect the individual's clothing behavior in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 1991

The purpose of this study was to identify external form and internal symbolism of oriental dress on the 20th century western fashion. Documentary studies and objective studies were done with descriptive, inductive and content analytic methods. In documentary research, concepts about culture, dress as a cultural sub-system, the from of dress, and the gender symbolism of dress were reviewed. In objective research, oriental fashion photographs in $\ulcorner$Vogue$\lrcorner$ during 1969-1989 were selected and analyzed, for the descriptions of samples, the form of dress, the perception of waist parts, the dressing manner. The synthetic results were as followes; 1. There were the geographical and national terms such as east, Orient, China, India, Japan, and so on in the descriptions of samples; and there were the costume terms such as herem, kimono, pyjama or pajama, sarong, and so on in the descriptions of samples. 2. The from of oriental dress on the 20th century western fashion was identified with draped type. This can be interpreted that in orient, there was no desire to reveal body figure through dress, therefore, for the long time, sustaining draped type of dress has been. 3. The perception of waist part in oriental dress on the 20th century western fashion was not made. So, it can be interpreted that in orient, there was no desire to distinguish both sexes through the emphasis of waist part in dress. 4. The dressing manners of oriental dress on the 20th century western fashion were wearing of trouser and layering mainly, symbolizing the confusion of gender distinction through dress.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.26 no.8
• /
• pp.1274-1285
• /
• 2002

The purposes of this study are to help the authorized textbooks on home economics be selected and used effectively, to provide basic data that are needed to improve the quality of home economics textbooks, and to suggest a next curriculum on home economics. In the study, eight high school home economics textbooks for "6th Curriculum developed by Ministrv of Education and Human Resources Development"were used for the analysis. The results are summarized as follows: there were wide differences in degrees of diversity and accomplishment in the contents of textbooks. In comparison, it was unfolded that three areas, "family", "home resource management" and "consumer" ,occupied much larger portions than other areas. About 81 percent of the authors of home economics textbooks were professors. A contents analysis on the clothing area showed that every textbook includes costume culture, clothing materials, clothing maintenance, and clothing construction. The presentation coverages and relative difficulties of textbooks were, however, diverse. It is somewhat noticeable that, while fewer professors majoring in clothing construction participated in writing, generally more pages were allocated to clothing construction than other areas. While presentations on anthropometrics method, construction theory, draft theory, usage of sewing machine and fitting theory were insufficient most textbooks were dealing with drafting of basic slopers and sewing procedure, etc. Making-up techniques on the apparels items such as Korean traditional men's pants, pajamas, shirt vest skirt, pants, apron and Korean pouch were handled closely in each textbook.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.30-39
• /
• 2018

This study investigates the importance of brand and retailer associations when consumers evaluate a product category extension in the context of brand and retailer collaborations. Although brand extensions are considered to reduce costs for introducing a new product category, limited study has focused on the role of brand and retailer associations in the context of brand and retailer collaborations. Using a total of 440 participants, a hypothesized model was tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that brand and retailer associations influence the perceived fit between a brand and a retailer. In addition, the image fit and quality fit are significantly related to brand and retailer attitudes as well as brand extension evaluation. Since consumers may use their associations with brands or retailers when they perceive product differentiation, market position, and brand extensions, the role of brand or retailer associations is important to marketers, retailers, and consumers. Given the importance of brand and retailer collaborations as a brand positioning strategy in the global branding and retail setting, the findings of this study contribute to brand and retail management by providing empirical evidence on how consumers perceive new products from extended brands in the marketplace when a brand collaborates with a retailer.