• 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.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.825-832
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• 2016

The purposes of this study was to investigate effects of fashion brand apps on smartphones flow and consumer satisfaction in mobile shopping. These findings provide new information to marketers for the marketing strategy for dealing with mobile shopping mall. A total of 233 usable questionnaires were obtained from men and women ages 20-30 who have mobile shopping purchasing experience. Data were analyzed by frequency analysis, factor analysis using SPSS for Window 22.0 and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model analysis by AMOS 22.0. The results were as follows. First, the analysis of fashion brand apps factors showed that it consist of 2 kinds of dimensions of basic information type and additional information type. Second, basic information type of fashion brand apps have had a direct impact on consumer satisfaction and did not affect the smartphones flow. Additional information type influence consumer satisfaction through a smartphones flow. Basic information type of fashion brand apps showed a greater impact on consumer satisfaction than a smartphone flow. A managerial implication was discussed for fashion brand marketers to develop strategies on fashion brand apps that could stimulate and increase the consumer flow and satisfaction.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.27-43
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• 2012

Considering the rapid growth of mobile industry and the emerging application marketing, this study focused on fashion applications, which had not drawn much academic attention before, and analysed relevant content composition, information-seeking benefits based on users' lifestyles and resulting differences in satisfaction and loyalty. In short, fashion applications were divided into fashion and non-fashion brand apps. Brand apps were subdivided into luxury, women's wear, men's wear, casual wear, sportswear, accessories and the like. Non-brand apps included commerce, magazine, information, style tip, SNS and wardrobe manager types. As for users' lifestyle-based information search, the higher the tendency to search information on the internet and to favour reasonable consumption, the more basic information on products and brands they sought, whereas the higher the tendency to look for high-profile brands and to favour global culture, the more additional information like images or entertainments they sought. To sum up, given that studies on fashion-specific applications were rare, the present study reviewed and categorized current fashion applications, and suggested theoretical and practical groundwork for developing content based on target consumers' lifestyle and for planning fashion applications in practice.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.287-300
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to find typology of fashion-related mobile applications through exploratory investigation and to investigate differences in Korea and U.S. App stores. And then, through the qualitative evaluation about fashion mobile applications, this study proposes fashion mobile application's design and contents which can be preferred by users. By conducting keyword search in each store, 122 Korean applications and 150 US applications were analyzed. Empirical findings revealed that there were seven major types of fashion mobile applications: brand, magazine, information, SNS, game, shopping and coordination. Information type applications took up the largest portion, and SNS and game type applications showed higher ranking among customers. There were more game Apps in US and more shopping Apps in Korean stores. More free Apps were found in Korean App stores, whereas relatively more paid Apps were found in US App stores especially in game, magazine and information type applications. And as a result of usability evaluation of fashion mobile application, users prefer SNS and information category application to shopping and brand category. Also users want continuous improvement and new contents for fashion mobile application.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.129-143
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to classify fashion brand app types through current fashion brand app releases. To this end, this study used Internet Web, articles, newspapers, and existing studies on brand applications as well as the data that were analyzed after downloading the relevant brand app. Firstly, this study aimed to analyze rapidly growing smartphone market and brand app market situations and look into brand app's own characteristics from the corporate marketing perspective. In addition, the study divided the types into a basic information type and an additional information type by analyzing functions of 30 fashion brand apps. As the result, the basic information type contains product info, store info, fashion info, and coordination info. The additional information type contains entertainment, hobbies, life info, mutual experiences, and sharing services. According to the divided fashion brand app types, the goals of companies also can be divided as three. Firstly, the aim is to expand sales, secondly to improve brand awareness, and lastly to build customer relationship. Consequently, companies will have to select brand app types suitable for their goals and provide to consumers.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.941-951
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• 2012

As smartphones permeate the consumer lifestyle, branded application and mobile shopping have also received increased attention as an important marketing channel. This study identifies the general information about the use of smartphones, attitudes toward fashion applications, and mobile shopping intentions for smartphone users. Focus group interviews were conducted and 22 interviewees participated. The age of the participants ranged from 21 to 45 years old (55% were females). When examining the motivation to adopt a smartphone, respondents presented the comparable characteristics of early adopters and late adopters according to the time of adoption. Most respondents over the age of 30 showed some troubles to use a smartphone; however, participants in their 20s tended to enjoy exploring the new technology. More than half of respondents were aware of fashion applications, but were dissatisfied with fashion apps and used them infrequently. Respondents pointed out that fashion related apps were not too practical because they were not updated regularly, provided only limited information, and focused on brand promotions. In order to increase the intention to adopt mobile shopping, the price and payment security system needs to be considered. This was an exploratory study to identify the possibility of fashion branded apps as a major distribution channel. The findings of this study provide fundamental information to formulate marketing strategies for fashion businesses that have developed fashion apps.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.73-93
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• 2021

This study typifies fashion mobile plays in a digital environment and explores the experiential value created by them through a case study of a fashion brand mobile app. For the case analysis, mobile plays were divided into four types: intrinsic motivation/active participation, intrinsic motivation/passive participation, external motivation/active participation, and external motivation/passive participation, depending on the mobile players motivation and level of participation. Among the global fashion brand mobile apps released from 2009 to 2019, 16 cases suitable for the analytical framework were used for final analyses. The main results are as follows. First, mobile play value include characteristics such as networkability, immersion, hyper-spatiality, and super-temporality in addition to the attributes of a traditional play such as spontaneity, uncertainty, regularity, and playfulness. Second, the four types of mobile play provide participants with an experiential value such as creative value, emotional value, social value, and exploitative value. This study has academic implications in terms of introducing a new framework that can typify mobile plays and suggest practical implications for what experiential value fashion companies can give consumers through mobile app marketing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.741-757
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• 2021

In addition to direct sales to consumers, the direct-to-consumers (D2C) strategy, which provides specialized experiences and services, communicates closely with a consumer's perspective. This tendency is related to the recent trend wherein the luxury fashion system is being transformed into a new luxury. Therefore, this study analyzes the development of online D2C platforms and investigates the characteristics of new luxury from the functional, symbolic, and experiential dimension perspectives based on mobile apps, which is becoming increasingly important among online D2C platforms. Based on the study results, the premium of new luxury fashion displayed in Louis Vuitton's mobile D2C platform in terms of product utility and functionality is newly defined as a usable luxury experience. Moreover, from the heritage perspective, based on the cultural sympathy of the brand contents, we determine that an attachment can be formed between new luxury fashion consumers and brands. Additionally, the personalization service and experiential content on the D2C platform can directly afford emotional and bonding induced brand immersion in a playful way.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.180-193
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• 2017

The increase use of smartphones has paved the way for quick dissemination of online information. This has a huge influence on consumers' purchase decision making and the formation of a company's image. As such, this study focuses on product review from mobile beauty applications(apps); in particular, the perceived information authenticity. The purpose is as follows. First, to examine if there is any difference in perceived information authenticity based on the types of product review. Second, to analyze how perceived information authenticity influences brand attitude, purchase intention, and electronic word of mouth(e-WOM) intention. The study targets consumers in their 20s and 30s who have experience buying a product via a mobile beauty app. Three hundred responses are analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0. The results reveal that, first of all, consumers derive higher perceived information authenticity from a multi-facet review rather than a double-facet review. Second, among the traits of perceived information authenticity, only a brand's perceived reliability has a significant influence on brand attitude. Third, this brand attitude has a positive influence on purchase intention and e-WOM intention. In conclusion, these findings can serve as an important discussion point for companies developing a mobile beauty app, drawing attention to perceived information authenticity, based on the types of product review.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.25-41
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• 2014

As the smart phone market grows rapidly, the significance of the application (app) market also increases. The purposes of this study were to identify market segments according to technological innovativeness and clothing involvement, and to compare the differences in lifestyles, benefits of fashion information app sought, and intention to use. The data were collected from smart phone users in their 10s to 30s in 2013, and a total of 292 data sets were analyzed. The findings of this study were as follows. The respondents were divided into three groups, innovative group, clothing involvement group, and passive group. Significant differences were found among three segments in terms of age, marital status, education level, and monthly income. With respect to five lifestyle factors, innovative group and clothing involvement group had higher mean scores for rational purchase, personal relationship, and personality pursuit than passive group. However, these two groups showed differences in brand pursuit factor. The benefits of the fashion information app were generated into two factors, information benefit and enjoyment benefit. Innovative group and clothing involvement group had higher values than passive group in these two factors. Finally, innovative group had the highest value on the intention to use fashion information app. This study attempts to provide fundamental information about the potential market segment for managers or marketers developing fashion information apps.