• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.69-83
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to offer basic resource for effective advertising strategy of men's apparel by analysing the characteristics of the appeal types in the men's apparel ads. 272 photographs were collected the following magazines ; fashion magazine, men's magazine, luxury magazine, woman's general magazine, and fashion professional magazine. It was related to the men's apparel ads of magazines above from January to December of 2001. The results of this study was as follows; Appeal types of apparel advertising in men's apparel were divided into style appeal, informercial appeal, sexual appeal, lifestyle appeal, image appeal, and masculinity appeal and appeared other appeal types according to men's fashion style, brand types, and magazine types. It also was closely connected with the men's market positioning. Consequently, the study will be helpful to plan the effective and economic strategy of men's apparel ads.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.231-241
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to identify the buying intentions for luxury fashion brands. The data used in this study were gathered through surveying university students living in Seoul metropolitan area. The variables included in this study were demographics, which are gender, age, academic major, area of residence, expenditure for apparel, pocket money, and family income, and fashion orientation and consumer needs for uniqueness were included as personal value variables. All demographic variables except academic major and area of residence were significantly related to the buying intentions. Among the fashion orientation factors, fashion intered was significantly related to the buying intentions while fashion leadership and importance of being well-dressed were not. Consumer needs for uniqueness was indirectly related to the buying intentions for luxury brands through fashion interest. The creative choice counterconformity was positively related to fashion interest, whereas the unpopular choice counterconformity was negatively related to it.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.51-89
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• 2007

INTRODUCTION Due to the high broadband internet penetration rate and its group-oriented culture, various types of online communities operate in Korea. This study use 'Uses and Gratification Approach, and argue that members' usage-needs satisfaction with brand community is an important factor for promoting community commitment. Based on previous studies identifying the effect of brand image on consumers' responses to various marketing stimuli, this study hypothesizes that brand image can be a moderate variable affecting the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction with brand community and members' commitment to brand community. This study analyzes the influence of usage-needs satisfaction on brand community commitment and how apparel brand image affects the relationships between usage-needs satisfactions and community commitments. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows. H1-3: The usage-needs satisfaction of apparel brand community (interest, transaction, relationship needs) influences emotional (H1), continuous (H2), and normative (H3) commitments to apparel brand communities. H4-6: Apparel brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and emotional (H4), continuous (H5), and normative (H6) commitments to apparel brand communities. METHODS Brand communities founded by non-company affiliates were excluded and emphasis was placed instead on communities created by apparel brand companies. Among casual apparel brands registered in 6 Korean portal sites in August 2003, a total of 9 casual apparel brand online communities were chosen, depending on the level of community activity and apparel brand image. Data from 317 community members were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis, moderated regression analysis, ANOVA, and scheffe test. Among 317 respondents answered an online html-type questionnaire, 80.5% were between 16 to 25 years old. There were a total of 150 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=3) recording higher-than-average brand image scores (Mean > 3.75) and a total of 162 respondents from apparel brand communities(n=6) recording lower-than-average brand image scores(Mean < 3.75). In this study, brand community commitment was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: emotional, continuous and normative commitment. The degree of usage-needs satisfaction (interest, transaction, relationship needs) was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The level of brand image was measured by a 5-point Likert scale: strength, favorability, and uniqueness of brand associations. RESULTS In the results of exploratory factor analysis, the three usage-needs satisfactions with brand community were classified as interest, transaction, and relationship needs. Brand community commitment was also divided into the multi-dimensional factors: emotional, continuous, and normative commitments. The regression analysis (using a stepwise method) was used to test the influence of 3 independent variables (interest-needs satisfaction, transaction-needs, and relationship-needs satisfactions) on the 3 dependent variables (emotional, continuous and normative commitments). The three types of usage-needs satisfactions are positively associated with the three types of commitments to apparel brand communities. Therefore, hypothesis 1, 2, and 3 were significantly supported. Moderating effects of apparel brand image on the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and brand community commitments were tested by moderated regression analysis. The statistics result showed that the influence of transaction-needs on emotional commitment was significantly moderated by apparel brand image. In addition, apparel brand image had moderating effects on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and emotional, continuous and normative commitments to apparel brand communities. However, there were not significant moderate effects of apparel brand image on the relationships between interest-needs satisfaction and 3 types of commitments (emotional, continuous and normative commitments) to apparel brand communities. In addition, the influences of transaction-needs satisfaction on 2 types of commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were not significantly moderated by apparel brand image. Therefore, hypothesis 4, 5 and 6 were partially supported. To explain the moderating effects of apparel brand image, four cross-tabulated groups were made by averages of usage-needs satisfaction (interest-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.09, transaction-needs satisfaction avg. M=3.46, relationship-needs satisfaction M=1.62) and the average apparel brand image (M=3.75). The average scores of commitments in each classified group are presented in Tables and Figures. There were significant differences among four groups. As can be seen from the results of scheffe test on the tables, emotional commitment in community group with high brand image was higher than one in community group with low brand image when transaction-needs satisfaction was high. However, when transaction-needs satisfaction was low, there was not any difference between the community group with high brand image and community group with low brand image regarding emotional commitment to apparel brand communities. It means that emotional commitment didn't increase significantly without high satisfaction of transaction-needs, despite the high apparel brand image. In addition, when apparel brand image was low, increase in transaction-needs did not lead to the increase in emotional commitment. Therefore, the significant relationship between transaction-needs satisfaction and emotional commitment was found in only brand communities with high apparel brand image, and the moderating effect of apparel brand image on this relationship between two variables was found in the communities with high satisfaction of transaction-needs only. Statistics results showed that the level of emotional commitment is related to the satisfaction level of transaction-needs, while overall response is related to the level of apparel brand image. We also found that the role of apparel brand image as a moderating factor was limited by the level of transaction-needs satisfaction. In addition, relationship-needs satisfaction brought significant increase in emotional commitment in both community groups (high and low levels of brand image), and the effect of apparel brand image on emotional commitment was significant in both community groups (high and low levels of relationship-needs satisfaction). Especially, the effect of brand image was greater when the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was high. in contrast, increase in emotional commitment responding to increase in relationship-needs satisfaction was greater when apparel brand image is high. The significant influences of relationship-needs satisfaction on community commitments (continuous and normative commitments) were found regardless of apparel brand image(in both community groups with low and high brand image). However, the effects of apparel brand image on continuous and normative commitments were found in only community group with high satisfaction level of relationship-needs. In the case of communities with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, apparel brand image marginally increases continuous and normative commitments. Therefore, we could not find the moderating effect of apparel brand image on the relationship between relationship-needs satisfaction and continuous and normative commitments in community groups with low satisfaction levels of relationship needs, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS From the results of this study, we draw several conclusions; First, the increases in usage-needs satisfactions through apparel brand communities result in the increases in commitments to apparel brand communities, wheres the degrees of such relationship depends on the level of apparel brand image. That is, apparel brand image is a moderating factor strengthening the relationship between usage-needs satisfaction and commitment to apparel brand communities. In addition, the effect of apparel brand image differs, depending on the level and types of community usage-needs satisfactions. Therefore, marketers of apparel brand companies must determine the appropriate usage-needs, depending on the type of commitment they wish to increase and the level of their apparel brand image, to promote member's commitments to apparel brand communities. Especially, relationship-needs satisfaction was very important factor for increasing emotional, continuous and normative commitments to communities. However the level of relationship-needs satisfaction was lower than interest-needs and transaction-needs. satisfaction. According to previous study on apparel brand communities, relationship-need satisfaction was strongly related to member's intention of participation in their communities. Therefore, marketers need to develope various strategies in order to increase the relationship- needs as well as interest and transaction needs. In addition, despite continuous commitment was higher than emotional and normative commitments, all types of commitments to apparel brand communities had scores lower than 3.0 that was mid point in 5-point scale. A Korean study reported that the level of members' commitment to apparel brand community influenced customers' identification with a brand and brand purchasing behavior. Therefore, marketers should try to increase members' usage-needs satisfaction and apparel brand image as the necessary conditions for bringing about community commitments. Second, marketers should understand that they should keep in mind that increasing the level of community usage needs (transaction and relationship) is most effective in raising commitment when the level of apparel brand image is high, and that increasing usage needs (transaction needs) satisfaction in communities with low brand image might not be as effective as anticipated. Therefore, apparel companies with desirable brand image such as luxury designer goods firms need to create formal online brand communities (as opposed to informal communities with rudimentary online contents) to satisfy transaction and relationship needs systematically. It will create brand equity through consumers' increased emotional, continuous and normative commitments. Even though apparel brand is very famous, emotional commitment to apparel brand communities cannot be easily increased without transaction-needs satisfaction. Therefore famous fashion brand companies should focus on developing various marketing strategies to increase transaction-needs satisfaction.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.530-536
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to classify the clusters based on two behavioral intentions toward purchasing originals and counterfeits of foreign fashion luxury brands and to examine the differences in personality characteristics and demographics. This study included attitude toward counterfeit, consumer ethnocentrism, materialism, and need for uniqueness as personality characteristics and gender, monthly household income, and pocket money as demographics. Data were gathered by surveying university students living in Seoul metropolitan area using convenient sampling, and 320questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. In analyzing data, cluster analysis, x-test, and One-way ANOVA were conducted. As a result of the cluster analysis based on two behavioral intentions toward purchasing originals and counterfeits, four groups were identified. There were significant differences in attitude toward counterfeit and materialism according to the purchasing intention clusters. x-tests also showed there were significant differences between the number of male and female subjects in each of the four clusters. Females are significantly more represented than females in all four clusters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fashion and Beauty
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• v.4 no.1 s.7
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• pp.4-11
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• 2006

Masstige goods aimed consumers who want the fame and the emotional contents with reasonable price are presented overall and around the life style, from all the fashion items like bag and apparel to car, electric household, food, sports goods, furniture, toys, pets and performance of art, etc. Masstige casual, essentially different from the passed casuals which emphasized only price strategy, appeals to teenagers and young of twenties with a definite brand concept. Therefore masstige casual might be separated from business casual of a target aged thirties. Established celebrity brands have launched masstige brands matching the popularization of prestige goods. Armani Exchange from Armani, Marc by Marc Jacobs from Louis Vuitton are representative ones. DKNY from Donna Karen, MiuMiu from Prada, Paul smith Pink from Paul Smith can be added. These are relatively inexpensive, however the quality, design and shop's atmosphere are more exclusive than general brands. Consumers are over middle class and have a pride and fidelity to those brands. Leading Masstige trend, new luxury brands put the importance to the quality and aims middle class. To succeed in this field, companies should know exactly what consumers want, considering not only functional aspect but also emotional pleasure. Even though masstige has a weakness in pricing, it has to keep brand's proper benefit. Its price range could be wide to be in great demand but has to have elasticity and not to be expanded too much. Masstige industry should do its best not to damage original brand's identity. Forming family brand, like Armani made Georgic Armani, Emporio Armani and Armani exchange, system of parent brand and sub brands would be recommendable. From the launching time, masstige needs the effects to create a sensation and bring it into vogue and offer emotional value to the consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.7
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• pp.1-16
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of conspicuous kids fashion and its intrinsic meaning as the popular trends of luxury product consumption expand into the area of kids' fashion. For methodologies, literature study was conducted along with empirical study. The literature study was based on various literatures and preceding studies, including books. The empirical materials used the internet photos, overseas kids fashion magazines, and free newspapers available on the basis of membership targeting the upper class. Conspicuous kids fashion refers to imported luxury kids brands, which signify higher status of the wearer due to the high prices and high quality. These brands were thrust into limelight amid the Wanna-Be Phenomenon, which resulted from the emergence of kids' fashion icons. Imported luxury brands launched the products in the form of brand line extensions. It promoted exhibition of vicarious consumption to show off the wealth and social prestige of parents. It came into prominence due to emotional consumption among kitty moms. Moreover, this study examined the intrinsic meaning of conspicuous kids fashion. The results showed components of conspicuous kids fashion, which was classified into the emphasis on outward appearance, consumption for vicarious satisfaction, inheritance of cultural capital, and network configuration.

• 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 Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1-14
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to analysis the perception of men's wear brands (Intermezzo and Rogatis), for developing the possibility & strategy of the nichi-market in men's wear market for the apparel marketers and manufactures. For this study, the data obtained from 312 respondents were analyzed by descriptive statistics, ANOVA. The results from the study were as follow ; The perception of the 2 brand images revealed that Intermezzo accounted for 79.8% of the frequencies, and Rogatis accounted for 99%. Also, results revealed the total evaluation of Intermezzo accounted for 3.86 of the mean rated on 5 point Likert-type scales in the 9 features, and Rogatis accounted for 3.28. And then, results revealed that there were signifiant differences in 2 cluster of Rogatis that the purchasing cluster accounted for 3.46 of the mean, and the perceiving cluster accounted for 3.07. The brand images of Intermezzo and Rogatis were evaluated and rated on 5 point Likert-type scales of 17 pair adjectives. As a results, the image characteristic with Intermezzo was considered with more dynamic, trendy than the image characteristic with Rogatis. Also, results revealed that The Image with Intermezzo was considered with urban, lively, chic, modern, and sophsticated image-features, and the Image with Rogatis were evaluated mannish, urban, sophsticated, luxury, and static image-features.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.398-413
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• 2019

This study empirically analyzed the influence of fashion brands' marketing issues on actual sales and consumer preference-focusing on evaluation trends of brands over time by using the theoretical background and big data provided through literature. This study examined the influence of three fashion brands (Balenciaga, Vetements, and Off-White) that have recently seen a drastic increase in the number of searched volumes through social networks. To identify the consumer-brand evaluations and trends and the marketing issues, the time period was divided into Groups A and B, which are from 2014 to 2015 and from 2016 to 2017, respectively. This study analyzed the frequency of overlapping keywords by using the R program to graphically visualize the changes over the timeline. Specifically, this analysis extracted data mainly related to bags, wallets and accessories for 2014-2015, but in 2016-2017, all four brands saw a vast increase in the frequency of searching product keywords related to clothing and footwear, and newly extracted ones were the top keywords. When analyzing the big data with these keywords as indicators, I confirmed that the products related to bags, wallets, and accessories were shifted to those related to apparel and footwear. Consumers previously recognized luxury brands such as Balenciaga as accessories-oriented brands that were focused on handbags and sunglasses, but now they are gaining popularity and recognition among consumers as a fashion brand.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.91-106
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• 2022

This study targets four Soho fashion shopping malls that are operating successfully in the online fashion market. This study analyzed the entrepreneurship process by dividing it into three stages. The results of the case study are as follows. In the case of Company S, the founder, who had little work experience, started an e-commerce business with a sense of fashion and entrepreneurship. It is a contemporary, casual brand with competitive prices, design power, and diverse product assortment, and the business performance was achieved through data management and analysis and the diversification of distribution channels. In the case of Company B, the founder, who had little work experience, started a manufacturing and e-commerce business by leveraging their SNS network capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit. It is a contemporary fashion brand with product competitiveness of specific items and start-up characteristics, and performance was achieved through the establishment of brand identity and market expansion. Third, Company M and Company C are examples of Soho fashion shopping malls where the founders with more extensive work experience at the time of founding their respective start-ups focused on brand recognition as their core competitiveness. In the case of Company M, the apparel brand was launched with a wealth of experience and design spirit. It is a fashion designer brand that stands out for its sensibility, and the owner has achieved performance through various entrepreneurial activities that broaden the corporate horizon. Company C is a manufacturing and e-commerce brand that was started with design capabilities and an entrepreneurial spirit. It is a luxury fashion brand that focuses on emotional expression, and the outcomes, such as brand recognition and sales, were achieved through active customer management. The results of this study can be used as basic data in education for and research of Soho shopping malls and the prospective founders.