Eunha Chun

A Study of a Social Content Model for Sustainable Development in the Fast Fashion Industry

Abstract Due to an increase in clothes consumption and a decrease in the trend cycle, middle-class consumers generally prefer clothes that are cheap and trendy. The share of global SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) brands in the world fashion market is steadily expanding. However, SPA clothes emphasize trends, resulting in disposal after a season regardless of the quality. Today, the growth of fashion waste raises serious environmental concerns. This study develops sustainable social content for fast fashion. The fast fashion industry has not yet made suitable efforts to achieve sustainability, even though serious environmental pollution is produced by fast fashion. This study investigates the possibility that fashion social content can focus on environmentally friendly products, customer service, fair employment opportunities, fair allocation of profits, diversity of quality and design, and ecosystem promotion. The study provides data to execute a new marketing strategy for sustainable development of global a SPA brand. The qualitative research of the present study was conducted via one-on-one in-depth interviews. The subjects of the qualitative research were individuals who had extensive knowledge about the subject of this research and were employed in the fast fashion and ethical fashion industries. After the qualitative interviews, 200 students were surveyed, and 166 were chosen as research subjects. The results are as follows. First, five sub-themes, including fair-trade storytelling, independent designers, an eco-friendly identity, understanding differences in reform and redesign, and changes in consumer perception, are investigated through in-depth interviews. Second, based on a consumer survey about the intent to participate in different programs, such as 1:1 sponsorship, eco-friendly design sourcing, a reform style contest, redesign consulting, and an eco-fashion gallery, eco-friendly design sourcing programs have the highest intent to participate of all the studied sustainable social programs. The present study is a timely investigation because there has been an increase in the social awareness of benefit sharing. Moreover, consumer perception of the environment is on the rise in South Korea. This study is a pioneer in applying social sustainability, which has until now been used in the fields of environmental, economic, and social research, to fashion social content. The implications for fast fashion firms that care about the ecological consumers are discussed, as are opportunities for further research.

The effect of sports event tourism on event attitude and the brand equity of sportswear sponsors

The present study aims to understand the process through which sports event tourism experiences mediate event attitude and, consequently, the brand equity of sportswear sponsors. First, the results of the study show that of the four experiential components of sports event tourism (i.e., “sense”, “feel”, “think”, and “relate”), the “feel” and “relate” components were identified as antecedent variables that create positive event attitudes. Second, event attitude was found to have a significant effect on brand awareness and brand image, but the relationship between event attitude and brand loyalty was rejected. Third, for the brand equity of sportswear sponsors, brand awareness positively affected brand image and loyalty, and brand image positively affected brand loyalty. The results of the present study provide foundational data for sportswear marketers that engage in sports event sponsorship as a strategic marketing tool and for those who seek to devise effective communication strategies to increase brand equity through sports event tourism.

Channel attributes of traditional market-based fashion brands and consumers’ multi-channel shopping orientation

ABSTRACT The paradigm of distribution channels has changed from single to multi-channels with the diffusion of smartphones and mobile equipment, as well as the emergence of new consumption patterns. Considering that Dongdaemun, which represents a brand from a special commercial district, is actively expanding its multi-channel distribution pattern, there is a need to examine which specific attributes are causing brands to change their distribution strategies. This study aims to extract multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands and consider the differences recognized by groups based on consumers’ multi-channel shopping orientations. In Study I, a means-end chain theory is applied to conduct in-depth interviews for the purpose of deriving multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands. Six multi-channel attributes – product diversity, trendiness, cost-effectiveness, convenience, entertainment, and informative – are identified. Study II, which seeks to verify the six multi-channel attributes by surveying 493 participants, reveals that each attribute is distinct in terms of consumers’ multi-channel shopping orientations. As a result, groups differ in how consumers recognize multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands, based on channel utilization and channel preference. This study is significant for its academic focus on Dongdaemun-based fashion brands’ distribution channels, and for identifying which multi-channel attributes are important to consumers.

Country of origin effects on brand image, brand evaluation, and purchase intention: A closer look at Seoul, New York, and Paris fashion collection

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze how national stereotype, country of origin (COO), and fashion brand’s images influence consumers’ brand evaluations and purchase intentions regarding fashion collections. Korea (Seoul) and overseas (New York and Paris) collections are compared and analyzed. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis using data collected from Seoul, New York, and Paris. Findings Consumers make higher brand evaluations and ultimately have stronger purchase intentions toward fashion collections from countries that have stronger COO and fashion brand images. In the context of fashion collections, COO image is greatly influenced by a nation’s political economic and cultural artistic images. In addition, comparing the domestic Seoul fashion collection with New York and Paris collections reveals that a national stereotype images, COO images of fashion collection, and fashion brand’s images cause different brand evaluation and purchase intention. Originality/value The overarching value of the study is that it expands COO research, which has been limited to actual products. Also, the results provide a basic foundation for establishing marketing strategy based on COO image as a way to enhance the development and image of fashion collection.

Exploring SNS as a consumer tool for retail therapy: explicating semantic networks of “shopping makes me happy (unhappy)” as a new product development method

Marketing and advertising researchers are turning attention to the impact of social network services such as Twitter. Researchers are calling for more useful gathering and interpretation of massive amounts of SNS data. This study applies semantic network analysis to examine the effects of shopping on mood alleviation via tweets – effects known as retail therapy. To conduct a semantic network analysis, the study analyzes 152 messages containing shopping-related keywords in naturally occurring tweets and finds the 24 most frequently used nodes (keywords). Centrality analysis reveals that nodes most frequently connecting keywords of mood, stress, depression, happiness, clothes, consumption and shoes have higher degrees of centrality. Moods associate with 22 keywords and highly co-occur with the keywords change, clothes, stress, consumption and depression. The results indicate that tweets about sentiments expressed before and after fashion item purchases show that retail therapy is occurring. By analyzing SNS messages, this study enhances the theory–method diversification of consumer studies and provides practical guidelines for further study of shopping behaviors and future new product development initiatives.

A Study on the Types of Product Review on Mobile Beauty App, Perceived Information Authenticity, Brand Attitude, Purchase Intention and e-WOM Intention

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.

THE EFFECT OF FASHION COLLECTION’S COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ON BRAND EVALUATION AND PURCHASE INTENTION : FOCUSING ON SEOUL, NEW YORK AND PARIS COLLECTION

Today all nations in the world focus on remaining competitive advantage by adding high values to their fashion businesses. The most typical example of such added value is fashion collection. In case of London Fashion Week, which is among the world’s top 4 most famous fashion collections where more than 5,000 journalists and buyers from 25 nations can be expected every season, it has great contribution to the economic wealth of London. It induces consumption of 20 million GBP and economic production effects of one hundred million GBP. According to Joo (2009), one of the main purposes of fashion collections can be defined as the invigoration of international marketing and the creation of consumption demand. Fashion collections lead to increased direct sales and consumption demand by developing new products based on leading fashion trends that are presented in the collection. The so-called Big four collections in Paris, Milan, New York and London have their own Country of Origin (COO) image, which represents each country, cities, brands, products and services. For example, Paris collection has been established as luxury image with hand-made and Haute Couture. Not only fashion collection but also fashion brands have applied specific country characteristics to their fashion brand’s image. This serves as a critical factor of competitiveness that communicates an integrated image of brands to the customers. Also, within the purchase decision-making process, consumers consider COO as an important element. Therefore, organizer of fashion collections as well as brands that engage in such should consider COO as a key factor. Most of the previous studies about fashion collections focused on content analyses. For example, Joo (2009) compared characteristics and current situations between four major overseas cities’ collections and Seoul collection. Additionally, there are studies about fashion style, trend, design and textile. Characteristics of color change in 1990s fashion collection (Kim & Kim, 2007) and an analysis of design of hats and fashion images in collections (Jeong & Jeong, 2008) have been conducted as well. Previous studies related to COO mainly focused on the product (Bilkey & Nes, 1982) and how the image of the producing country affects product evaluation. Thus, the purposes of this study are 1) to examine of fashion collection’s COO and fashion brand image effects on brand evaluation and purchase intention, 2) to analyze differentiation factors of COO image, brand evaluation, purchasing intention on Seoul, New York and Paris collection. We surveyed Korean, American and French who have experience in their own country’s fashion collection and used SPSS 21 for data analysis. Fashion collection’s COO and brand image has a great effect on brand evaluation and purchase intention. Moreover, it seems to increase the purchase intention by affecting brand evaluation. Therefore, the results of the study are as follows. First, we can confirm that the better the fashion collection’s COO and fashion brand image, the higher brand evaluation and purchase intention is. Second, when assessing fashion collection’s COO image and fashion brand image, brand evaluation and purchase intention differ according to Korea, US and French national stereotypes. This study goes beyond the general product-centric COO studies and introduces the fashion collection’s COO that can be valuable research in terms of contribution not only to academia, but also to the industrial field.

THE ROLE OF FASHION LEADERS ON THE FASHION SOCIAL PLATFORM: IMPLICATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN THE KOREAN FASHION INDUSTRY

The importance of Social Networking Services (SNS) has increased in recent years because consumers are able to communicate with each other to share their information and experiences via SNS. This allows to easily distribute critical information and is beneficial to other potential consumers. Current studies confirm the important role of social media so that firms can get valuable information to respond to the heterogeneous customers’ needs through SNS (e.g., Rishika, Kumar, Janakiraman, & Bezawada, 2013). This paradigm shift allows firms to consider the important role of SNS on the current fashion market. A firm communicates with consumers sharing their opinions, experiences, and feedback existing on SNS, called social platform, which provides valuable information to respond to consumers’ needs. In the last decades, rapid advancements in technology and customer demands pushed firms to collaborate with outside partners to collect information, creating valuable products or services. In such competitive environments, customers’ involvement is increasingly important because integrating external sources of knowledge from them can result in major advantages for the firm (Nooteboon, 1999). Further, Von Hippel (1986) emphasizes the importance of the participation of the lead users whose present strong needs will become general in a marketplace months or years in the future. They have the tendency to adopt new products earlier than normal customers. According to Von Hippel (2006), lead users may provide valuable ideas for the firm which results in novel products. Lead users can diffuse product information to other customer groups and may play a pivotal role between the firm and traditional customer groups. Likewise, the fashion leaders in the fashion industry have an important role because firms are able to know future market trends from them. Further, the role of fashion leaders is much more important because of the characteristics of the fashion industry. It is very difficult to foresee a trend as customer demand changes rapidly and becomes more heterogeneous. Fashion leaders purchase new fashion products quicker than other people, are more interested in clothing, and invest more in fashion than the general consumer (Goldsmith, Freiden, & Kilsheimer, 1993). Thus, fashion leaders hold an important role as a source of information and for the word-of-mouth effect in the fashion market (Kim & Hong, 2011). The fashion information that fashion leaders deliver builds more trust and interest than direct fashion advertisement or PR, and they have an important influence on the spread of new fashion styles (Vernette, 2004). Additionally, the effects of online word-of-mouth are different from the traditional word-of-mouth effects because there are numerous senders and receivers, and conversations last much longer. Moreover, viral content that includes vivid visual images can especially be influential on network participants (Kulmala, Mesiranta, & Tuominen, 2013; Wolny & Mueller, 2013). We argue that fashion leaders may have a strong impact on leading a trend in the current fashion industry and influence the consumers who share information and experiences with them on fashion platforms to purchase products. Thus, the purpose of our study is to examine the role of fashion leaders in influencing purchase intention of the potential customers who are using the fashion platforms to take information from them. Further, we will outline how fashion leaders influence the creation of valuable fashion platforms and valuable information through sharing their knowledge through fashion platforms. Online surveys were administrated to conduct empirical analyses for this study. Taking the gender and age characteristics of interest based SNS users into consideration, the research sample concentrated on female users in their teenage to 30s, who had the experience with fashion social platforms. The main research results are as follows. First, we found that fashion leaders create valuable information for the other users to visit fashion platforms, providing correct, trendy and trustworthy information to other users. Second, the quality of information and value of a fashion platform that are created by fashion leaders positively influence the users when considering their future purchase decision making and recommendations to other potential consumers to visit the fashion platform. We have some implications in our study. First, we contribute by finding a factor to explain how the value of social fashion platforms can be created and how important the value of information provided by fashion leaders is in the fashion industry in Korea. We found that the role of fashion leaders in influencing a trend of current fashion in the Korean industry is important. The advent of social media, such as SNS, allows us to explain how one-way communication with consumers to set up a firm’s marketing strategy is limited. As the results of this study are specific to the fashion industry, they can be used as a fundamental study to understand the role of fashion leaders to create value on social platforms and share valuable information to normal users. Moreover, this study can contribute to the understanding how social platforms affect the fashion industry through two-way communication to the potential customers using the fashion leaders. It is important for fashion corporations that are interested in social services to have a valuable knowledge of social platform users. Therefore, fashion marketers who are attempting to utilize social platforms can use this study as preliminary data to understand fashion social platform users, who are the potential consumers.