• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2000

The purposes of this thesis are to investigate characteristics, environment of characters through comprehensive approach to analyze its use and strategies in apparel brands. As a method to accomplish this research, fashion related articles, documents and magazines are used along with marketing references forecasting 21st century market changes. The character industry has diverse application to different medias and also intimacy and absorbtion beyond sex, age, generation, nationality. The cultural background of character fashion is based on casual clothing caused by wide spread pursuit of sports and leisure culture, indivisualization and diversification of clothing, customer-made marketing atmosphere and tendency of pursuit of fun and humor. In case of domestic young casual market, own characters are developed for creating differentiated it's own brand images. Characters are applied as an design details or cyber fashion models standing for the image of it's own brand and take a part in other events and visual parts as well. Characters not only limited to clothing items but also further usages of characters extended to stickers and other related stationary goods are necessary. A 'Character multi shop' can be one of good methods to maximize synergy effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.38
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• pp.193-211
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• 1998

Without a solid marketing system in placed, the fashion industry cannot flourish on out-standing design or technology alone. Even though the significance of collecting and analyzing information, merchandising, and retail distribution is recognized, these functions are not firmly rooted or prevalent in our industry. In contrast, Italy which possesses similar demographic traits such as the lack of natural resources and other physical factors has succeed-ed in globalizing its fashion market by responding swiftly and exercising flexiblity to its constantly changing consumer demand. This in turn has earned Italy the competitive edge in the global fashion arena. Italy's unique management skills and operation know-how, along with successful market strategies come into play in bringing competitiveness to Italy's fashion market. Firstly, smaller companies with ability to adopt swiftly to the ever changing market. Secondly, fashion friendly social environment. Thirdly, niche marketing through highly specialized system and differentiation. Fourthly, timeless innovation through intense corporate competition. Lastly, establishment of foundations to support the industry through diverse networking. The alone building blocks have formed a basis for erecting an unparalleled market with a reputation for excellence in design and quality in the global fashion world. This study has examined how Italy's fashion industry has evolved from an underdeveloped textile business into a cutting edge fashion in-dustry. Italy's unique business processes and practices were studied to come up with a collection and merchandising ideas in a niche market. By selecting this venue we are able to continuously grow and develop in a market with diverse consumer needs. To analyze the Italian fashion market, data from 3 institutions were utilized, namely, CIT-ER which has provided consumer trends and sales analysis, SITA,a data service provided statistics from the textile and apparel businesses, and NBI has also furnished valuable data. Italian consumer preference, buying behavior, consumer profile, retail channels and other related data from the above institutions has formed a backbone for market segmentation and target markets, and as a result, we were able to zero in on the type of consumer, produce, pricing and retail channels for our womenswear. Going forward the direction is to elevate product image and pretige, and create syn-ergy between related industries, and at the same note, in order to develop internationally recognized brands such as Max Mara and Benetton. Certain elements such as the specialization of the fashion industry, alon-g with fashion-related data base and systems support, and most importantly experts with acute fashion sense and capacity to analyze pertinent data are in need. I firmly believe that we can achieve Italy's level in the fashion market with support from the government and unrelenting effort within the industry itself, and hope that this report can prove to be useful.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.6 s.165
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• pp.879-891
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• 2007

Forecasting is a critical task for fashion companies because of continuous change in fashion and long process lead-time. Therefore, it is of great importance for both scholars and companies to understand how forecasted fashion styles are accepted by consumers. This research aimed to investigate consumer acceptance of fashion styles in Korea. The study examined and compared oversea collections of women's wear to the street fashion in Korea for seven seasons from 02 s/s to 05 s/s. Information on oversea collections were obtained from the magazine, Fashion Show, and the street fashion information from Seoul Fashion Design Center. The results showed that overall trends presented in oversea collections have been well accepted, while acceptance of specific styles or items varied. During the period of this research, sporty style and feminine style were very strong in the street fashion. Many styles and items were modified and selectively accepted probably because of cultural differences and limitations of mass production. Some styles which were presented in oversea collections were not accepted in Korea, and at the same time some cases were observed only in the street fashion in Korea. The results of this study provide guidelines for Korean apparel companies in merchandise planning and empirical findings to deepen the understanding on Korean society with respect to fashion.

• 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 Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.844-854
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• 2016

In order to understand the current state of production and pattern design of circular knitted jackets, this study selected 11 female clothing brands based from the "2012/2013 Korea Fashion Brand Yearbook" and interviewed the staff in charge of patterns at the companies. Polyester and polyurethane were found to be synthesized and used for the outshell of circular knitted jackets, alternatively natural fabric cotton or wool were synthesized with rayon. As for the structure of circular knitted materials, Ponte Di Roma knitting structure (a modified form of a double knit) was most often used. Surveying the use pattern and the parts for padding cloth, six responded that they used elastic padding cloth. As for circular knitted jackets with inner lining, elastic padding cloth was attached to all parts (front, back, side panel, and collar - except for sleeves) of the basic bodice pattern. Eight responded that they did not use a basic pattern when designing a pattern, which exceeds the majority. All respondents answered yes to the question on if there is any difference in designing a pattern for a woven jacket and a circular knitted jacket. It was found that they designed a pattern that considered shrinkage and elongation, which are the features of circular knitted fabric. Shrinkage and elongation were the features of a fabric material most considered when designing patterns for a circular knitted jacket.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.77-110
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• 2017

Recently, the diversification and individualization of consumption patterns through the web and mobile devices based on the Internet have been rapid. As this happens, the efficient operation of the offline store, which is a traditional distribution channel, has become more important. In order to raise both the sales and profits of stores, stores need to supply and sell the most attractive products to consumers in a timely manner. However, there is a lack of research on which SKUs, out of many products, can increase sales probability and reduce inventory costs. In particular, if a company sells products through multiple in-store stores across multiple locations, it would be helpful to increase sales and profitability of stores if SKUs appealing to customers are recommended. In this study, the recommender system (recommender system such as collaborative filtering and hybrid filtering), which has been used for personalization recommendation, is suggested by SKU recommendation method of a store unit of a distribution company that handles a homogeneous brand through a plurality of sales stores by country and region. We calculated the similarity of each store by using the purchase data of each store's handling items, filtering the collaboration according to the sales history of each store by each SKU, and finally recommending the individual SKU to the store. In addition, the store is classified into four clusters through PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and cluster analysis (Clustering) using the store profile data. The recommendation system is implemented by the hybrid filtering method that applies the collaborative filtering in each cluster and measured the performance of both methods based on actual sales data. Most of the existing recommendation systems have been studied by recommending items such as movies and music to the users. In practice, industrial applications have also become popular. In the meantime, there has been little research on recommending SKUs for each store by applying these recommendation systems, which have been mainly dealt with in the field of personalization services, to the store units of distributors handling similar brands. If the recommendation method of the existing recommendation methodology was 'the individual field', this study expanded the scope of the store beyond the individual domain through a plurality of sales stores by country and region and dealt with the store unit of the distribution company handling the same brand SKU while suggesting a recommendation method. In addition, if the existing recommendation system is limited to online, it is recommended to apply the data mining technique to develop an algorithm suitable for expanding to the store area rather than expanding the utilization range offline and analyzing based on the existing individual. The significance of the results of this study is that the personalization recommendation algorithm is applied to a plurality of sales outlets handling the same brand. A meaningful result is derived and a concrete methodology that can be constructed and used as a system for actual companies is proposed. It is also meaningful that this is the first attempt to expand the research area of the academic field related to the existing recommendation system, which was focused on the personalization domain, to a sales store of a company handling the same brand. From 05 to 03 in 2014, the number of stores' sales volume of the top 100 SKUs are limited to 52 SKUs by collaborative filtering and the hybrid filtering method SKU recommended. We compared the performance of the two recommendation methods by totaling the sales results. The reason for comparing the two recommendation methods is that the recommendation method of this study is defined as the reference model in which offline collaborative filtering is applied to demonstrate higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The results of this model are compared with the Hybrid filtering method, which is a model that reflects the characteristics of the offline store view. The proposed method showed a higher performance than the existing recommendation method. The proposed method was proved by using actual sales data of large Korean apparel companies. In this study, we propose a method to extend the recommendation system of the individual level to the group level and to efficiently approach it. In addition to the theoretical framework, which is of great value.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2010

Green or an environmental consciousness has been a major issue for businesses and government offices, as well as consumers, worldwide. In response to this movement, the Korean government announced, in the early 2000s, the era of "Green Growth" as a way to encourage green-related business activities. The Korean fashion industry, in various levels of involvement, presents diverse eco-friendly products as a part of the green movement. These apparel products include organic products and recycled clothing. For these companies to be successful, they need information about who are the consumers who consider green issues (e.g., environmental sustainability) as part of their personal values when making a decision for product purchase, use, and disposal. These consumers can be considered as eco-sumers. Previous studies have examined consumers' purchase intention for or with eco-friendly products. In addition, studies have examined influential factors used to identify the eco-sumers or green consumers. However, limited attention was paid to eco-sumers' disposal or recycling behavior of clothes in comparison with their green product purchases. Clothing disposal behaviors are ways that consumer can get rid of unused clothing and in clue temporarily lending the item or permanently eliminating the item by "handing down" (e.g., giving it to a younger sibling), donating, exchanging, selling, or simply throwing it away. Accordingly, examining purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion items in conjunction with clothing disposal behaviors should improve understanding of a consumer's clothing consumption behavior from the environmental perspective. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about Korean eco-sumers who have ecologically-favorable lifestyles and behaviors when buying and disposing of clothes. The objectives of this study are to (a) categorize Koreans on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors; (b) investigate the differences in demographics, lifestyles, and clothing consumption values among segments; and (c) compare the purchase intention of eco-friendly fashion items and influential factors among segments. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The questionnaire included 10 items of clothing disposal behavior, 22 items of LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) characteristics, and 19 items of consumption values, measured by five-point Likert-type scales. In addition, the purchase intention of two eco-friendly fashion items and 11 attributes of each item were measured by seven-point Likert type scales. Two polyester fleece pullovers, made from fabric created from recycled bottles with the PET identification code, were selected from one Korean brand and one US imported brand among outdoor sportswear brands. A brief description of each product with a color picture was provided in the survey. Demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education level, income, occupation) were also included. The data were collected through a professional web survey agency during May 2009. A total of 600 final usable questionnaires were analyzed. The age of respondents ranged from 20 to 49 years old with a mean age of 34 years. Fifty percent of the respondents were males and about 58% were married, and 62% reported having earned university degrees. Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying dimensions of the clothing disposal behavior scale, and three factors were generated (i.e., reselling behavior, donating behavior, non-recycling behavior). To categorize the respondents on the basis of clothing disposal behaviors, k-mean cluster analysis was used, and three segments were obtained. These consumer segments were labeled as 'Resale Group', 'Donation Group', and 'Non-Recycling Group.' The classification results indicated approximately 98 percent of the original cases were correctly classified. With respect to demographic characteristics among the three segments, significant differences were found in gender, marital status, occupation, and age. LOHAS characteristics were reduced into the following five factors: self-satisfaction, family orientation, health concern, environmental concern, and voluntary service. Significant differences were found in the LOHAS factors among the three clusters. Resale Group and Donation Group showed a similar predisposition to LOHAS issues while the Non-Recycling Group presented the lowest mean scores on the LOHAS factors compared to the other segments. The Resale and Donation Groups described themselves as enjoying or being satisfied with their lives and spending spare-time with family. In addition, these two groups cared about health and organic foods, and tried to conserve energy and resources. Principal components factor analysis generated clothing consumption values into the following three factors: personal values, social value, and practical value. The ANOVA test with the factors showed differences primarily between the Resale Group and the other two groups. The Resale Group was more concerned about personal value and social value than the other segments. In contrast, the Non-Recycling Group presented the higher level of social value than did Donation Group. In a comparison of the intention to purchase eco-friendly products, the Resale Group showed the highest mean score on intent to purchase Product A. On the other hand, the Donation Group presented the highest intention to purchase for Product B among segments. In addition, the mean scores indicated that the Korean product (Product B) was more preferable for purchase than the U.S. product (Product A). Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify the influence of product attributes on the purchase intention of eco product. With respect to Product A, design, price and contribution to environmental preservation were significant to predict purchase intention for the Resale Group, while price and compatibility with my image factors were significant for the Donation Group. For the Non-Recycling Group, design, price compatibility with the factors of my image, participation to eco campaign, and contribution to environmental preservation were significant. Price appropriateness was significant for each of the three clusters. With respect to Product B, design, price and compatibility with my image factors were important, but different attributes were associated significantly with purchase intention for each of the three groups. The influence of LOHAS characteristics and clothing consumption values on intention to purchase Products A and B were also examined. The LOHAS factor of health concern and the personal value factor were significant in the relationships with the purchase intention; however, the explanatory powers were low in the three segments. Findings showed that each group as classified by clothing disposal behaviors showed differences in the attributes of a product, personal values, and the LOHAS characteristics that influenced their purchase intention of eco-friendly products. Findings would enable organizations to understand eco-friendly behavior and to design appropriate strategic decisions to appeal eco-sumers.