• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.155-175
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• 2010

Most of the service industries including finance and telecommunications have become matured and saturated. The competitions have become severe while the differences among brands become smaller. Therefore maintaining good relationships with customers has been critical for the service providers. In case of credit card and debit card, the similar patterns are shown. It is important for them to maintain good relationships with customers, and therefore, they have used marketing program which provides customized services to customers and utilizes the membership programs. Not only do they build and maintain good relationships, but also highlight their brands from the emotional aspects. For example, KB Card or Hyundai Card uses well-known designers' works for their credit card design. As well, they differentiate the designs of credit cards to stress on their brand personalities. BC Card introduced the credit card with perfume that a customer would like. Even though the credit card is small and not shown to public easily, it becomes more important for those companies to touch the customers' feelings with the brand personalities and their images. This is partly because of changes in consumers' lifestyles. Y-generations becomes highly likely to express themselves in many different ways and more emotional than X-generations. For the Y-generations, therefore, even credit cards in the wallet should be personalized and well-designed. In line with it, credit cards with good design can be seen as an example of brand identity, where different design for each customer can be used to recognize the membership groups that customers want to belong. On the other hand, these credit card companies offer the special treatment benefits for those customers who are heavy users for the cards. For example, those customers who love sports will receive some special discounts when they use their credit cards for sports related products. Therefore this study attempted to explore the relationships between relational benefits, brand identification and loyalty. It has been well known that relational benefits and brand identification lead to loyalty independently from many other studies, but there has been few study to review all the three variables all together in a research model. Furthermore, as reviewed above, in the card industry, many companies attempt to associate the brand image with their products to fit their customers' lifestyles while relational benefits are still playing an important role for their business. Therefore in our research model, relational benefits, brand identification, and loyalty are all included. We focus on the mediating effect of brand identification. From the relational benefits perspective, only special treatment benefit and confidence benefit are included. Social benefit is not applicable for this credit card industry because not many cases of face-to-face interaction can be found. From the brand identification perspective, personal brand identity and social brand identity are reviewed and included in the model. Overall, the research model emphasizes that the relationships between relational benefits and loyalty will be mediated by the effect of brand identification. The effects of relational benefits which are confidence benefit and special treatment benefits on loyalty will be realized when they fit to the personal brand identity and social brand identity. In the research model, therefore, the relationships between confidence benefit and social brand identity, and between confidence benefit and personal identity are hypothesized while the effects of special treatment benefit on social brand identity and personal brand identity are hypothesized. Loyalty, then, is hypothesized to have positive relationships with personal brand identity and social brand identity. In addition, confidence benefit among the relational benefits is expected to have a direct, positive relationship with loyalty because confidence benefit has been recognized as a critical factor for good relationships and satisfaction. Data were collected from college students who have been using either credit cards or debit cards. College students were regarded good subjects because they are in Y-generation cohorts and have tendency to express themselves more. Total sample size was two hundred three at the beginning, but after deleting those data with many missing values, one hundred ninety-seven data points were remained and used for the model testing. Measurement items were brought from the previous literatures and modified for this research. To test the reliability, using SPSS 14, chronbach's α was examined and all the values were from .874 to .928 exceeding over .7. Using AMOS 7.0, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the measurement model. The measurement model was found good fit with χ²(67)=188.388 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=.821, CFI=.941, RMSEA=.096. Using AMOS 7.0, structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the research model. Overall, the research model fit were χ²(68)=188.670 (p= .000), GFI=.886, AGFI=,824 CFI=.942, RMSEA=.095 indicating good fit. In details, all the paths hypothesized in the research model were found significant except for the path from social brand identity to loyalty. Personal brand identity leads to loyalty while both confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive relationships with personal and social identities. As well, confidence benefit has a direct positive effect on loyalty. The results indicates the followings. First, personal brand identity plays an important role for credit/debit card usage. Therefore even for the products which are not shown to public easy, design and emotional aspect can be important to fit the customers' lifestyles. Second, confidence benefit and special treatment benefit have a positive effects on personal brand identity. Therefore it will be needed for marketers to associate the special treatment and trust and confidence benefits with personal image, personality and personal identity. Third, this study found again the importance of confidence and trust. However interestingly enough, social brand identity was not found to be significantly related to loyalty. It can be explained that the main sample of this study consists of college students. Those strategies to facilitate social brand identity are focused on high social status groups while college students have not been established their status yet.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.55-63
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• 2014

Purpose - Brands and products often play key roles in enabling consumers to experience a good attitude, resulting in mentally enacting a specific prototype and reliving the experience by retelling a specific story. Brand storytelling can function as an important tool for managing the brand. To successfully apply a firm's brand storytelling, it is important to prove the effectiveness of storytelling. Therefore, by utilizing the research of Escalas (1998) and Fog et al. (2005), a list of measurements for storytelling component quality (SCQ) was applied. In addition, customer attitudes toward brand storytelling were tested. In particular, if customers encounter a dynamic and interesting story, although the brand is not widely known, they can be in communion with the brand and establish an emotional connection (Hill, 2003). Thus, brand reputation was divided into two levels (high vs. low), and the difference in effectiveness between storytelling component quality and consumers' advertisement attitude, brand attitude, and purchasing intention was examined. Research design, data, and methodology - By using the measurement list used in Choi, Na, and Hwang (2013), 12 categories in the level of message quality, conflict quality, character quality, and plot quality were measured. In addition, categories of brand reputation, advertisement attitude, brand attitude, and purchasing intention were measured. The study was based on 181 final survey samples targeting undergraduate and graduate students in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Results - Consumer responses toward storytelling were researched in the context of brand characteristics or product attributes, such as brand reputation, differentiated from extant simple effects of storytelling. Some brands with high reputation enjoy a halo effect due to prior learning, while other brands with comparatively low reputation have trouble generating positive responses despite attempts to enhance the level of reputation or induce favorable attitudes. Although not all due to the component quality of storytelling, the case of brands with low reputation exerted more positive impact on consumer attitudes than did brands with high reputation. As mentioned earlier, consumer evaluation of the component quality of storytelling was categorized into advertising attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intention for this study; this provides managerial implications in other ways. The results imply that an effective application of storytelling could be an important emotional tool for the development of both brands with low brand awareness and of well-known brands. Finally, this study serves to increase consumers' understanding and ability in interpreting brand stories that marketers tell about themselves, as well as to highlight differential experiences with products by level of brand hierarchy. Conclusions - This research aimed to provide an objective guideline for storytelling component quality while considering brand awareness. Thus, brand reputation was considered for proving the baseline effectiveness of storytelling, and this study provided directions for strategic establishment of storytelling. Based on this, we conclude that in further studies, it will be necessary to systematically manage brand story by considering other situation variables and various story patterns, and studying their differences.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제14권11호
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• pp.117-128
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• 2016

Purpose - In order to collect information needed for the establishment of more effective marketing strategies of on-line purchasing agent services targeting Chinese consumers, the study investigated the relationship among Chinese selection criteria. They included fashion products, use of information source, and satisfaction with on-line purchasing agent services. The study also identified the differences in the Chinese selection criteria of fashion products, use of information source, and the satisfaction level with on-line purchasing agent services according to their age and gender. Research design, data, and methodology - The study was implemented through a normative-descriptive survey method using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were collected from February 9 to 28, 2016, and analyzed by factor analysis, ANOVA and Duncan test, t-test, and multiple regression analysis. Results - Differences were found in selection criteria of fashion products and use of information sources among groups. Thirty's age group was concerned about price/brand more than the twenty's were. Twenty's were concerned about practicality/quality of the products more than the thirty's. Hallyu/broadcasting was used by men more than by women as an information source of Korean fashion. SNS/WOM(word of mouth) was used more by women than by man. Twenty's showed lower level of satisfaction with customer services/credibility than other factors. The thirty's showed lower level of satisfaction with informational role of the service than other factors. Those who utilize each type of fashion information source more showed higher satisfaction level with on-line purchasing agent service of Korean fashion products.. In general, according to the selection criteria and use of information, there were differences in satisfaction with on-line purchasing agent service of Korean fashion products. Conclusions - Considering the findings of the study, as well as age, gender, selection criteria and use of information source, Chinese consumers could be used as a criteria of market segmentation for on-line purchasing agent services of Korean fashion products. The results manifested that there is a need to differentiate marketing strategies according to the satisfaction levels with each satisfaction factors of on-line purchasing agent service of Korean fashion products.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.2639-2644
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• 2013

The renewal cycle, which newly decorates stores, has been shortened, as the marketing competition between telecommunication companies has been extended to the stores, due to the rapid increase of mobile phone users and fast replacement cycle of products. The store renewal made by major telecommunication companies, including signboard, has been pushed in order for telecommunication companies to give strong impression about their own brand identity to consumers. Consumers want stores not only to sell cheap and high quality products but also to provide customer experience, by which customers can feel store, product and service and accept them. Especially, since the competition between telecommunication companies is getting tough, it is the current trend that the number of stores is increasing much, and telecommunication companies are recently renewing their stores, with the concept of SI(Store Identity), which changes store image into the incorporated image including interior and exterior, rather than just replacing CI(Corporate Identity), when they renew stores. It can be said that SI(Store Identity) is an important factor, by which companies consistently design visual factors such as interior and sign, and then apply them to the interior and exterior of the stores, and thereby give good store image to consumers, and ultimately have great effect on the increase of sales volume. This kind of activity can be image-controlled by companies' Identity Management, and it can be a very important factor in terms of marketing. In this study, it has an objective to compare and analyze SI of domestic telecommunication companies and foreign telecommunication companies, and then suggest effective SI direction.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제14권6호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2016

Purpose - This study was conducted to present a study on the perception and satisfaction with the brand agricultural products targeted at consumers who use a lot of local products. According to the data of 2011, the total number of the brand agricultural products of Korea is 5,291 with various kinds. Research design, data and methodology - The survey shows that the brand agricultural products are being used by some specific people. However, it can be a useful idea which can help the consumption of brand agricultural products to be expanded if we understand how consumers' recognitions are different between various groups. For an empirical Analysis, the response data of 110 adult patients residing in the metropolitan area were used and conducted with a factor analysis, frequency analysis in order to ensure the validity and conducted a regression analysis and correlation analysis using SPSS statistical program. Results - According to the analysis, it showed consumers with an interest in brand agricultural products are 40-50 age housewives and the middle class of about 5 million won in monthly income more than 3 million won with a college education. As for consumers' purchasing status, all the subjects said that they had experienced buying brand agricultural products and the level of satisfaction for them was very high. Relatively, consumers' satisfaction level with high income and education is high. And recognition of the brand agricultural products was found mainly goes through word of mouth. The age and income are very important factors in customers' repurchase for brand agricultural products. The result of the analysis for the influences on brand agricultural products of customer satisfaction suggests even if the recognitions for safety, quality, and value are vital factors, the recognition of quality doesn't influence on brand agricultural products statistically and significantly. It was analysed if there were any differences between recognitions by group to brand agricultural products, that is to say recognition of safety, quality and value and the result can be summarized as follows. There are all statistical significant differences depending on their age, educational background and income. In the case of 30 or 40 aged, as they got the education level of college and graduate school and earned relatively high income, most customers have positive recognition on the brand agricultural products. This implies the group which can buy and consume the brand agricultural more easily has much more positive recognition. Conclusion - The results of this study shows consumers' brand awareness and satisfaction with brand agricultural products are affected by their age and income level. The purpose of this study is to find the information that can help brand agricultural products markets to be expanded by understanding the factors which encourage consumers to behave repurchase as well as customers' various levels of recognition to the brand agricultural products. The survey says that brand agricultural products are being used by some specific people.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.221-238
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• 2019

Recently, companies and public institutions have been actively introducing chatbot services in the field of customer counseling and response. The introduction of the chatbot service not only brings labor cost savings to companies and organizations, but also enables rapid communication with customers. Advances in data analytics and artificial intelligence are driving the growth of these chatbot services. The current chatbot can understand users' questions and offer the most appropriate answers to questions through machine learning and deep learning. The advancement of chatbot core technologies such as NLP, NLU, and NLG has made it possible to understand words, understand paragraphs, understand meanings, and understand emotions. For this reason, the value of chatbots continues to rise. However, technology-oriented chatbots can be inconsistent with what users want inherently, so chatbots need to be addressed in the area of the user experience, not just in the area of technology. The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents the importance of the User Experience as well as the advancement of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, and IoT technologies. The development of IT technology and the importance of user experience have provided people with a variety of environments and changed lifestyles. This means that experiences in interactions with people, services(products) and the environment become very important. Therefore, it is time to develop a user needs-based services(products) that can provide new experiences and values to people. This study proposes a chatbot development process based on user needs by applying the design thinking approach, a representative methodology in the field of user experience, to chatbot development. The process proposed in this study consists of four steps. The first step is 'setting up knowledge domain' to set up the chatbot's expertise. Accumulating the information corresponding to the configured domain and deriving the insight is the second step, 'Knowledge accumulation and Insight identification'. The third step is 'Opportunity Development and Prototyping'. It is going to start full-scale development at this stage. Finally, the 'User Feedback' step is to receive feedback from users on the developed prototype. This creates a "user needs-based service (product)" that meets the process's objectives. Beginning with the fact gathering through user observation, Perform the process of abstraction to derive insights and explore opportunities. Next, it is expected to develop a chatbot that meets the user's needs through the process of materializing to structure the desired information and providing the function that fits the user's mental model. In this study, we present the actual construction examples for the domestic cosmetics market to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed process. The reason why it chose the domestic cosmetics market as its case is because it shows strong characteristics of users' experiences, so it can quickly understand responses from users. This study has a theoretical implication in that it proposed a new chatbot development process by incorporating the design thinking methodology into the chatbot development process. This research is different from the existing chatbot development research in that it focuses on user experience, not technology. It also has practical implications in that companies or institutions propose realistic methods that can be applied immediately. In particular, the process proposed in this study can be accessed and utilized by anyone, since 'user needs-based chatbots' can be developed even if they are not experts. This study suggests that further studies are needed because only one field of study was conducted. In addition to the cosmetics market, additional research should be conducted in various fields in which the user experience appears, such as the smart phone and the automotive market. Through this, it will be able to be reborn as a general process necessary for 'development of chatbots centered on user experience, not technology centered'.

• Korean Security Journal
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• 제50호
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• pp.61-87
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• 2017

National Assembly is a constitutional institution that is required to first consult the will of the people and it should do its effort continuously so that security of citizens using parking lot would be enhanced at the same time while improving parking service in order to increase customer satisfaction of the people. Under this recognition, in this study, Doonchi parking lot of National Assembly under consigned management was first reviewed in a perspective of criminal prevention through environmental design(CPTED) and particularly, fence installation and reinforcement work for securing 'territoriality' and operation of all round shooting camera and installation of No-trespassing warning board at entrance were suggested. Second, it was recommended to change independent control system in which CCTV security system of National Assembly Doonchi parking lot is operated separately from National Assembly safety situation room and integrate it with National Assembly safety situation room(revised to double safety system) and performance of CCTV camera was made to be increased to over 2m. In addition, video recording mode was converted to NVR mode for application to IP camera in the future and in order to avoid dead zone of security monitoring area and based on site inspection result, addition 3 places of newly installing CCTV were indicated. Third, it was recommended to introduce parking fare billing and management system through unmanned equipment in parking lot management and operation.(specialized management of professional parking service provider was reviewed). By doing so, risk of cash handling by charging personnel was removed by reducing current 7 working personnel to 3 and particularly, by converting parking lot management mode being operated temporarily from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. at present to 24 hours operation mode and providing more specialized parking service, citizens visiting National Assembly were provided with convenience and image of National Assembly was also enhanced. This study was carried out in parallel with various literature and case studies, including data from the Office of the Defense Protection in the National Assembly.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• 제11권6호
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• pp.31-40
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• 2013

Purpose - The Northeast Asian Logistic Hub strategy was established to create a national competitive advantage in northeast Asia. Countries in this region are competing fiercely to become the central base distribution port as the volume of container shipping continues to increase due to the northeast Asian (especially Chinese) economic growth. The primary method by which shippers are improving their customer service and distribution is enhancing profits by minimizing call ports on the key route through strategic affiliations and the use of large vessels. Each nation is planning large-scale investments in the construction of sea ports that can accommodate large vessels. This paper proposes ways by which the logistical strategies of domestic corporations can keep pace with changes in government policy concerning the Northeast Asian Business Hub policy. It examines the logistics system in the Northeast Asian region, analyzes the government's Northeast Asian Business Hub policy, and suggests logistical strategies for domestic corporations through an analysis based on a questionnaire designed to grasp domestic firms' needs and goals. Research design, data and methodology - The purpose of this study is to determine how shipping companies establish partnerships with third-party logistics providers and draws out the implications of the results. The survey methods used were personal interviews and questionnaires distributed to a sample population through e-mail, fax, mail, and telephone. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, of which 165 were returned. Among these, ten were excluded due to insufficient content; ultimately, 155 were used for the sample. The statistical data collection process was analyzed through data coating and a statistical package program. Results - This study argues that greater flexibility in policies, administration, and systems will be needed to significantly improve established business practices. In this dissertation, we primarily identify that in order to become a center of northeast Asian logistics, Korea must adopt a new paradigm and abandon the existing systems that are based on the economic and social systems that have stemmed from bureaucracy, inflexibility, chauvinism, and equalitarianism. Flexible policies, administration, and systems will be necessary to improve business practices. Domestic corporations must establish a strategic logistics hub and related network while simultaneously pursuing value-added logistics businesses by increasing their manpower and building a logistics information system. This will strengthen their competitive edge and lead to system improvements. Conclusions - Domestic corporations must adopt a new paradigm and use more reasonable business laws, systems, and policies that are based on market-driven flexibility and transparency. Moreover, social norms and regulations should be established to help ensure political and social security. Korea must also develop a culture of tolerance for foreign companies. Finally, the paradigm defining the policy governing the development of the capital city and its satellite cities in this context must be changed.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.34-43
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• 2020

Purpose: In this study, we will try to find out problems and improvements of the policies in order to verify whether the plans contribute to the health and welfare of the firefighters properly. Method: By the Delphi analysis by experts. Result: There are problems such as absence of Firefighters' hospital, insufficient mental health education program in fire department, lack of on-site risk assessment system, problem on ineffectiveness of mental and physical health care business, lack of substantiality on mental and physical stability program, absence of mental health education, ensuring the confidentiality for users of mental health programs, lack of support for parent firefighters, lack of firefighters' retirement design and insufficient treatment for female firefighters. Conclusion: There are Improvements such as establishing Firefighters' hospital, improving mental health education and training CISD leaders in the fire department, preparing disaster risk assessment system, effectiveness measurement for visiting psychological counseling projects, improving the program through customer satisfaction surveys, establishment of mental health education system, ensuring confidentiality by improving personnel systems, encourage childcare leave and introduce childcare facilities at fire stations, revitalizing retirement Firefighters and policy development for female firefighters.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.53-77
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• 2013

As advertising and promotions are categorized as operating expenses, managers tend to reduce marketing budget to improve their short term profitability. Gauging the value and accountability of marketing spending is therefore considered as a major research priority in marketing. To respond this call, recent studies have documented that financial market reacts positively to a firm's marketing activity or marketing related outcomes such as brand equity and customer satisfaction. However, prior studies focus on the relation of marketing variable and financial market variables. This study suggests a channel about how marketing activity increases firm valuation. Specifically, we propose that a firm's marketing activity increases the level of the firm's product market information and thereby the dispersion in financial analysts' earnings forecasts decreases. With less uncertainty about the firm's future prospect, the firm's managers and shareholders have less information asymmetry, which reduces the firm's cost of capital and thereby increases the valuation of the firm. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine how informational benefits can mediate the effect of marketing activity on firm value. To test whether marketing activity contributes to increase in firm value by mitigating information asymmetry, this study employs a longitudinal data which contains 12,824 firm-year observations with 2,337 distinct firms from 1981 to 2006. Firm value is measured by Tobin's Q and one-year-ahead buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR). Following prior literature, dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts is used as a proxy for the information gap between management and shareholders. For model specification, to identify mediating effect, the three-step regression approach is adopted. All models are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to test the statistical significance of the mediating effect. The analysis shows that marketing intensity has a significant negative relationship with dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts. After including the mediator variable about analyst dispersion, the effect of marketing intensity on firm value drops from 1.199 (p < .01) to 1.130 (p < .01) in Tobin's Q model and the same effect drops from .192 (p < .01) to .188 (p < .01) in BHAR model. The results suggest that analysts' forecast dispersion partially accounts for the positive effect of marketing on firm valuation. Additionally, the same analysis was conducted with an alternative dependent variable (forecast accuracy) and a marketing metric (advertising intensity). The analysis supports the robustness of the main results. In sum, the results provide empirical evidence that marketing activity can increase shareholder value by mitigating problem of information asymmetry in the capital market. The findings have important implications for managers. First, managers should be cognizant of the role of marketing activity in providing information to the financial market as well as to the consumer market. Thus, managers should take into account investors' reaction when they design marketing communication messages for reducing the cost of capital. Second, this study shows a channel on how marketing creates shareholder value and highlights the accountability of marketing. In addition to the direct impact of marketing on firm value, an indirect channel by reducing information asymmetry should be considered. Potentially, marketing managers can justify their spending from the perspective of increasing long-term shareholder value.