• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2020

It is a general phenomenon for manufacturers to provide vertically differentiated product line for more profit through improved market coverage. For such manufacturers, the compatibility between vertically differentiated products is an important decision issue. Some manufacturers provide full compatibility between high and low version products, whereas some provide only downward compatibility for the purpose of recommending high version product. In this study, the two representative compatibility strategies, full or downward, between vertically differentiated products produced by a single manufacturer are analyzed, especially under network externality and in the viewpoint of profit maximization. To do this we used a market model which captures the basic essence of vertical differentiation and network externality. Based on the proposed market model, the profit maximizing solutions are derived and numerically analyzed. The results can be summarized as follows : (1) Regardless of compatibility strategy, under network externality, vertical differentiation is always advantageous in terms of profit. (2) The full compatibility strategy is shown to be the most advantageous in terms of profit. In addition, it is necessary to make quality difference between differentiated products as wide as possible to maximize profit. (3) To gradually drive low version product out of the market and shift the weight pendulum of market to high version product, it is shown that the downward compatibility strategy is essential. Unlike intuition, however, it is also shown that in order to drive low version product out of market, it is necessary to raise the quality of the low version product rather than to lower it.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.101-121
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• 2006

This case study explores various marketing strategies of Grundfos Pumps Korea Inc. that has become a front-runner in the industrial pump market of Korea as the enterprise that got into the business later. Grundfos Group, a multinational company with its head office in Denmark, has acknowledged diversity of each country and has granted its subsidiary companies with discretionary power so that they can establish marketing strategies suitable for the market they were competing in. Grundfos Pumps Korea has been very successful in its localization and differentiation of marketing strategies. First, Grundfos Pumps Korea achieved the trust of their customers by its high quality and consistent pricing strategies and has expanded its market very successfully with continuous product innovation and new product ideas. Second, it increased its brand awareness and recognition by brand differentiation along with the product differentiation strategy, which is exceptional in industrial market. It has conducted creative marketing activities and strategies to build brand equity and successful customer relationship management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.4 s.163
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• pp.519-530
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• 2007

This study is an exploratory research on the brand architecture of Korean apparel enterprises and the differentiation strategy among in-house competing brands. For data analysis, secondary data was used. 20 apparel enterprises were used as the subjects. The results are as following. First, as a result of brand architecture composition, apparel enterprises used the strategy that initially paved the way launching several brands in a specific item category and after that diversified to other categories. Most enterprises used the multi-brand strategy operating plural brands in a same zoning. The terms for launching succeeding brands were about $1{\sim}5$ years. Second, as a result of analysing the cases which several brands competes within a same zoning, all the posterior brands had some differences from the prior ones. The most frequent differentiation factor was price. Concept, target age, and distribution channel followed. The order of the factors was somewhat different among the item categories. The differentiation strategy among in-house competing brands meant that the enterprises manage plural brands in a same zoning for the growth of whole market share instead of the direct competition among in-house brands. The results of this study can suggest a growth direction to the enterprises planning to launch new brands.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.57-67
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• 2006

One of challenging issues of market oriented manufacturing organization is product proliferation. However, increasing product variety not only incurs additional direct and indirect production cost, but also aggravates production system performance such as inventory level, customer lead time and fill rate. Recently, as one of the most beneficial strategic choices to menage the risks associateed with product variety and uncertain sales, special attention is focused on the product/process redesign to delayed product differentiation. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to demonstrate the existence of an optimal level of product differentiation, which can be used to provide theoretical basis in establishing market oriented SCM strategy.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.23-34
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• 2015

Purpose - Currently, the foreign trade environment in China has shifted to a very different system. Korean enterprises have been forced to compete with Chinese enterprises in today's world market owing to the economic growth and technical improvement in China. Research design, data, and methodology - The author visited Korean export enterprises in Shanghai from January 5 to 12, 2014 to implement a questionnaire survey and conduct in-depth interviews with the local enterprises. The author investigated the Shenyang area using e-mail communication. For the questionnaire, one copy of the questionnaire was given to each business and to a staff member for each of the products when a company sold multiple products. Results - Selling cost advantage, efficiency of economic scale, and product differentiation had the most influence on Korean enterprises' export strategy to China. Additionally, entry barrier, product differentiation, and concentration all had an influence on Korean enterprise export strategy to China as well. Conclusion - Korean enterprises developed strategies for price priority, economies of scale, and product differentiation based on changes in the competitive structure in the Chinese market.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2018

The proliferation of information technologies made it possible to produce information products of different versions at much lower cost comparing to traditional physical products. Thus it is common for information product manufacturers to consider vertically differentiated product line for more profit through improved market coverage. Another salient characteristic of most information product is network externality. Existing researches dealing with vertical differentiation and network externality usually assumed oligopolistic market where vertically differentiated products are provided by competing companies, respectively. Moreover, they analyzed the essentially dynamic characteristic of network externality statically. In this study, different from the previous researches, the vertical differentiation strategy of a monopolistic company under network externality is dynamically analyzed. We used a two-period model to accommodate the dynamic feature of network externality. Based on the two-period model, the profit maximizing solutions are analyzed. The results showed that a monopolistic company has no incentive to differentiate products vertically when the network externality is absent. On the contrary, when the network externality exists, the monopolistic company can derive more profit by vertically differentiating the product line. It is also shown that, for more profit, the monopolistic company should keep the quality difference between the high quality product and the low quality product as greater as possible.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.9 no.spc3
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• pp.225-234
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• 2006

Car Navigation market is rapidly emerging in Korea recently. And it adds the multiple functions which are various traffic and travel information, DMB(Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) TV, game, movie and music. It is evolving as a killer application device of Car Infotainment (Information & Entertainment). On the other hand, the technical barrier which is pushing into the market is low and the competition is intense in process of time. In the market situation, the design differentiation is embossed with important element. In this case study, focused on inkel which specialized in Audio/Video launching into the Car Navigation market with the new brand 'WideTouch', we tried to provide successful product design strategy based on proactive research on the market for the design differentiation through the target segmentation of the new generation, middle-aged and a woman consumer.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.18
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• pp.115-132
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• 2006

The main findings of this study are summarized as follows; 1) For medium-small size Family Restaurant(FR) in the FR market, nowadays, survival is the key issue. If the medium-small size FR is to survive and continue to grow under this competitive environment, it must pursued the efficiency of management with niche marketing strategy. 2) This study is to describe the niche marketing strategy for medium-small size FR. Strategic niche marketing must be based on the target market, market positioning and strategic marketing mix. 3) Medium-small size FR needs to develop the marketing mix factors for the niche marketing strategy. It needs to make customers understand what the FR differs from current and potential competitors. Essentially the medium-small size FR must take a competitive advantage. Hence it will appeal to a substantial number of the segments customers. 4) In using niche marketing strategy, a medium-small size FR must establish the objectives, select the tools, develop the decisions on product differentiation, market segmentation and positioning under various strategic niche marketing factors 5) By carrying out the niche marketing strategy on the target market, customer's desire can be further fulfilled. When management efficiency is improved, we can better cope with changing environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.8
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• pp.109-122
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• 2016

This study is to explore the ways to increase the export performance of start-up companies, as opportunities are rising along with more companies entering the global market. Thus the study analyzed the factors affecting export performance of the start-up company by mainly looking at the international marketing capabilities of enterprises type of marketing strategy and internal environmental capabilities. The following were derived as factors for marketing 4P strategy: innovation of product, flexibility of export price, differentiation of distribution channels, diversity of promotional activities, and positive-ness of promotion. For internal capabilities of enterprises, innovation of CEO, initiative of CEO, risk susceptibility of CEO, information power of export market, and information power of competitor were derived as factors. Two types of performances were considered for export performance, financial and non-financial. Among innovation of product and risk susceptibility of CEO the non-financial performance of export performance, and only differentiation of distribution channels of marketing 4p strategy the financial performance. It showed that since performance was different depending on the entrepreneurship of the CEO, only innovative products differentiated from small and medium enterprises. risk susceptibility of CEO increased export outlook by corporate acknowledgment and image, creation of potential customers, and financial performance affected only differentiation in distribution channel rather than entrepreneurial spirit, information power, or organizational flexibility because of short business career and insufficient period enough to gain trust. Therefore, start-up companies need to improve their non-financial export performance by increasing innovation of product and risk susceptibility of the CEO. The companies need to widen the differentiation of distribution channels in the financial export performance.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2004

Customer satisfaction level is usually measured in terms of price, qualify, customization, after-sale-service, product variety etc. Each firm sets up a distinctive production/marketing strategy to gain competitive advantage by Prioritizing the customer satisfaction measures. The market differentiation strategy directly results in supply chain performance such as lead time, inventory, customer fill rate and market share. Product proliferation desirable in customization sense often conflicts the economies of scale effect in production side. This paper focuses the relationship between product variety and market share. Specifically, we investigate how introduction of new product affects the current market share, i.e., formation of customer preference and provide some insight into the optimal range of product variety.