• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
• /
• v.15 no.1 s.66
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to identify the SPA(Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) characteristics and product supply process of Korean casual apparel brands. The research was conducted by questionnaire surveys to 63 casual apparel brands. SPA characteristics of each brand were measured with four SPA characteristic indices: short product supply cycle, spacious retail floor, single brand retail store, and low product price compared to the quality of the product. The 63 apparel brands were grouped by SPA index score. The brands belonged to group H had high index score and brands in group L had low index score. The results of this study showed that the most of the casual apparel brands' products were sold at department stores, especially the brands belonged to group L greatly depended on department stores. Few apparel brands have spacious retail floor. The retail product price of the brands belonged to group H was low price while the product price of the brands belonged to group L was in the medium-high price. The supply time of the new products was short in general. The most brands supplied new styles to the retail floor within 1 to 3 weeks. The information technology was heavily used. The brands belonged to group H highly used information technology including bar codes system, pas data analysis, and inventory control system. The current style trends were analyzed with street fashion and feedback from the shop managers.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.35-51
• /
• 2010

This study aims at providing data for establishing a marketing strategy which can enhance the competitiveness of Korea domestic SPA(Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel) Brands by suggesting countermeasure strategy through the observation and analysis for SPA Brands, under the current circumstance in which the systematic and scholastic discussion for the matter, is lack, despite the diastrophism in fashion industry is prospected according to the rapid growth of Global SPA Brands. For this purpose, the characteristic and current status of Global SPA Brands is examined, and the main cause of growth is analyzed by approaching to their marketing characteristic, in this study. In relation with this situation, this study suggests the provisions as below, which are drawn from the analysis on Global SPA Brands' marketing strategy, so that Korea domestic SPA Brands could achieve successive performance under fierce competition. First, to be a competitive SPA Brands a business should be able to supply products with frequent product turnover by an interval level of one week or so, the existent product planning by seasons, as a business obtains various swift informations on consumers' demand with R&D center foundation. Secondly, SPA Brands should establish a strategy that a business can create high net profit by inventory management which enables lowering inventory ratio remarkably, and a strategy for innovative product supply by small quantity batch production, along with founding a high technological logistics system. Third, SPA Brands should establish a strategy for primary cost reduction by overseas dispersed outsourcing in order to enable diverse product development and rational price setting. Fourth, fashion marketers should establish also a strategy for communication by which brand image can be delivered effectively, by firming the brand identity and by informing product characteristic and customer service totally, with the method of VMD and flagship store. Additionary, fashion marketers also should establish a strategy by developing mobile application which can provide brand image and diverse other fashion related information.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.405-420
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study is to identify the differences between clothing size satisfaction and clothing sizing systems of Korean and foreign SPA (specialty retailer of private label apparel) brands according to height group, and provide foundation material that can be used to establish product strategy from the perspective of Korean SPA brand clothing sizes in order to secure competitiveness in the international market. Satisfaction of tall women in their twenties with the clothing sizes of SPA brands was researched, and t-test was conducted to examine differences between clothing size satisfaction of Korean and foreign SPA brands between the two height groups. Then, differences in the size minimum and maximum values, size ranges, size intervals and size numbers between clothing sizing systems of Korean and foreign SPA brands were researched and comparatively analyzed. Existing clothing sizes need to make improvements considering the lengths and shoulder width of tall consumers. And Korean SPA brands need to diversify the range and number of sizes in the clothing sizing system, and set a separate tall-size group, or apply the relationship between vertical and horizontal sizes of clothing to establish a clothing sizing system. A product strategy that applies the results of this study will solve the clothing size dissatisfaction of tall female consumers and stimulate sales of Korean SPA brand clothing products. The study has value in that it extracted realistic problems by researching clothing sizing systems of products that are actually sold.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.239-248
• /
• 2010

This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.85-90
• /
• 2015

Purpose - Global trends play a part to change the structure of the fashion industry. In particular, companies attempting to conduct innovative marketing centering on such products as SPA brands are growing into global companies. SPA stands for "Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel", meaning its activities are fully integrated from manufacturing through sales, including material procurement design, product, distribution, inventory management, and final sales. For this reason, more understanding of individual corporate profitability is very sensitive to consumer's attitudinal changes. The effects that corporate marketing activities on customer lifetime value through brand attitude were analyzed based on a structural equation model. Rust suggested value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity as customer equity driver. The study examines Chinese consumer because China is the fastest growing fashion market in the world. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey targeted Chinese college student age 20s. Only respondents who had purchased SPA brands in the past year were included for this research. A total of 303, except for 47 missing data of 350 distributed questionnaires were included in this research. The questionnaire is consists of six part to measure value, brand, relationship equity, attitude toward brand, purchase intention and demographic characteristics. This research conducted exploratory factor analysis and reliability test. To verify research hypotheses, structural equation model test was conducted. As for customer equity, diversified models in consideration of the scope of acquisition data, a method of collection of data, influencing factor, and predictability were suggested based on a net present value model. However, the history of customer equity study is relatively short, and sufficient empirical analyses have not been conducted, so more integrated analysis is required. In this study, the concept of driver suggested by Rust was applied to figure out the effects that consumer's attitude has on customer equity. The customer equity driver suggested by them consists of brand equity, value equity, and relationship equity. Results - This study reveals that value equity and brand equity have a positive influence on relationship equity. And, relationship equity has a positive influence on purchase intention through brand attitude. However, value equity and brand equity do not influence on brand attitude. Conclusion - The results of this research generated following implications. First, SPA brands need to take advantage of their value equity such as perceived low price and up-to-date fashion style to attract Chinese young consumer. Second, strong brand equity promises dominants position in the competitive market. As Chinese fashion market grows rapidly, SPA brands can consider branding strategy such as flagship store and celebrity marketing enhancing brand image. Third, the core concept of customer equity strategy is to maintain a relationship with their expecting and existing customers. The relationship equity is built by brand equity and value equity. When SPA brands serves product and service meet with individual customers, customers have intimacy to the brands.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.220-232
• /
• 2013

Ever-evolving diverse communication tools bring numerous changes and improvements into the lives of humans. It is extremely important to provide visual information when communicating with consumers in the commercial arena because humans acquire over eighty percent of the information around them through sense of sight. One cannot compete with just sheer quality in today's world. Therefore, the applications of digital technology in the visual merchandising became crucial, for it can dramatically improve the market value. Among these applications is digital signage, a new media for esthetic experience. I strongly believe that this would be a new marketing tool for the brand's distinctive and unique publicity. This research has been conducted in order to find out how the fast-growing digital signage, defined by the contents, has become not just a mere digital video clip but an esthetic merchandising tool that can produce various effective marketing strategies; and to discover the characteristics that this application has brought out in the visual merchandising field of fashion stores' global SPA brands. Based on the market case study, analyses have been made for the digital signage types and strategies regarding the visual merchandising expressive elements and for the effects the digital signage application will have on publicity. According to the results, the digital signage has proven to be informative, diversely applicable and contributes greatly to the increase in sales and to the improvement of company and brand image. Thus, it is much more than just a media tool for advertisement.