• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.129-143
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to classify fashion brand app types through current fashion brand app releases. To this end, this study used Internet Web, articles, newspapers, and existing studies on brand applications as well as the data that were analyzed after downloading the relevant brand app. Firstly, this study aimed to analyze rapidly growing smartphone market and brand app market situations and look into brand app's own characteristics from the corporate marketing perspective. In addition, the study divided the types into a basic information type and an additional information type by analyzing functions of 30 fashion brand apps. As the result, the basic information type contains product info, store info, fashion info, and coordination info. The additional information type contains entertainment, hobbies, life info, mutual experiences, and sharing services. According to the divided fashion brand app types, the goals of companies also can be divided as three. Firstly, the aim is to expand sales, secondly to improve brand awareness, and lastly to build customer relationship. Consequently, companies will have to select brand app types suitable for their goals and provide to consumers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.136-151
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• 2014

This study systematically analyzed types of fashion brand application focusing on accounts created in Korea. While referring to 'Chanel' which has developed a fashion brand app for the first time in August of 2008, not only for App store by Apple Inc. of the greatest market share but also for Android market, the one and only competitor of App store, the study examined cases of fashion brand app in Korea and foreign countries which have been in service till August of 2013 since the year of 2008. To achieve the research goal, the study conducted a literature research and a case review, categorizing the app by their distinctive functions which were Basic Information, SNS, AR, LBS, Entertainment, Mobile Shopping and Live Streaming. As for the first function, Basic Information, it was considered to provide information on a brand such as prices, sizes and colors of products which should be the most fundamental function of a fashion brand. The function would include look book, catalogues, photographs and others of products, helping users of the app with their understanding on images and concepts of the brand. Second, SNS function was considered useful for its mobility and communication and with the help of theirs, the users share fashion information with each other. Third, AR function as in a filed of virtual reality would edit virtual objects to look real in an actual environment. This would eventually offer the users a chance to try for clothes virtually. The fourth function, LBS, would work with GPS to find a store closest from a present location. This would be a help when the users try to find stores holding promotion events or trails while hiking in mountains. The fifth Entertainment function would include all sorts of games and chances for the users to listen to music and keep fashion diaries. The sixth function, Mobile Shopping, would help the users purchase items online via the app as they would not visit a store in person. The seventh function, Live Streaming, would give the users chances to actually see fashion collections in real time, held all over the world in every season. Because of this function, not only fashion experts but also regular people have become able to enjoy the fashion shows. The distinctive characteristics of the fashion brand application discussed in the study will be a useful reference when any relevant fields try to design other new fashion brand application.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.287-300
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to find typology of fashion-related mobile applications through exploratory investigation and to investigate differences in Korea and U.S. App stores. And then, through the qualitative evaluation about fashion mobile applications, this study proposes fashion mobile application's design and contents which can be preferred by users. By conducting keyword search in each store, 122 Korean applications and 150 US applications were analyzed. Empirical findings revealed that there were seven major types of fashion mobile applications: brand, magazine, information, SNS, game, shopping and coordination. Information type applications took up the largest portion, and SNS and game type applications showed higher ranking among customers. There were more game Apps in US and more shopping Apps in Korean stores. More free Apps were found in Korean App stores, whereas relatively more paid Apps were found in US App stores especially in game, magazine and information type applications. And as a result of usability evaluation of fashion mobile application, users prefer SNS and information category application to shopping and brand category. Also users want continuous improvement and new contents for fashion mobile application.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.82-100
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• 2015

Mobile fashion apps present much opportunity for marketers to engage consumers, however not all apps provide enough functions for their targeted audience. This study aims to determine how mobile fashion apps can be used to build brand community with consumer engagement. Qualitative data on fashion mobile apps were collected from the Apple app store and Android market during the spring and summer of 2015. A total of 110 fashion mobile apps were collected;, 50 apps were identified as apparel brands that either manufacture or sell apparel to consumers, which we categorized as "brand" fashion apps, and the remaining 60 were categorized as "non-brand" fashion apps. The result of the study can be summarized as below. The 60 non-brand fashion apps were grouped into 5 app types: shopping, searching, sharing, organizational, and informational. The main functions are for informational use and shopping needs, since at least half (31 apps) are used for either retrieving information or for shopping. However, in contrast, social networking and location were infrequent and not commonly utilized by these apps. The most common type of non-brand fashion apps available were shopping apps;, many shopping apps enable users to shop from several different websites and save their items into one universal shopping cart so that they only check out once. Most of these apps are informational and help consumers make more informed decisions on purchases;, in addition many offer location services to help consumers find these items in store. While these apps perform several functions, they do not link to social media. The 50 brand apps were grouped into 5 brand types: athletic, casual, fast fashion, luxury, and retailer. These apps were also checked for attributes to determine their functionality. The result shows that the main functions of brand fashion apps are for information (82% of the 50 apps) as well as location searching (72% of 50 apps). Conversely, these apps do not offer any photo sharing, and very few have organizational or community functions. Fashion mobile apps and m-marketing elements: To build brand community, mobile apps can be designed to motivate consumer's engagement with brands. The motivations of fashion mobile apps are useful in developing fashion mobile apps. Entertainment motives can be fulfilled with multimedia attributes, functionality motives are satisfied with organizational and location-based features, information motives with informational service, socialization with community and social network, learning and intellectual stimulation from informational attributes, and trend following through photo sharing. The 8 key attributes of mobile apps can correspond to the 4 m-marketing elements (i.e., Informative content, multimedia, interactions, and product promotions) that are further intertwined with m-branding elements. App Attributes and M-Marketing aim to Build Brand Community;, the eight key attributes can impact on 4 m-branding elements, which further contribute to building brand community by affecting consumers' perceptions of brands preference and advocacy, and their likelihood to be loyal.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.330-345
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• 2023

This study aimed to categorize consumers using super app functional characteristics to identify demographic differences, and analyze shopping orientations by consumer type. This data can be used by fashion and beauty companies for product planning and marketing strategies. To categorize super app consumers, data were analyzed with SPSS v.26.0 software using frequency, factor, reliability K-mean cluster, and distributed analyses, one-way-ANOVAs, and Scheffe verification. Cross-analysis was conducted to correlate super app consumer types with demographic characteristics. One-way-ANOVAs and Scheffe verification were used to analyze the differences in shopping preferences between super app consumer groups. As a result of our analyses, super app consumers were classified into four types: the ration type, the low-use type, the multifunction type, and the habit type. There were statistically significant differences between these types in age, occupation, marital status, average monthly household income, and shopping impact factors. Five super app user shopping orientations were identified: brand pursuit, pleasure pursuit, trend pursuit, risk perception, and economic orientation. The differences in the preferred orientation between super app consumer types were found to be statistically significant. The majority of respondents were multifunction type consumers. This group used the super app most frequently and effectively. They also demonstrated the highest scores for all five of the shopping orientations. The classification of consumer types in this study will allow the fashion and beauty industries to utilize super apps for more targeted product design and marketing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.73-93
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• 2021

This study typifies fashion mobile plays in a digital environment and explores the experiential value created by them through a case study of a fashion brand mobile app. For the case analysis, mobile plays were divided into four types: intrinsic motivation/active participation, intrinsic motivation/passive participation, external motivation/active participation, and external motivation/passive participation, depending on the mobile players motivation and level of participation. Among the global fashion brand mobile apps released from 2009 to 2019, 16 cases suitable for the analytical framework were used for final analyses. The main results are as follows. First, mobile play value include characteristics such as networkability, immersion, hyper-spatiality, and super-temporality in addition to the attributes of a traditional play such as spontaneity, uncertainty, regularity, and playfulness. Second, the four types of mobile play provide participants with an experiential value such as creative value, emotional value, social value, and exploitative value. This study has academic implications in terms of introducing a new framework that can typify mobile plays and suggest practical implications for what experiential value fashion companies can give consumers through mobile app marketing.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.180-193
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• 2017

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 Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.656-674
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to reveal and compare the differences in the types and characteristics of purchase channel journeys of MZ generation consumers. In this study a survey was conducted on the purchase channel journey of 20 women in the MZ generation using the ethnographic method of in-depth interviews and observations. As a result, three purchase channel journeys were identified: mobile, multi-channel, and offline. These were variously subdivided according to the characteristics of the MZ generations. Gen Z's journey was categorized into types: fashion platform app, Youtube, multi-channel supplement, multi-channel non-planned store visit, offline loyalty store, and impulsive offline store. Gen M's journey was categorized as: an online community bond, portal site, online loyalty store, multi-channel brand involvement, multi-channel efficiency, a multi-channel conversion, offline efficiency and offline task. The difference in mobile journey between generations was found in the time and length of the purchase. Gen M recognized both online and offline search processes to be tiring, while Gen Z enjoyed the search process using the online path. In the offline journey Gen Z began with their own intention to purchase, while Gen M sometimes recognized that purchasing fashion products necessary for work was a cumbersome task.