• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.111-133
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• 2010

Marketing financial services used to be easier. Today, the competition in financial services is fierce. Not only has the competition become more intense, financial services have also changed structurally. In an environment with various customer needs and severe competitions, the marketing in financial services industry is getting more difficult and more important than before. However, there are still not enough studies on financial services marketing in Korea whereas lots of research papers have been published frequently in some international journals. The purpose of this paper is (1)to review the literature on financial services marketing, (2)to investigate current marketing activities based on in-depth interview with financial marketing managers in Korea, and (3)to suggest some implications for future research on the financial services marketing. Financial products are not consumer products. In fact, they are not products at all in the way product marketing is usually described. Nor are they altogether like services. The financial industry operates in a unique way, and its marketing tasks are correspondingly complex. However, the literature review shows that there has been a lack of basic studies which dealt with inherent characteristics of financial services marketing compared to the research on marketing in other industries. Many studies in domestic marketing journals have so far focused only on the general customer behaviors and the special issues in some financial industries. However, for more effective financial services marketing, we have to answer following questions. Is there any difference between financial service marketing and consumer packaged goods marketing? What are the differences between the financial services marketing and other services marketing such as education and health services? Are there different ways of marketing among banks, securities firms, insurance firms, and credit card companies? In other words, we need more detailed research as well as basic studies about the financial services marketing. For example, we need concrete definitions of financial services marketing, bank marketing, securities firm marketing, and etc. It is also required to compare the characteristics of each marketing within the financial services industry. The products sold in each market have different characteristics such as duration and degree of risk-taking. It means that there are sub-categories in financial services marketing. We have to consider them in the future research on the financial services marketing. It is also necessary to study customer decision making process in the financial markets. There have been little research on how customers search and process information, compare alternatives, make final decision, and repeat their choices. Because financial services have some unique characteristics, we need different understandings in the customer behaviors compared to the behaviors in other service markets. And also considering the rapid growth in financial markets and upcoming severe competition between domestic and global financial companies, it is time to start more systematic and detailed research on financial services marketing in Korea. In the second part of this paper, I analyzed the results of in-depth interview with 20 marketing managers of financial services companies in Korea. As a result, I found that the role of marketing departments in Korean financial companies are mainly focused on the short-term activities such as sales support, promotion, and CRM data analysis although the size and history of marketing departments to some extent show a sign of maturity. Most companies established official marketing departments before 2001. Average number of employees in a marketing department is about 58. However, marketing managers in eight companies(40% of the sample) still think that the purpose of marketing is only to support and manage general sales activities. It shows that some companies have sales-oriented concept rather than marketing-oriented concept. I also found three key words which marketing managers think importantly in financial services markets. They are (1)Trust in customer relationship, (2)Brand differentiation, and (3)Rapid response to customer needs. 50% of the sample support that "Trust" is the most important key word in the financial services marketing. It is interesting that 80% of banks and securities companies think that "Trust" is the most important thing, whereas managers in credit card companies consider "Rapid response to customer needs" as the most important key word in their market. In addition, there are different problems recognition of marketing managers depending on the types of financial industries they belong to. For example, in the case of banks and insurance companies, marketing managers consider "a lack of communication with other departments" as the most serious problem. On the other hand, in the case of securities firms, "a lack of utilization of customer data" is the most serious problem. These results imply that there are different important factors for the customer satisfaction depending on the types of financial industries, and managers have to consider them when marketing financial products in more effective ways. For example, It will be necessary for marketing managers to study different important factors which affect customer satisfaction, repeat purchase, degree of risk-taking, and possibility of cross-selling according to the types of financial industries. I also suggested six hypothetical propositions for the future research.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2002

It's not easy to renew old brand of over 50 years history to the tastes of new consumer of our time. Most of national brands that has a history of some 20 years in Korea have strove for continuation and growth of brand to no avails, which can be taken as a good example of current situation. For instance, C company, one of the National brand of US which has a history of 51 years, has made its position secure as a fashion group and based itself on a sound foundation by establishing new marketing strategy and completing successful brand renewal in the process of strategic M&A with Italian company. Those successful marketing strategies are as follows. 1) they regarded both market and consumer oriented marketing activity as company's highest priority strategy and put great emphasis upon concentration on target market and reestablishment of brand image of business casual wear. 2) Setting up and operating planning team composed of merchandizer alone in Milano, they set the direction of plan on the basis of concentrated research on potential item in market according to thorough market research done by buying office in Korea, branch office in Hong Kong and buyer in US prior to blueprint planning for season. 3) Great emphasis was placed on business which focused on intensive presentation of basic key item for apparel career women who are main consumer group in the midium-low prices market in US and on supplementation of size and color. they named this line 'collectibles' and helped their customer develop their own clothes plan without worrying about the change of color and fabric by supporting same fabric and color throughout the year and enabled them to add variation easily by supplementing new trend item. 4) Company set black as a main color that lots of apparel career women find easy to care and to express their own image and presented them with pebble which belongs to navy and beige and added fashion color such as wine and brown etc as season goes by. They constructed basic line in order for their customers to coordinate purchased item with new one or to add them to present collection, and to achieve efficient sale by setting up strategy which allows this cross coordination and changing pattern occasionally. 5) Though basic jacket for 99$, short slim skirt for 49$ are products within midium-low prices range, in the material planning stage aiming at production of item that has both resonable function appealing to consumer and is fashionable, synthetic material had to be used as a main source due to price competitiveness. Despite this situation, considering comfortable sense of fit and refined drape of silhouette that has no sign of cheap material, whole collectible line was divided into two items, which contributed to reduction of cost. In case of material that is composed of triacetate and polyester in 70 to 30 ratio, was used up to 4 million yard, which allowed drastic curtailment of cost accompanied by concentration. In case of 'collectibles' line, using Korean material mainly, C company chose to have their product sewed in Southeast Asian countries where transportation is well developed and both productivity and quality verified by operating global production system which aiming at cutdown of cost through outsourcing production from the country where labor cost is low and getting finished product. Polarization between present consumers telling us that consumers with the mind of middle classes in the past no longer exists between consumers who seek after only fine article of highest quality and wise consumers who are sensible enough to judge bubble on correlation between price and quality. To cope with this change in new consumer mind, apparel makes changing their policy so as to produce item that has reasonable quality and falls within affordable price range anywhere in the world. and they're striving to get out of difficult situation by operating global marketing strategy which stresses separation of planning, production and sale and sensibility of fashion shared worldwide. The marketing strategy of C company can be exemplified as a successful one.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.52
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• pp.119-135
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• 2011

Korea's trading volume is expected to surpass USD 1 trillion in 2011. Korean economy achieves this largely due to its dependence on export and enhanced technological capacity and product quality. Improved recognition of Korean enterprises in the global arena also helped. However, the largest reason behind theses could be found in exporters' ceaseless marketing endeavors and continued government supports. Today, more and more people become to rely on trade exhibitions to boost export effectively. Trade exhibitions are employed as a useful tool to attract buyers and enter a market. This is because such exhibitions' marketing effect and professional aspects. South Korean export relies on large conglomerates for most part. However, 95% of the country's entire industry are small and medium-sized companies. This means that SMEs' export has a huge impact on the national economy. Therefore, as a way to improve SME export and minimize their losses, we need to use trade exhibitions more actively. The overseas policy insures only promotional activities regarding foreign exhibition and fair (including international events held in Korea), foreign distributor, shopping mall, home shopping, etc. and does not include air fare, traffic cost in the local place, accommodation cost and dining expenditures as costs to be excluded mentioned above. It is not easy for them to take part in events abroad if they have to pay for such expenses. If full financial support is difficult, the Korea trade insurance corporation still may give a certain level of aid for successful exporters to engage in marketing activities abroad more actively and further stimulate SMEs' export.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.10
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• pp.45-70
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to obtain more insight into the explanation and prognosis of consumer behavior in real and virtual museums. The analysis focuses on the influence of the museum environment on the museum patrons (rather than on the influence of the art objects). On the basis of the emotional approach to environmental psychology by Mehrabian and Russell (1974), a behavior model has been developed for museums. The model, which is based on the emotional variables pleasure, arousal and dominance (PAD), is also enhanced by cognitive variabies (learning attractiveness, education standard and information demand). The enhancement of the classical model was necessary because cognitive variables play a major role in cultural institutions such as museums: One important objective of museums is the communication of cultural knowledge to visitors. The model is tested empirically using structural equation modeling. 301 visitors were interviewed individually. Two different museum environments were represented using visual stimuli. The theoretical model for museums can be proved empirically. The degree to which the model fits the empirical data was extensively tested. The model showed high compatibility with the data and could be accepted. The study proves that a model can be developed, which explains visitor behavior in museums. The model shows museum designers how museums should be designed to be both emotionally appealing and a learning environment. Based on empirical studies in virtual stores on the Internet, it is discussed whether the research findings in these environments may be applied to virtual museum environments. In order to create an emotionally appealing virtual museum, it is recommended that one uses a 3-dimensional representation to offer various possibilities for interaction and to create a multi-sensual environment that appears highly realistic.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.12
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• pp.121-134
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• 2003

Weather marketing is firms' effort to incorporate changes of diverse weather factors into marketing planning and activities. The concept has already been applied in many products with mostly seasonal variation. However researches in this area have been limited only in practical areas and has not been supported by scientifIc approaches. Here, we investigated the effect of diverse weather factors like temperature, rain and wind on product sales based on empirical data and scientifIc methodology. For this, we selected the fashion clothing items in department stores. We tried to fInd the relationship between daily sales of clothing items and daily whether factors. Results showed that there is a meaningful relation between the two factors.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.67-92
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• 2005

This study investigates the influence of the mother brand's product types on the consumers' brand evaluations on consistent and inconsistent brand extensions. The study shows that brand extensions consistent with the mother brand's product type have better brand evaluations than inconsistent brand extensions. The study also shows that brand extensions consistent with utilitarian mother products are much more important than consistent brand extensions with hedonic mother brands. Furthermore, results show that the types of consumer involvement influence the consumers' brand evaluations by interacting with types of mother brands and consistency of brand extensions.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2006

In this research, we develope a procedure for detecting a random non-stationarity to the individual's purchasing rate in a stationary NED model. On this purpose, we derive the likelihood ratio statistic for a testing null and alternative hypotheses defined as whether there is no significant structural change in a stationary NED model or any. Where the structural change comes from a random non-stationarity(marketing mix activities or seasonality, for example) to the individual's purchasing rate. We also apply the developed method to a panel data for a frequently purchased good. This research could be a solution to include the non-stationarity in a stationary NED model. We also expect that the developed model could give a signal for an early detection of significant changes in marketing environment, and a mean for a measurement of the effects of marketing mix activities.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-168
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of brand personality on the choice of tour site. For this purpose, Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists visiting Jeju-Ireland were sampled and asked to evaluate the personality dimensions and attributes of six major tour sites in Asia. Factor analysis is applied to 42 personality scales of Aaker and 5 personality dimensions are extracted. Then, Multinomial Logit model is applied to estimate the relative impact of personality dimensions and attributes on the choice of tour sites. Results suggest useful implications. The personality of tour sites has meaningful influence on choice of tour sites, in some cases more important than tour site attributes. Among 5 dimensions of personality, sincerity and excitement are found to be important dimensions in the choice process of tour site. Sophistication of the site, expressed as glamorous, charming, handsomeness, uniqueness, and smooth, is also found to be important in determining intention to visit in the future.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.E4
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• pp.163-168
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• 2001

Estimating the emission rate of VOCs from a gasoline industry at national level can be a challenging take even though the estimation is mean-based. However, using the procedures in the US EPA AP-42 guidelines, it is possible to approximate the mean industry emission rate once enough data are available. However, this estimate can be misled in the sense that there exist many stochastic factors in the EPA\\`s estimation procedures and also throughout the marketing channels of gasoline industry. Addressing the stochasticity problem in EPA\\`s procedure is hard to tackle because the detailed data needed to execute the estimation are not usually available even from refiners. Instead, this research tries to stay focused on the second type of stochasticity issue, raised from the mean0based metrological and marketing practice data collected from the 4 major refiners. To do so emission raters from each marketing channels (8 marketing points by 3 transportation types and by storage facilities of 4 refiners) are estimated monthly, following AP-42 procedures and using Tank 4.0. Once these estimates are acquired, the distribution of VOC emission rate for each marketing channel of all 4 refiners is estimated through simulation method using @Risk. The mean-based emission rates are weighted by company quantities to estimate the emission rate from the whole gasoline industry. Simple economic implication is provided, based on the result. This study found that, on the mean-bases, about 0.66% of gasoline marketed are evaporated into air. Considering the stochasticity in the estimation, about 90% of simulation results fell into the range of 0.65 to 0.68%. For 90% chance, the estimated economic loss is $54.65 million to $57.17 million, not counting the cost caused by air quality degradation and associated health impact.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.209-226
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze and find out key success factors and marketing strategies of Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The major success factors of Bumrungrad Hospital are as follows; First, Bumrungrad Hospital had professional medical team and board of directors who had the international career. Second, Bumrungrad was supported by Thai government and they were in a cooperative relationship with each other for the development of the medical industry. Third, Bumrungrad appropriately handled the internal and external changes including Asia Financial Crises in 1997 and others. Fourth, Bumrungrad diversified and broaden its business field such as global medical investing and management, medical technology, anti-age medicine and wellness. Marketing strategies of Bumrungrad analyzed are the following four factors. First, Bumrungrad focused on the quality of services by employing professional medical staffs, who have the international certification, and by constructing IT system for hospital management. Second, Bumrungrad has maintained an equalized price policy to attract the customers bothin the domestic and foreign markets. The cost for care has appealed the foreign customers for its comparatively low price, but it focused mainly on the upper middle class in Thailand. Third, it established, managed, and consulted hospitals in the foreign countries including the Philippines and the Arab Emirates. Fourth, it adopted differentiated promotion strategies suitable for the special needs of domestic and foreign customers, and put emphasis on the buzz marketing.