• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.15
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• pp.253-265
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• 1990

This article was written with two purposes in mind. The first purpose was to introduce clothing and textile community who may not be familiar with Multidimensional Scaling(MDS) with usefulness of the new technique in the area of fashion merchandising. The second purpose was to present the results of an empirical study on brand image utilizing MDS and its related technique as the main analysis tools. The main objective of the empirical study was to gain a better understanding of consumer's brand image by relating differences in perception and attributes of clothing in women's ready-to wear market. For this empirical study, the ten brands and the fifteen attributes of clothing were chosen. The questionnaire consisting of questions asking about the similarity and attributes of clothing between selected brands was administrated to 185 career women during summer in 1989. Data were analyzed cluster analysis, and KYST and PROFIT in MDS program. The results were as follows: 1. The similarities data for the ten selected brand by using KYST program of MDS drawed the perceptual map. The results of this perceptual map showed that the selected brand were grouped into three clusters. 2. In order to get a somewhat objective view of which attributes consumers are attributing to each brand, PROFIT program was used. As a result, it was revealed that assortment depth / width, price, youth-oriented style, possibility of various social activity were significant attributes in consumer's brand choice rather than physical attributes of clothing such as quality or durability. This may imply that consumer orientation in rapidly changing environments of women's apparel market was its basic idea, and the focus of all fashion merchandising activities was put on need's and the response of consumer group who are the object of the target. Implicating for future research as well as for strategy of brand positioning were also suggested.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.325-338
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• 2008

This study aims to characterize the effect of different combinations of chromatic-achromatic colors and area-ratio of stripe necktie, and gender on the image of male wearer. The experimental materials developed for this study are a set of stimuli and response scales. The stimuli consist of 84 color pictures manipulated with every combination of 12 different colors and 7 different area-ratio. The 7-point scale designed for visual evaluation of image formation included 26 bipolar adjectives. The subjects were 2016 undergraduate students in Gyeongnam, Seoul, Busan, and Daegu areas. The results of this study were as follows.; The analyses of images of male wearer in terms of combinations of chromatic-achromatic colors and area-ratio of oblique stripe necktie reveal that the concerned factors are of five characteristic dimensions of youth-activity, ability, attractiveness, appeal, and warmness. In addition, it has been found that individual images of male wearer are affected by observer's gender as well as combinations of chromatic-achromatic colors and area-ratio of stripe neckties and that those images vary with every combination of each factor. The study results are highly expected to be used as useful sources in developing necktie designs.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.75-85
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• 2003

This study is aimed at sowing two purposes. The first is to analyze the real condition and demand of profession development from the human ecology majors. The second is to develop necessary methods in which ordinary people can collect necessary information about family life. Related questionnaire was distributed to 147 the human ecology majors, and analysis was performed on the several web sites providing with information related to family life. Web sites such as“www.yahoo.com”and“www.naver.com”were included in the analysis. Questionnaire consisted of questions about whether the students majoring in the human ecology were familiar with the information-related terms or futuristics-related books, and whether they have ever taken the related courses in college. The results of analysis are as follows: First, analysis shows that the present level of the human ecology majors' information orientation and networking experiences is extremely low. Secondly, according to the analysis on whether they have optimistic or pessimistic attitude toward the contemporay informatized society, the human ecology majors have rather optimistic attitude in group while having pessimistic one individually. As to their response to the question about whether informatized society is connected with industrial society or not, the human ecology majors are divided in neatly equal ratio. Thirdly, analysis of the human ecology majors' understanding of profession relevant to their major indicates that they have high level of perception and information about the professions of fashion designing, traditional garment designing, nutrition counselling or consumer counselling. On the other hand, they are not familiar with the information about professions such as professional QR Programming, eating habit-related information business and family welfare. Lastly, level of web sites supplying information about family life is fragmentary. Especially, probe into the directories providing with necessary information of family life subdivided into special areal of life shows that they lack systematic organization making more convenient consumer use.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.291-301
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• 2010

Today Korean clothing companies are experiencing difficulties in the global market due to unfavorable business conditions including poor production environments, labor shortage, rising costs, the further opening of the domestic distribution market, and increased competition among them. As a result, this has caused many of Korean clothing companies to transfer their production bases abroad in search of relatively inexpensive labor force, instead of using domestic plants. This study attempted to examine how Korean clothing companies perceive production environments and labor standards with regard to their offshore outsourcing. In such an attempt, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 brand-name clothing firms. Those interviewed firms were the brands for the domestic or foreign market that were found to produce more than 200,000 pieces of clothing per year, and also the group of interviewees included some promotion service providers. The key findings from this study are as follows: First, a large number of the interviewed clothing companies were found to manage their foreign contract manufacturers by "visiting their factories regularly on a seasonal basis" or "stationing their personnel in factory for management purposes." Second, in relation to quality control in their foreign manufacturers, the most frequent response was to "have personnel stationed in those manufacturers." A smaller number of the clothing companies answered that they had "engaged their production management teams in quality control from time to time," or "used their inspectors to inspect products." Third, when asked about labor standards in foreign contract manufacturers, the largest number of the clothing companies responded, "we apply our own standards." The results of this study suggest that most of domestic clothing companies still use offshore sourcing just as a means of reducing their initial labor costs. However, in the continuously changing environment of the global clothing industry, clothing businesses are required to escape from the early phases of their manufacturing environments and set up more globalized standards.