• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 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
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.73-83
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• 2015

Purpose - Recently, many large retailers have been frequently purchasing commercial brands. Not only the quality of products purchased but also the brand images are of concern in this process. Based on this rising trend, commercial brands have become an important issue in the retail business world, along with increasing general interest as well. Thus, this study focuses on the factors affecting commercial brand images and clarifies the impact of the resulting factors as well. First, store images and familiarity, price sensitiveness, and knowledge are presented as the effect factors for commercial brands. Second, the study tries to clarify the effect of commercial brand image on the reliability and loyalty of customers. Research design, data, and methodology - To conduct the study methodology, 250 questionnaires were distributed to retailers who have used large discount stores located in Busan to purchase a commercial brand a total of 234 valid questionnaires were used in the final analysis. To verify the hypotheses, a structure equation formula using Amos 20.0 was calculated. First, prior to the verification of hypotheses, the reliability and feasibility of the questions were tested, and as a result, the value of Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7, thereby showing reliability. Additionally, for the verification of the feasibility of the questions, a confirmation factor analysis was implemented. Results - First, variances such as store images, familiarity, price sensitivity, and knowledge were presented as the factors of effect on commercial brands. As a result of the hypotheses verification, all the effect factors presented in this study were confirmed as important variables of commercial brand images. The hypotheses were drawn based on the studies relating to existing commercial brands, and thereby, a result similar to previous studies was produced. However, the effect factors of the commercial brand image presented in this study shaped a new study model based on the previous studies. Second, it was found that commercial brand images had positive effects on the reliability and loyalty of customers. This study presented reliability and loyalty as the resulting factors of commercial brand image because they are the most important factors in relation to customer behavior and variables that can suggest marketing points for distribution businesses. Conclusions - This study focused on clarifying the factors that are important effect factors for commercial brand images. As a result, all the hypotheses were confirmed in this study, indicating a meaningful result, and thereby suggesting many points that can be presented to distribution businesses. First, the proper strategies should be developed based on the hypothesis that a store image, the familiarity of customers with brands, and the price sensitiveness and knowledge level of customers have an important effect on the choice of commercial brands. Additionally, the formation of such favorable images will have positive effects not only in terms of customer trust in the commercial brands but also in terms of their loyalty.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.73-80
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• 2017

Purpose - Since Korean distribution market was opened, the domestic environment in department stores has been changed by the pattern of consumption and consumer need based on income classes. As multilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) accelerates opening markets, the scale of circulating capital has become bigger. Large-scale commercial facilities have developed quickly as a form of a large shopping center, thus, the matter of choice and securing market area became an important valuable in this trend. Moreover, multi-complex space has been proposed as the goal of successful business with promoting the public benefit. Research design, data, and methodology - This research studied consumer behavior using data about the life style and sales of consumers, not statistical data or survey as previous studies. This research tried to find the differentiation in complex cultural space with consumption behavior of department store. Results - As the structure of society and culture was getting diverse and complex, economic growth and development with such diversity and complexity improved consumers' quality of life. The changes of consumer life style are quite natural like human instinct. Department stores have activated retail business with the products of accumulated technology. Moreover, they have created the space of consumption and culture. Because of these social and environmental changes, department stores are being developed as Multi-functional spaces as well as sale places considering the strategies of department and the changes of consumers' purchasing behaviors. Conclusions - Urban culture complex is a landmark standing for the culture era of 21st century. It has provided an opportunity for consumers to enjoy culture, and has been an important factor to improve company images. Based on these roles and needs, expectancy effects are related with consumer preference and space preference, and the attitude toward companies. Moreover, the expectancy effects from those relationships are getting bigger and bigger. We should respect nature, a characteristic of Korean architecture, maintain visual continuity that harmonies with nature in the development of the complex space of the domestic department stores, and should take significance in the development of the complex cultural space in the direction of feeling the hierarchy of the space to obtain the visual pleasure with the artificial structure.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.5-15
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• 2014

Purpose - The method of TV home shopping is a kind of retail method that provides the viewer with information about products and, further, sells the products to consumers through the media of television. The domestic home-shopping industry has been expanding since 1995, and there are six companies in this arena as of 2012. In this study, we evaluate the management efficiency of TV home-shopping companies and provide suggestions for improving efficiency, using the DEA (data envelopment analysis) model. Hence, we expect to contribute to the progress of the companies' efficiency and the development of the TV home-shopping industry, where deepening competition is inevitable because it is experiencing the maturing market stage in its life cycle. Research design, data, and methodology - Efficiency is the ratio of the quantity of input to the quantity of output of a product or service. It is necessary to estimate aggregate inputs and aggregate outputs, which are calculated by applying a weighting to a number of input and output factors, to measure the efficiency. The DEA model is divided into the CCR model and the BCC model. The CCR model is a basic model that assumed constant returns to scale (CRS), and the BCC model extends the CCR model to accommodate technologies exhibiting variable returns to scale (VRS), and concerns only the technical efficiency without considering the efficiency of returns to scale. In this study, we consider six companies each year from 2008 to 2012 as a DMU (Decision Making Unit) and analyze the differences in efficiency for each company in each year. Furthermore, we evaluate the operating characteristics of TV home-shopping companies, using three models, in accordance with the overall performance, profitability, and marketability of the business. Results - The result of the analysis, using DEA models, shows that Hyundai Home Shopping (2009, 2010, 2011), GS Home Shopping (2011), NS Home Shopping (2011) and CJ O Shopping (2012) possess MPSS (most productive scale size), with a score 1.0 in CCR, BCC, and scale efficiency. Particularly, Hyundai Home Shopping is shown to be the most efficient in terms of overall business performance, marketability, and profitability. The overall efficiency of the home shopping industry has displayed an increasing trend since 2008, even though it decreased marginally in 2012; further, we can observe that home shopping companies operate with increasing efficiency with the passage of time. Conclusions - Home shopping companies have focused on market expansion rather than profits, as they displayed better efficiency in marketability than increase in profitability during the period 2008-2012. In addition, the main reason for the increased efficiency in the home shopping industry is the market expansion through the revenue increase of each home shopping company. This study can be used as a reference when home shopping companies attempt to devise future strategies, as it suggests efficiency benchmarks and development levels for each home shopping company.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.153-172
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• 2022

Online shopping has transformed and rapidly grown the entire market at the forefront of wholesale and retail services as an effective solution to issues such as digital transformation and social distancing policy (COVID-19 pandemic). Small business owners, who form the majority at the center of the online shopping industry, are constantly collecting policy changes and market trend information to overcome these problems and use them for marketing and other sales activities in order to overcome these problems and continue to grow. Objective and refined information that is more closely related to the business is also needed. Therefore, in this paper, through the collection and analysis of big data information, which is the core technology of digital transformation, key variables are set in product classification, sales trends, consumer preferences, and review information of online shopping malls, and a method of using them for competitor comparison analysis and business sustainability evaluation has been prepared and we would like to propose it as a service. If small and medium-sized businesses can benchmark competitors or excellent businesses based on big data and identify market trends and consumer tendencies, they will clearly recognize their level and position in business and voluntarily strive to secure higher competitiveness. In addition, if the sustainable growth of the online shopping mall operator can be confirmed as an indicator, more efficient policy establishment and risk management can be expected because it has an improved measurement method.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.137-164
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• 2011

In the past, retailers secured customer loyalty by offering convenient locations, unique assortments of goods, better services than competitors, and good credit policy. All this has changed. Goods assortments among stores have become more alike as national-brand manufacturers place their goods in more and more retail stores. Service differentiation also has eroded. Many department stores have trimmed services, and many discount stores have increased theirs. Customers have become smarter shoppers. They don't pay more for identical brands, especially when service differences have diminished. In the face of increased competition from discount storess and specialty stores, department stores are waging a comeback war. Growth of intertype competition, competition between store-based and non-store-based retailing and growing investment in technology are changing the way consumers shop and retailers sell. Different types of stores-discount stores, catalog showrooms, department stores-all compete for the same consumers by carrying the same type of merchandise. The biggest winners are retailers that have helped shoppers to be economically cautious, simplified their increasingly busy and complicated lives, and provided an emotional connection. The growth of e-retailers has forced traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to respond. Basically brick-and-mortar retailers utilize their natural advantages, such as products that shoppers can actually see, touch, and test, real-life customer service, and no delivery lag time for small-sized purchases. They also provide a shopping experience as a strong differentiator. They are adopting practices as calling each shopper a "guest". The store atmosphere should match the basic motivations of the shopper. If target consumers are more likely to be in a task-oriented and functional mindset, then a simpler, more restrained in-store environment may be better. Consistent with this reasoning, some retailers of experiential products are creating in-store entertainment to attract customers who want fun and excitement. The retail experience must deliver value to turn a one-time visitor into a loyal customer. Retailers need a tool that measures the full range of components that define experience-based value. This study uses an experiential value scale(EVS) developed by Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001) which reflects the benefits derived from perceptions of playfulness, aesthetics, customer "return on investment" and service excellence. EVS is useful to predict differences in shopping preferences and patronage behavior of customers. EVS consists of items measuring efficiency, economic value, visual appeal, entertainment value, service excellence, escapism, and intrinsic enjoyment, which are subscales of experiencial value. Efficiency, economic value, service excellence are linked to the utilitarian shopping value. And visual appeal, entertainment value, escapism and intrinsic enjoyment are linked to hedonic shopping value. It has been found that consumers value hedonic experiences activated from escapism and attractiveness of shopping environment as much as the product quality, price, and the convenient location. As a result, many department stores, discount stores, and other retailers are introducing differential marketing strategy based on emotional/hedonic values. Many researches suggest that consumers go shopping not only for buying products but also for various shopping experiences. In other words, they seek the practical, rational value as well as social, recreational values in the shopping process(Babin et al, 1994; Bloch et al, 1994). Retailers may enhance buyer's loyalty to store by providing excellent emotional/hedonic value such as the excitement from shopping, not just the practical value of buying good products efficiently. We investigate the effect of perceived shopping values on the emotional experience and store loyalty based on the EVS(Experiential Value Scales) developed by Holbrook(1994), Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon(2001). This study assumes that the relative effect of shopping value dimensions on the responses of shoppers will differ according to types of stores and analyzes the moderating effect of store type(department store VS. discount store) on the causal relationship between shopping value dimensions and store loyalty. Emprical results show that utilitarian values of shopping experience and hedonic value of shipping experience give the positive effect on the emotional response of consumers and store loyalty. We also found the moderating effect of store types. The effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toward discount store is higher than the effect of utilitarian shopping values on the attitude toword department store. And the effect of hedonic shopping value on the emotional response to discount store is higher than on the emotional response to department store. The empirical results reflect on the recent trend that discount stores try to fulfill the hedonic needs of consumers as well as utilitarian needs(i.e, low price) that discount stores traditionally have focused on

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.4 no.1_2
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• pp.19-57
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• 1973

Laver io one of the most necessary and seasonal items in Korean food from oldtimes. Laver is lagely eaten in dried form, and its supply depends entirely upon culture weeds. The history of laver culture in Korea about sixty or seventy years is older than in Japan. Significance of laver culture is divided into two aspects, one is food supply in the nation, and the other is export to other countries. Houses engaged in laver culture are about foully thousands, and laver production in 1972 is estimated as 1, 3 bitten sheets. (1 sheet is a dried laver of 20 cm sq, in the shape of paper) Especcially meaning of layer production is the concentration of labour input, and systematic management of labour. From around 1920, the method of laver culture was introduced by Japanese Imperialism for mono culture in shallow seas, and mass products of laver is provided to Japan market, DOMESTIC MARKET Fundamental consume function calculates at below, $D_{(68_71)}$=16354 $Y^{0.471}$ $P^{-1.0662}$ where D is total layer demand, Y income variable, P price variable. It means income elasticity is 476. in the whole country, and price elasticity is 1, 07. But generally income elasticity is higher in urban area than in rural area, as shown at 1, 3 in Seoul city. Expence of laver in house expenditure is mutually correlated with another expence, See Table 12 about the relative function. See Table 14 and 16 about the relation between the gathering and the changes of price in auction, wholesale and retail price support system is for two effects, one of which is constraint of the upper price, the other is rise of the lower price. Before the system control, the equation in three year average calculated as below, $Y_{b}$ ＝18, 907.7455＋15435.9364 t (r=0.89) where the origin t＝0 is the November and the units are month. Post the system control, $Y_{p}$ =30, 047.9636+1, 631.1721t (r＝0.97) therefore, this system has an effect only on the rise of lower price, Average annual margins of laver products at four market levels according to the consumer spent is below. EXPORTING MARKET Japanese demand function of laver products is, Log D=5, 289+1, 108 Log Y-1, 395 Log P (r=0.987) where D is Japanese laver demand, Y income variable, P price variable. according to which income elasticity is 1. 1 and price elasticity is 1.4. Laver production in 1970 tile highest record till then, is estimated as six billion sheets. But the recent improvement of laver culture techniques, the production of seeds and freezing storage of seeds has been stabilized. Futher new culture farms have been developed by means of break- water fences or by floating culture method. These improvements have been backed up with increased demand of laver products. Import quantity and price of Korean laver products are restrained by three organizations, that is producer, distributor and consumer. This relationship calculated by regression equation shows that import is influenced only producer organization, at the sacrifice of consumer profit. For increase to export of laver products, we urgently require to open foreign trade of laver products for Japanese consumer, .and Japan has political responsibility to solve Korean laver structure. But with long run timeseries, as regards Japanese production and import quantity, importing function shows increasing trend as below, 250 million sheets ＜3, 947.1674+0.005 $L_{g}$ ＞) 600 million sheets where $L_{q}$ is relative production quantity of laver in Japan. (unit; 100 thousand sheets) Our Export effort should be put on the highly processed products whithin the restraind quote.ote.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.211-216
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• 2018

This study was intended to analyze the effects of the selection of excellent design product by the KIDP(Korea Institute of Design Promotion) on the business performance of the company focused on the start-up with relatively low competitiveness. According to the statistics of KIDP in 2013, a design accounted for 27.53% of the factors affecting the sales of products and a design was the most important factor among the factors affecting the sales of products for the small sized company in terms of the scale of company. In addition, looking at the trend by industry in the data collected for this study, the technology-based industry showed a relatively higher growth rate than the retail industry and other industries. In this study, the author surveyed 186 companies of the companies that recognized the importance of design in difficult management conditions and received excellent design product certificate from KIDP(2013, 2014 and 2015) and empirically verified whether there was any difference in business performance between the start-ups with a business history of less than 7 years and the ongoing firms with a business history of more than 7 years. To evaluate the value of design, we used analytical method of measuring related values by comparison between groups. In addition, we also analyzed the difference in business performance(sales) between manufacturing companies, where the role of design was relatively large, and non-manufacturing companies among companies that received the excellent design product certificate. We have established a study hypothesis that the selection of excellent design product by the KIDP would have more positive effect on the business performance(sales) of the start-up compared to the ongoing firm, and conducted an empirical analysis by comparing both the year before and the year after the selected year. As a result, we found that the selection of excellent design product by the KIDP has a positive effect on the business performance of the start-up, and the selection of excellent design product has a significant effect on the difference in business performance between manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. This study was conducted in the hope that the government actively supports the design-related policies so that the selection of excellent design product become an important indicator of the business performance of the start-up, and thus the design management will be a way to enhance the competitiveness of the start-up.