This research examines how advertising message effectiveness differs depending on media types that provide fashion information among teenagers. Employing cloth consumption value and ‘fitness’ of fashion style, young people’s attitudes toward advertising and brand of fashion product were analyzed. Theoretical contribution and practical implication for fashion industry are discussed.
Introduction
Teenagers are an important consumer group in the clothing market, and the market size is expanding. They are more likely to absorb new information and respond to social influences, compared to other age groups. Thus, it is expected that teenagers are greatly influenced by the fashion information gained when making a purchase decision. In adolescence, the peer group is especially influential, as well as the media. Therefore, it is possible that their use of information source will differ from other groups.
The most popular medium for Korean teenagers in recent years is social media. A Social Network Service (SNS) is a web-based service that allows individuals to build social relationships, providing a place for users to exchange information and opinions by providing a platform for communication (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). As development of mobile Internet technology, smart phone or tablet PC is commonly used in Korea and SNS becomes vital way for communication for young people. Most of teenagers are using SNS daily and exchanging their opinion each other.
Recently, it attracts increasing attention for marketers to deliver advertising messages as a new marketing tool. Fashion companies widely employ SNS in their marketing activities to enhance brand images, retain customers (Cho & Park, 2012). SNS serves as a platform for “many-to-many” interactive communication, unlike traditional mass media for ‘one-to-many’ communication. Unlike traditional media, SNS has a wider influence on participants. Therefore, exactly the same message could be differently functioned by the advertising delivering system.
This study seeks to look at how message effectiveness differs depending on the type of media that provides fashion information. As mentioned earlier, social media has distinct characteristics from the traditional mass media. Thus, even when it is the same advertising information, its impact on the consumer can vary when transmitted through the mass media and through social media. In addition, social media is a collection of various social platforms that share specific properties rather than a single media. Thus, depending on the type of social media, the same ad information can also be expected to elicit differing responses from consumers. In this study, female youth were studied as subjects of research. The survey method was utilized. This will allow us to explore the impact of various media on female youth's response on fashion advertisement.
Understanding the sources of information important in youth will help develop effective clothing products marketing. The use of clothing sources varies depending on the group. Therefore, each vendor is expected to establish effective marketing methods through research on the use of the clothing information sources of the target audience.
Theoretical Background
Type of Media
In this study, type of advertising media was mainly categorized as follows: Social Network Service (SNS) and mass media. More specifically, SNS was reassigned into three by characteristics of service such as network-type, share-type, and blog-type (Chung & Lee, 2015). Overall, four types of media were analyzed in this study and each service was represented by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and magazine ad in the order named.
Social Desirability and SNS
Along the development of Internet based technology (IT), ways of advertising placement became diverse and moved focus on IT based service including SNS. Especially for young people, fashion industries are willing to catch their eyes on SNS. By the nature, young SNS users are eager to search, blog, and share what they have earned on SNS for various reasons. Sharing fashion information is very important for young female. Their expressions on SNS mean what they are; what I eat, wear and so on.
A fellow feeling, so called ‘we-ness’, is extremely essential for Korean young people. Looking alike does not only share collectivistic spirits, but also makes feel not fall behind the trendy style. Using SNS is one of the best ways of confirming their fellow feeling and at the same time it reduces peer pressure.
From the domain of fashion marketing, research on communication had been mostly focused on mass media, and research on SNS communication, sharing of consumption information among consumers had been insufficient (Jun & Park, 2013). Fashion companies are recently trying to utilize SNS as a new alternative to have efficient effects with little costs. The SNS communication effect plays a large role in the consumption of consumers and analyzes the influence of SNS on the responses of the customers. SNS has the characteristic in which recommendations of friends or reliable acquaintances based on trust are important (Jung & Cho, 2016).
Fashion Information Source and Clothing Consumption Value
Consumers’ choice of clothing is based on the information gained. Information provided by the media or other people's clothing is the main source of decision making. In this case, the media and the surrounding people will become sources of desirable fashion style. Earlier, Cox(1967) classified the type of information sources as marketer-driven sources, consumer-driven sources, and neutral sources. Several scholars classified information sources as personal and non-personal sources, and direct observations and experiences (Andreasen 1968, Sproles 1979). Park and Yoo(2000) classified consumers according to fashion lifestyles and analyzed the sources of information that each group utilized. Each group tended to use different types of fashion information sources. Fashion-following group and personality-oriented group utilized more media and personal information, such as print media and television, compared to pragmatism group and conformity group. Personality-oriented group tends to use more direct observation than other groups. Conformity group showed the least use of mass media, purchase experience, observation, and interpersonal information source. This result shows that the types and degree of information used varies depending on the consumer’s fashion lifestyle.
Research has found that clothing consumption value is one of the major variables which affect consumer’s use of information source. Among several classifications of consumption values, Sheth’s model is the most utilized model in Korea fashion academia (Han and Kim, 2002). Sheth et al. (1991) classified consumption values into functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic values, and conditional value. Han and Kim (2002) classified consumer groups into 4 groups utilizing Sheth’s classification: the Conspicuous, the Epistemic, the Social/Conformitive, and the Indifferent. There were significant different among the four groups in information search process. The Conspicuous and the Epistemic more tend to search carefully the clothes inside the store or in the show window than other groups. The two group members answered that they make a decision based on my own tastes than the other groups.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Based on the earlier discussion, we propose following research question and hypotheses.
Research Question 1: Would advertising message’s effect on young people’s attitudes toward advertising and brand of fashion product be different, depending on their consumption value of clothing?
Hypothesis 1-1: Consumers in different consumption values groups will show different response to the same advertising message delivered through different channels. Specifically, social conformity group are more likely to show positive attitude toward advertising and brand presented on network-type SNS than advertising and brand presented on other platforms.
Hypothesis 1-2: The Expressive is more likely to show positive attitude toward advertising and brand presented on magazine than other groups are.
Research Question 2: Would advertising message’s effect on young people’s attitudes toward advertising and brand of fashion product be different, depending on their age group?
Hypotheses 2-1: Young women will have better responses to SNS-based ads than magazine ads to older women.
Research Question 3: Would advertising message’s effect on young people’s attitudes toward advertising and brand of fashion product be different, depending on their perception of ‘fitness’ of their desired fashion style?
Hypotheses 3-1: When they perceive the presented style on the ad does not fit to their desired fashion style, network-type SNS is more likely to get positive attitude from the social conformity group than from the other groups.
Methodology
This present study aims to investigate the effects of advertising message by operating delivering system on consumers’ attitude toward fashion advertising and purchase intentions. This research employed a 4 (consumption value of clothing: expressive, practical, unique, social/conformity) X 4 (Advertising media type: network-type SNS, share-type SNS, blog-type SNS, and magazine) X 2 (fashion style fitness: fit/not fit) between subjects factorial design. The survey was conducted on 200 more young females, aged 16 to 24.
Main Discussion Points
This study aims to investigate how a fashion product ad works depending on the type of media on which the fashion advertising presents. To do this, authors will compare the advertising effectiveness among magazine ad, Facebook (Network type SNS), Instagram (Share type SNS), and Twitter(blog type SNS).
First of all, we are going to examine how each advertising medium works depending on consumer’s consumption values, their age, and the perception of fitness of their desired fashion style. Based on the results, the theoretical contribution and practical implication will be discussed. This discussion will provide us deeper understanding on how fashion industry utilizes advertising media when female youth is a major target group

• Hyeonjin Soh(Sungshin University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)
• Hyogyoo Kim(Dongguk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)