The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of power blog self- presentation and on-line shopping mall reviews on the word of mouth (WOM) effect and apparel purchasing behavior. Consumers living in Seoul and Gyeonggi received questionnaires. There were 303 usable forms that could be analyzed by descriptive statistics, factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, and regression analysis. The results were as follows: There was a significant effect of power blog self-presentation such as interactivity, media effect, and business intention on information acceptance through WOM. Power blog self-presentation, such as interactivity and business intention, affect information delivery by WOM significantly. There was a significant effect of review consideration, such as agreement, usefulness, enjoyment, and purity, on information acceptance of WOM. Reviews describing enjoyment, purity, and usefulness affect information delivery of WOM significantly. Business intention, media effect, and purity directly affect apparel-purchasing behavior, and affect the WOM effect as a mediator variable and then purchasing behavior. Whereas, interactivity, overstatement, and enjoyment affect the WOM effect as a mediator variable, and then affect overall purchasing behavior. Therefore, fashion firms consider active interaction with power blog visitors and promote the way of enjoying with fun through review of apparel on-line shopping mall when they try to implement viral marketing with WOM effect.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of domestic and foreign power blogs that serve as professional source of information and to clarify the difference of the criteria for the certification and selection of power blogs. The study also analyzed the configuration of contents and the characteristic of categories of the power blogs. Eleven domestic blogs were examined, of which ten were certified as power blogs on several portal sites and one blog was operating in English. Furthermore twelve foreign blogs were examined, of which ten blogs were selected from the graded list of www.alexa.com for the Fashion Power Blog TOP 20 adopted on www.telegraph.co.uk in 2009, and two noticeable blogs were selected additionally. Data were analyzed by both theoretical and exploratory studies. The exploratory study was conducted by fourteen majors, who took interest in the blogs and were divided into two groups to look at the domestic and foreign sites, from 12 October to 12 November in 2010. The types of blogs were classified by frequency analysis of interactivity, interest provision, information provision and purchase capability. The investigators checked the type of the contents of each blog and the frequencies were used for the classification type. The analysis showed that the frequencies were in the order of information provision, followed by interest provision, and purchase capability for foreign blogs, while interest provision was followed by information provision for domestic blogs. Interactivity, interest provision, information provision and purchase capability were generally reflected in foreign blogs. Rather than interest provision and information provision, however, interactivity and purchase capability were reflected relatively weakly in domestic blogs.