Until now, research on consumers’ purchasing behavior has primarily focused on psychological aspects or depended on consumer surveys. However, there may be a gap between consumers’ self-reported perceptions and their observable actions. In response, this study aimed to investigate consumer purchasing behavior utilizing a big data approach. To this end, this study investigated the purchasing patterns of fashion items, both online and in retail stores, from a data-driven perspective. We also investigated whether individual consumers switched between online websites and retail establishments for making purchases. Data on 516,474 purchases were obtained from fashion companies. We used association rule analysis and K-means clustering to identify purchase patterns that were influenced by customer loyalty. Furthermore, sequential pattern analysis was applied to investigate the usage patterns of online and offline channels by consumers. The results showed that high-loyalty consumers mainly purchased infrequently bought items in the brand line, as well as high-priced items, and that these purchase patterns were similar both online and in stores. In contrast, the low-loyalty group showed different purchasing behaviors for online versus in-store purchases. In physical environments, the low-loyalty consumers tended to purchase less popular or more expensive items from the brand line, whereas in online environments, their purchases centered around items with relatively high sales volumes. Finally, we found that both high and low loyalty groups exclusively used a single preferred channel, either online or in-store. The findings help companies better understand consumer purchase patterns and build future marketing strategies around items with high brand centrality.

As the importance of online virtual spaces increases due to COVID-19, interest in online virtual spaces using 4th industrial technology is increasing. Accordingly, the metaverse that combines virtual and real is becoming an issue. In the fashion industry, marketing using online is gradually increasing, and various attempts are being made by converging with the metaverse to provide new and enjoyable experiences to customers. This study looked at the impact of customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment and brand loyalty in a metaverse environment where utilization is increasing due to COVID-19 and technological development. For the analysis data of this study, a survey was conducted on the users who experienced the metaverse platform Zepeto's ' BVLGARI World'. As a result of examining the effect of the customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and brand loyalty in a metaverse environment, some of the customer experiences affect customer satisfaction, and the proposed hypothesis was partially accepted. In addition, it was confirmed that customer satisfaction affects affective commitment and brand loyalty, and affective commitment affects brand loyalty. In this study, we examine the impact of the customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and brand loyalty in the metaverse environment, and identify what is needed for more active convergence and activation of the metaverse and fashion brands. Also, we provide practical implications to people who involved in the metaverse and the fashion industry.

Customer engagement has been a focus of a significant amount of research. Most of the prior research on customer engagement typically focused on engagement and loyalty in loyalty program context, while the impact of rewarded customer engagement on program members has largely been missed out. Additionally, no prior study yet has focused on the conceptualization of rewarded customer engagement, while exploring and comparing its significance on various digital platforms, such as loyalty programs and Metaverse. Thus, this study aims to conceptualize rewarded customer engagement while investigating its impact on loyalty program members, and whether it induces and/or encourages their engagement in brand’s Metaverse platform(s).

The economic recession and changes in purchasing habits of young adults (aged 18–25) has led to a decline in the sales of Japanese fashion apparel. This younger generation’s choice of fashion items is primarily based on price. They are not devoted to a favourite brand with a frequent purchase history. Thus, developing customer loyalty and strengthening brand value are essential for the fashion industry. This study explores the improvement in fashion companies’ financial performance (FP) through young generation’s behavioural brand loyalty (BBL) from two aspects: social media brand engagement (BE) and loyalty programmes (LPs). This study listed 14 popular Japanese fashion brands which belonged to 14 publicly traded companies in Japan. Further, we surveyed 183 consumers about their brand related behaviours. The findings reveal the positive and negative effects of the same variable (BE and LPs) on the outcome (short- and long-term FP), indicating that not all activities related to BE and LPs boost FP. FP is influenced by various combinations of these causal factors and complex situations, such as consumers’ demographics and shopping characteristics. The results deepen our understanding of brand loyalty formation and the linkage among BE, LPs, and FP in a realistic marketplace, and offer multiple practical solutions to achieve high levels of short- and long-term FP by targeting the right consumers based on their specific characteristics.

본 연구는 골프웨어 브랜드 진정성과 브랜드 애착 및 충성도 간의 구조적인 모형을 검증하여 골프웨어의 브랜드 전략을 수립 할 수 있는 기초자료를 제공하고자 했다. 따라서 골프웨어를 구매했던 유 경험자를 표본으로 선정했으며, 292부의 자료를 최종분석에 활용했다. 자료처리 방법은 빈도분석과 신뢰도 의 내적일관성, 타당도의 확인적 요인분석, 상관분석, 그리고 구조방정식 모형분석을 실시했다. 프로그램은 SPSS(ver. 21.0)와 AMOS(ver. 20.0)를 활용했다. 연구결과 첫 번째로 골프웨어의 브랜드 진정성은 브랜드 애착에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 골프웨어의 브랜드 애착은 충성도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 골프웨어의 브랜드 진정성은 충성도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타 났다. 마지막으로 골프웨어의 브랜드 진정성 및 충성도 간의 브랜드 애착은 부분매개효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다.

본 연구는 지각된 위험과 브랜드 충성도의 관계에 집단주의와 위험회피 성향 등 문화적 차이가 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 살펴보았다. 실증분석을 위한 표본은 한국의 서울과 미국 주요 도시에 거주하는 대학생으로 선정하였 으며, 집단주의와 개인주의, 위험회피 성향과 위험감수 성향의 문화적 차이가 지각된 위험과 브랜드 충성도에 미 치는 조절효과를 살펴보았다. 실증 분석 결과 지각된 위험과 브랜드 충성도의 부의 관계는 문화적 차이와 상관없 이 일관성 있게 나타났다. 그러나, 이러한 지각된 위험과 브랜드 충성도 간의 부의 관계는 집단주의 성향이 높은 소비자일수록, 또한 위험감수 성향이 높은 소비자일수록 더욱 크게 나타났다. 이러한 분석 결과를 통해 한국소비 자와 미국소비자 간의 문화적 가치관의 차이 즉 집단주의와 개인주의 그리고 위험회피성향과 위험감수성향의 차 이가 지각된 위험과 브랜드 충성도의 관계에 영향을 미치는 것을 확인하였다.

스포츠 상품 시장에서 각 브랜드가 소비자에게 미치고자 하는 영향력은 여러 가지 형태로 시도 되었으며, 그 효과 또한 증명되어 가고 있다. 각 브랜드들이 자신들이 활용할 가치가 있다고 판단하여 수립한 다양한 마케팅 전략들이 증명되어가고 있는 것이다. 하지만 최근 나타난 새로운 소비 유형이라 할 수 있는 스포츠 상품 수집가를 활용한 마케팅 전략은 지금껏 그 영향력이 실증적으로 검증된 바가 없었다. 기존의 스포츠 상품 시장에서 나타난 수집 행위에 이해도가 매우 낮았기 때문이다. 어느 정도 한계에 봉착했다고 여겨지는 스포츠 상품 시장에 새로운 마케팅 전략이 필요하다고 판단한 도전적 사고에서 본 연구를 시작하였으며 스포츠 상품 수집가를 활용한 마케팅 전략을 수립함에 있어서 그 영향력이 형성되는 경로를 설정하고 증명하는데 그 목적을 두고 있다. 이 연구의 목적을 달성하기 위하여 가상의 스포츠 상품 수집가의 상품 설명에 대한 자극물을 접한 잠재 소비자 231명을 대상으로 SPSS 21.0과 AMOS 20.0을 이용하여 빈도분석, 신뢰도분석, 상관관계분석 및 확인적 요인분석과 구조방정식을 이용하였다. 이 연구에서 도출된 결과를 바탕으로 하여 스포츠 상품 시장에서 스포츠 상품 수집가들이 보유하고 있는 전문성을 바탕으로 하는 새로운 마케팅 전략의 경로를 발견하였다고 할 수 있으며, 이를 바탕으로 침체된 우리나라 스포츠 상품 시장에 새로운 성장 동력의 하나로 작용할 수 있기를 기대하는 바이다.

Introduction With the advent of new technology and progress of globalization, the adoption of offshore outsourcing policies, especially in the service sector, becomes a common practice. The motivation to outsource globally arises from a pursuit for agility to cope with changing environment (Gilley & Rasheed, 2000; Mukherjee, Gaur, & Datta, 2013), cost reduction (Ang & Straub, 1998), and eventually competitive advantage (Kang, Wu, Hong, & Park, 2012; Kremic, Tukel, & Rom, 2006). However, recent service research represents outsourcing as a double-edged sword, with both damaging and beneficial consequences (Rasheed & Gilley, 2005), and one of the major concerns of offshore service outsourcing is that customer-based brand equity of the service provider maybe affected negatively. At the moment, few international marketing or business studies empirically test the negative implications of offshore outsourcing on customer loyalty and brand equity. The comparisons between front-end and back-end service outsourcing as well as between BRIC and non-BRIC nations are also missing in the literature. Service providers need strategic information about the possible risks of outsourcing specific types of services to specific countries (Pappu, Quester, & Cooksey, 2005). Therefore, based on the literature of brand equity and country-of- origin (COO) theory, we constructed an integrated framework to explain the outcomes of offshore outsourcing from a service and brand marketing point of view. Theoretical Development COO literature indicates that consumers transfer negative perceptions of a country to perceptions of products (Pappu, Quester, & Cooksey, 2006). This principle should apply to perceptions of outsourced back-end services—an increasingly common tactic by service firms (Blumberg, 1998)—such that outsourcing to an Asian economy has negative effects on brand associations and quality. The better the perception of the country that performs outsourced services, the better perception of brand equity, including both associations, quality perception, and ultimately brand loyalty. Because the front-end service employees have more direct interaction with customers, this influence will be stronger as compared to back-end service outsourcing. Meanwhile, we predicted that consumers should perceive India (and other BRIC economies) more favorably, because of their rapid economic development. Research Design To test the hypotheses, this study probed into New Zealand consumers’ perceptions of outsourcing services in the banking industry to India and the Philippines. We adapted the SERVQUAL scale to measure the perception of outsourcing. Subjects’ COO perception and customer-based brand equity were also collected in the online questionnaire. The survey procedure produced 288 completed and usable questionnaires: 132 with India as the country of origin and 156 for the Philippines. Result and Conclusion An initial analysis confirmed the validity of the research tool. The results from multigroup structural equation modelling showed that outsourcing services, in light of country-of-origin effects, has a long-term negative impact, especially for front-end services, on both brand equity and brand loyalty. Consumers appeared more concerned with the quality of customer service and general administration than information systems and technology. Meanwhile, although subjects’ outsourcing and COO perceptions are negative for both India and the Philippines, the results indicated no significant difference between the two nations regarding the levels of impact of such perceptions on brand equity. Based on the findings from the study, we recommend that organizations should consider outsourcing back-end functions before moving to front-end services, because the back-end services have less impact on brand equity. Managers should also have great discretion about where to send back-end services, because consumers’ COO perceptions do not relate significantly to brand equity for outsourced information systems or technology.

With competition among hotel brands intensifying more than ever before, there has been a burgeoning interest in the hospitality industry on the topic of brand love. However, progress of brand love research in hotel context has been limited and investigation on antecedents of brand love has mainly focused on affective and relational aspects, while neglecting cognitive aspects of brand love. Therefore, the objective of this research was to illuminate the importance of brand love's cognitive aspect by identifying cognitive brand loyalty as a necessary component of brand love in hotel context. In addition, present research suggests that by inducing cognitive engagement among customers, hotel brands can attain cognitive brand loyalty from customers, which in turn derives brand love. To achieve the research objective, a questionnaire with items measuring brand love, cognitive brand loyalty and two aspects of cognitive engagement, cognitive attention and cognitive absorption, was distributed to 300 individuals through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Brand love was measured with scale adapted from Carroll and Ahuvia (2006), cognitive brand loyalty was measured using items introduced by Back and Parks (2003), and cognitive engagement elements were measured using items developed by So, King and Sparks (2014). In analyzing the data, structural equation modeling method was used. The findings of the study indicate that the effect of cognitive brand loyalty on brand love is significant and that the relationship between cognitive attention and cognitive brand loyalty is also positive and significant. However, the relationship between cognitive absorption and cognitive brand loyalty was positive only at a marginally significant level. As a result, the indirect effect of cognitive attention on brand love was positive and significant yet, the indirect effect of cognitive absorption on brand love was insignificant. This study enriches the brand love literature’s spectrum by illuminating the importance of brand love’s cognitive aspect. However, it is important to note that the focus is not necessarily on the cognitive processing or the standards, but on the cognitive engagement experience. In addition, because customers generally process information most heavily during the booking process, present research brings out managerial implications for hotel brands to direct more customers to their own brand website rather than the online-travel-agency( OTA) website. For instance, the results of present research illustrate that price discount or additional amenity are not enough to develop brand love. Rather, hotels should provide loyalty members who book directly through brand sites with more enjoyable, creative, and relevant to self-room shopping experience.

As Internet use has increased, customers have become more active at sharing their travel opinions through social media regarding their experiences with service organizations. Social media has become a ubiquitous tool that enables customers to share their travel experiences. In particular, members of Generation Y are more likely to be active on social media and more likely to share their experiences online. Understanding Generation Y’s online customer engagement preferences on different social media platforms may help to enhance brand loyalty. Customer engagement (CE) has been attracting the attention of both practitioners and academics because it may help to enhance both brand loyalty and purchase decisions. Social media platforms have become a significant communication tool for both customers and service providers, creating an opportunity to engage with customers. Interacting with active customers on the right social media platform can increase direct bookings, building brand loyalty. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine Generation Y’s brand loyalty preferences through its members’ engagement with social media. The results of this research will expand understanding of Generation Y customers’ online engagement through social media. This research may also suggest how hotels are able to utilize social media platforms in order to encourage online engagement with Generation Y by building brand loyalty.

Introduction In the modern society, online shopping has been expanding and become part of people's lives. With the development of online shopping, people's online shopping awareness have increased. In the purchase process, people focus on the information, especially online evaluation. Online shopping population is becoming more aware of the negative online evaluation, businesses are more and more attention to the negative comments, but sellers lack strategies and methods to deal with negative evaluation, and the reply function offered by site are rarely used. Compared with traditional Mouth Marketing, Internet Word of Mouth Marketing(eWOM) has such characteristics as anonymity, non confrontation, wide spread and fast spread. However, it is difficult to imagine the impact of all the internet word-of-mouth information on the consumer's willingness to buy. They need to criticize and screen the information before they are used because of the large amount of information that consumers have come into contact with. Online product evaluation (abbreviated evaluation) is a kind of internet word-of-mouth. As a new means and platform for network communication, it has its own unique characteristics. With the rapid development of electronic commerce in China, the content of evaluation has become an important basis for the purchase decision of Internet consumers. In the field of marketing, Gao Xiang finds that consumers usually think that negative information is more judgmental value than positive information, so they will rely more on the negative information when buying decisions. Therefore, it is of great significance to the research of negative online evaluation. In the field of marketing, Gao Xiang found that consumers generally think that negative information is more judgmental than positive information, so they rely more on negative information for decision making in purchasing. Therefore, the research of negative online evaluation is significance. Whether the business can deal with negative evaluation effectively becomes the key to success in sales volume. Burnkrant and Consineau believes that the herd effect is the process of psychological change that people consciously and unconsciously take the opinions of the majority as the criterion to make judgments and make impressions. Group characteristics, such as scale, and the proportion of others' opinions, will affect the herd effect. The current research shows that the more people hold the same view, more people will agree with this view. In other words, the individual will be affected by the majority of the group's opinions. Businesses reply with negative evaluations in various ways as a result of the negative impact of negative reviews. It takes the C2C's largest platform, Taobao, as an example. Some seller cooperate with illegal companies to harass buyers who do not modify the review, and coerce buyers to modify the evaluation. This kind of problem has been a hot issue in society for some time. At the same time, the C2C network platform provides a function that the seller can respond to the buyer's evaluation. But few seller use it. Theoretical Development Businesses reply with negative evaluations in various ways as a result of the negative impact of negative reviews. It takes the C2C's largest platform, Taobao, as an example. Some seller cooperate with illegal companies to harass buyers who do not modify the review, and coerce buyers to modify the evaluation. This kind of problem has been a hot issue in society for some time. At the same time, the C2C network platform provides a function that the seller can respond to the buyer's evaluation. But few seller use it. This study further deepens the related research on the negative evaluation of the network. More attention has been paid to the negative evaluation itself and the analysis of its content, publisher characteristics and evaluation results. There are few studies on how to respond to negative evaluations and to use the business response function of a website. This paper studies the relationship between the response of the merchant to the negative online reviews and the customer's purchase intention and the internal influence mechanism, and deepens the previous research. At the same time, it provides some inspiration for the follow-up internet word-of-mouth research. This study also enriches the related research on consumer perceived risk. Previous studies have shown that consumers' purchase behavior and willingness to purchase will be affected by perceived risk. And communication with the seller can reduce perceived risk to a certain extent. Research Design Based on the above background, this paper make a study about the sellers’ reply of negative evaluation and potential purchasing intention. Based on the online reviews of consumer perception of risk, the basis of relevant literature consumer consumption and purchase willingness, combined with consumer behavior theory, service recovery theory, empathy theory and attribution theory, build research model in this paper. On this basis, this paper collected and analyzed the data through literature research, experimental scenarios, questionnaires and statistical analysis, and verify hypothesis based on data analysis. Results and Conclusion Through data analysis, the main conclusions are as follows: The reply to the negative comments can affect consumers' perceived risk and purchasing intention; consumers' perceived risk plays an intermediate role between the reply to the negative and purchasing intention. Product type plays a regulating role between the way of reply and consumers' perceived risk. For Search goods, external and internal attribution explanatory reply made no significant difference in affecting consumer consumers' perceived risk. Perceived risk under external attribution is lower than under the internal attribution. On the basis of research, this paper put forward online communication strategies for C2C business and help sellers do business better.

The antecedents of customer loyalty have been a subject of interest to marketers and researchers alike. Few studies have investigated the moderating influence of brand image on customer satisfaction and loyalty. A framework was developed and tested to link casino service quality with satisfaction (affective and cognitive satisfaction) and loyalty (revisit intention and willingness to recommend). The influence of brand image as a moderator was also proposed. Quantitative surveys with 240 mainland Chinese tourists, who were the major source of tourists in Macau, were conducted. All the proposed hypotheses were supported. This study contribute knowledge on customers’ satisfaction and loyalty to casinos by explaining the interrelationships between casino brand image, casino service, customer satisfaction and loyalty. The research demonstrates that satisfied customers are more inclined to revisit and recommend the casino. These relations are stronger for customers who scored higher in image than those who scored lower. The study provides promotional marketing strategies for the casino industry and theoretical suggestions for future study.

As blogs continue to grow in importance, they have quickly become one of the largest and most established forms of non-traditional media (Onishi and Manchanda, 2012; Stephen and Galak, 2012). Due to this popularity, brands are striving to connect to consumers through the blogosphere. One of the most popular approaches is incentivization, whereby the brand incentivizes the blogger to write a review of a given product (Uribe, Buzeta and Velásquez, 2016; Hwang and Jeong, 2016). However, incentivization may pose significant risks for bloggers, who are perceived to be independent from corporate interests and a credible source of information. We employed three experimental studies to show that intrinsic, as compared to extrinsic, incentivization acceptance motives mitigate the negative effect of positive incentivized reviews on perceived independence, credibility and ultimately, blog loyalty. In our final experiment, we find that that followers who are attached to a blog are more likely to continue to browse, revisit and recommend the blog, regardless of incentivization acceptance motives.

This paper examines the effects of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcement through social media on the consumer perception of the luxury brand consumption. A M&A is becoming more wide spread in the luxury market. Yet, the academic research examining the M&A in the luxury brand context has been sparse albeit the growing interests. Moreover, previous research has not paid attention to the effect of social media as a vehicle to communicate the M&A deal with consumers although social media is increasingly used by luxury brands in their brand communication these days. We aim to fill the gap in the luxury brand literature by examining how a horizontal M&A announcement delivered through social media would affect the brand loyalty derived from the luxury consumption values. Specifically, our research focuses on the four distinctive luxury brand values, which are symbolic, experiential, economic and quality values as well as the perceived sustainability of the M&A deal. We examine how a M&A announcement would affect these five values which in turn influence the brand loyalty, as well as examining the differential effect of social media and non-social media as a brand communication vehicle. In addition, we examine how the vertically differentiated luxury brand perceptions (i.e. different luxury tiers) between acquiring and acquired brands influence the consumption values and brand loyalty. Using a scenario-based online survey, our results reveal several interesting insights on the luxury brand M&A. First, our results show that use of social media as a communication vehicle has differential effects on how the M&A announcement influences consumption values and brand loyalty, comparing with the non-social media communication vehicle. Second, we find that a M&A announcement via social media has a positive impact on the consumer values. Third, the symbolic and experiential values have a positive influence on the brand loyalty, regardless of the luxury tier difference between brands. Fourth, our results show that the perceived sustainability has a positive impact on the brand loyalty as long as the M&A was completed between brands at different tiers. Fourth, the perceived quality has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the brand is acquired by a less prestigious brand. Lastly, economic value has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the acquiring brand is of more luxurious. In sum, our paper provides useful insights to both academics as well as practitioners in the luxury brand M&A context.

Investigation concerning the presence of customer-brand relationships in online communities is recent and scarce and might offer potential (Moraes et al., 2014; Huber et al., 2015; Vernuccio et al., 2015). The purpose of this investigation is to understand and analyse how brand love can influence brand loyalty among millennials generation, considering engagement constructs and social networks. It bridges an academia gap in the context of the consumer brand relationship literature. This research aims to answer the following questions: (1) Is brand love effective in building true brand loyalty? (2) Does interactive engagement with brands and brand love contribute to build brand loyalty? and (3) Does interactive engagement on social networks reflect millennials love of brands? To collect data we conducted two online surveys, covering two different brand categories: Fashion and Electronics/Technology. We have in total 1278 inquiries. The analyses of data and hypotheses test were made by using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and a multi-group factor analysis. The proposed structural equation model was validated and all hypothesis were accepted. So, consumers’ Brand Related Social Media Content was proved to have a direct impact on Social Interactive Brands and Brand Loyalty. Social Interactive Brands were proved to have a direct impact on Emotional Attachment and Self Expressive Brands which also proved direct impact on Brand Love. Brand Love for instance was proved has been directly connected with Brand Loyalty and Word of Mouth and Brand Loyalty also, directly impacts Word of Mouth. The model behave well in the previous research so we wanted to test it with a smaller sample and different brand categories the results would maintain. The results of the multi-group factor analysis showed that we have configural and metric invariance in both different studies, covering Fashion and Technological brands. As though for management purposes it might be of no disagreement to state that marketing alone is no longer enough to influence purchase motivation and intention for consumers. This investigation advance and valid a new theoretical framework in the consumer brand love approach

The use of brand communities have been hailed as an effective tool for marketers to develop relationships between their brands and consumers, with the ultimate goal to create and sustain brand loyalty. The majority of theoretical assertions regarding brand communities are underpinned by the use of social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982). Social identity theory posits that individuals have a need to construct and display a ‘self-concept’ and a strategy to communicate this is the process of identification with groups. As the focus of a brand community is the brand itself it is clear that brand community identification and brand identification must be correlated, but little research has explored this relationship or its effects. This study aimed to fill a gap within the knowledge by further exploring the relationship between brand identification and brand community identification by providing more insight into the role which an individuals’ identification with a brand community (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001) has within their relationship with the focal brand and their loyalty to that brand. Specifically, this research aimed to gain a greater understanding of the different effect brand community identification had upon the relationship between brand identification and both public and private brand loyalty. This was explored through the utilisation of a survey of fans of a professional basketball team within the UK (n=298). The data and subsequent analysis supported the hypotheses that individuals’ brand community identification has a positive relationship with both public and private forms of brand loyalty. More importantly it also presented brand community identification as a mediator in the relationship between brand identification and public brand loyalty. Therefore, this study is the first to present brand community identification as critical within consumers’ development of publicly displayed brand loyalty. Managerially this understanding provides support for the proactive utilisation of brand communities by marketers. It also provides guidance for the context in which brand communities are critical for the success of the brand. This research delivers support for marketers, to utilise brand communities proactively when trying to motivate consumers to participate in publicly displayed pro-brand behaviour. This guides the re-allocation of budget away from pure brand identification activities to brand community engagement strategies.

As the number of SNS(Weibo) users in China is growing rapidly, Chinese fashion brands are heavily dependent on SNSs as a fashion marketing communication tool. For this reason, the characteristics of SNS accounts and their influences on SNS users’ responses need to be studied. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the influences of the characteristics of Chinese fashion brands’ SNS accounts(Weibo) on the perceived usefulness of and satisfaction with the SNS acount, and brand loyalty. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of men and women living in Beijing or Shanghai aged from 18 to 49 with experience of SNSs(Weibo). After a pilot survey of 70 subjects, the preliminary questionnaire was revised and then translated into Chinese. The questionnaire translated into Chinese was back-translated into Korean to ensure the translation was correct. The final questionnaire was administered to 600 subjects. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, reliability analysis, and structural equation model analysis were conducted for data analysis. The results of this study were as follows: Five factors were extracted for Weibo characteristics: interaction, information provision, information recency, information reliability, and information playfulness. The information reliability, information playfulness, and interaction of SNS accounts(Weibo) had significant influences on perceived usefulness. The information playfulness, information reliability, and information recency showed significant influences on satisfaction. The perceived usefulness exerted significant influences on satisfaction and brand loyalty. The satisfaction also had statistically significant influences on brand loyalty.

The Chinese fashion market, which has typically been dominated by luxury brands, is expanding more into mid- to low-end fashion brands including global SPA (Specialty retailer of private label apparel) brands. This change in the Chinese fashion market is due to the growth of the middle class in China. The advance of the Chinese middle class is attributed to the fact that the wages of large city workers is improving due to the development of various industries, particularly IT. Recently, the Chinese government has initiated an anti-corruption movement, which has led to the prohibition of luxury goods consumption, and so the interest of Chinese potential fashion consumers has moved to the mid-to low-end fashion products imported from developed countries. In addition, young Chinese consumers' positive attitude toward online shopping is favorable for foreign mid-to low-end brands. These changes in the tastes of Chinese fashion consumers are favorable for Korean fashion brands in particular for several reasons. First, the Korean fashion industry does not have a history of producing luxury brands, but does produce many good mid- to low-end fashion brands. In addition, Chinese tend to consider Korean fashion and food culture as more developed and preferable due to the success of the Korean wave. Lastly, it is easy for Korean practitioners to offer online shopping and customer service. The emergence of mid- to low-end fashion brands started in Korea in the late 2000s when global SPA brands entered the market. Unlike Korea's soho brands, which are based on the "No-brand" strategy, global SPA brands have actually shaken up the market by offering reasonable prices for Korean domestic brand products that are of similar quality. Since then, consumers’ willingness to pay for clothing has been reduced even further in the Korean market even though the low-growth trend in the economy has stabilized. So, it is very important to analyze and study the consumption tendency for low and mid-priced fashion brands among both Chinese and Korean consumers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive the personality of mid- and low-priced fashion brands and how such personality affects brand loyalty, commitment, and perceived quality. Brand personality is a vital area of research since fashion products are a type of consumer good that is consumed by users close to the body and which can express the self and the personality to others. Aaker (1997) developed a brand personality measurement scale consisting of five dimensions which many researchers have used in exploring the brand personality dimension in various industries. In the study of fashion in particular, the dimension of brand personality has been explored and its effects have been analyzed. However, most of the research has focused on luxury or high priced brands. Also, the research has not compared cultures such as China and Korea in this regard. Therefore, this study explored how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive some of the mid- to low-end priced brands originating in Europe and Korea. Also, the research examined how multiple dimensions of brand personality affected perceived quality, commitment, and brand loyalty. This study assumed that perceived quality and commitment may mediate the relationship between brand personality dimensions and loyalty. In order to conduct quantitative research, this study adopted scales from the previous literature to measure the variables used in the research model. A professional online research company conducted the survey, which was designed to be administered only to potential consumers of mid-and low-priced fashion brands who had purchased one or both European and Korean brands which were suggested in the survey. Also, gender (female), residential area (Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai), and age (21-39 years old) were controlled for. In this research, the European origin brand was the global SPA (Zara, H & M, ONLY), and there were eight Korean brands, including “Style Nanda,” which is popular in China (Refer to Table 1). The data collected on the 250 Korean and 250 Chinese participants were analyzed using statistical package SPSS 20.0. The brand personality dimension was explored using factor analysis which applied Varimax rotation based on the principle component method. As a result, even though the items included were found to be somewhat different according to the country and origin of the brand, the brand personality dimensions of the European global brands turned out to be similar and reflected “TRENDY, SINCERITY, AND COMPETENCE.” Also, Chinese consumers’ perception of brand personality in Korean brands was found to be similar to their perception of European brands. However, Korean consumers’ perception of Korean brands, which are of course their own brands, was more diverse reflecting “TRENDY, SINCERITY, COMPETENCE, AND OUTGOING.” This seems to be because Korean consumers may have had more chance to experience Korean brands either online or offline through visiting stores or being exposed to a variety of marketing communications. Thus, because there are more Korean brands than European, Korean consumers may be able to have an accurate perception of the personality of Korean brands. The conceptual model of the current research includes the relationships among multiple dimensions of brand personality in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty. Also, the mediating effect of quality and commitment between brand personality and loyalty was examined. In order to test the hypotheses, hierarchical multiple regression using SPSS was analyzed and is described in Table 2 in relation to European brands and in Table 3 in relation to Korean brands. As expected, brand personality dimensions that were found to be a significant factor in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty were likely to vary based on Chinese or Korean perceptions. For Korean consumers’ perception of global brands, while TRENDY was likely to be the most powerful personality dimension forming brand loyalty, its impact on loyalty seemed not to be mediated by quality but rather by commitment. Also, the influences of COMPETENCE on loyalty were mediated by quality and commitment. For Chinese consumers’ perception of global brands, the impacts of SINCERITY as well as TRENDY on loyalty were found to be mediated by quality and commitment. In addition, COMPETENCE seemed to have a rather direct impact on quality, commitment, and loyalty without a mediating effect. For local brands, Korean consumers did not seem to rely on brand personality or commitment when considering brand loyalty. Since the R2 did not improve at all with adding mediating factors such as quality and commitment, there was found to be no mediating effects in the Korean cases for local brands. In particular, while TRENDY directly impacted loyalty, OUTGOING was found to be significant only in its impact on quality. On the other hand, all three dimensions of local brand personality turned out to be significant influencers on loyalty and quality for Chinese consumers. The impact of TRENDY and COMPETENCE on loyalty seems to be mediated by quality and commitment. In this study, we found that mid- to low-end fashion brands seemed to reflect valid brand personality according to the brand’s origin (global vs. local) as well as consumers’ culture (Chinese vs. Korean). Also, the effect of brand personality dimension was different. This study contributes to the study of brand personality and the Chinese fashion market by comparing a conceptual model of the consumption behavior of Chinese and Korean consumers in relation to mid and low-priced fashion brands and brand awareness formation. In particular, the research revealed differences between Chinese and Korean consumers, suggesting different approaches for Korean fashion practitioners who are planning on entering China, which has not only a similar market to that of Korea but also one that is familiar to Korean practitioners.