With the development of social media, nowadays, people connect to each other more frequently and timely. In this article, we want to discuss this interactive communication in Chinese social media, i.e., WeChat, Weibo and Xianhongshu, between the Chinese immigrants in France (French Chinese) and Chinese in China. The intent of this article is to explore if there is a significant difference between high-acculturated and low-acculturated French Chinese in the use of word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to the purchase of product categories high in social signaling value. The article helps firms plan their international marketing strategy in terms of how they will benefit from WOM where French Chinese consumers comprise a significant part of the target market. Additionally, this research helps firms develop effective virtual interaction tools to build a strong long-term brand relationship with ethnic groups.

With the development of social media, nowadays, people connect to each other more frequently and timely. In this article, we want to discuss this interactive communication in Chinese social media, i.e., WeChat, Weibo and Xianhongshu, between the Chinese immigrants in France (French Chinese) and Chinese in China. The intent of this article is to explore if there is a significant difference between high-acculturated and low-acculturated French Chinese in the use of word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to the purchase of product categories high in social signaling value. The article helps firms plan their international marketing strategy in terms of how they will benefit from WOM where French Chinese consumers comprise a significant part of the target market. Additionally, this research helps firms develop effective virtual interaction tools to build a strong long-term brand relationship with ethnic groups.

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.

This research introduces the construct of perceived brand local connectedness (PBLC) that captures the extent to which a (domestic or foreign) brand is associated with and connected to a consumer’s home culture. Together with perceived brand globalness (PBG), PBLC is linked to purchase intention (PINT) through consumer-brand identification (CBI) and perceived brand quality (QUAL). Across two studies in mature and emergent market settings, findings provide evidence that both constructs matter, although PBLC’s effects are relatively stronger than those of PBG. Results further indicate that global identity moderates the effects of PBG on CBI while consumer ethnocentrism (CET) moderates the corresponding effects of PBLC. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are considered.

There has been an increasing trend of using code-switching to enhance ad persuasion among local and global brands. Ads that include two or more languages are referred to as code-switched ads (Luna and Peracchio 2005a; 2005b). It is noted that previous studies investigating code-switched ad effectiveness have focused on bilinguals, not monolinguals. Due to the emerging use of code-switching in ads in monolingual markets, more research efforts are required to understand its effectiveness and boundaries among the monolinguals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of consumer local-global identity in the effectiveness of code-switched ads among monolinguals. Two experiments were conducted and the results confirmed our hypothesis that consumer local-global identity moderates the effect of code-switched ads. The results indicated that congruence between consumer local-global identity and code-switching enhanced persuasiveness. In addition, the mediating effect of ad involvement was identified. These findings provide managerial implications for marketers.

This study empirically investigates how four individual-level characteristics impact the effect of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. A widely used practice among marketers focuses on communicating that using their brands will bring consumers closer to how they would like to see themselves, their ideal self-concept (e.g. being a slim person like the models in the ads), instead of how they actually see themselves, their actual self-concept. However, recent research shows that there is no “universality” of a superior self-congruity effect. Specifically, individual-level characteristics (e.g. self-esteem levels, product involvement levels) determine if actual or ideal self-congruity impact brand perceptions more strongly (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer & Nyffenegger, 2011). This study extends that research by (a) considering all four self-congruity types (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social) and (b) four additional individual-level characteristics, which are valuable for segmenting consumer markets within and across countries. The four individual-level characteristics are a dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan orientation and local orientation. Considering these individual-level characteristics offers marketers insights on which of the four self-concept types they should try to match with their brand communications when targeting these specific consumer groups. Survey data from a non-student sample was collected in the US. After performing data cleaning procedures, 800+ usable responses were analysed with the use of PLS-SEM (Lohmöller, 1989). The measurement models demonstrate satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results suggest that the data is not compromised by non-response bias and common method variance. The structural models display satisfactory predictive capabilities of the four self-congruity types on brand attitude. The findings show that as expected an individual’s dominant independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, cosmopolitan and local orientation impact which of the four self-congruity types has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant local orientation or interdependent self-construal, actual self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. For individuals with a dominant cosmopolitan orientation or independent self-construal, ideal self-congruity has the strongest effect on brand attitude. The findings of this study extend self-congruity theory by considering the effect of these four individual-level characteristics. Managerial implications are also presented.

This article aims to explore the interactive roles of types of primed identity (local versus global identity) and types of ad framing on brand evaluations. The authors designed 2 experiments in which each experiment followed a 2×2 between-subject design. The empirical results showed that a gain-framed ad induced more positive emotional responses than a loss-framed ad, and the positive affective responses lead to more favorable brand evaluation. Furthermore, the results showed that there were interactive effects of primed identity and types of advertisement frame on brand evaluation. In the additional analysis, the results showed that when people with local identity were exposed to the gain-framed ad, they would engage in a higher level of integration processing than those in the control group, which in turn induced more favorable evaluation to the local brand. That is, the integration processing mode played a mediating role between the interaction (local id priming × ad frame) and the local brand evaluation. However, in the case of global brand evaluation, the integration processing mode did not play such a mediating role.

The purpose of this study were to measure brand personalities of deluxe hotels in Seoul, and to identify the difference of brand personality between local and international hotels. The questionnaires developed for this study were distributed to 460 employees in kitchen and F&B departments of 11 deluxe hotels in Seoul. A total of 398 questionnaires were used for anaylsis(86.5%) and the statistical analyses were completed using SPSS Win(12.0) for descriptive analysis, reliability analysis and t-test, and AMOS(5.0) for confirmatory factor analysis. The results of this study showed that deluxe hotels have brand personalities relatively strong at 'affection', 'sophistication', 'competence' dimensions, and there was a significant difference by hotel nationality. The brand personality scores of international brand hotels perceived by employees were high at the 'excitement'(p<0.001), 'sophistication'(p<0.001), and 'competence'(p<0.01) dimensions, whereas local hotels were considered more obedient(p<0.01). Overall, it could be a key factor for successful brand management that establish a distinctive brand personality, and a localized brand personality measure will lead to more desirable decision making.

대한민국을 비롯하여 전 세계는 급격한 성장을 이루었지만 반면 환경오염으로 인하여 여러 가지 어려움을 겪고 있다 이에 신재생에너지, 녹색시장, 녹색산업을 새로운 국가 성장동력으로 활용하려는 노력을 보이고 있다. 가장 큰 환경 오염 요인인 배기가스 배출을 줄이기 위하여 우리나라 지자체에서는 자전거 정책을 통해 도시 브랜드를 제고시켜 녹색 교통 문화를 정착시키려고 많은 노력을 기울이고 있다. 하지만 지자체의 정체성을 고려하지 않고 무분별하게 자전거 도로를 시공하여 도시환경과 도시경관의 이미지 창출을 하지 못하고 있으며 도시 마케팅 요소로서 도시만의 차별화된 브랜드임을 인식하지 못 하고 개발하고 있는 상황이다. 진천군 또한 자전거 도로가 도시경관 요소로서 중요함을 인식함에도 불구하고 정체성을 고 려한 디자인적 접근이 전혀 이루어져 있지 않는 것이 사실이다. 따라서 본 연구는 지자체중 진천군을 대상으로 자전거 도로를 재정비하여 관광문화 활성화를 도모하고자 한다. 이를 통해 천년 역사의 명소인 종박물관에서부터 농다리까지 잇는 자전거길을 활용하여 역사문화 및 여가관광문화 활성화 방안 및 농다리 주변 광장을 클린 생태문화관광지로 재조성할 계획 이며, 이를 바탕으로 3가지 컨셉의 자전거 도로를 제안하였다. 이로 인해 군민에게는 자부심을 주고 방문객에게는 호기심을 불러 일으켜 대한민국 대표 자전거길로 자리매김하고 진천군의 밝고 긍정적인 이미지를 알리는 데 도움을 주고자 한다.

최근 패션 산업에서는 사진과, 동영상, 텍스트를 이용해 메시지를 간편하게 전달할 수 있는 인스타그램을 적극적으로 활용 하고 있다. 특히 시각적인 콘텐츠를 추구하는 패션 브랜드의 효율적인 마케팅 플랫폼으로 활용 가능성이 크다. 국내 패션 산업에서 인스타그램의 실질적인 운영 방안의 토대가 되어줄 로컬 계정 콘텐츠에 관한 연구가 필요하다. 이에 본 연구의 내용은 첫째, 스포츠 브랜드의 인스타그램 로컬 계정의 콘텐츠 활용 현황을 살펴보았으며, 이를 바탕으로 콘텐츠의 메시지 전략의 특징을 분석하였다. 둘째, 스포츠 브랜드 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠 구성의 특성을 파악하였다. 셋째, 테일러의 메시지 전략 관점에서 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠의 메시지 특성을 도출하였다. 연구 결과, 스포츠 브랜드는 인스타그램 로컬 계정 콘텐츠를 이용해 제품 정보 및 이벤트 홍보, 브랜드 컨셉을 전달하려는 목적으로, 제품 사진이나 비 스포츠 스타 를 모델로 기용해 이미지와 텍스트가 결합된 형태의 콘텐츠를 주로 활용하는 것으로 나타났다. 이 때 브랜드명을 해시태그 로 걸어 콘텐츠의 핵심어를 쉽게 전달하고 있었다. 이런 구성 요소들이 모여 이뤄진 인스타그램 콘텐츠의 메시지는 수용자의 감성을 자극하여 제품에 대한 정보나 특징을 편안하게 받아들일 수 있도록 하는 메시지 전략을 가장 많이 활용하고 있었다.

브랜드의 중요성이 날로 부각되는 시대에서 국가적 특성을 넘어, 지역만이 가지고 있는 자연환경, 교통, 음식, 패션, 건축, 축제 등의 문화는 지역브랜드로서 다양한 콘텐츠들을 통해 무궁무진한 관광상품으로 재창조 되어 글로벌한 경쟁력을 갖춘 요소들로 활약할 수 있다. 지역브랜드는 그 지역의 정서가 깃든 유·무형자원의 스토리텔링에 기반한 창의적 콘텐츠 확장을 통해 이루어지며, 지자체 주도형의 브랜드화 사업을 활성화 시키고 지역민과 방문객에게는 가치를 부여하여 그 지역을 파워 브랜드로 이끌 수 있기 때문에, 전 세계 여러 국가들이 도전하고 개발하는 요소이다. 이러한 현상은 문화콘텐츠 흐름에서 국가간에 중요한 산업적 영향을 미치고 있다. 그 지역의 매력적인 경관, 문화, 상품, 역사적인 장소, 인물, 행사 등은 방문한 사람들에게 인지도와 호감도 뿐만 아니라 신뢰도를 높일 수 있는 중요한 콘텐츠들이다. 그러므로 본 논문에서는 지역브랜드의 콘텐츠들로 인해 지역이미지를 강화시키는 일본 나고야의 명물·명소 사례를 살펴보면서 지역브랜드 개발을 통해 콘텐츠산업에 대한 관심과 중요성을 제안하고자 한다.