The brand strategy reflecting the perspectives held by emotional consumers in the fiercely competitive market that is present in the 21C global era is important. Accordingly, it is very urgent to create and manage the brand equity reflecting the custo...
The brand strategy reflecting the perspectives held by emotional consumers in the fiercely competitive market that is present in the 21C global era is important. Accordingly, it is very urgent to create and manage the brand equity reflecting the customer's standpoint for the steady growth that is the permanent corporate purpose. Namely, the customer's experience and recognition created through the various differentiated marketing activities performed by a company become the consumer's brand knowledge, and the whole consumer brand knowledge results in completing the corporate brand power and the brand equity (Keller, 2001). The independent standpoint held by an emotional consumer is obvious in the fashion market that is the arena of competition for global brands. Most of all, the brand strategy and the brand equity management are important in the companies in the sports casual region.
The research was done for the EXR competing with the global sports casual brands to show that the consumer-brand relation affects the creation of the brand equity in the sports casual brands. Accordingly, the research was done with the following method and for the following scope.
First, the structural relation in which the customer-brand relation and the detailed factor of the consumer-brand relation called brand identification affect the brand equity components was clarified. Moreover, the difference between purchase behavior based on the customers in the online and offline stores, demographic characteristics, and life styles and research variables was checked. Second, the non-probabilistic sampling method was used for the main customers with the product purchase experiences obtained by visiting the online and offline stores of EXR. Third, the frequency analysis was done to check the demographic characteristics of samples including gender, age, educational background, occupation, and monthly average in come and the purchase characteristics of sports casual clothing brands. Fourth, validity and reliability of the composition concept were analyzed in the research. Fifth, the cluster analysis was done for the four fashion life style factors. Sixth, the research problems and hypotheses were verified on the basis of the results of the above effect relations.
The research result showed that the EXR customer-brand relation, brand identification, and brand equity factors consist of several sub levels and form the mutually organic correlation. As the result of making an analysis to find out the customer-brand relation, the three factors such as 'behavioral immersion', 'emotional bond' and 'cognitive belief' were collected. The two factors such as the personal identification and social identification as the brand identification were derived to show the effectiveness of the stepwise cause and effect model that internal and external variables can af- fect the creation of brand equity. The five conceptual factors such as brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality, brand attitude, and brand loyalty were derived as the lower factors of brand equity. Moreover, as for the fashion life styles of the customers purchasing the EXR products, the four factors with the 1.0 or higher unique values such as ‘fashion-oriented', ’brand-oriented', ‘health-oriented' and ’practical application oriented' were extracted. As the result, they were classified into three groups such as ‘wellbeing group', ‘brand-directed group', and ‘practical life style group' to check the difference between purchase behavior and brand equity components.
If they are integrated with the brand equity creating factors stated in the previous researches, it is expected that the brand equity creating model that is more explainable will be developed. Furthermore, the implications on the results of the research were presented on the basis of EXR cases to propose the sustainable brand strategy for EXR and to furnish the basis for sports casual companies to establish their brand strategies.