With the rapid advance in technology leading to an increased emphasis on active consumer experience for the transmission and proliferation of new product information and technology in the IT area, the establishment of an experiential environment is in...
With the rapid advance in technology leading to an increased emphasis on active consumer experience for the transmission and proliferation of new product information and technology in the IT area, the establishment of an experiential environment is increasingly being settled as a pivotal marketing strategy. In tune with such changes, IT corporations are carrying out experiential marketing strategies that focus on point of contact with consumers in order to establish an effective and differentiated experiential environment. Because the store, the most central space in the consumer vs brand relationship, is an experiential perception space where store attitude and purchase intention are determined through experience, its importance is being underscored in the marketing field as an important strategic issue.
Generally, consumers acquire product information within the distribution channel, accumulate brand image, and eventually make purchase decision. The fact that brand loyalty is strengthened through the overall experience and satisfaction within that space has repeatedly been supported by existing studies. With the absolute dominance of tele-communication being threatened by the popularity of smart-phones and changes in today's global environment, mobile phone manufacturers and tele-communication companies alike are looking to change their distribution strategies. Because the store is a place where consumers actually get to encounter new products directly amidst the rapid development of new technologies and new products, and due to the resultant overload of information for consumers, study on various forms and scales of distribution channel is an essential research project from both academic and business perspectives.
Particularly, in the case of the IT industry, which is heavily dependant on the global market, the issue of standardization, argued for since the 1980s, is no longer a contentious issue in the area of global marketing. In other words, localization that stresses the cultural factor of the applicable country is increasingly being emphasized as an essential research subject at the academic and business levels. Thus, this study primarily attempts to examine the changes in the marketing environment from a theoretical framework in order to discover the relationship among the experiential factor, store attitude and purchase intention. Then, it seeks to compare the difference in this relationship between Korea and the USA from a cross-cultural perspective. Finally, it seeks to analyze if there is a difference in the experiential factor according to distribution channel, store attitude and purchase intention.
The method of data collection used for this study involves conducting surveys on a total of 450 consumers, 225 from Korea and 225 from the USA, who had visited IT stores. Allocated sampling method that took the characteristics of store types and, of the questionnaires into consideration has been used. Furthermore, 13 consumers whose responses were insincere were discarded resulting in a total of 437 responses for the final analysis. Primarily, 22 check-list multi-items measuring deviation, sensation, information, experiential availability, store attitude and purchase intention were extracted into 6 factors using the Principle Component Analysis (PCA). To verify the construct validity of factor variables, KMO-Bartlett verification was used. To measure reliability, Cronback Alpha verification method was used. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship among the experiential factor, store attitude and purchase intention for hypothesis verification. Simple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between store attitude and purchase intention. And, Chow-test analysis was used to verify the differences in path co-efficiency between nations and distribution channel.
The results of the analysis indicate that firstly, various experiential factors, such as deviation, sensation, information, and experiential availability have a noticeable influence on store attitude and purchase intention, and that the factors influencing store attitude and purchase intention were in the order of sensation, information, experiential availability, and deviation respectively. In addition, store attitude was shown to have a strong influence on purchase intention. Secondly, in terms of the difference between Korea and United States, the deviation factor had a greater influence upon the store attitude in Korea, while experiential availability had a greater influence in the United States. In terms of relationship between experiential factors and purchase intention, the deviation factor alone had a greater influence in Korea compared to the United States. In addition, in the relationship between store attitude and purchase intention, Korea displayed a higher relationship compared to the United States. Thirdly, the examination of differences in distribution channel reveals that the relationship between each experiential factor and store attitude showed minimal differences. In the relationship between each experiential factor and purchase intention, only the sensation factor showed a difference. In addition, store attitude affecting purchase intention displayed only a minimal difference among each distribution channel.
The implications of this study are as follows. Firstly, this study proposes a new means of classification using experiential factors for IT store experiential research. The construct validity of the experiential factors classified in this study has been confirmed through a common study of Korean and American consumers, thus these items should be useful in future comparative research on consumer experience in the East as well as in the West, particularly in Korea and America. Secondly, the sensational factor is shown to have the greatest common influence on store attitude and purchase intention. Generally, the sensational factor has the greatest influence on purchase intention in the case of shop-in-shop, where the space is considered to be the most constrained, than in any other forms of channel. Even when the sensational factor is excluded to maximize the effectiveness of space, the fact that the sensational factor is felt strongly by consumers in the case of shop-in-shop, which was faithful to the functional aspect, and in small scale mobile phone stores, holds an important policy implication for future establishment of strategy for practical experiential marketing. Thirdly, the difference in the experiential factor in the area of sensation among Korean and American consumers indicates a need for consideration of national and cultural differences during store construction and when establishing experiential marketing strategies. Fourthly, as much effort is put into enhancing and managing the image of flagship stores with large budgetary investment, there is a need to recognize the importance of mobile phone stores and shop-in-shop that offer easy access to consumers as well. In sum, it is presumed that there is a need for a standardized store management based on the theory of experiential marketing including the application of consistent identity during various expansion of distribution channels and a segmented guideline that can be managed according to channel characteristics, etc.