Online shopping is a critical drive in the distribution industry and market, and is growing continuously. People choose among various products, using the expanded choices by utilizing internet, and have movable preference and loyalty. So, online shopp...
Online shopping is a critical drive in the distribution industry and market, and is growing continuously. People choose among various products, using the expanded choices by utilizing internet, and have movable preference and loyalty. So, online shopping malls are trying to identify the customers’ preferences, design the approaches appropriate to them, and attract the attentions of the customers. Particularly, the consumers using online fashion shopping malls tend to purchase they feel attractive when they try on it, rather than the ones mannequins put on or just hang on. So, advertising models for online fashion shopping malls, so called fitting models, have big roles in marketing for shopping malls. Marketers consider important to procure attractive ad models that can represent their shopping malls. However, the shopping mall models with perfect body shapes far from the averaged women with usual body shapes sometimes cause skepticism about the products or at least they can fail to give trust to the visitors. In this study we examined the influence of online ad models on customers’ emotions and the effects of the ads. And the results of this study are expected to be used as materials for raising understanding about the customers of online fashion shopping malls.
The substantial survey for this study used the way of questionnaire. The online survey was done to the 20-30 ages women in nationwide who have purchasing experiences using on-line shopping. 350 copies of the questionnaire were recovered and used for final statistics and analysis. In the questionnaire, we modified and supplemented the items that were used in the previous studies.
According to the analysis of the results, the more a customer thinks of a model attractive, both positive and negative feelings are increasing.
Body-image discrepancy doesn’t have significant influence on positive feelings, but does on negative feelings. The larger a customer feels the discrepancy of the body images between a model and herself, the negative feelings are larger. In the influence of the body-image discrepancy on positive feelings, the differences between the high and low group were not significant. But on negative feelings, there were differences between the groups. It means that who perceive the body-image discrepancy from a model as larger also perceive the negative feelings as larger.
Thin-ideal internalizations have significant differences by ages. The women in 30s showed higher degree of internalization than the women in 20s. Thin-ideal Internalizations have influences on both positive and negative emotions. The stronger a customer internalizes a thin and attractive body image, positive and negative emotions are increasing together. In the influence of thin-ideal internalization, there were significant differences by ages. In both the women in 20s and 30s, the stronger they internalize the thin ideal, the higher their positive emotion was. But, the women in 30s have higher positive emotion, as they have higher degree of internalization, which is different from the women in 20s.
Shopping emotions have influences on the attitude toward model, and the attitude toward the model on the attitude on the products, and then the attitude on the products on purchase intentions, sequentially. The more a customer feels positive/negative feelings, it forms a favor attitude to a model or a product, and eventually influences positively on purchase intentions. Also, the attitudes on models influence directly on purchase intentions, resulting into raise of purchase intentions, as a customer has positive attitudes to advertisement models.
The results are summed up as follows: When a customer considers a fitting model more attractive, she desires to resemble the model, but at the same time she thinks of the model as too different and far from herself. Also, when a customer feels larger the body discrepancy between the advertisement model and herself, and places the reference of beauty on thin and skinny body shape, the negative emotion was higher. The attractive advertisement models presented by the marketers of online fashion market catch attentions of customers, but it doesn’t always cause positive emotions. Or, too much attractive models can cause negative emotions. But one of the important reason the online marketers use those kinds of attractive advertisement models is very that those negative emotions, like positive emotions, create positive advertisement effects.
However, if those marketing methods using highly attractive advertisement models continue, negative feelings of customers will beyond positive emotions, and someday it might have unexpected negative influences on advertisement effects. Even after a customer buys a product, if she sees different silhouette from the advertisement model, it may reduce trust toward the shopping mall, and revisit to the shopping mall and repurchase are likely not to occur.
Therefore, on-line media, let alone existing media like TV and journals, have to realize that they are leading proliferation of thin body value. And they have to refrain from deliverance to customers of the artificial and unrealistic images to consumers. If they reject use of the advertisement models with the body dimensions that usual women are difficult to achieve, and use attractive models with minimized discrepancy with usual women, they would expect more effective marketing. At the same time, they need to offer the exact body dimensions of the advertisement models, so that the consumers consider body shape of the models. And they also can present additionally the undoctored pictures and raise trust of consumer to the products.