항공서비스의 소비자가치가 서비스 브랜드애착에 미치는 영향

Abstract

Recently, the airline industry is pursuing various competitive service strategies such as expanding airline routes, increasing the number of airlines and providing flexible fares in order to live up to various consumer expectations and most importantly overcome decreasing airline demand. Most research associated with the decision making process model in the field of consumer behavior estimates customer purchase patterns based on integrated decisions about service selections and popularity in order to establish consumer behavioral attitudes for goods or services. However, when consumers make a purchase decision while having no direct experience, insufficient information or even when they purchase a product or service they are familiar with, they choose the alternative they believe suits them the best, thereby shaping consumer visions. Consumer vision is an mental imaging process. Consumers can evaluate their purchases before they actually purchase, imagine the product or service, draw a vivid mental picture of the results, shape and reshape possible outcomes, create hypothetical scenarios and consider all of the potential factors regarding their purchase. If this is the case, what significant factors contribute to consumer vision? When customers express themselves by using services in order to satisfy personal self-expressiveness on, positive emotions such as pleasure or pride can be felt. They also regard opportunities for their self-expressiveness in terms of selecting or using a service. In addition, to satisfy social self-expressiveness, the services airlines provide contribute to unity among families, communities, cultural groups and the accomplishment of social objectives. Airline services can also garner a positive response among various individuals within the same occupation. As a result, customer self concept is an element of their consumer vision. When consumer self-expressiveness, personal or social, coincides with purchasing habits, it can incite the imagination to create new and complex information processes that will form more and more systematically. Therefore, it is necessary to research what effect self-expressiveness exerts on consumer vision in order to drive active consumer intention to use. However, because consumers are prone to choose services which reflect upon themselves and are therefore viewed positively, it is important to address the relationship between consumer value and self-expressiveness. In doing so, we should ask what kind of value airlines must provide to consumers in order to boost the competitiveness of their offerings. The point of creating competitive airline services is to increase consumer value and convenience and to analyze the influence of the perceived value on their decision making. Therefore, this research divides the process of forming an brand attachment for an airline service into personal and social consumer vision categories. First, this research explores personal/social consumer value associated with airline services based on sensual aesthetics, enjoyment, convenience of use, dignity, consumer consideration and social contribution. Second, this research establishes what effect various elements of airline service value have on personal/social self-expressiveness. Third, this research analyzes and proves what effect it is that airline consumer personal/social self-expressiveness has on consumer vision that shapes future consumer behavior and purchases. Fourth, this research explores the effect personal/social consumer vision have on brand attachment of airline. Lastly, this research assumes that the degree of this brand attachment is subject to change based on various factors of personal/social consumer vision. This research predicts that differing brand attachment forming processes will occur based on the type of airline, full service carrier or low cost carrier. Therefore, this research compares the brand attachment forming processes between two airline companies. A summary of the results with empirical data is as follows. First, it was examined that individual sensual aesthetics and enjoyment have a positive effect on personal self-expressiveness. However, convenience of use factors considered in this research do not have a significant effect on personal self-expressiveness for airline service consumers. Second, dignity, consumer consideration and social contribution were found to have a positive effect on social self-expressiveness. Third, it was concluded that consumer self-expressiveness has a positive effect on consumer vision when consumers imagine the outcome of a purchase. Fourth, it was learned that personal/social consumer vision has a positive effect on brand attachment to a service. Fifth, a result of investigating airline service moderating effect that personal/social consumer vision has on service brand attachment was that the relationship between social consumer vision and service brand attachment varies depending on airline type, that is, the effect that consumer social consumer vision has on service brand attachment was greater in consumers purchasing full service carrier than consumers purchasing low cost carrier. However, the effect that personal consumer vision has on service brand attachment showed no variation among differing airline companies. Based on the results, this research shows several implications. First, it can be concluded that consumer personal/social value, accompanied by distinctive company and service characteristics, is one of the strong themes to construct competitive services around. Second, the fact that consumer value has a positive effect on self-expressiveness means that it is necessary for airline companies to easily detect the various clues that consumers use to transfer their self-concept to airline companies and airline companies use to convey their appreciation to consumers. The limitations of this research are as follows: First, since the proposed variables to estimate consumer value in this research are not an absolute method, the measurement of factors reflecting consumer value management in detail should be an ongoing endeavor. Second, the scope of this research is limited to airline services only. Third, changes in consumer vision over time were not analyzed. Lastly, like other verifying researches, the restricted number of random sampling would make a limitation for generalization.