An Effect on a Consumption Behaviors according to a Value Recognition toward Traditional Culture
-focused on Hanbok, Hanok, and Korean Food-
Recently, the interest toward our traditional culture is on the rise in ev ...
An Effect on a Consumption Behaviors according to a Value Recognition toward Traditional Culture
-focused on Hanbok, Hanok, and Korean Food-
Recently, the interest toward our traditional culture is on the rise in every nook and corner of our society, and a lot variety of relevant researches, product development and sale, uses, exhibitions, and broadcastings on Hanbok, Hanok, and korean food have taken place. In line with this
trend, our government has performed a various support to invigorate our culture with a rising concern about the utilization of traditional culture which enforces a creative competitiveness in a knowledge-based society. In addition, the government has also carried out researches on not only harmonizing its value, technology, and contents with modern society but stretching out the demand and supply of a high value product of our traditional culture. However, with a lack of reflection and analysis on its direction, nature, and origin, our culture has lost its way and been rapidly swept up into commercialism and western pop-culture. So, in this environment, how consumers perceive our heritage is the most essential motivation to purchase our traditional products. Accordingly, considering consumers' recognition toward traditional culture the most important, this paper investigated what kind of value modern Korean had perceived and also identified the relation between the value recognition and consumption behaviors of the products. Moreover, the paper suggested a practical implication to improve the effectiveness of marketing in traditional culture.
To achieve these goal, an academically systematic study for the value of traditional culture indicated in the consuming pattern of the products was required. Therefore, the research on it was preceded by the experts of related fields, and a quantitative, qualitative study were conducted through in depth interviews and focus group interviews by them.
In the qualitative study, after choosing out 28 experts located in Seoul and the metropolitan area, one-to-one depth interviews and two to four focus group ones were carried out and then, a statement was filled in. The paper categorized the key words extracted from the statement of the experts, analysed the concept structure of the recognition to traditional culture, and, based on that result, drew out questions measuring it.
On the ground of the recognition and preceding research indicated in the result of the qualitative study, the questions for the value recognition of traditional culture were made. After verifying the feasibility of them through a preliminary research, a survey was conducted. The survey was carried out targeting 745 men and women over 20 and under 60 through on and off line. Using SPSS WIN 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 for the data analysis, factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, group analysis, cross analysis, and variance analysis were performed. In the quantitative study based on the result of the qualitative one, firstly, consumers' value recognition was placed in a lower dimension; secondly, consumer groups were classified depending on the recognition; at last, the difference of consumption behaviors in each group was identified. Specific results are as follows.
First of all, consumers' concept structure of the value recognition were shown as 7 values like aesthetic, psychological, societal, historical, symbolic, culture contents, and wellbeing/LOHAS one in the result of qualitative study. It could be an important and basic data research to identify the lower dimension of consumers' recognition to the value of traditional culture.
Next, according to the empirically identified result, the lower dimension of their value recognition were divided into 5 factors such as emotional/aesthetic, societal, historical, symbolic, and instrumental one. Psychological value, here, having ideal and abstract characteristics was recognised to consumers not as a dependent thing but as an included thing in aesthetic and symbolic one. It could be interpreted that psychological value in an age of materialism has cor-relation with other values, not being an independent one. Also, culture contents value using the value as means and wellbeing/LOHAS value were combined as one and integrated as an instrumental one. It seems to be the influence of the Korean wave, which is on the center of Korean culture nowadays. And there were differences between the recognition of experts and that of consumers in the contents of the Korean wave. In other words, experts thought that the Korean wave was the cultural factor of our traditional culture but consumers did it was a pop culture such as K-pop rather than the traditional thing.
Finally, according to the recognition, groups were distinctly divided into 4; a group having higher interest, a group pursing succession, a group pursing practical interest, and a group having lower interest, but in consumption behaviors, the separation was not distinctive. The result shows that consumers' recognition is different depending on the preference, purchase experience, satisfaction, and orientation of a long term relationship. Moreover, it means the leading consumers of the traditional products are only parts of experts or maniacs, and general consumers are still half-hearted in an actual consumption in spite of their perception to them.
Consequently, the paper suggested if the traditional culture gave an actual benefit to an individual and society, the recognition to it was connected to the consumption. The paper also could pave the way to seek for a specific methodology on various education and experiences, positively enforcing the recognition on the conception structure of consumers. At the same time, it could provide consumers with information utilized as a marketing competition strategy such as planning of traditional culture products and market segmentation.