International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 11 No. 2, Dec. 2011, pp. 65-78

A Study on the A Study on the Types and Characteristics of Types and 1) Characteristics of Fashion-Related Blogs Fashion-Related Blogs Munyoung Kim* ․ Hwayeon Kim** ․ Seaeun Kim*** Associate Professor, Dept. Fashion Marketing, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea*+ Graduate, Dept. of Clothing & Textiles, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea** Dr. course, Dept. of Clothing & Textiles, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea*** (Received November 10, 2011; Revised December 5, 2011: Accepted December 10, 2011)

Abstract which support to share information and communicate between online users have recently won great popularity. Of the various social services, blogs have played an active role as a community in sharing, delivering and exchanging information among individual users who have share similar opinions, hobbies and preferences. Based on this cultural phenomenon, some companies often take advantage of blogs as a marketing tool to strengthen their public relations or deliver particular in- formation to their costumer. This study is designed to classify fashion-related blogs and define the char- acteristics of each type, expecting significant influences on future studies on this topic. We selected 50 fashion-related blogs as subjects, including 25 Korean blogs and the same number of international blogs, defined their characteristics and classified them into four different types. As the result, we found that there are apparent differences between the four types of blogs: "Individual taste" blogs which noticeably reflect bloggers' own preference, "Trend leader" blogs in which the bloggers intend to be trend leaders beyond expressing their preference, "Fashion media" blogs which plays a significant role as a magazine by providing various information concerning fashion for costumers, and "Sales promotion" blogs which are used as promotional materials to attract customers by providing product reviews or advertisements.

Key words fashion blog, blog, blog types, social media, Memedia

Introduction

In the 21st century when the importance of emotions and communication is being highlighted, the social paradigm is shifting toward emotional and empirical values, and a wide range of social networks are be- ing formed based on the development and convergence of state-of-the-art information and multimedia technologies. In addition, the ubiquitous internet environment has reinforced communication between in- dividuals, and between individual and the society; and the developed personal media environment has turned customers into being both buyers and producers simultaneously, and encouraged them to recreate products that reflect their evaluations and ideas, opinions. Such activities are being gradually spread with growing influences of personalized media. In particular, in this era of , marketing activities on

Corresponding author: Munyoung Kim e-mail: [email protected] 65 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

social networks have become a dominant trend, and marketers rely on social networks, more than any IJCF other tools, for the collection of consumer information. Vol.11 No.2 Service systems that support activities based on human networking are embodied in various forms, like Memedia-style blogs, UCCs and mini-homepages. Currently, the activities are sup- ported by an increasing number of social network services, including portal-based Memedia blogs, , , , Cyworld and Netlogs, to name a few. Among them, Facebook, Cyworld and Netlogs focus on forming interpersonal relationships, while Twitter, blogs, and Me2Day emphasize expressing personal opinions or sharing information. In the early days, social network services were, as the name suggests, mainly utilized to build per- sonal networks, promote their relationships and share personal ideas between them. However, as the in- fluence of social network has increased, the services have evolved into alternative media that cover wide-ranging activities, such as information sharing for business, exchanges of ideas and marketing campaigns. In particular, blogs that allow users to post their opinions or research results without censorship and attract people who share the same ideas have become influential media and served as a primary channel for Memedia. As blogs, once regarded as personal hobbies, have become specialized and gained public confidence, bloggers have become content producers and fashion bloggers have particularly become influential. Accordingly, this study is to examine fashion-related blogs. There are different types of fash- ion blogs: a blog as a space on which the blogger posts his/her opinion about fashion, a blog as a space through which the blogger distributes information about popular trends, or a blog as a space by which the blogger conducts comparative product research for market intelligence. This study is to catego- rize fashion blogs and analyze them by type.

Theoretical Background

Concept of Blog and Relevant Terminologies

The word Blog is a combination of "b" from web and "log" (a travel journal), and by dictionary, refers to a web journal on which a person freely posts articles about whatever s/he is interested in. Blog ar- ticles are not usually bound by a certain style, and cover an extensive range of topics, from personal daily life to opinions on public issues. Blogs, as a new social paradigm, gave birth to new terms related to blogging activities. For example, a "fashion blog" refers to a blog dealing with the subject of fashion, a "power blog" refers to a blog that is well known to netizens and has a great number of visitors and postings, and "scrap" refers to importing another blogger's posting to one's own blog.

Characteristics and Functions of Blog

Blogs allow individuals to collect, store and record information and share it with many and unspecified 66 persons, and bloggers sometimes create a blog community by linking with other bloggers. International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

Gang Tae-joong et al., (2006) found that blogs served various functions, including social relation- A Study on the ship, information, self-expression, entertainment, journalism and escaping/resting. Most blogs include sev- Types and eral of the functions, not just one of them. This is because how visitors respond to one's blogging is Characteristics of important in pursuing the purpose of a blog. As public responses may be estimated by the number of Fashion-Related Blogs visitors or comments, most bloggers are very sensitive about them. In this regard, an important function of blogs is creating social relationships. As such, social relationships are formed by articles or in- formation provided by bloggers, many blogs are simply distributing unverified or unverifiable rumors or gossip. Seong Yoen-shin et al., (2001) found that blogs have great word-of-mouth impact online, mostly backed by use of online boards; the online word-of-mouth impact reaches out unlimitedly; one posting can deliver information to many and unspecified persons because it is possible to record and store in- formation online; and two-way communication is possible by sharing ideas through comments. In addition, blogs provide a venue where users can select, save and share information on the inter- est and thus enable active communication between users. They are also used as a tool to maximize mar- keting effects. In particular, power blogs who have a great number of followers serve as independent media to distribute individual or corporate information. In this regard, Song Seon-jeong (2008) said that while users scrap information from other blogs or spread the information, blogs speed up the pace of in- formation distribution online.

Trend of Blog and Relevant Research

Emerging as a new form of communication media, blogs have taken root as the, so called, "It media," backed by broad participation and information sharing via online. In particular, blogs have become choice of weapons for Memedia that present public interest in political and social issues as well as everyday information, and the influence is growing day by day. There were approximately 70 million blogs glob- ally in 2007, and 120,000 are being added every day. Over the last 2 years, the number of blogs surged by 16 times, and the number of postings per month by 10 times. During the same period, 100 million video clips were posted on YouTube (Korea Information Security Agency, 2007). In Korea, the blog service began by WIK (Web Login Korea) in December 2001, and gain popu- larity by MiniHome service of Cyworld. The MiniHome service, which was different from archetypical American blog services in terms of the contents or technology, was accepted by the public as a new form of blog since it served as a tool of self-expression based on text or images and enabled users to connect with other users. Later, NAVER penetrated into the blog market by making it easy to use arche- typical blogs, and became one of the two pillars, along with Cyworld, of the domestic blog market (Lee Min-seon et al., 2006). The Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) conducted research on the trend of domestic blog operation, and found that whereas early blogs mainly consisted of MiniHomes of young people in their teens and 20s, blogs have been gradually used by different generations and evolved into important media through which socially influential figures, like politicians, celebrities, writers and critics, 67 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

express their professional opinions. IJCF According to studies about blog activities, Blood (2002) identified three motives of blog use: in- Vol.11 No.2 formation sharing, reputation seeking and personal expression, and explained that blogs were categorized into three types in accordance with their formats and contents. Depending on the format of content pro- vision, blogs are divided into three types: one is a simple blog that is frequently updated just like a log and mainly about short, personal , another is a notebook type that talks about more macro issues in longer articles from contemplative perspectives, and the other is a filter blog that is similar to the notebook, but mostly provides news about certain topics with its focus on outside, rather than personal stories. Kwon Sang-hee (2005) insisted that the newly-emerging blogs have various functions, including in- formation sharing, communication, social connection and entertainment, and analyzed communicators, blog formats and composition, contents and purposes, communication types, connectivity, regularity and sim- ilarities of blogs to define blog genres. Lee Min-seon and Park Cheol (2006) examined precedent studies and assumed that blogs differ by the users' motives. They defined three blog types: relationship-oriented blogs that focus on personal lives to maintain relationships with others, information-oriented blogs that aims at sharing professional in- formation and knowledge, and transaction-oriented blogs that are used as corporate marketing tools to di- rectly and indirectly affect corporate transactions. Yoon Myeong-hee (2007) defined a blog as a single-person community to seek for leaning and in- formation, and identified four types according to interactivity and connectivity: activity type, seclusive type, destructive type and alternative type. As such, previous studies categorized blogs by their purposes and contents, and this study also chooses contents of fashion blogs as the categorization criteria.

Study Methodology and Process

Study Subject

Subjects of this study are selected among fashion blogs that were being operated as of March 2011: 25 Korean blogs were chosen by the best blog selections of domestic portals, the number of visitors and posting scraps, and 25 overseas blogs were by the power blog list of Fashion Biz. February 2010 edition.

Table 1. 25 Selected Korean Blog List Korean Blog List Blog Name Blog Address Selection Criteria 1 Yujin's Special Life blog.naver.com/yujingoon Power bloggers selected by Style.com 68 2 We Make Fashion wemakefashion.com International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

Korean Blog List A Study on the Blog Name Blog Address Selection Criteria Types and 3 Hasta la victoria siempre! blog.naver.com/shoona85 Characteristics of 4 SBJH blog.naver.com/sbjh12345 Fashion-Related 5 Dodojangil blog.naver.com/kaga2000 Blogs 6 Andy‘s Room blog.naver.com/etchbond Power bloggers selected 7 Whispering to Fashion blog.naver.com/etchbond by NAVER 8 StyleFish blog.naver.com/swingfish 9 The Elegance of Classic blog.naver.com/alann 10 Fashion Blog Missyum blog.naver.com/jeromz 11 Il Gusto Del Signore blog.naver.com/gustosignore 12 The Fashion Empire of Kim Hong Gi blog..net/film-art Best blogs selected by 13 Life & Style Story blog.daum.net/ansyd DAUM 14 MANABOUT blog.daum.net/manabout 15 Her Fashion blog.naver.com/rjhgreat 16 Julie Style blog.naver.com/diamondsu 17 ARJAY Fashion Blog blog.naver.com/jitae6869 18 Women's Fashion blog.naver.com/xkask282 19 BluePop Fashion Diary blog.naver.com/nabi_aki5 Number of visitors 20 Herbalife blog.naver.com/0808hee 21 Streetfsn blog.naver.com/hbnam24 22 DailyCodi dailycodi.com 23 Minibbong blog.naver.com/byeyouandme 24 Fashion Angel blog.naver.com/madeleineok 25 Fashion Blog blog.naver.com/jj7024 Number of post scraps

Table 2. 25 Selected Overseas Blog List Overseas Blog List Blog Name Blog Address Selection Criteria 1 THE SARTORIALIST thesartorialist.blogspot.com 2 GARANCE DORE garancedore.fr 3 STYLE BUBBLE stylebubble.typepade.com 4 STLYE ROOKIE tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com 5 FASHIONISTA fashionista.com 6 FASHIONHIPPO fashionhippo.com February 2010. 7 THE CHERRY BLOSSOM GIRL thecherryblossomgirl.com Power blogs selected by 8 MANOLO'S SHOE BLOG shoeblogs.com Fashion Biz. 9 JEZEBEL jezebel.com 10 FASHION TOAST fashiontoast.com 11 A Shaded View On Fashion ashadedviewonfashion.com 12 BRYAN BOY bryanboy.com 13 CATWARK QUEEN catwalkqueen.tv 69 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

IJCF Overseas Blog List Blog Name Blog Address Selection Criteria Vol.11 No.2 14 FACE HUNTER facehunter.blogspot.com 15 JAK & JIL BLOG jakandjil.com/blog 16 LIBERTY LONDON GIRL libertylondongirl.blogspot.com 17 REDCARPET fashionawards redcarpet-fashionawards.com 18 THE MOMENT themoment.blogs.nytimes.com 19 WHAT KATIE WORE whatkatiewore.com 20 GO FUG YOURSELF gofugyourself.com 21 GOOP goop.com 22 THE THOUGHTFUL DRESSER thethoughtfuldresser.blogspot.com 23 WHAT IS JAMES WEARING whatisjameswearing.com 24 LOVE thelovemagazineblog.wordpress.com 25 THE CUT nymag.com/daily/fashion

Study Methodology

The contents of 50 selected blogs were analyzed according to openness, control, indirectness and direct- ness, the four factors of characteristics analysis program People Smart discussed by the study of Yoo Seon-mi and Shin Se-young (2010). Based on the factors, secondary type analyses were conducted, in- cluding blog design, content composition and communication.

Table 3. Criteria of Blog Type Analysis Items Characteristics Banner Template - Does the banner design represent the blogger's characteristics and taste? Main Template - Does the main page include the blogger's photo? - What items consist of the contents of the category? Category - How specifically the fashion contents are categorized? - In what forms the contents are comprised of regarding fashion? - Does the blogger present creativity in creation/production of fashion data by taking pictures firsthand? Or, are the data simply scrapped from other blogs? - Does the blogger expose him/herself in developing the contents? Or, does s/he Contents develop the contents via others or objects? - Are the information on fashion objective or subjective? - Is the information provided mainly by text or images? - Does the blogger open the number of visitors, subscribers and scraps? - Does the blogger have active communication with visitors through comments or Communication SNS? - Does the blogger run events to promote communication with visitors?

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Study Results A Study on the Types and Type and Characteristics of Fashion Blog Characteristics of Fashion-Related Fashion blogs, unlike other blogs on social media, presented a strong tendency of sharing information. In Blogs addition, bloggers tended to express, or sometimes show off, themselves via the topic of fashion, and their blogs often served as a trend setter backed by the popularity. Another distinctive characteristic is that fashion blogs are utilized as PR or advertising tools to cre- ate marketing effects and promote sales. Such blogs are mostly regarded as power blogs that have sig- nificant influences on consumers, and thus fashion brands not only operate their own blogs, but also hang advertising banners on power blogs so that they can promote their products. As such, blogging is no longer a personal hobby, but has become a marketing strategy to maximize corporate marketing effects. Fashion blogs are highly developed not only in their contents, but also designs, and utilized as an advertising and PR space, beyond media on which bloggers simply express their opinions or provide information. Referring to the study of Yoo Seon-mi and Shin Se-young (2010), this study established the four categorization criteria of blog content analysis, in accordance with the content types presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Categorization Criteria for Blog Content Analysis Factors Categorization Criteria The blogger freely expresses his/her preference and style. The blogger expresses his/her interest in addition to fashion. Openness The blogger clearly expresses his/her characteristics and ideas. The blogger exposes and share his/her daily life. The blogger often expose his/her face or own style. The blogger consistently expresses his/her preference. The blogger share his/her preference with practical contents. Control The blogger expresses his/her preference in detail. The blogger expresses his/her preference only in fashion. The blogger hardly expose himself/herself. The blogger shares objective information on fashion. The blogger delivers facts, rather than opinions. Indirectness The blogger specifically describes information on fashion and fashion products. The blogger provides useful information for visitors, rather than expressing his/her preference. The blogger regularly updates information. The blogger share subjective information on fashion. Positively-described information has significant PR impact. Directness The blog contains many reviews based on firsthand experiences. The blog contains information that stimulates purchase. The blog contents have significant influences on visitors. 71 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

According to the criteria, blogs are categorized into four types: 1) Trend Leader type that strongly IJCF presents the characteristic of openness, 2) Individual Taste type that presents the characteristic of control Vol.11 No.2 and aims at collecting and sharing information without bloggers' self-expression, 3) Fashion Media type that presents indirectness and serves as a information channel, and 4) Sales Promotion type that presents directness and delivers subjective information on fashion and experiences by utilizing creative postings.

Categorization Results of 50 Power Fashion Blogs

The result of the categorization of the 50 domestic and overseas power blogs is as follows. As one sub- ject was usually included in two or more categories, one subject is used once or more in the frequency analysis. The most frequently-appearing type was Fashion Media (29), followed by Sales Promotion (28), Individual Taste (25) and Trend Leader (18). A Fashion Media blog is strongly informative as it pro- vides objective information. The blogger restricts personal opinions, but mostly connects the real-life trend with scrap postings. Companies can use the Media-type blog as their marketing and PR venue. A Sales Promotion blog assumes PR roles by including the blogger's experiences and product reviews. It has strong influences on companies as it can serve as either a pro-product or an anti-product campaign site of a brand or a company that the blogger likes or dislikes. Recently, an increasing number of ad- vertisements are posted on blogs as part of corporate marketing activities. An Individual Taste blog is like a personal world of the blogger who posts one's everyday stories and journals, and scraps and collects articles and data about fashion. It aims at self-satisfaction, not com- munication with the public. A Trend Leader blog includes the blogger's criticism, suggestions and recommendations about fash- ion, and thus a fashion company may use the blog as a marketing tool. As such, blogs that began as a form of social network services and focused on forming and strengthening interpersonal relationships and sharing personal ideas between users have evolved into a strategic business tool backed by their influences on social networking and accompanied effects. In other words, a fashion blog has become a strategic marketing tool of companies, not limited to a personal preference-oriented Memedia or a mere trend distributor.

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A Study on the Types and Characteristics of Fashion-Related Blogs

Figure 1. Composition of Fashion Blog Types

Case Study on Home and Domestic Power Fashion Blogs

As Figure 1 suggests, Fashion Media blogs are the most common type, followed by Sales Promotion, Individual Taste and Trend Leader types. This may be because fashion blogs have important roles in sharing information about fashion, and the Fashion Media type includes information on fashion brands, products and celebrities. Characteristics of the types are summarized in Table 5 as belows.

Table 5. Characteristics of Fashion Blog Types Type Characteristics Blog Examples

No self-ex- pression, Mostly Hasta la victoria siempre!, scrapped contents Dodojangil, The Fashion Empire of Fashion about fashion Kim Hong Gi, Life & Style Story, Media brands, products CATWARK QUEEN, LIBERTY and celebrities, LONDON Objective

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IJCF Type Characteristics Blog Examples Vol.11 No.2

Self-expression, Creative postings, Reviews about Yujin's Special Life, We Make Sales products/services, Fashion, SBJH, Andy‘s Room, Promotion PR-oriented, StyleFish Objective+ Subjective

No self-ex- pression, Whispering to Fashion, StyleFish, Daily lives, The Elegance of Classic, Il Gusto Individual Personal jour- Del Signore, THE SARTORIALIST, Taste nal-like, MANOLO'S SHOE BLOG, FACE Fashion collection, HUNTER, JAK & JIL BLOG, Creative+scrapped postings

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Type Characteristics Blog Examples A Study on the Types and Characteristics of Fashion-Related Blogs

Self-expression, Daily lives, GARANCE DORE, STYLE Self-expression by Trend BUBBLE, STYLE ROOKIE, THE icons, Leader CHERRY BLOSSOM GIRL, Creative postings, FASHION TOAST, BRYAN BOY Image-oriented, Subjective

Fashion Media

As the Fashion Media type serves a media function by providing consumers and bloggers with var- ious information on fashion from an objective perspective, the contents are regularly updated. The blog- gers mainly post news about fashion brands and celebrities, and often summarize and re-organize original articles by scraping them from the source websites or blogs. This bears a significant resemblance to what magazines do. However, the Media bloggers mostly refrain from expressing their subjective ideas, but try to deliver fair and objective information. Thus, quality of the contents are also excellent. Accordingly, visitors' comments on the postings were mostly expression of appreciation, like "Thank you for the useful information," or "The information is helpful," and the subscription rates were also high. This may be attributable to the fact that an increasing number of consumers and other bloggers visit the Media blogs via search engines, and consequently influential power blogs emerged. Representative Fashion Media blogs are Yujin's Special Life, Hasta la victoria siempre! , Dodojangil, StyleFish, The Fashion Empire of Kim Hong Gi, Life & Style Story, MANABOUT, Her Fashion ARJAY Fashion Blog, Women's Fashion, Minibbong, Fashion Angel, Fashion Blog, STYLE BUBBLE, FASHIONISTA, FASHIONHIPPO, JEZEBEL, BRYAN BOY, CATWARK QUEEN, LIBERTY LONDON GIRL, REDCARPET fashionawards, THE MOMENT, GOOP, THE THOUGHTFUL DRESSER, WHAT IS JAMES WEARING, LOVE and THE CUT.

Sales Promotion

The Sales Promotion type mostly presents a strong PR role by displaying reviews on products or product launching events, and strongly stimulates consumers' purchase desire. As bloggers personally use 75 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

a product or visit a product launching event, take photos and post them with detailed explanations, their IJCF blogs are highly trusted. However, as the postings are based on subjective ideas, they have strong ten- Vol.11 No.2 dency to positively emphasize some information to promote products. Accordingly, visitors' comments on the postings include many questions about the products or communication between visitors and the blog- gers, like "Can I buy the product at other stores than ***?" or "Does it come in another color?". In ad- dition to comments, consumer-participating events also play a great role in active communication. As se- curing loyal bloggers by communication is important for brand marketing activities to gain confidence and PR power, bloggers also earn profits from the blogging activities. Furthermore, considering that some of the bloggers actually operate shopping malls, Sales Promotion bloggers can be called Professional bloggers. Representative Sales Promotion blogs are Yujin's Special Life, We Make Fashion, SBJH, Andy‘s Room, StyleFish, StyleFish, The Elegance of Classic, Fashion Blog Missyum, Il Gusto Del Signore, The Fashion Empire of Kim Hong Gi, Julie Style, Women's Fashion, BluePop Fashion Blog, Herbalife, streetfsn, DailyCodi, Minibbong, THE SARTORIALIST, GARANCE DORE, STYLE BUBBLE, STLYE ROOKIE, FASHIONISTA, FASHIONHIPPO, THE CHERRY BLOSSOM GIRL, FASHION TOAST, BRYAN BOY, GOOP and WHAT IS JAMES WEARING.

Individual Taste

In Individual Taste blogs, unlike the Trend Leader type, the bloggers do not expose themselves, but collect information about their preferred style. Although the contents are limited to fashion, they are specific enough to provide useful information for visitors. However, the postings are not created by the bloggers, but mostly imported from other blogs with bloggers' comments on them. Visitors' comments were not distinctive from other types. Among overseas power blogs, THE SARTORIALIST and FACE HUNTER included in this category were as influential as Trend Leader blogs. Although the two bloggers actually take pictures of street fashion and post them on their blogs, they were faithful to the purpose of the blog without exposing themselves. Hence, the two blogs were included in this type. Representative Individual Taste blogs are Yujin's Special Life, Hasta la victoria siempre!, Andy’s Room, Whispering to Fashion, StyleFish, The Elegance of Classic, Il Gusto Del Signore, The Fashion Empire of Kim Hong Gi, Women's Fashion, streetfsn, DailyCodi, THE SARTORIALIST, STYLE BUBBLE, FASHIONISTA, FASHIONHIPPO, MANOLO'S SHOE BLOG, A Shaded View On Fashion, BRYAN BOY, FACE HUNTER, JAK & JIL BLOG, WHAT KATIE WORE, GO FUG YOURSELF, THE THOUGHTFUL DRESSER, LOVE and THE CUT.

Trend Leader

In Trend Leader blogs, bloggers expose themselves and actively express their own style or their everyday lives. In addition to fashion, bloggers cover culture and art, and tend to present themselves as 76 cultural icons. Thus, the fashion information is highly subjective, and most images and short comments International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1- posted on the blogs are about the bloggers themselves, and self-expressive and even showy. In fact, visi- A Study on the tors' comments mainly consisted of praise, like "You look beautiful," "You look cook," or "That's what I Types and expected from you!!!" demonstrating that visitors were like followers of the bloggers. Accordingly, the Characteristics of visitors scrap the postings of Trend Leader blogs more than any other types, and some overseas Trend Fashion-Related Blogs Leader blogs have more than 100,000 visitors a day. In fact, Korean power bloggers also scrap postings from the popular overseas blogs. Although this type accounts for the smallest portion among the four types, it has the greatest impact on other bloggers and consumers. Representative Trend Leader blogs are We Make Fashion, SBJH, The Elegance of Classic, Il Gusto Del Signore, The Fashion Empire of Kim Hong Gi, BluePop Fashion Blog, DailyCodi, Minibbong, GARANCE DORE, STYLE BUBBLE, STYLE ROOKIE, THE CHERRY BLOSSOM GIRL, FASHION TOAST, A Shaded View On Fashion, BRYAN BOY, WHAT KATIE WORE and WHAT IS JAMES WEARING.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Based on the aforementioned analysis, this research categorized fashion blogs, according to the blog type analysis criteria, into four types: 1) Trend Leader type that distributes a large amount of information and presents openness, 2) Individual Taste type that aims at collecting and sharing information without expos- ing the blogger and presents the characteristics of control, 3) Fashion Media type that serves as an in- formation distribution channel, rather than exposing or expressing the blogger, and 4) Sales Promotion type that provides creative postings, and subjective information on fashion and bloggers' firsthand experi- ences to recommend products. Although the Fashion Media type is the most common, Trend Leader type is the most influential backed by high subscription rates and the significant number of members. However, most Trend Leaders are overseas blogs. Having covered not only fashion, but also other topics with quality contents, they have secured strong public confidence. On the other hand, domestic blogs largely consist of scraps, not bloggers' own articles or creative postings, and thus lag behind their overseas counterpart in terms of contents quality. In addition, many domestic bloggers that are included in the Sales Promotion type exist not as part of social network, but as part of the business realm. In the beginning, blogs were simply regarded as part of social network services, and aimed at building interpersonal network, strengthening personal rela- tionships and sharing personal opinions, However, with the growing influence of social network, blogs have evolved into a strategic tool of business. In other words, fashion blogs have reinforced their role as a strategic marketing tool of companies, beyond personal preference-oriented Memedia or trend distrib- utors to share individual fashion awareness. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it examined the operation trend of fashion blogs and categorized them into four types in times when the influence of social network on fashion is increasing. However, this study was limited to the analysis of the phenomenon that fashion blogs intend 77 International Journal of Costume and Fashion Vol. 10 No. 2, December 2010, pp. 1-

to present, failing to analyze their influence on consumers or other practical aspects as a strategic tool of IJCF fashion marketing. This must be an important subject of future studies, considering the influence of so- Vol.11 No.2 cial network, including fashion blogs, on consumers.

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