TV홈쇼핑 쇼 호스트의 이미지와 상품군의 상관관계

Abstract

The study intends to look into the images of show hosts, a concept of shopping assistants which has emerged along with a new shopping pattern in line with the changing times. Several elements form the images of show hosts, but the most representative ones can be said to be hair and makeup styles. It is because the arrangements of hair and makeup, directly applied to human hair and faces, are the major factors consisting personal images, as well as the expressing methods for human instincts of beauty. In this study, those styles will be investigated through the presented pictures which are most appropriate to show hosts in grace, friendliness, professionalism, attractiveness, and confidence. In addition, the images of hair and makeup styles will be investigated which are most appropriate and preferred to show hosts for cable TV home shopping. Thus, the hair and makeup styles of show hosts will be studied to find the most appropriate ones for the salespersons of presented products. Regarding the research method, the study subjects were males and females in their 20's, 30's, and 40's, who lived in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. The survey was conducted with the questionnaire in September through October 15, 2009. Out of the 1,000 copies of questionnaire distributed, a total of 963 copies were collected and used for data analysis, with the exclusion of those filled with uniformed or insincere responses. Among the study findings, the images of show hosts indicated significant differences in the factors of grace and friendliness by the age, stimulus, gender and stimulus, and age and stimulus. Looking at the major effects of individual independent variables, those subjects in their 30's and 40's by the age perceived the factors of grace and friendliness of show hosts more than those in their 20's did. The images of show hosts did not show significant differences in the factor of professionalism by the age, stimulus, gender and stimulus, and age and stimulus. The factor of confidence, among the images of show hosts, showed significant differences by the age, stimulus, gender and stimulus, and age and stimulus. Looking at the contribution of the show host image factors to the 'resemblance to show hosts,' the contribution of the factors of grace, friendliness, professionalism, and attractiveness was larger than that of confidence. These findings indicated that grace, friendliness, professionalism, attractiveness, and confidence affected the dependent variable of resemblance to show hosts in a positive way. The images appropriate or preferable to those of show hosts showed no difference by the gender, but they showed some differences by the age group. In the case of the show host images considered most appropriate to product groups by the feature of the perceivers like consumers, the show host images showed differences for the sales of apparel, inner clothing, fashion goods, jewelery, cosmetics, furniture, bed goods, baby goods, kitchen or interior decoration goods, grocery, sports goods, electrical appliances, electronic goods, insurance, or financial products. In particular, as to the hair and makeup styles of show hosts, in the case of apparel products, smart up hair or semi-up hair styles were favored for both male and female hosts, and a natural makeup style was preferred. The correlation was found between show host images and hair and makeup styles for the sales of the other products such as fashion goods, jewelery, cosmetics, furniture, beds, baby goods, kitchen goods, grocery, electronic goods, insurance, or financial products. As the conclusion, the number of people working as show hosts on domestic home shopping channels is expected to rise gradually. It is particularly because the term of 'home shopping,' with a strong implication of the products of low and medium costs, has now changed simply to 'shopping' or 'shop' with an impression fresh enough to induce new and young generation to try it. Thus, the role of show hosts as the professional media personnel or sales experts is expected to gain importance, and the significance of their hairstyle, which affects their images, should not be overlooked. Though the basic understanding of economics, conventional wisdom on various fields, power of expression, spontaneity, or wits are definitely required, to arouse the interest of those watchers of mostly live shows, it is also considered important for show hosts to build up their own images preferred by the watchers. In this regard, the study needs to be maintained for building up more professional images and for promoting the purchase, through the cooperation with beauty experts.