멀티채널 환경에서 소비자는 어떻게 정보를 탐색하는가?: 선호하는 정보원천에 따른 소비자 유형화와 관련 요인 (How Do Consumers Search for Information in Multi-channel Environment?: Consumer Typology Based on Their Choice of Information Channel)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 23권 / 2호 / 135 ~ 164페이지
· 저자명 : 최아영, 나종연

초록

소비자들이 정보를 얻을 수 있는 정보채널이 다양해짐에 따라, 소비자의 정보탐색행동 또한 다양한 양상을 보이고 있다. 이러한 맥락에서 온라인 커뮤니티와 블로그, SNS 등 새로운 형태의 온라인 정보채널과 오프라인 매장 등기존의 정보채널을 소비자들이 어떻게 조합하여 사용하는지에 대한 연구가 필요하다. 또한 기존의 연구들에서 사용되던 정보원천의 분류기준이 현 상황에 적합한지 여부도 재고되어야 한다. 이에 본 연구에서는 소비자들의 전반적인 정보탐색 현황을 살펴보고, 소비자들의 정보탐색행동을 기준으로 소비자유형화를 실시하였다. 그리고 각 소비자유형에 따라 정보탐색행동을 차별화하도록 하는 요인들을 파악하고자 하였다.
본 연구의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 온라인 소비자들은 온라인과 오프라인 정보채널을 넘나들며 다양한 정보를 탐색하고 있었다. 소비자들은 온라인 정보원천을 보편적으로 활용하고 있었으며, 그 중 구매가 이뤄지는온라인쇼핑몰에 게시된 정보의 이용비율이 가장 높았다. 둘째, 소비자들의 정보탐색행동에 기반하여 소비자유형화를실시한 결과, 소비자들은 ‘다양한 정보 선호자’, ‘객관적 정보 선호자’, ‘대인적 정보 선호자’, ‘집약적 정보 선호자’,‘오프라인 정보 선호자’ 등 총 다섯 유형으로 분류되었다. 각각의 소비자 집단은 정보탐색량과 활용한 정보원천의 종류와 분포에서 차이를 보였는데, 이는 곧 소비자의 정보탐색행동은 ‘얼마나 많은 정보원천을 활용하여 정보를 획득하는가?’와 ‘어떠한 정보원을 활용하였는가?’ 등 두 층위에서 고려되어야 함을 의미하는 결과였다. 마지막으로 소비자의 정보탐색행동에 영향을 미치는 요인에 따라 정보탐색량과 주로 활용하는 정보원천이 달라졌다. 우선 소비자의전체적인 정보탐색량은 소비자의 정보탐색성향과 쇼핑무관심성, 쾌락지향성 등에 의해 결정되었으며, 어떤 정보원천을 위주로 탐색하는지는 성별과 연령 등 사회인구학적인 변수들과 어떤 상품을 구매하였는지가 주요한 요인들로 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과를 토대로 소비자와 소비자의 정보탐색행동에 대한 이해의 폭을 넓힐 수 있으며, 소비자정보와 관련한 커뮤니케이션 방식에 대한 시사점을 도출할 수 있었다.

영어초록

Recently, businesses face new challenges of internet which has been discussed to have potential as a medium for extending the range of consumers’ information sources. Via the newly introduced media such as blogs, SNS businesses are trying to interact market and its consumer. For example food company ‘Pulmuone’ runs a blog. It is not only for a publicizing and promoting its brand or for e-commerce, but also for interact with consumers. Specifically it focuses consumergenerated information, how its products are used in the context of consumption. Official company blogs when first introduced, were only used as a marketer-driven consumer information source,but now we can easily find consumer-generated information. Moreover even individual consumer blogs posted recommendations and product reviews in a form ‘a consumer’s view’ sometimes that are the result of featured or sponsored. For instance, one of ‘power bloggers’ imposed a fine for not clarifying corporate sponsorship in 2011. As such the distinctive line that separated marketer-driven information source from consumer- generated information source is now blurred.
These kind of mixed status makes consumer confused.
Even though the typology of information sources are becoming more complex, most of the studies did not consider consumers’ information search behavior in various information channel environment. Moreover previous studies applied the outdated framework for categorizing information sources: market-driven information sources, neutral information sources, consumer generated information sources. In early 2000’s, there was a discussion about the classification of consumer information source within internet era, but the discussion was limited to the internet as a platform, and thus focus was placed on offline or online. The framework for analyzing consumer information sources currently used does not guarantee adequacy in the present market environment,since it lacks considerations for unique traits and benefits of various information channels.
Thus, it is necessary to explore consumers’ information search behavior with an advanced approach. It is important to understand how individuals perceive the range of information channels available to them and how those perceptions affect their use of different types of sources.
These attempts enable us to draw the new standards for consumers’ information sources.
This study investigates consumers’ use of new and traditional information sources, and identify new typology of consumers based on their choice of information channels.
The major findings of this study are as follows. First, our results show that the distinction of online consumers and offline consumers may no longer be useful, since most consumers were found to use both channels. Respondents tended to use online information sources more than offline sources, and online shoppingmall was found to be the most preferred information channel.
Second, consumers were a classified into 5 clusters; ‘heavy searchers’, ‘objective information searchers’, ‘interpersonal information searchers’, ‘infomediary searchers’, ‘offline information searchers’. Each consumer segments were significantly different from the amount of information search and sources or patterns of information search. ‘Heavy searchers’ are trying to find extensive information over diverse information sources except for offline channel based information.
‘Objective information searchers’ are also heavy information users like ’heavy searchers’, but they favor price comparison site and articles. ‘Interpersonal information searchers’ highly rely on interpersonal sources such as online communities, families and friends. ‘infomediary searchers’ contain the largest number of individuals who do not utilize information except for detailed information that are posted by online shopping mall. ‘Offline information searchers’are consisted with whom trust offline channel so that they can confirm the products.
Third, multinomial-logit analysis was conducted to explore the impact of the consumers'demographic variables, purchased goods, and consumers' shopping propensity, on consumers use of information channels. Total amount of information search was impacted by consumers'information seeking propensity, shopping indifference, and their hedonic value. Which information source were selected and used for the consumers' decision making, were largely depended on consumers' gender, age and the purchased goods.
The results of this study will provide significant insights for the effective communication strategies for the consumer information providers such as marketers and the governors.

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