A typology of Polish consumers and their behaviours in the market for sustainable textiles and clothing

The paper discusses Polish consumers' behaviours in the market for sustainable textiles and clothing. The analysis presented in this article was undertaken because of:

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A Hong Kong view of offensive advertising

Considerable research has been conducted on offensive advertising in Western countries. However, not much is known about consumers' views of offensive advertising in an Asian context. This research, which was conducted in Hong Kong, aimed at identifying what product/service advertisements consumers find offensive, what executional styles consumers find offensive, consumers' tolerance of offensive advertisements in different media and the effects of offensive advertisements on consumers' purchase intentions. The results from a survey of 200 consumers showed that chat-line services and funeral services were considered the most offensive products or services to be advertised. When looking at the manner of advertising, sexist themes, indecent language and nudity were found to be the major reasons for the respondents finding advertisements offensive. In general, direct mail was considered to be a medium that prompts lower tolerance by consumers to potentially offensive advertisements while men and women's magazines were considered to be media that prompt higher tolerance to potentially offensive advertisements. Finally, it was found that levels of advertising offensiveness had an effect on purchase intentions.     

Quality disclosure in the presence of strategic consumers

Consider a market for short-life products, such as smartphones, where a firm and consumers have asymmetric quality information, the firm sells products in two periods, and consumers make purchase decisions strategically. We investigate when a firm should disclose quality and the interaction between consumers' strategic behavior and the firm's disclosure behavior. We obtain several findings. First, regardless of whether consumers have low or high patience, the firm should disclose quality information if product quality is high and conceal it if product quality is low. However, for products with moderate quality levels, the firm will disclose more quality information to consumers with relatively high or low patience levels than when consumer patience is moderate. Second, firms will disclose less information when consumers behave strategically than when they are myopic. Third, when concealing quality information is an equilibrium, product prices are affected only by disclosure costs and independent of true product quality. Finally, the firm can benefit from consumers' strategic behavior and a higher disclosure cost, but greater patience might be detrimental to consumer surplus and social welfare.     

Low‐literate consumers' use of clothing labels amidst personal and product related challenges

Low‐literate consumers experience various challenges in the marketplace. This quantitative study focused on low‐literate female consumers' use of clothing labels amidst personal and product‐related challenges in the marketplace. An interviewer‐administered questionnaire was used among black African female consumers (n = 450) with literacy levels ranging from Grades 5 to 8 (on average, 11–14 years old), residing in the Emfuleni Local Municipality area, Gauteng, South Africa. Personal challenges experienced involved reading and numeracy skills, as well as concrete and pictographic thinking. Although respondents indicated that they read and understand clothing labels, results revealed problems experienced when attempting to use the information provided. Their numeracy skills were average and related abstract thinking skills were fair. Product‐related challenges were related to the format of labels, care‐label knowledge and evaluation of clothing quality. Respondents' preference for symbolic and graphic presentation of size format provided evidence of pictographic thinking. Care label understanding was poor, and clothing products were evaluated concretely. Some of the older respondents were inclined to follow the peripheral route of elaboration when reading clothing‐label information. We conclude that low‐literate consumers' use of clothing label information can improve if provided in a format that they can read and understand.     

Second‐hand clothing consumption: a cross‐cultural comparison between American and Chinese young consumers

There has been an enormous increase in the economic power and global scope of the second‐hand clothing trade since the early 1990s. Young consumers are a major driver behind the growth of the second‐hand clothing industry in the US. While the stigma of buying second‐hand clothing is fading in the western countries, little is known about second‐hand clothing consumption in the Asian countries. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate young consumers' behaviours towards second‐hand clothing from a cross‐cultural perspective in the US and Chinese contexts. Results of this study indicated significant differences in young consumers' second‐hand clothing consumption behaviour between the two countries in the following aspects: past purchase experience, perceived values and concerns, perceived subjective norm and future purchase intention.     

Consumer‐generated media and product labelling: designed in California,assembled in China

Product country‐of‐origin labelling is an important extrinsic cue for consumers about a product's attributes. In a globalized world where products components and parts originate from multiple countries, companies have resorted to inventive country‐of‐origin labelling. The objective then of this paper is to better understand consumers' evaluation of products that have inventive country‐of‐origin labelling (i.e. Designed in California, Assembled in China). Exploratory qualitative data were collected from consumer‐generated media (36 weblogs) using Nielsen's Research BlogPulse tool. A grounded theory analysis revealed that four key themes emerged from the data that related to confusion about the labelling strategy, strong symbolic and emotional ties to country‐of‐origin, and the importance of country‐of‐origin as a quality signal.     

The Effects of Model Size and Race on Chinese Consumers’ Reactions: A Social Comparison Perspective

Previous research on women's reactions to female body images in advertisements has been restricted to same race target women and models, and typically conducted among Western participants. The present research examines the combined effects of model race and size for the first time, and extends inquiry to Chinese consumers. Results across four experiments demonstrate that model race and size are potent informative cues that influence Chinese consumers’ self‐esteem and advertising effectiveness. Studies 1a and 1b suggest that model race is an informative trigger predicting differential social comparison and subsequent self‐esteem judgments for Chinese women, but has no effect on Chinese men's self‐esteem. In addition, model size exerts differential impacts on Chinese women's and men's self‐esteem. Study 2 shows that manipulation of the social comparison mechanism may outweigh that of race as an informative cue. Study 3 examines the relationship between model size and Chinese women's evaluative responses to advertisements. These findings not only contribute to the literature, but also offer practical guidelines for marketers advertising in China.     

Male eco‐fashion: a market reality

With the fashion industry striving for competitive advantage, eco‐fashions provide an opportunity to distinguish environmentally friendly products from other fashion products. However, the viability of these eco‐fashion brands is questionable. An exploratory study is conducted to explain men's differences, particularly, as clothing styles vary for men and women. The research examines if men's purchase intent would make a difference to the eco‐fashion industry. A random sample is collected to examine men's purchase intentions for eco‐clothing by product attributes, environmental concerns and sustainable behaviour. Partial least squares is used to empirically test the sample. A conceptual model is developed. It was found that there are four significant exogenous variables, environmental concern, sustainable pricing, sustainable behaviour and sustainable branding with a moderately strong, negatively signed coefficient path. Perceived consumer effectiveness and faith in others are not found to be significant moderators. This defined male segment makes several theoretical contributions as well as generating useful recommendations for marketing practitioners.     

Branding in a global marketplace: The mediating effects of quality and self-identity brand signals

Research documents that consumers with a stronger belief in global citizenship through global brands (GCGB) view branded products as more important and prefer global to local brands. We test the mediating effects of consumer use of quality and self-identity brand signals on the relationships between GCGB and the importance attributed to branded products (Study 1: U.S. and Russia) as well as purchases of global brands (Study 2: U.S., U.K, and Russia). Our research establishes that consumer involvement with branded products and purchases of global brands revolves around consumers' use of brands as signals of quality and self-identity. In the developing country, results document mediation effects for the use of both quality and self-identity signals on the importance of branded products and global brand purchases. In developed countries, we find that the importance of branded products is explained by a greater use of brands as self-identity signals, whereas purchases of global brands are explained by a greater use of quality signals. Overall, consumers with a stronger belief in GCGB are more likely to use brands as symbolic signals and to express their identity through brands, and consumer use of global brands as quality signals provides a distinct competitive advantage to global brands in both developed and developing countries.     

Social status and country‐of‐origin preferences

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Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes

The purpose of this empirical study is to operationalize the relationship of green marketing's influence on consumer attitudes via the mediating role of marketing mix towards green products to validate the proposed research model in the Taiwanese context of explaining consumers' willingness to be environmentally friendly. The model is based on structural equation modeling (SEM) from data collected from 977 online consumers. The findings revealed that green consumption intention was significantly and indirectly driven by attitude to green products. Additionally, the effect of perceived quality on marketing mix and consumer willingness in environmental concern is both significant and positive. However, when a restaurant has high consumer social responsibility (CnSR) for marketing mix, the consumer attitudes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral model (C-A-B model) is less effective. These findings have contributed to the revival of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer attitude, consumer social responsibility, marketing mix and perceived quality impact that a restaurant has on the ability to raise consumer willingness to purchase green products or food. We provides valuable suggestions to marketers to design from the perspective of green marketing policies and strategies in order to accommodate Taiwan's indigenous green restaurants.     

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Informational Inputs as Influences on Efficient Consumer Decision-Making

The effects of consumer information and consumer sophistication on the ability of consumers to make purchases offering the greatest benefits were examined. It was found that consumer information enhances the likelihood that consumers will make efficient choices of products. Consumer sophistication was also found to be an intervening variable in consumers' use of information.     

The effect of product touch information and sale proneness on consumers' responses to price discounts

Since price discounts are costly and can negatively affect consumers' perceptions of quality, it is crucial to identify the factors that make them effective in stimulating purchase behavior. Drawing on cue utilization theory, we examine price discount effectiveness in affecting consumers' reliance on the sale cue based on the provided product touch information as an intrinsic cue and individual consumer differences in sale proneness. Two experimental studies indicate that price discount information, product touch information, and sale proneness interact to determine consumers' responses. Perceived quality is the underlying mechanism behind the observed effects. For nonsale-prone consumers, product touch information favorably influences responses to large price discounts by addressing product quality concerns and enhancing purchase confidence, but has no effect for regularly priced or low discounted products. For sale-prone consumers, product touch information is not effective in increasing their responses regardless of the discount size. A qualitative study provides support for these results and highlights the role of perceived quality and purchase confidence. The research contributes to behavioral pricing, cue utilization theory, and sensory marketing and suggests that marketing managers should provide consumers with product touch information when implementing high discounts for products for which prepurchase touch is important.     

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In today's complex business environment, apparel brands are communicating about their socially responsible (SR) practices through marketing messages to create a niche for themselves and show their SR efforts. However, SR aspects of products are difficult to verify by consumers. To help brands effectively communicate their SR efforts, this study assessed how consumers process an apparel brand's SR messages based on their prior experiences with that brand (brand schemas). Information transparency on messages and source of messages were tested as external cues to influence consumers' brand schemas and SR message evaluations in a mixed method repeated measures online experiment using a national US consumer sample. Results from regression-based conditional process analyses indicated that increased congruity of consumers' schemas to the fact that brands are SR led to more favorable attitude toward brands' SR messages. Also, presence of high information transparency on SR messages influenced consumers' schemas positively, and in turn, they evaluated messages more favorably. However, consumers were not influenced by whether messages were made by brands or third-party organizations. The study results show the importance of brand schemas and information transparency on apparel brand communications, helping both apparel brands and educators create effective SR-related marketing strategies.     

Polish and Belgian consumers' perception of environmentally friendly behaviour

The aim of this study was to design a method for evaluating the importance that consumers place on the characteristics of environmentally friendly (EF) products and on consumer EF behaviour. Attitudes and opinions of consumers regarding the EF value of the different aspects of consumer behaviour – purchasing, using and disposing of goods – were measured. The perception of EF behaviour was analysed for Belgian and Polish consumers, a Western and an Eastern European country. The cultural, economic and political differences between Belgium and Poland may imply that their consideration of EF behaviour is different. The perception of consumers about buying, using and disposing of EF products does not necessarily indicate their own EF behaviour, but it gives an indication of what consumers think is EF behaviour. On the basis of the results, policy‐makers and industry can diagnose the consumers' perceived cost–benefit relationship of EF consumer behaviour. An evaluation of what consumers think is EF can be made for the two countries. Marketers, government and EF organizations can draw on our research results when developing EF products and/or advertising campaigns.     

Consumers' and retailers' practices and attitudes towards energy-efficient clothing

The purpose of this study was to compare the extent to which consumers and retailers consider energy efficiency in evaluating and selecting indoor sportswear. Little research has been conducted in which retail buyers are subjects; no published research has focused on a comparison of consumers and merchants in regard to their attitudes towards a specific product. The value of such research lies in determining whether a particular consumer need is being met. The results of the present study revealed that retail buyers were less concerned about energy-efficient clothing than were consumers. Significant differences were found between the two groups for four of the nine variables studied. In all cases, consumers gave greater consideration to the energy efficiency of indoor sportswear than retail buyers believed. Further investigation of differences in consumers' and retailers' attitudes and practices is needed.