Clothing Style,Music, and Media Influences on Adolescents’ Brand Consumption Behavior

This research focuses on the influence of clothing style identification on adolescents’ brand consumption behavior. The sample consisted of 1063 adolescents. The results indicated that the clothing brands adolescents prefer depend upon the clothing style with which they are identified. The role of media and music on Generation Y adolescents and on their clothing consumption was confirmed. Adolescents’ group identification and adolescents’ sensitivity to media and music vary according to their clothing styles. These data can be employed by firms to develop brands strategies.     

Do they shop to stand out or fit in? The luxury fashion purchase intentions of young adults

A three‐study examination of young adults suggests that their motivation for status in terms of their luxury fashion purchase intentions is impacted by a bandwagon effect. In Study 1, qualitative research informs what fashion items represent status to young adults, how they view these items, and how they view others owning these items. In Study 2, survey research establishes the link between the motivation for status (status consumption) and purchase intention/ownership of these fashion items. In Study 3, a national survey of young adults examines what mediates and moderates the motivation for status to lead to luxury fashion purchase intentions. Results from the three studies indicate that status consumption has a positive impact on purchase intention of luxury fashion. This research also finds that cultural variables have an impact (mediate) the relationship between status consumption and purchase intention. Specifically, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity mediate the relationship between status consumption and purchase intention. Finally, the moderating impact of the bandwagon effect has a significant effect on the relationship between status consumption and fashion purchase intention for the cultural variables of uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation, and power distance. Implications for marketers are provided based on the findings.     

Social comparison motivation of mothers’ with their adolescent daughters and its effects on the mother’s consumption behaviour

Whereas prior research has focused on consumer socialisation and intergenerational influence theories to study mother–daughter interactions, this research draws on identity to emphasise the association between mothers’ social comparison and their related clothing consumption behaviors in the presence of adolescent daughters. A survey of 423 adolescent daughters’ mothers shows how personal and relational identities combine to favor mothers’ social comparison process with their adolescent daughter and explain a set of consumption behaviors, including co-consumption practices (common shopping, joint purchases, clothing exchanges) and mothers’ changes in brands, stores and styles. In order to better target adolescent girls’ mothers, retailers could develop more inter-generational practices.     

Toward understanding the young consumer's brand associations and ethnocentrism in the lion's port

This study examines consumer brand associations, focusing on the differences in price perceptions, self‐image, and brand–image congruency held for Western and Eastern brands of fashion clothing by young Singaporeans. The study also examines consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CET), finding very low levels of ethnocentrism among respondents, and that ethnocentrism had no effect on brand preference or purchase intention for brands from different origins. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Making Italian fashion global: Brand building and management at Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (1950s‒1990s)

Abstract

This paper deals with the role of brands in the emergence of the Italian fashion business. Starting from the mid-1950s, the main Italian clothing manufacturer Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (GFT) managed brands to build a domestic market for mass-produced clothing. In the 1970s increasing competition and changing consumption patterns pushed GFT towards partnerships with leading fashion designers for building new brands and entering international markets. The emergence of strong designers’ brands determined major organisational challenges that resulted in opposite outcomes: the demise of GFT, which failed in its attempt to control the entire value chain, and designers’ achievement of an international standing in the fashion industry thanks to improved brand management capabilities.     

Construction of consumer choice in the market: challenges for environmental policy

Drawing from the literature on the analytics of government, the paper discusses marketing as a form of government, elaborating and illustrating the many ways in which consumer choice is shaped, modified and directed in the market through practices and techniques of consumer marketing. The aim is to critically reflect upon and render problematic the individualistic ideas of the green consumer as a powerful market force and to provoke discussion on the conceptualization – and construction – of consumer subjectivity and social problems in marketing. Taking examples particularly from the fashion and clothing industry, the paper discusses the ways in which marketing activities come to shape consumer conduct by operating through the choice of individuals who freely pursue their needs and desires, and by working on the environment within which this freedom of choice is exercised. The paper contributes to the literature on green consumerism by systematically interrogating and elaborating on the modes and practices of marketing thought and expertise through which consumers and consumption are rendered intelligible and actionable in the market.     

Fashion sensitive young consumers and fashion garment repair: Emotional connections to garments as a sustainability strategy

Where clothing consumption has continued to rise around the world, a deeper understanding of how and why garments are disposed of is critical in regard to addressing the issue of textile waste by consumers. The purpose of this study was to explore the garment management processes of young, fashion sensitive consumers, examining their disposal behaviours as well as motivations towards garment end‐of‐life extension through maintenance or repair of damaged fashion clothing. A survey of 161 South Korean young consumers (18–34 years) was conducted, utilizing a fashion sensitivity scale to measure impact on unsustainable garment disposal practices and garment repair behaviour. Further, general recycling behaviour of these individuals was examined, as linked to garment repair propensity. Results indicate that fashion sensitive consumers dispose of garments more rapidly, and with less ethical consideration. However, these same consumers are motivated to repair items that support their fashion identity. The study contributes some useful insight into encouraging garment life extension practise among heavy consumers of fashion, thus extending what is known about fashion garment disposal in the sustainability context.     

Accessing and affording sustainability: the experience of fashion consumption within young families

Despite the ever increasing levels of fashion consumption, neither retailers nor consumers have as yet implemented sustainability principles to a significant degree. This is despite the fact that sustainability principles are increasingly understood and will be applied by consumers, as long as affordable alternatives in mainstream fashions are available. In a highly competitive fashion retail sector, there exists an opportunity for UK high street fashion retailers to differentiate their brand image through aligning products with consumers' moral frameworks. Using phenomenological interviews, this research explores the fashion consumption experiences of professional women with young children and living in or near Edinburgh, with particular focus on their expression of their own sustainability concerns in their day‐to‐day practices. The findings reveal that in the absence of suitable products, information and labelling, consumers apply heuristics to their choices, especially price. They refer to the more familiar ethical food market which serves as a metaphor for fashion‐related practices. They talk about trustworthy retailers and about how they deal with and rationalize their own practices where they reveal an obvious attitude‐behaviour gap. The women's role of providing for the family adds further complexity in a sector which provides affordable alternative options.     

Ethical Beliefs of Chinese Consumers in Hong Kong

In recent years, there has been increased awareness of unethical consumer practices in Asian countries. Asian consumers have gained a bad reputation for buying counterfeit products, such as computer software, fashion clothing and watches. In 1993, the estimated losses to US software companies due to Chinese counterfeiting stood at US $322 million (Kohut, 1994). The present study uses a consumer ethics scale developed by Muncy and Vitell (1992) to investigate consumers' ethical judgments from a Chinese perspective. The result shows that consumers in different cultures utilize similar rules to assess the ethicality of a given situation. However, findings also show certain cultural elements that are unique in influencing Chinese consumers' ethical judgments. The results also indicate the need for the continued development of and investment in consumer education in Asia.     

Away from home: How young Chinese consumers travel with global brands?

This interpretive study investigates how a group of young Chinese students consume global brands of American origins, in China and in the UK. More specifically, this research examines how meanings attached to global food brands travel abroad with consumers and investigates the relationship between brand consistency and brand meanings across national boundaries. Findings from a thematic analysis of focus group interviews conducted over a nine-month period, reveal that some brand meanings are context and culture specific (contextual meanings) while other meanings travel with consumers across borders (core meanings). Theoretically, this study shows how global brands provide a platform of structural meanings, ideas and practices that are global and globalising in themselves, allowing a degree of fluidity and adaptation in relation to the local context of consumption.     

Resisting immigrant myths: everyday consumer practices of Asian immigrants in America

Projective, depth interviews with U.S. Asian immigrants revealed their ambivalence toward the U.S. commercial sector's colonial-era representations of Asian people. These commercial representations provide polarized depictions of Asian immigrants as either threatening aliens or as model citizens. These portrayals reflect “racialized otherness,” or racial stereotyping that represent Asian immigrants as inferior. Our findings indicate that Chinese immigrants strategically use everyday consumption related to foodways to resist the reverberation of American immigrant myths. In some instances, immigrants’ consumption practices instantiate a regional Asian identity. In other instances, however, immigrants’ consumption practices reflect a separation from the past and an acceptance of a new although not exclusively American way of life. Notwithstanding immigrant consumers' resistance practices, the findings call for future research into immigrant consumers' reactions to visual representations of race, ethnicity, and gender.     

Identity,self‐concept and young women’s engagement with collaborative,sustainable fashion consumption models

It is clear from extant theory that fashion consumption is intrinsically bound to self‐concept and social identity. As such, many individuals over consume in pursuit of ideal identities, particularly in periods of heightened awareness of identity development, such as their youth. This study thus takes one group of fashion over‐consumers, young females, and seeks to identify core motivations towards and barriers for collaborative consumption of clothing and fashion products, though the lens of self‐identity and social interaction. The study adopts a theory of planned behaviour approach, using in‐depth interviews to examine norms of behaviour in fashion consumption and develops a conceptual model for understanding of how these individuals construct a fashion identity within the social contexts of four alternative forms of consumption (renting, borrowing, swapping and purchasing second‐hand). Furthermore, the study examines perceived barriers to participation in these four alternative fashion consumption forms. The study finds that social and ethical implications of sustainable consumption behaviour are the least likely motivators towards engagement with collaborative fashion consumption models within this group, and that opportunities for individual identity expression are the most sought after benefits of such engagement. This research contributes to the literature regarding sustainability issues generally, in the context of fashion consumption, and deepens one’s understanding of young female consumers’ willingness to participate in sustainable consumption actions.     

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.     

Gender effects on consumers’ symbolic and hedonic preferences and actual clothing consumption in the Czech Republic

During the last decade or so consumer products have become more divided by gender than ever before. These changes in marketing practices are likely to introduce, alter or increase any existing gender differences regarding consumers’ product preferences and actual consumption. This is a very timely study examining how gender relates to consumers’ interest in clothing artefacts and their preferences for the self‐ and social‐symbolic and hedonic meanings of clothing. The influence of gender on actual purchase behaviour towards clothing is also explored. The proposed hypotheses are tested on a large‐scale sample of some 1,000+ respondents drawn in the Czech Republic. Using analysis of variance tests, gender differences were found with regard to all but one consumer behaviour phenomenon. No gender effect was found only regarding consumer preference for clothing affiliation symbolism. The study contributes to the theoretical development and empirical evidence in the field of gendered symbolic and hedonic consumption of clothing artefacts. Its findings also suggest possible actions by fashion marketers, as well as some interesting venues for future research.     

服装品牌营销的策略及发展——兼议汉派服装品牌营销对策及发展

中国加入WTO后,服装界内的竞争将会越来越激烈。服装企业如何开展自己的品牌定位、拓展、技术创新及品牌的保护和发展就显得尤为重要。在探讨服装品牌营销发展趋势的基础上,结合汉派服装的特点,开创汉派服装今后的品牌营销建设之路。     

Materialism and conspicuous consumption in China: a cross‐cultural examination

With the growing rise in consumer spending and economic power in Asian societies, it is increasingly important to explore the implications of these developments on consumer culture. This cross‐cultural study first discusses the rise of materialism and conspicuous consumption in post‐revolution China then examines differences in these phenomena between young adult consumers, aged 18–35, living in urban China and the United States. Utilizing survey data from over 600 respondents, significant differences were found in both materialism and conspicuous consumption, with Chinese young adults scoring higher in both variables. The findings show, that compared with past comparative studies, it appears both materialism and conspicuous consumption are on the rise among urban Chinese consumers.     

How consumption values and perceived brand authenticity inspire fashion masstige purchase? An investigation

Rising income and the aspirations of the middle-class have resulted in the emergence of a new category of luxury brands popularly known as “masstige brands”. Researchers have attempted to establish masstige branding and masstige marketing as a differentiated research domain from luxury marketing. As an attempt to this end, the current study, which is confined to women's fashion clothing brands, investigates whether various luxury consumption values are equally applicable in inspiring masstige purchase. In addition, this study investigates whether dimensions of perceived authenticity of a masstige brand moderate the association between various consumption values and masstige purchase intention. By employing an online survey, 462 useable responses were collected from middle-income female consumers in India and analysed using PLS-SEM and multi-group analysis. The findings show that functional, experiential and symbolic consumption values inspire masstige fashion purchase but the zero-moment-of-truth consumption value does not. Quality and sincerity (but not heritage) dimensions of perceived brand authenticity enhance the consumption value perceptions leading to masstige purchase. This study is the first of its kind to examine the applicability of various luxury consumption values in masstige consumption besides testing the moderating effect of perceived brand authenticity.