Fitting room or selling room? Millennial female consumers’ dressing room experiences

As retail experiences have become more important to the modern consumer, the store environment has taken on greater significance. The store environment is especially of great significance to the millennial consumer. These consumers tend to spend more time in the fashion retail store, while their expenditure on fashion items increases on a yearly basis. The dressing room must be seen as the clothing retailer's selling room – the place where the retail environment plays an immense role with regard to a consumer's cognitions, emotions and purchasing behaviour. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe young millennial clothing consumers' Functional, aesthetic, emotional and symbolic dressing room experiences. A qualitative research strategy was followed. Two unstructured interviews were held with 15 participants. Participants had to take photos of retailers' dressing rooms before the second interview. A photo‐elicitation technique was employed during the second interview. Findings revealed that participants had specific expectations with regard to the functionality and aesthetics of the dressing room, as well as with regard to the symbolic messages and the emotions that they expected to experience. If the dressing room did not meet their expectations they got disappointed, experienced negative emotions and thoughts and the need to leave the dressing room. The behavioural response of avoidance strongly came to the forth. Findings of this research point to the importance of the dressing room as part of the retail experience and have implications for consumer specialists and retailers.     

A promotion mix budgeting model for retailing

Our two-equation model of retail promotion provides a well-balanced explanation of both retailers' perceptions of promotion tools and their budget allocation across the promotion mix. While previous studies have examined each of these two components separately, few have integrated both in the one study. Factor analysis was used to simplify the choices of promotion tools. This reduced the number of promotion tools to four, namely mass media, in-store promotion, sales promotion/direct mail and personal selling. We support earlier studies which link budget promotion mix spending (behaviour) to perceptions about the effectiveness of each medium (attitude). The range of determinants of perceptions has been extended by incorporating the roles of retail strategy, store ownership, culture and promotion intensity. We have estimated the budget promotion mix equation using a production function theoretical framework. Although this makes little difference to the strong relationship between retailers' perceptions of promotion tools and budget allocations, the theoretical framework does enable formal estimation of cross-media substitution. We find that the two short-term oriented promotion media are substitutes. Our model has been applied to apparel retailing in Australia, with considerable scope for applications to other retail categories and to other countries.     

Factors motivating and influencing clothing disposal behaviours

This study of 232 college students was framed by Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action and examined factors that motivate and influence college students' clothing disposal behaviours. Using survey questionnaires, we investigated four different clothing disposal options (resale, donation, reusing and discarding) and examined five motivational factors (environmental, economic, charity and convenience concerns and information unavailability). The influences of attitudes towards the environment and subjective norms of family and friends on clothing disposal behaviours also were examined. Results indicated that resale and donation behaviours were explained by environmental concerns and that reuse and resale behaviours were explained by economic concerns. Charity concerns motivated donation behaviours and convenience motivated discarding behaviours. Further, findings indicated that family subjective norms influenced environmentally motivated resale and donation behaviours.     

Gender as a moderator of the relationship between materialism and fashion clothing involvement among Indian youth

The research examines the role of gender in moderating the relationship between materialism and product involvement with fashion clothing among the Indian youth. The Richins materialism scale and the product involvement and purchase involvement scales developed by O'Cass were used to understand the behaviour of Indian youth towards fashion clothing. The sample (n = 254) comprised of university students from different parts of India. The findings indicate that Indian youth do not possess a high level of materialistic tendencies. Gender has a moderating influence on the relationship between materialism and involvement with fashion clothing. Young men and women differ with respect to their involvement with fashion clothing and even more with regard to their involvement with the purchase of fashion clothing, with women reporting a higher level of involvement in both cases.     

Changing consumption patterns in rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Despite rapid urbanization, more than 75% of the people still live in rural areas. The density of the rural population is also one of the highest in the world. Being a poor and low‐income country, however, Bangladesh's main challenge is to eradicate poverty by increasing equitable income. The gross domestic product of Bangladesh is growing steadily, and the country has outperformed many low‐income countries in terms of several social indicators. Bangladesh has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary school enrolment. A sharp decline in child and infant mortality rates, increased per capita income, and improved food security have placed Bangladesh on the track to achieving the status of a middle‐income country in the near future. All these developments have influenced the consumption patterns of the country. This study explored the consumption scenario of rural Bangladesh. Data were collected through direct observations and semi‐structured interviews. Information regarding the consumption of food, clothing, housing, education and medical facilities were collected, and qualitative methods were applied to the data analysis. The findings of this study suggested that the consumption patterns of rural Bangladeshis are changing over time along with economic and social development.     

The influence of personal and social identity on the clothing consumption of adolescents

We consider the influence of personal and social identity among adolescents on the importance they attach to clothing products and brands. The conceptual framework includes more conventional variables such as socialization (family, peers, media, and celebrities) and individual characteristics (gender and grade level). Based on a sample of 1,596 French high school adolescents, our results highlight: (i) the influence of identity on the importance attached to product and brand; (ii) the mediating effects of personal and social identities; and (iii) the moderating effects of gender and grade level. We conclude with an analysis of theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生服装消费现状的调查与分析——以南京仙林大学城为例

作为新一代朝气蓬勃的大学生,他们追逐个性引领时尚,有着强烈的消费欲望,但由于他们是纯粹的消费者,客观上又制约了他们的购买力,因此关注大学生的消费心理与消费行为就显得尤为重要。本文以南京仙林大学城为例,对大学生服装消费的现状进行调查与分析,以此对大学生的服装消费给予切实的引导,并对服装厂商提出一些合理的建议。     

Changing laundry habits in Norway

Maintenance is often the most energy‐demanding stage during clothes' life cycle. Therefore, a shift towards more sustainable washing habits has great potential to reduce the consumption of energy, water and detergent. This paper discusses the change in laundering practices during the past 10 years in Norway and suggests strategies to help consumers change their laundry habits to more sustainable ones. Quantitative information of consumers' experiences, habits and opinions concerning clothing maintenance was collected through three surveys in Norway in 2002, 2010 and 2011. The 2010 study was supplemented with qualitative in‐depth interviews of a strategic sample of households. The average washing temperature has decreased slightly during the studied time periods. Some products' washing frequencies remained the same, whereas other products such as jeans were used a few more days before washing. The cotton programme is the most used washing programme, but short programmes are gaining popularity. The laundry sorting processes vary greatly and are influenced by several factors such as washing temperature, colours, fibre type and use area. For some consumers, the use of several different sorting categories made it more difficult to collect a sufficient amount of clothing to fill the machine. They were also afraid that overfilling the machine would result in clothes that were not clean enough or had detergent residues. Detergent dosing practices are far from optimal. In 2010, although the majority of respondents only used eye measure and did not know the water hardness of their area, they still tried to vary detergent dosage based on the amount of laundry and the level of soiling. Different design for sustainable behaviour strategies could be used within detergent dosage systems, care labelling, machine programme selection (such as suggesting lower temperature and eco‐programme), machine filling grade indicators, storage systems for slightly used clothing and textile material choice.     

Clothing as an environment for older adults' successful ageing

This research tested a conceptual model for proximity of clothing to self (PCS) in relation to age identity, self‐actualization, psychological well‐being, self‐assessed health, sex and chronological age among older adults, aged 65 and over, within the human ecological perspective. A mail survey was sent to a national random sample of 1700 older adults in the US resulting in 195 usable respondents in the final sample. The respondents returned two completed questionnaires, which were (1) Clothing: A Resource for Successful Aging? (to measure PCS, age identity and demographic variables) and (2) Personal Orientation Inventory (to measure self‐actualization). The results indicated that older adults' psychological well‐being, one component of successful ageing, was directly affected by their self‐assessed health, age identity and self‐actualization. PCS indirectly influenced individuals' psychological well‐being in a slightly negative way in later life. In sum, clothing may be used as a needs satisfier for different levels of needs or related more closely with needs in addition to self‐actualization needs for older adults. Further research should be conducted to explore relationships among PCS, different levels of human needs, clothing‐related variables and psychological well‐being for this age group. In practice, the effort should be given to teach the use of clothing (or other human‐built objects) as a tool or need satisfier to contribute to success in a person's later life by offering some educational or training programmes through local senior community centres or universities.     

金融海啸下珠三角运动服装业的“危”与“机”

文章运用珠三角运动服装业最新的运行数据,从资源禀赋、销售业绩、贸易影响要素入手,以产业升级为切入点,综合分析该产业在全球运动服装产业价值链上所处位置,深度剖析珠三角运动服装业在当前金融危机背景下所面临的危与机,提出产业优化升级路径和实施策略,为珠三角运动服装业及我国其它劳动密集型产业的发展和升级提供指引。