A Study of Fashion Clothes Brand - Essay Example

The Influence of Peer Pressure on Brand Choice between Chinese Young Consumers and UK Young Consumers: A Study of Fashion Clothes Brand Contents 0 Introduction 3 1.1 Rationale for Choosing this Topic 3 1.2 A Brief Background of the Fashion Clothes Brand in Chinese Market and UK Market 3 1.3 Research Aims and Objectives 4 1.4 The Organization of the Study 4 2.0 Literature Review 4 2.1 Peer Pressure 4 2.2 Purchase Intentions 5 2.3 Role Model Influence and Purchase Intentions 5 2.4 Peer Pressure and Consumer Responses, Consumer Activities 5 2.5 Peer Pressure and Brand Loyalty 6 2.6 Peer Pressure and Consumer Behaviour 6 3.0 Methodology 6 3.1 Primary Data vs. Secondary Data 6 3.2 Research Method 7 3.3 Data collection 7 3.4 Sampling 7 3.5 Data analysis 8 4.0 Limitation 8 Reference List 9 1.0 Introduction Peer pressure is described as the manipulation on a peer group that motivates others to change their value, behaviours and attitudes to be able to adjust to the group. Peers tend to influence teenagers during adolescence period. Peer conformity in teenagers is most prominent with respect to taste, style, appearance and values. This implies that peer groups pressurise on brand choices (Ungar, 2000). 1.1 Rationale for Choosing this Topic There have been instances where it has been noticed that peers influence young consumers’ behaviour (Fecikova, 2004). Fashion brands of clothes reflect a symbolic meaning. A young customer wearing a branded cloth is believed to belong to a rich family. They are seen as popular and are allowed to mingle with their peers (Dodge, Dishion and Lansford, 2007). This implies that it also indirectly influences the business operations of the companies. Very few research works have been undertaken on this subject. All these constitute the rationale behind selecting this topic. 1.2 A Brief Background of the Fashion Clothes Brand in Chinese Market and UK Market China is considered as the largest consumer markets for clothing industry (Tai, 2005). However, the Chinese brands are still in its initial phase of making their fashion industry international. Men’s clothing is catching up with the international brands in the domestic market. Some famous brands are Shanshan, Bosideng, Youngor, etc. However, their capacity of revenue earning is low compared to the international brands. Earlier the Chinese fashion industry was fragmented. In recent times, the retail market of China is characterised by the existence of ZARA, GAP, Jack and Jones, etc. Most of the casual wears are locally manufactured (Lindgren, 2015). UK market has always been up to date when it comes to fashion. It has been a fashion hub to many renowned international fashion brands from Armani, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger to Burberry, Tiffany & Co., Prada, Dolce and Gabbana (Doherty and Alexander, 2004). The British are into high street fashion. There are around 228,000 British retailers now exporting online (Hines and Bruce, 2007). The fashion industry is highly competitive and hence is very productive. There is high demand for luxury fashion brands. 1.3 Research Aims and Objectives The aim of the research is to compare the influence of peer pressures on brand choice between Chinese and UK’s young consumers. The objectives of the paper are mentioned below: To recognise which country’s teenagers are more prone to peer pressure, Identification of the impact of brands on young generation’s choices of clothes in both the countries, Investigating which country’s young generation is more fashion conscious, Evaluating whether the teenagers of UK and China are influenced by their role models, To compare which country’s teenagers are more willing to spend on branded clothes, To find out whether the teenagers of UK or China discuss more often about clothes among their friends. 1.4 The Organization of the Study The paper starts with the brief introduction that highlights the main issue, that is, peer pressure. The next section, literature review, provides extensive details of the research topic. The research methodology focuses on primary data collection and uses SPSS and pie chart to analyse data. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Peer Pressure The adolescence period is defined as an age of growth and development. According to Elliott and Leonard (2004), this phase is characterised by the issues of self identity, independence and peer pressures regarding drugs, sexuality, social life, fashion, etc. Peer pressure is generally associated with the cases of adolescent risk taking attitude of the teenagers. It is believed by Meeker and Escobar (2014) that this phenomenon generated many negative outcomes like pushing teenagers into drug use, alcohol addiction, etc. However, Lachance, Beaudoin and Robitaille (2003), argued that when the teenagers are pressurised towards positive attitude by the peer pressure, it can introduce positive effects in a child’s life implying that peers can be supportive and positive. 2.2 Purchase Intentions Peer pressure highly influences a child’s behaviour in the sense that they start interacting only with those people who use branded clothes. Gil, et al., (2012) advocated that the opinions manipulate kids to wear only those clothes that their friends wear with the intention of making friends. Also they are afraid that if they choose to remain aloof they might be teased by the peer groups and will be treated badly. They even convince their parents to wear fashionable clothes so that they are able to show off their status in their peer group. 2.3 Role Model Influence and Purchase Intentions Role models are considered as a potential group of people that are believed to leave an impact on behaviours and consumption habits of the individuals. Giovannini, Xu and Thomas (2015) believed that role models could be anyone from direct models like parents, relatives to vicarious role models like any celebrity. For organisations, it is essential to identify whether celebrities or parents play the vital role of influencing the purchasing attitudes of the teenagers. Individuals like to emulate some aspects of the persons they admire like the fashion statement of their role models. This highly influences purchasing decisions of the youth. They tend to buy those clothes that their role models wear (Masson, et al., 2007). 2.4 Peer Pressure and Consumer Responses, Consumer Activities Peers can be the colleagues or friends of an individual. Since the peers play an important role in influencing the tastes and preferences of an individual, it is highly likely that consumer responses and activities also get influenced. Stephen Parker, Hermans and Schaefer (2004) argued that due to the fear of peer pressure, the individual consults his peers before making any purchasing decisions. He may not consider his own choice but gives preference to the decisions made by the peers. This shows that the consumers respond in accordance to their group. 2.5 Peer Pressure and Brand Loyalty If the members of a peer group are biased towards a particular brand, they tend to manipulate others to start using the same brand. As a result of their influence, they also start buying a specific brand thus giving birth to brand loyalty. Moore (2002) explained that this also implies that if any particular brand is famous in a specific peer group then all the members are going to develop brand loyalty towards that particular brand. The brands thus incorporate this factor in their marketing strategy. Even if an individual does not admire that brand, he often has to go against his own wish in order to avoid the ill treatment by his peers. Brand sensitivity is also influenced from peer pressure. 2.6 Peer Pressure and Consumer Behaviour According to Crane and Bovone (2006), the suggestions of the peers always motivate behavioural change of a consumer. From a consumer’s point of view, the peers inform and make the individual’s aware of new brands and style statements that are in trend. The groups also influence others to adopt ideas and attitudes that are consistent with the customs of the group. They also help in creating awareness regarding the desirable and undesirable goods. Peers tend to influence the purchasing decisions (Birtwistle, Siddiqui and Fiorito, 2003). It may so happen that an individual decides to buy apparel that suits him. However, the peer group may manipulate that person in such a way that he responds to them by buying those clothes that his peers like. 3.0 Methodology 3.1 Primary Data vs. Secondary Data Leedy and Ormrod (2005) categorised data into two group namely primary data and secondary data. Primary data are those which are gathered for specific rationale directly from the field of enquiry and therefore are unique in nature (Rabianski, 2003). Secondary data, on the other hand, are such numerical data which have been previously collected by some agency for one purpose and are merely compiled from the original source for use in diverse connection (Calantone and Vickery, 2010). The research paper here deals with the primary data. The main advantages of primary data are that it addresses targeted issues; researcher has greater control over the process, proprietary information, better data interpretation, acquiring updated data, etc. (Power and Scott, 2004). The researcher has control over the research and it gives him the freedom to set his own questions in order to address the issues particular to the situation. 3.2 Research Method Research methods can be of two types Quantitative and Qualitative (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008). Quantitative research method is methodical empirical examination of observable phenomena with the application of statistics, computational techniques and mathematics (Santos, 2006). It is used in order to quantify data and produce generalised outcomes from a sample to the population in question (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2012). Qualitative method on the other hand, provides insights into the structure of a problem thus generating ideas and formulates hypothesis for quantitative research process (Patton, 2005). This paper focuses on the application of quantitative method in the form of open ended questionnaire survey. This method has been applied here because it is more reliable and gives the researcher a scope to analyse the data. 3.3 Data collection Data stated that data collection is a statistical procedure applied with the purpose of justifying different theories and models. It is a very important step of research methodology (Power and Scott, 2004). The study will create close ended questions in order to evaluate the influence of Peer Pressure on brand choice between Chinese young consumers and UK young consumers. SPSS will be run on the basis of the survey result to analyse the data collected. 3.4 Sampling Simple random sampling method will be applied in this paper. The sample size will be about 150. This method is chosen as it is easy to apply and each member of the population is an equal chance of getting selected (Ritchie, et al., 2013). The entire procedure is done in a single step and each subject is selected independently and randomly. The samples are the representatives of the population which makes it easier to generalise the results (Fecikova, 2004). 20 teenagers between the ages of 15-19 from each country have been questioned. Hence, the total sample size is 40. 3.5 Data analysis The Likert Scale will be implemented to evaluate the results of the questionnaire. Likert Scale is a statistical tool of attributing quantitative value to qualitative data, so that the acquired data can be amended to statistical analysis (Sekaran, 2006). Each potential choice is allotted a ranking and at the end of the survey or evaluation, a mean value is calculated (Bakewell, Mitchell and Rothwell, 2006). It is divided into five potential choices namely strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree: Strongly Agree=1, Agree=2, Neutral=3, Disagree=4, Strongly Disagree=5. The researcher is going to apply SPSS to do reliability analysis, validity and factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis using the data corrected. 4.0 Limitation Since, the paper solely depends on primary data; the project undertaken will face some difficulties like resource and time constraints. Respondents may answer in a socially acceptable direction thus making the survey a socially desirability bias project. In the survey, there may be such respondents who are disinterested in responding thus, the answer obtained from them may be biased. There are loopholes in the market research. Time constraint like presence of a deadline makes it difficult for the researcher to complete his project. There is cost involved in conducting questionnaire survey. 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