Effect of Fashion Blogs on Young Womens Buying Behaviour When Purchasing Fashion Items - Coursework Example

Effect of Fashion Blogs on Young Women’s Buying Behaviour When Purchasing Fashion Items Contents Contents 2 0. Blogs 3 1. Benefits of Blogging 3 1.2. Effect of good bloggers on the fashion industry 3 1.2.1. Example 4 2.0. Consumer Buying Behaviour 5 2.1. Definition and Models of Buying Behaviour 5 2.2. Effect of Blogs on Women’s Buying Behaviour 9 Reference List 12 1.0. Blogs 1.1. Benefits of Blogging Exponential growth of disruptive technology over the past two decades has had a huge impact on lives of the people in contemporary era. The advent of blogs has become an alternative way of publishing journals in a digital format that could be universally accessed by using a web based platform. Blogs had heavily influenced the ways in which individuals, business and organizations share information with the world. Benefits from blogging could be categorized into three broad heads, namely personal, professional and financial (Ferdig and Trammell, 2004). The fundamental benefit of blogging to the blogger is Fame, which comes along with good blogging. It has the potential to create better prospects for profit of the business and positive public image. Contacts- Famous blogs help to create effective networks through conversations. Creating new contacts contributes in forming a community that is useful in producing word-of-mouth advertisement. Traffic- Good blogs generally create a high traffic among the readers. If bloggers are able to attract targeted visitors, then it alone draws in other people to read the blog and frame opinions. Creating high volumes of traffic is not only beneficial for the blogger, but also for the website owners. Primary objective of the website owners is to generate high volumes of traffic for their websites and influential blogs is one of the most effective ways for the same. Sales- Good bloggers have the potential to attract large crowd and over time, gain trust in their articles. Gaining confidence of the readers is definitely one of the first steps to increase business sales (Jackson, Yates and Orlikowski, 2007). Increasing popularity of the blogging concept has led to a fast transformation of the industry, from an activity limited to a few individuals to almost a mini-industry. The lure of active and passive sources of income earned from blogging is an influential factor, which has made blogging popular among individuals (Rowse and Garrett, 2012). 1.2. Effect of good bloggers on the fashion industry Fashion industry can be at best defined as a dynamic industry, which follows the trends of time by undergoing a several cycles of change. The use of internet technology in the fashion industry is rather regressive as social media is chiefly used as a channel of distribution, as opposed to a medium of communication. According to the views of Hines and Bruce (2007), fashion marketers should use social media as a medium of communication by interacting directly with the customers. They were of the view that such a measure will lead to better customer segmentation and understanding of the global nature of the industry. The works of Bruzzi and Gibson (2013) had identified that blogs can act as a connecting bridge between the fashion industry and the consumers. The study conducted by Liu and Donath (20006) had pointed out that web-based fashion is practically accessible to all as anyone can express their ideas related to the content of fashion and artists. It has been observed that fashionable bloggers spend a large amount of time in reading each other’s blogs, thereby finding rare posts in an attempt to remain ahead of the fashion cycle. Bloggers had become a part of the fashion industry since 2006, when New York Fashion Week had officially invited them (Shin, 2008). Fashion bloggers have been found to create innovative trends through their blogs, which in turn influences the designers in the new collections. Ethical consideration like, sanding of jeans, can be highlighted, which can create awareness in the business community in order to modify their behaviour accordingly. In November 2009, Burberry, an international fashion brand, had incorporated blogging in their advertising medium, which had resulted in huge success by inviting 2 million page visits every day (Sedeke, 2012). According to Farrell and Drezner (2007), blogs have the capacity to highlight on the future trend, thereby acting as a medium of future prediction. Predicting the future trend is important in the fashion industry so as to remain in business. 1.2.1. Example Christina Caradona is one of the most influential fashion bloggers of the contemporary era. She is a former New York model, who runs the blog called Trop Rouge. It provides a clear view of the model’s high end lifestyle in the New York fashion cocoon by providing a view of cosmopolitan fashion. She has created an effective circle of blogger friends, describing their bold view about fashion trends (Fenner, 2011). One of Caradona’s recent collaboration was with Kmart’s private label. The tagline of the campaign is “Money Can’t Buy Style”. These collaborations have a huge impact on image of the brands and additionally, serve as a vehicle to promote the blogger’s fame. Caradona is also the brand ambassador of Timberland and Esprit and is an influential name in the industry. She has been propagating the issue of affordable fashion in her recent blogs, which is quite relevant in the era of conscientious consumption. 2.0. Consumer Buying Behaviour 2.1. Definition and Models of Buying Behaviour Consumer behaviour is a complicated process, which has been amply mentioned in the research works of scholars over the past century. Consumers’ purchasing behaviour is influenced by personal, social, cultural and psychological factors (Kotler and Keller, 2009). Solomon (1995) had described it as a process, where the individuals purchase, use and dispose products and services in order to satisfy their needs and desire. Social factors relate to the culture and sub-culture and the influence that the broader society creates on a purchase decision. Personal factors relate to demographic and situational variables that influence the purchase decision and psychological factors include personality, motivation and perception of consumers (Katz and Lazarsfeld, 2009). The aspect of consumer behaviour is a complex one involving both pre-purchase and post-purchase activities. Pre-purchase activities comprise events that involve the aspects of awareness or willingness to buy a specific product, which is immediately followed by search of the products and evaluation of available information regarding the product and its brand. Post-purchase activity includes examining item that has been purchased and satisfaction derived from its uniqueness (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007). In case of luxury goods especially, the aspect of exclusivity and high price makes the purchasing behaviour even more complex. In words of Engel, consumer behaviour is “those acts of individuals directly involved in obtaining, using, and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that precede and determine these acts” (Silverman, 2001). The five stages of buying behaviour of the consumers can be represented as: Figure 1: Steps of purchase behaviour of consumers (Source: Silverman, 2001) Forms of social media such as, blogs, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram, have a profound impact on pre-purchase activities of the consumers. Social media is one of the strong mediums that can be related to emotional, mental and other psychological factors that form an integral part of the buying process. Purchasing is the final activity that can be observed in purchase behaviour of the customer. Prior to this final event, there are several steps that are mentally framed by customers, which truly influence the buying decision. According to the views of Silverman (2001), social media is an important platform in giving out, receiving and exchanging information in the absence of any physical boundaries. Smith and Zook (2011) had pointed out that social media often leads to misinterpretation of information and misunderstanding in communication, which remains one of its potential drawbacks. Companies face the fear of presenting their entire content on a freely accessible social platform because it is often subjected to both positive and negative social scrutiny. Pre-purchase decision of buyers is heavily influenced by the presence of social media as consumers are able to share ideas, review and judge products without buying them physically (Brown, 1999). Social media forms like, blogging, enable consumers to communicate with the brands. This fact has placed the consumers and not brand managers at the centre of the decision making model. Bloggers presently act as a bridge between brands and consumers, thereby forming a social web between the opinion leaders and customers about the brand. Figure 2: Web based communication model (Source: Smith and Zook, 2011) The research of Wuyts, et al. (2010) had suggested that pre-purchase behaviour of the consumers involves information collection about a product or a brand. Consumers are affected by both internal and external sources of information. Before the advent of social media, consumers had to collect information about products that they desire to purchase from traditional sources of media such as, newspaper or television. The advent of social media has changed the situation by spreading the medium of communication. The empirical study conducted by Rigby, Reichheld and Schefter (2002) had shown that more than half of e-Bay customers comes from web-based referrals. Study conducted by Evans (2010) has indicated that the preliminary stages of consumer purchasing are heavily influenced by social media. The information shared on the social media platform acts as a major source to collect information as well as a strong influence in shaping the decision of consumers. If there is high level of positive review about a product, then consumers can be influenced to buy the same. If a reader of the blogs is slightly interested by the subject matter, then there is a huge chance that they will end up buying the associated product. So, blogs can be treated as a source generating a desire among the consumers to purchase the products. The following diagram shows the steps related to purchasing behaviour of the consumer. Figure 3: Social Media purchasing buyers purchase (Source: Evans, 2010) It has been observed that social media influences brand name, customer loyalty and sales of companies. Buying behaviour process theory of the consumers is influenced by parties other than the marketers. Peer reviews, referrals and blogs are major sources, which provide consumers with required information. The model presented by Constantinides and Fountain (2008) had pointed out a major source of difference between the traditional sources and online sources that influences purchasing decision of the consumers. Figure 4: Traditional and online influence on consumer behaviour (Source: Constantinides and Fountain, 2008) The above model shows that there are four major factors influencing purchasing pattern of the consumers. A and B represents the controllable and uncontrollable stimuli in the traditional marketing literature, which influences purchasing behaviour of the customer. Uncontrollable traditional variables that affect buying behaviour of the consumers include demographic, cultural, social and political factors, which shape the life of an individual. On the other hand, web influence on the customers’ purchase decisions can be grouped into two parts. One is controllable marketing factors based on parameters like, trust, usability and interactive nature of the websites. The other comprises uncontrollable factors including online communities like, blogging, which affect purchasing decision considerably. All these factors collectively influence the purchasing decision in terms of brand choice and products. Information searches are key factors that lure consumers to the blogging sites (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008). Purchase funnel model described by Evans is also an effective model explaining the impact of social media on the decision making process of individuals. The pictorial representation of the model is given below. Figure 5: Funnel model (Source: Evans, 2010) The model shows that the awareness of consumers, which is essentially a pre-purchase activity, is linked to the initial liking to buy a product. Consideration, on the other hand, forms the middle link between awareness and purchase. Consideration is a multifaceted aspect that relates to brand reputation, reliability and performance in order to convert awareness into purchase. Evans had also pointed out that social media forms a “prompt” medium to trigger awareness and also acts as a “validation medium” supporting purchase decision of the individuals. The “Word-of-mouth” tool generated by social media is a rather powerful tool, which impacts purchasing decision of the individuals (Evans, 2010). The higher the number of followers in social media platforms, lesser is the confusion among customers pertaining to traditional media and faster is the purchasing decision. The funnel model has been extended by Evans in order to reflect the impacts of social media on purchasing decision. Post-purchase behaviour is also modified by social media in form of conversations that are generated therein. 2.2. Effect of Blogs on Women’s Buying Behaviour It has been observed that social, personal and psychological factors are three major aspects that determine purchasing behaviour of the consumers. Blogs have a profound impact on shaping social and personal factors of the consumers, which eventually influences the purchasing decision. An empirical study conducted by Rupp and Smith (2005) had emphasized on the impacts of blogs on the purchasing decision of Finnish customers. Their study had shown that bloggers externally influence consumers by reviewing items of fashion, providing link to store details and offering discounts. Readers of the blogs presume that the view expressed by the blogger is not promoting the company per se and they consider the blog content in a neutral manner. Social factors such as, opinion of friends and discussion among peer group regarding content of a blog, affect purchase decision of the buyers. However, their study had also revealed that age of the customers and economic situations also influence the purchase decisions. The role of fashion bloggers on the purchasing behaviour of young women can be equated to that of opinion leaders in marketing. The research conducted by Stockburger-Sauer and Hoyer (2009) had pointed out that bloggers set into motion a strong word-of-mouth advertisement that influences the future purchase decisions and attitude of consumers. Fashion bloggers play a crucial role in information sharing on a web-based platform that can be accessed by any person in general. Hence, fashion bloggers create a social network of blog followers and helps in the diffusion of new ideas. Study conducted by Vilopponen, Winter and Sundqvist, (2006) had suggested that blogs have an important influence on the “early adopters” because they tend to return to the external sources of influence like, online blogs, rather than the internal sources of influence like, family and friends. General consumers have developed a notion that by following content of the blogs, they will be able to keep themselves updated and spread the trend to the late buyers. Therefore, it can be argued that fashion bloggers eventually act as a role model for consumers to prevent them from becoming late purchasers. Influential bloggers have captured vital positions in the fashion industry. For instance, editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, has been sharing front row seats with bloggers in the fashion weeks of Paris and Milan. Similar trends have also been observed in case of Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of International Herald Tribune. The rationale behind this new trend is that bloggers presently act as opinion leaders and have a significant impact on purchasing decision of the women. Initially, the fashion industry was not quite open to bloggers and kept them at bay (Sedeke, 2012). Even so, this trend has reversed itself in recent times and the scenario of fashion bloggers is burgeoning. Fashion designers, celebrities and models have a huge influence in shaping the thinking process of ordinary women. A majority of the fashion bloggers are related to the fashion industry and they express their opinions regarding the current trend therein. Consequently, the fashion leaders who are also occasionally engaged in the phenomenon of blogging play a major role in influencing psychological and personal factors, which determine purchase decision of the buyers (Diga and Kelleher, 2009). A large number of buyers read views of the opinion leaders, following these major global fashion galas and determine colour, trends and fabrics that have the maximum potential for purchase. Mass consumption is later initiated by these trigger events. The impact of fashion blogs on the purchasing decision of women, when they specifically purchase items of fashion is a rather virgin territory. This is because the introduction of bloggers in the fashion arena has occurred only after 2005. As a result, relatively scarce research has been conducted on this topic. The purpose of this research is to foreground ways in which fashion bloggers impact purchasing behaviour of the women. Though a similar attempt has been made by Rupp and Smith, yet their research was done in the context of Finland. Therefore, the chosen research topic is expected to supplement the existing literature by further exploring this dimension. Reference List Brown, D., 1999. Fashion Marketing and PR. 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