Consumer Psychology - Coursework Example

Consumer psychology helps to determine how consumers process information and form judgments; it also determines how memory and judgment affect consumers decision making (Tybot & Artz, 1994). Consumers need to feel competent to be able to do things; they need to feel connected and they need to be free, according to McCarthy (2004) while Barnes and Lea-Greenwood (2006) contend that consumers need to feel different. Thus consumer psychology has a definite role to play in the decision-making process. This is all the more pronounced in the fashion clothing industry as more women are revising their wardrobes more frequently. Fashion denotes trend in consumerism, influences designs and today the fashion clothing is not restricted to women’s clothing. It includes menswear, childrenswear and accessories as well. Environmental changes have redefined what it means to be a man (Bakewell, Mitchell, & Rothwell, 2006). The fashion industry relies on constant changing of product which must match the lifestyle and taste changes of the consumer. As a result it is marked by short life-cycles, high volatility, low predictability and high impulse purchasing (Christopher, Lowson & Peck, 2004). A consumer goes through various stages in the decision making in the purchase of fashion clothing. Popular culture has a major influence in shaping trends (Barnes & Lea-Greenwood, 2006). Consumers are influenced by film, television, media, by what is happening on the streets and in clubs. Consumers seek security of a trustworthy source and this is where celebrity endorsements play a vital role. A trustworthy source can generate the strongest opinion change by consumers (Mehulkumar, 2005). Gu (2005) contends that celebrity advertising can have both information and emotional impact on the consumer. The emotional impact creates a strong linkage between the viewer and the endorsed product and there by enhances the willingness to buy the product. As people are obsessed with the talent and beauty of the endorser, the traits and characteristics of the endorser have great significance in changing consumer opinions. Consumer behavior in making purchase decisions can either be adaptive or innovative (Wang, Siu & Hui, 2004). The “adaptor” tends to seek novelty without altering the existing decisional or behavioural structures while the “innovator” seeks novelty to create new consumption situations which could also means purchasing discontinuous innovations. Brand image in fashion clothing can be enhanced through innovation in style and design, improvements in product quality or store ambience. Selling own label-brands also provides a differentiating factor that is difficult to duplicate (Birtwistle, Clarke & Freathy, 1998). Stores that sell their own labels along with national labels carry a better image and are more likely to attract the high-end customers. At the same time, there may be multiple retailers selling a garment with St. Michael label and the customer has little knowledge of who the manufacturer is (Evans, 1998). This highlights the importance of store image dimensions to build up store loyalty. Store images and store display play an important factor in the decision making process. The store image must match the targeted customers’ self-image world, which increases customer loyalty. The store image is linked to customer expectation, past purchase experiences and customer perception of the store (Birtwistle, Clarke & Freathy, 1998). Customers are more likely to enter a store that matches their profile and offers a pleasant ambience. Consumer evaluates the store image as a holistic concept and the important factors are evaluated as a “bundle” of attributes. The key to success in fashion clothing lies in accelerated product variation and the mass diffusion of designer fashions (Barnes & Lee-Greenwood, 2006). The buying cycle for fashion products is influenced by the fashion trends and demands from the consumers. There is a need to quickly react to changing trends and emerge from the planned forecasts. The number of seasons in fashion clothing has also changed and Zara – the Spanish clothing company have been the trend-setters in this regard. The clothing and fashion purchase decisions are based on want rather than need emphasize Jones and Hayes (cited by Priest 2005). It depends upon how the consumer wants to be perceived. However the modern consumer is no longer interested in utility but aesthetics. According to Wang, Siu & Hui (2004) an individual’s mental orientation characterizes his approach to making choices. Hence there are eight different decision styles – consumers can be quality conscious, brand conscious, price conscious, fashion conscious, impulsive purchases, confused by over choice, brand loyalty or have a recreational orientation. Regardless of the disposable income, some consumers will spend more on fashion clothing that says something important about them. This implies that consumers relate their purchases to their personality. Retailers now recognize the limited value of segmentation on the basis of socio-demographic variables. Choices are now determined by lifestyles and hence usage situation is necessary to be considered in the fashion retail sector (Daneels, 1996). Customers reveal their patronage. They may purchase a cheap t-shirt from the supermarket but they would prefer branded jeans from the high street. Socio-demographic factors like age and social class are no more related to buying behaviour. Burton needed to appeal to a certain group and they relied on the concept that young people also wear classic clothing (Lea-Greenwood, 1998). As such they used visual merchandising as a strategy but they failed. A consumer’s personality can be characterized in two ways – his current and real self and the intended self or how he would like to be, the ideal self (Gfm, n.d.). These influence the consumer behaviour. According to the self-consistency motives, the consumer likes to act in ways consistent with the actual self in order to reassure the self. They also try to act in a way that they reach their ideal self. Hence in making their purchase decisions, they are trying to close this gap between the current and intended self. In doing so, they enhance their self-value. It has been found that personality traits that are associated with heavy purchases include mental alertness, sociability, athleticism, being carefree and stubbornness (Goldsmith, 2002). In the fashion clothing sector it has been found that heavy usage is associated with involvement, innovativeness, knowledge, and opinions leadership. It has also been found that heavy users are price insensitive. Frequent clothing buyers use new fashions to express social and personal identity. The strategies of the retailers should be based on these psychological characteristics of the consumers. Young consumers like responding to catwalks and celebrity fashion shows. There should be no gap between the customer expectations and marketing objectives, which is where TopShop faired better than Gap despite having similar store front strategy and targeting the same segment (Newman & Patel, 2004). TopShop recognized the demands of the young consumers and what matches their personality. The response to celebrity shows arises from the fact that the consumer perception depends upon the similarity between the source and the receiver (Charbonneau & Garland, 2005). A charismatic personality signifies a strong, deep, long-lasting relationship between the consumer and the brand personality (Milas & Mlačić, 2007). Celebrity endorsers make advertisements more believable, enhance the recognition of a brand name, create a positive attitude towards the brand name and create a distinct personality of the brand (Mustafa, 2005). Brands have personalities or images, and consumers seek those brands that match their self-image or the image they would like to project to others (Goldsmith, Moore & Beaudoin, 1999). Self-concept is important because self-perceptions motivate behavior, giving control and direction to human performance (Goldsmith, 2002). People learn about their self-concepts through their external and internal environment. These thoughts and feelings about the self are stable and consistent. Self-concept is the perception or attitude that people have of themselves. This self-concept influences how consumers view advertising, sales people, brands and the way they interact with the stimuli. Brands in fashion clothing create a distinctive image and are considered the personality of the product (Birtwistle, Clarke & Freathy, 1998). The core values have to be translated into a coherent brand strategy. There has to be a fit between the brand personality and the consumer personality (Gfm, n.d.). This leads to a more positive evaluation of the brand by the consumer. When a consumer buys a brand he would make a statement that would relate to his current or actual personality or his intended personality. Clothing is used as a form of non-verbal communication of the individual personality and the self-image (Azevedo & Farhangmehr, 2005). While men have a “self-oriented” approach and focus more on functional benefits like warmth and durability, women have been found to have “other approach” where they focus on gaining approval and acceptance from peers (Bakewell, Mitchell, & Rothwell, 2006). This behavioral difference can be explained by the social conditioning that starts early when even the clothing advertisements emphasize appearance issues for boys and girls. Girls buy clothes with their peers and hence tend to be influenced by them. There has also been a shift in the way men are used as icons to promote appearance concerns. Hence various factors have altered the cultural norms how men and women perceive themselves. All these factors have made the market segmentation in the fashion clothing industry difficult. Fashion implies any product or market which has an element of style and it is likely to be short-lived. Hence the fashion-conscious segment of the market is likely to be volatile, rapidly changing and difficult to predict (Hayes & Jones, 2006). This is the reason why some high-street retailers in the UK increase their market share by improving their speed to market. Market segmentation helps to apply differential pricing to maximize profits in different consumer segments (Quinn, Hines & Bennison, 2007). It is no more sufficient to focus on high value customers and segmentation has to be based on several factors. Depending upon the personality traits the fashion clothing industry is split into number of segments – luxury, high street and supermarket/out-of-town discounter (Bruce & Daly, 2006). There is one segment that believes in the phenomenon of disposable fashion rules – “buy it, wear it, and chuck it” (Mesure, 2007). In the high-end sector, the store display and the product hold importance. The marketer should style the product and customize the timing to generate better customer satisfaction. The concept of store image should be effectively utilized. Burton Menswear wanted to serve everybody although their primary target was the 25-45 males. In the process they failed because when they tried to display high fashion in store front, it chased away the older customers who were the historic customers (Birtwistle, & Freathy, 1998). The younger generation does not step in when they want to display the classic collection. This is reverse market segmentation where the customers segment themselves rather than the retailers trying to segment the market (Daneels, 1996). Marketers have to often cater to different segments even though they have targeted the market. This has become important in the highly turbulent fashion industry. As such, Next for Men catered to both the price conscious and the fashion conscious segment (Birtwistle, & Freathy, 1998). For the price conscious customers so they had a limited range at competitive prices. For the fashion conscious they had a high priced range. The staff was trained to recognize the customers’ needs and approach without being asked for assistance. Burberry had a narrow customer base comprising of middle aged, fashion-conservative men (Moore & Birtwistle, 2004). They adopted the multi-level brand strategy to cater to all segments. They introduced clothing for the younger, fashion-forward customers. It segmented the high priced, fashion conscious customers and upgraded the product range to suit the changing lifestyles. The differential price positioning and multi-brand strategy gave them a broader customer appeal. This defies earlier theories while new strategies have been successful. This shows that in the fashion industry segmentation cannot be done in isolation for the simple reason that consumer tastes and preferences change by the hour. While some adopted multiple brand strategy and succeeded, some did not. Products have to be customized, retailers have to add value but there cannot be any defined segmentation process in the fashion clothing sector. Various factors have to be taken into account that includes sales personnel, visual merchandising, product positioning, sourcing, timing and the overall marketing objectives. References: Azevedo, A & Farhangmehr, M 2005, Clothing Branding Strategies: Influence of Brand Personality on Advertising Response, Retrieved October 24, from http://www.tx.ncsu.edu/jtatm/volume4issue3/articles/Azevedo/Azevedo_full_134_05.pdf Bakewell, C Mitchell, V & Rothwell, M 2006, UK Generation Y male fashion consciousness, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 169-180. Barnes, L & Lea-Greenwood G 2006, Fast fashioning the supply chain: shaping the research agenda, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 259-271 Birtwistle, G Clarke, I & Freathy, P 1998, Customer decision making in fashion retailing: a segmentation analysis, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 147–154. Charbonneau, J & Garland, R 2005, Talent, Looks or Brains? New Zealand Advertising Practitioners’ Views on Celebrity and Athlete Endorsers, Marketing Bulletin, 2005, 16, Article 3 Christopher, M Lowson, R & Peck, H 2004, Creating agile supply chains in the fashion industry, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 367-376 Danneels, E 1996, Market segmentation: normative model versus business reality, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 36-51 Evans, M 1998, Consumer Behaviour towards Fashion, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 7-. Gfm, n.d., The Fit Between Brand Personality and Consumer’s Self: The Importance of Actual Versus Ideal Self for Brand Performance, Retrieved February 05, 2008 from http://www.gfm.ch/files/marketing_wissen/gfm_the_fit.pdf Goldsmith, R E Moore, M A & Beaudoin, P 1999, Fashion innovativeness and selfconcept: a replication, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 7-18. Goldsmith, R E 2002, Some personality traits of frequent clothing buyers, Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 303-316. Gu, Z 2005, Celebrity Endorsement Advertising and Product Adoption through Social Networks, Retrieved October 24, from http://www.econ.au.dk/afn/workshops/departmental/Jane%20Gu.pdf Hayes, S G & Jones, N 2006, Fast fashion: a financial snapshot, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 282-300 Lea-Greenwood, G 1998, Visual merchandising: a neglected area in UK fashion marketing? 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Retrieved October 25, 2008 from http://lubswww.leeds.ac.uk/researchProgs/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Pajuani.pdf Mesure, S 2007, Fashion must clean up its act, or be left behind with last seasons look, New Statesman, 8 October 2007 pp. 14-16 Milas, G & Mlacic, B 2007, Brand personality and human personality: Findings from ratings of familiar Croatian brands, Journal of Business Research, vol. 60, pp. 620–626 Moore, C M & Birtwistle, G 2004, The Burberry business model: creating an international luxury fashion brand, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 412-422 Mustafa, N 2005, The role of celebrities in marketing. iKnowHow. 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