Chapter 1

Psychological factors affecting Consumer Behavior

Clothing Sector

Introduction

Consumer Behavior in a general sense can be considered to be everything, as every

aspect of our lives revolves around the consumption of goods and services. The field of

consumer behavior covers a wide stretch of bases as it focuses on the entire consumption

process, involving issues that influence a consumer before, after and during a purchase. Almost

all behaviors that people participate in are in one way or another linked to consumption.

Whether it be travelling, shopping, or watching television, individuals are directly or indirectly

engaging in consumer behavior. It can be defined as the processes involved when individuals

select, purchase and use products or services to fulfill their needs and desires.

Wearing clothes is one of the main factors that separate us from animals. Human beings

began wearing clothes more than 170,000 years ago after the second-to-the-last-ice age. The

historical invention of weaving machine changed the way fabrics were made and thus our

garments; from being tailor made to being mass-produced. People all over the world can make

different choices based on different preferences. Consumers buy the items with which they feel

familiar and comfortable. An individual’s preferences and level of comfort is derived through
the inherent things that guide him or her to make decisions in a particular direction while they

make decisions.

Clothing performs a multitude of functions in an individual's life far beyond being a basic

necessity. Information and trends that are able to spread across the entire world not only drive

consumers to purchase clothing, at the same time they encourage consumers to purchase even

more clothing by offering them many more choices. This situation has led to a change in classic

consumer culture and created consumer masses that prefer brand names and fashion, meaning

products that possess social meaning in addition to just being functional, that provide status,

arouse interest and that are innovative. It has been suggested that these changes in consumer

culture stimulated a dynamic renewal in the fields of consumerism and personal pleasure. This

dynamism in consumer preferences is accepted worldwide as a part of an international cultural

system while social values and lifestyles are driven by continual change (Hartley &

Montgomery, 2009).

The consumer patterns introduced by modern life create the need for a consumer field

that can reflect the awareness of possessing a certain style as well as individual preferences and

the characteristics unique to a specific group. While the individual consumes with the goal of

being able to create a sense of identity and state who they want to be perceived as, the

individual is able to achieve that goal only to the degree to which the clothes they use to create

this identity are understood and interpreted by other individuals (Bocock, 2005, p. 24-27). The

characteristic that fashion and brand name products have of being able to be understood and
interpreted by individuals in society is the reason why they are so effective among all the

factors that influence consumer behavior when purchasing clothing.

The factors that make consumers purchase particular products in the field of clothing, a

field that nowadays has taken on multiple personal and social aspects that go beyond simple

need, are many and various, and are influenced by diverse variables. When consumers make

decisions about what clothing to buy they are influenced to a significant degree as much by the

information they have been given by fashion, branding and marketing activities as they are by

individual, psychological and social factors. In addition, such values as price, brand, quality,

aesthetic value and usage characteristics present themselves as influencing qualities. The

importance and degree of priority that these values hold for people constitute the differences

in clothing purchasing behavior. In order to survive in fashion industry, consumer behavior is

vital for manufacturers and retailers to develop and leverage core marketing capabilities.

According to Kotler (2001, p.25-28), the factors influencing a consumer's clothing

purchase behavior can be put into the following groups: personal, psychological and cultural.

The personal factors, which are among the most important factors determining consumers'

clothing purchase behavior, are age, gender, profession, level of education, level of income and

marital status (Muter, 2002, p. 23). Just as individuals are able to make different clothing

choices depending on their psychological makeup and society's value judgments based on their

gender, so it has also been determined by research that changes in social, physical, economic

and psychological characteristics at different ages are able to influence people's preferences.

Grouped among the psychological factors, “personality characteristics do affect consumers'

perceptions and purchasing behavior” (Stanton, Etzel, Walker, 1994, p.171). Personality,

education, perception, impressionability and other exhibited attitudes, which all vary from one

individual to another, may be listed as the psychological factors that can affect clothing

purchasing behavior. Tek (1997) states that provided “there is strong correlation between

certain personality types and products and brand names, personality could be an important

factor in figuring out consumer behavior” (p.105).

The consumer market for fashion apparel has become more diverse through fashion

brands, store brands, personalization, advertising and ethnicity in the global marketplace. If

manufacturers and retailers of fashion apparel can identify target consumers’ preferences, they

may be better able to attract and maintain their target consumer group (Rajagopal, 2011).

According to Solomon (2002), knowledge of consumer behavior directly affects marketing

strategy. Firms can satisfy those needs only to the extent that they understand their customers.

For this reason, marketing strategies must incorporate knowledge of consumer behavior into

every facet of a strategic marketing plan. Therefore, this study of clothing purchasing behavior

is important for the sector.

Clothing is one of the most noticeable aspects of adolescent culture and is an important

means by which individual adolescents express their identities. One manifestation of society’s

influence on adolescents is evident in the clothing they choose to wear (MacGillivray & Wilson,

2009). Adolescence clothing is one of the fastest growing demographic groups and the new

fashion leaders of the youth consumer market with buying power (Grant & Stephen,

2005;Solomon, & Rabolt, 2004).

 Clothing is an essential item in every individual’s life as it is considered the second skin

of the body. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow 1987), clothes fall into the

category of physiological needs and fulfill the fundamental need of protection for all

individuals. However, clothing has taken on an additional function in this modern world. Not

only does it serve as a basic human need, it also symbolizes an individual. People use clothes to

express and differentiate themselves from others. Clothes have become a communication

medium used to convey who the person is. They are visual items representing a person’s

identity and personality-gender, age, race, occupation, social and financial status, fashion

tastes, color preferences, time orientation, liking, pride, attitudes, degree of maturity, self-

confidence, and self-esteem (Rosenfeld and Plax 1977). There are other significant roles played

by clothing. Clothes have also shown to be associated with the identity of the country, religious

beliefs, political events, and historical eras.