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How do consumer values drive consumption?

Consumer values are a fundamental aspect of product consumption. These individual values dictate
and drive consumers decisions. Companies must understand consumer values to aid their business
and create competitive advantages within their sector. Understanding a target markets personal
beliefs and values will create opportunities and engagement.

Reformation is a fashion company that creates sustainable women’s clothing and accessories. Their
company values people, planet and profit. Reformation produces clothing for individuals who are
conscious of the impact their fashion choices make on the environment. Consumers in modern-day
society are heavily influenced by what a company values and embodies within their products.
Companies values reflect upon their target market. Self-expression is valued by Reformation’s
consumers as they value the environment and the ethics behind how their clothing is developed and
the impact it creates. Self-expression allows an individual to personally convey their thoughts and
opinions through different mediums. This value helps a consumer demonstrate and vocalise who
they are as an individual and what they support and believe in. Reformation has invested its
company into ethically creating sustainable clothing only and are continuing to improve how
sustainable they can be for this niche market of individuals who value self-expression towards their
choice of clothing. Within self-expression lyes multiple other personal values. Self-expression is
derived from. Personal values which are obtained through personal, social and cultural experiences
and learnings (Lai, 1995). These values help guide an individual's actions and judgments to which
company they choose to support. Personal values shift through experiences and time so it is
important that companies transition with time and societal needs and wants. Because the self-
expression is influenced by multiple beliefs, there can be differential contributions. Differential
contributions allow for multiple consumption values to be prominent in a particular choice product
(Sheth, Newman, Gross, 1991). Reformation creates sustainable clothing and accessories but they
are fashionable and high-end products made with quality materials. Consumers may purchase their
products because of not just one particular value such as self-expression values but for an emotional
value to the companies beliefs or a social value due to the renown brand name and image and the
luxury attachment of the products that society knows. This is very common to have differential
contributions and allows companies to target multiple markets.

Companies want to appeal to their target markets while creating and producing products that will
deliver quality and value to their consumers. These personal values of consumers aid in driving the
consumption of particular products that are aimed at niche markets.
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References

Lai, A. (1995). Consumer Values, Product Benefits and Customer Value: A Consumption Behavior
Approach. Advances in Consumer Research, 22(1), pp.381-388.

Sheth, J., Newman, B. and Gross, B. (1991). Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption
values. Journal of Business Research, 22(2), pp.159-170.

Thereformation.com. (2020). Our stuff - Company - Reformation. [online] Available at:

https://www.thereformation.com/pages/our-stuff [Accessed 7 Mar. 2020].