Selecting Apparel: the Consumer's Point of View
Retailers use a variety of techniques to attract consumers shopping for apparel. Marketing techniques such as gift with purchase, contests, and special events catch the consumer’s attention, but do not guarantee sales.
The process of apparel shopping is not as simple as it may seem. Consumers are faced with a plethora of choices, such as choosing where to shop, deciding what type of clothes to buy, checking the fiber content and garment care labels, choosing a brand, selecting a color, and determining whether they are getting a good price.
Of consumers interviewed in Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor™, 43% said that store displays are their primary source for new fashion ideas when they shop for apparel; their next most important sources are people they see regularly and catalogs. Since the Monitor began in 1994, the percentage of consumers indicating that they get their apparel ideas from any outside sources has declined significantly in most categories. Monitor data provide no clear explanation for this trend, which Cotton Incorporated will explore in future research.
Sources of Apparel Ideas |
Source |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999* |
|
| Store/window displays |
51 |
56 |
55 |
51 |
42 |
43 |
| Catalogs |
31 |
35 |
33 |
32 |
28 |
24 |
| TV/commercials |
28 |
33 |
30 |
27 |
23 |
25 |
| Friends/family |
26 |
31 |
27 |
26 |
24 |
24 |
| Magazines |
23 |
26 |
24 |
22 |
23 |
25 |
| Sales people |
18 |
23 |
17 |
16 |
10 |
14 |
| Celebrities |
10 |
12 |
12 |
11 |
8 |
10 |
Most consumers tend to like their favorite stores for similar reasons. The most common reason shoppers give is that the stores offer a wide selection or variety of items. Other reasons consumers give for shopping at their favorite stores are that they have good sale prices, carry quality clothes, and are convenient. None of the participants mentioned service as a reason for liking their favorite stores. Similarly, only 14% of consumers identified sales people as a source of ideas for apparel. These responses point to a potentially larger problem of retailers’ not meeting consumer needs.
In the Lifestyle Monitor, consumers are asked what they like most about their favorite brands. The primary attributes they mention are fit/size, style, comfort, and overall quality. The first three of these are easy to interpret; however, it is less clear what "quality" means to consumers. Therefore, we asked the respondents who said quality was what they liked most about their favorite brand to define "quality." The responses included such attributes as durability, good value, fit/size, comfort, garment care, and style. Clearly, quality is not easily defined, and it is related to not just one aspect of product, but a combination of factors.
When deciding whether to purchase an apparel item, 70% of consumers identify price as an important factor to consider. Price is the predominant concern among shoppers regardless of age, income, or educational status. The second most important item consumers consider before buying a garment is fabric content, mentioned by 48% of respondents. Other factors cited as important in the purchasing decision are where the item is made (43%), laundry instructions (37%), and brand name (31%).
However, as we discuss in our lead story on Generation Y, the relative importance of these factors is not consistent across age groups. More younger consumers are influenced by brand name, whereas more older consumers are concerned about fiber content and care instructions. In fact, more than 70% of consumers over the age of 35 always or usually check the fabric content label before purchasing a garment, compared with 47% of consumers under 35.
In a simulated shopping study commissioned by Cotton Incorporated, consumers were shown actual garments and later were asked questions about the products they had been shown. Overall, 70% of consumers recalled the brand name, 55% recalled fiber content, and 35% remembered the color. They recalled the names of nationally known brands significantly more often than private-label brand names. They were more likely to remember the fiber content of an item if it was a lesser-known brand than if it was a nationally known brand. Regardless of brand, consumers were more likely to recall that a product was 100% cotton when the Seal of Cotton was present than when it was absent. This finding suggests that visual symbols can convey product information more effectively than text alone.
Clearly, before any consumer makes a decision to purchase an apparel item, he or she considers a variety of factors. To succeed in an increasingly competitive environment, retailers need to be on target not only with marketing and communication effort but also with product quality and workmanship. |
