National Textile Center

Year 8 Proposal

Project No.: I97-A11

Competency: Intelligent Systems

Consumer Preferences for Apparel and Textile Products as a Function of Lifestyle Imagery

Project Team:

Leader Michael R. Solomon, Auburn University Expertise Consumer Behavior and Marketing

Email: msolomon@humsci.auburn.edu Phone: (334) 844-1316

Name/school/expertise

Members: Basil G. Englis Berry College Consumer Research Methodology

Objective:

Virtually no research considers how consumers' aspirations (i.e., their desires to look and live, and the paths they envision their lives taking in the future) influence buying decisions today. Furthermore, most consumer research is narrowly focused within a product category, and thus fails to account for the perceived "fit" between an apparel/textile item and other products with which it may be jointly consumed. We are assessing the impact of lifestyle-related consumption imagery on the formation of consumers' preferences for textile/apparel products by: (1) examining how the lifestyle aspirations of fashion innovators influence their preferences for textile/apparel products; (2) exploring how these preferences are affected by relationships with choices of products in other categories that together are used to express a desired lifestyle; (3) developing a web-based, quick-response data collection tool capable of capturing preferences for specific product/style images in a national sample of fashion-forward American women. The software development work and subject pilot-testing required to create this interactive tool will be completed by the end of Year 2, and we are moving ahead with our current plan to collect national data in Year 3.

Relevance to NTC Mission:

This project contributes to NTC's mandate to enhance American market competitiveness by focusing on the "value-added" dimension of product image -- from the point of view of the consumer. The research goes beyond the simple mapping of perceptions of a target product vis-a-vis competitors (a within-category analysis), and instead examines consumers' perceptions of textile and apparel items in the context of clusters of other relevant products and consumption activities (cross-category analysis). The project examines fundamental issues concerning how consumers' aspirations are expressed visually as they evaluate and select products. We hope to forge a set of methodological tools that will help the industry to study consumer aspirations and their effects on choice behavior in the marketplace.

State of the Art:

Little is known about how preferences for apparel and textile products are shaped by consumers' lifestyle aspirations and desires and by the media imagery to which they are exposed. Most research on consumer preference formation has tended to examine single-category behavior (cf. Solomon 1999) and, thereby, has ignored the lifestyle context in which the consumer decisions occur. Our emphasis on the integrated meaning of an assortment of symbolically interdependent products as they relate to consumer aspirations represents a new path of inquiry. Previous NTC work (#I95-A20, #I98-A09) has attempted to model consumer preferences and product diffusion processes using computer-based systems that model theoretical constructs in the absence of empirical data. In contrast, the present project seeks to analyze preference formation and diffusion processes by studying consumers directly. Other NTC projects (#I95-A19, #I98-A08) have examined mass customization systems as a means of providing more satisfying apparel products to consumers. These projects primarily emphasize the technological problems associated with mass customization. They do not focus on consumer segmentation issues that address the question of identifying psychographic segments of influencers for whom mass customization is a viable approach in the first place, versus other market segments not as likely to engage in this process. In contrast, the present project seeks to generate models that are both empirically grounded and that are applicable to leading marketing segments (influencers) as well as to mass markets (followers). In essence our departure point from prior research is our emphasis on the process of stylistic diffusion through the marketplace, and its impact on product preferences rather than on fitting preferences and other physical properties of garments. While women may prefer a well fitted, customized garment, this choice only becomes germane after they have selected a style they deem to be reflective of their desired lifestyle or self-expression. Thus our work complements prior NTC research by focusing on how consumers "edit" the vast array of stylistic options they encounter in the marketplace to select those that are congruent with their emerging aspirations and lifestyle preferences.

This emphasis on the integrated meaning of an assortment of symbolically interdependent products represents a new path of inquiry in the academic literature, and has valuable strategic ramifications as well. Our primary focus is on women who are currently in their twenties, as many consumers in this economically vital age cohort have a high interest in fashion, are forming preferences that will endure throughout adulthood, and tend to have a fluid self-concept that is heavily influenced by aspirational lifestyle appeals in apparel advertising. To tap into the emerging aspirations of this segment we will obtain ongoing input from a set of opinion leaders, i.e., female consumers in their twenties who follow fashion trends, and who are highly active in social organizations and other networks where they have an opportunity to influence the tastes of friends and acquaintances.

Approach:

At the core of our methodological approach is the use of visual imagery (developed through qualitative work with opinion leaders) as stimuli used to elicit cross-category product associations. We are identifying the sets (or constellations) of products, activities, and media preferences that women who belong to distinct and managerially relevant market segments associate with desired lifestyles. Quantitative indexes reflecting structure and evaluative content of these constellations and their elements will be used to model the future behavior of these consumers.

To tap into the emerging aspirations of our subject population of "twentysomething" female fashion innovators, we have gained unrestricted access to VALS2. This is a psychographic consumer typology created by SRI International that is widely used by major manufacturers and advertisers to target distinct consumer segments differing in lifestyle orientations. While SRI International has done extensive work with the VALS2 system to identify early adopters of high technology products, to date the system has not been applied to the parallel issue of identifying innovators for stylistic products such as clothing and textiles. We are focusing on specific VALS2 subtypes, such as Actualizer/Experiencer, whose overall profiles most likely match that of the fashion innovator, as well as VALS2 groups likely to account for significant mass-market purchases. Our project examines how lifestyle aspirations impact on the product choices of either influentials or (mass-market) followers. Based on media data made available to us by SRI and The Simmons Survey of Media & Markets (the major source of consumer panel data used in media buying and strategic advertising decisions), we are developing a lifestyle-imagery archive derived from the product images represented in the print media vehicles most heavily read by each VALS2 type of interest. Thus, the research focuses on the fundamental question of fashion innovation and its relationship to the VALS2 typology and, thereby, can shed light on the question of the psychological profiles of consumers who are attracted to product "newness" in fashion-related categories.

Stylistic elements, as conveyed through visual imagery, play a central role in the evaluation of textile and apparel products. This image-driven process highlights the need to develop a visually oriented methodology to examine consumers' preferences -- a technique not widely used in conventional marketing research. A visual emphasis will add greatly to the richness of the data, but also presents a challenge as the coding and interpretation of non-lexical information is more complex. The development of visually based methods will allow us to more closely model the process by which consumers perceive and judge apparel and textile products and then incorporate this information into their buying preferences. We seek to better understand how consumers integrate information from mass media (including advertising, entertainment, and editorial vehicles) depictions of lifestyles as they form their own product preferences. Experimental work in this area will examine how consumers use visual information and will compare visual presentation of options with other forms of product information such as the verbal descriptions more typically used.

These images are being input into a web-based data collection tool that will allow consumers to indicate their aspirational product sets by selecting among visual images presented to them on a computer screen. The data collection methodology is a browser-based tool developed by the project team. The data collection tool is designed to function either as resident on the user's system, via a CD-ROM, or as a remote server-based system. In all cases, control of access as well as the recording of respondent choices will occur via Internet linkage with the PI's server. This new technology will enable the PI's to present (also via visual depictions on a computer monitor) a series of lifestyle scenarios to respondents (e.g., a dinner party with work colleagues, an evening out with a date/partner, preparation for a job interview, and so on) and ask respondents to make appropriate selections for a diverse set of product categories that best represent the respondent's lifestyle aspirations. Visual variations presented to respondents within each product category (e.g., blouses) will be input from product options currently depicted in selected media with known viewership profiles. In essence, the respondent assembles a "shopping basket" representing those items that best exemplify her desired self-image. These perceived associations (products, activities, media preferences, and so on) define the aspirational profiles that are used to predict future behavior. Following each selection set, respondents will be presented with a series of interview questions concerning the products and consumption activities chosen. Quantitative indexes reflecting structure and evaluative content of consumer perceptions will be used to test specific research hypotheses concerning the effects of experimental variables manipulated through variations in the scenario content and in the presentation of product information.

This Year's Goal:

Our goals for Year 3 are to continue capturing and classifying images of textile and clothing products for ongoing use in the research. We are deploying the first field version of the research tool in Year 2 and will begin tracking the preferences of a panel of women who fit the demographic and psychographic profiles of interest. Our goal is to have the web-server on-line collecting data from a national sample of women who will respond to systematic variations in (1) life scenarios, (2) stylistic elements of textile and apparel products, and (3) presentation formats for product information. A series of experiments will be conducted that systematically manipulate these variables.

Outreach to Industry:

Industry is involved in the project in two primary ways: First, the research is anchored to market data made available to us by SRI International and the Simmons Study of Media and Markets. SRI technology is being used to screen participants based on psychological profile and Simmons data are being used to select appropriate media sources of product images and to detail marketplace behavior. The PI's have made contact and/or presentations concerning the project to textile and apparel manufacturers (e.g., Milliken, Levi-Strauss, Alexander Julian) in an effort to disseminate information from the project and to solicit industry support in the form of visual material for use as stimulus material in the research. Images of actual clothing and home furnishings textile products provided by industry sources will be integrated into our media-based archive in Year 3.

New Resources Required:

A dedicated web-server is needed to service the project's data collection needs as we move toward the deployment of a nationally representative sample. Continued use of a software developer is necessary to provide additional enhancements to the data-collection software as feedback arrives from fieldwork with target consumers. The focus of the systems development efforts will shift to data processing over the course of Year 3. Additional software systems and developer support will be required to manage the data flow from the web tools and to create data analysis and presentation tools that wed the rich visual information of our approach with more traditional techniques of presenting quantitative information. Recruitment and interviewing of appropriate VALS2 consumers representing major markets will require the skills of trained research assistants. A post-doctoral fellow is desired to provide day-to-day oversight. This individual will possess competence in methodologies and design issues associated with consumer research.

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References:

Anderson, Lenda Jo et al, "Discovering the Process of Mass Customization: A Paradigm Shift for Competitive Manufacturing," NTC Project # I95-A19.

Anderson, Lenda Jo et al, "Understanding Fitting Preferences of Female Consumers: Development of an Expert System to Enhance Accurate Sizing Selection," NTC Project #I98-A08.

Brannon, E.L., et al., "Artificial Life Simulation of the Textile/Apparel Marketplace," NTC Project #I95-A20.

Brannon, E.L., et al, "Agent-Based Simulation of the Consumer's Apparel Purchase Decision," NTC Project #I98-A09.

Solomon, Michael R. Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, 4th ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.