Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to segment female college students' apparel shoppers into unique apparel buying decision-making style groups; and (2) to profile for each segment in terms of personal characteristics (material values, change seeking tendency and prestige sensitivity) and fashion information sources. Data were collected through questionnaires from convenient sample of 290 female college students. As a result of cluster analysis and univariate analysis of variance, distinctive consumer decision-making style groups of consumers were identified; Value-maximizing Recreational Shoppers, Brand-Maximizing Emotional Shoppers, and Apathetic Shoppers. These three groups were compared as to the effect of personal characteristics variables and fashion information sources through univariate analysis of variance and chi-square statistics. The result showed that personal characteristics (material values, change seeking tendency and prestige sensitivity) and fashion-information sources do influence the consumer decision-making styles and that these three groups were unique in their decision-making characteristics showing that consumer decision-making styles can be a good segmentation base for apparel market.

Keywords

• consumer decision-making styles;
• material values;
• change seeking tendency;
• prestige sensitivity;
• fashion information source

• 소비자 의사결정 스타일;
• 물질적 가치관;
• 변화추구성향;
• 위신의식;
• 패션정보원;