A study of consumer's self and purchasing behaviour in fashion brand image marketing

Abstract

Admittedly we are now living in a consumption society of the Postmodern era. Consumption has become a major source of happiness in our daily life. Consumption culture in worldwide is ever changing. In the 21 st century, it is assumed that the symbolic and experiential values of consumption will continue to dominate the consumer market in general and the fashion market in particular. Such qualities add extra value to the fashion brand and enable the brand to succeed. Actually, marketers have been considering the brand value as the most invaluable asset. They would like to investigate how to position a brand and how to build a brand. And they have learnt to think of brands in human terms -with images, personalities and characteristics. It is assumed that consumers choose products or a brand to match with their self or identity and fit into the surrounding environment. It is agreed that consumer-self and identity are the main influences affecting consumer fashion choices as well as the fashion brand choices. Obviously, self-image factor is meaningful in fashion brand purchase. And it is accepted and supported by many previous studies that brand image/self-image congruence is very important for the survival of a company. Fashion as a Western phenomenon in itself is considered as a salient language either for individual to make use of the implicit meaning, or for the relevant others to interpret and create meaning. However, the individual in-depth meanings that Chinese consumers have for the fashion they consume have been neglected by the fashion marketer. A discussion of the local consumption culture and fashion/ brand-buying practice was made in this thesis. It has argued that consumer interpretation of the situations, shaped by local culture, provide the marketers with an invaluable means of addressing questions concerning the relationship between fashion consumption and Hong Kong consumers. This thesis, in an attempt to move beyond the limited conception of self-concept (identity) and brand image congruency, establishes an empirical grounding for relationship between fashion consumption and consumer self amongst the Hong Kong consumers. Data from the main study were collected under the Grounded Theory research design and operated through a triangulated research process, in the form of Existential-Phenomenological Interviews, a series of Quasi-Long Interviews, and Observation of the interviewees. Results show that Hong Kong consumers' identities are largely shaped by the society and interpretation of the situations. The evidence of buying non-label fashion also suggests that consumers on the one hand dress themselves upon the different situations, while on the other attempt to construct a sense of difference within the context. Moreover, their choices of fashion essentially are the negotiation between rational and emotional side in their mind-set. By using the triangulated research tools, consumer meanings in everyday setting is better understood and in turn contributes to developing theoretical model of fashion consumption in daily life. This model is a qualitative model, which identifies 'Human', 'Object' and 'Event' as causes for fashion consumption. This model integrates the rational buying model and emotion-driven model with the evidence of situational fashion consumption all together to explain the contemporary fashion buying decision process and consequences in Postmodernity. Moreover, a sub-model concerning the interplay between rational and emotional drive in buying decision was developed under this study. It depicted that in making buying decisions, fashion consumers are sometimes in the 'In-between' (in-between rational and emotional) status. This 'In-between' model is notably different from the bipolar types of traditional rational models and evolving emotional models of fashion consumption. In the last part of the thesis, marketing implications were addressed for marketers to facilitate effective branding programme.