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CHAPTER 2
THEORITICAL FOUNDATION
2.1
Definition of Fashion
Fashion now is become an important things in society. Fashion affects what we wear,
what we eat, how we live and how we see our self. The ways we dress up also show our
personality and idealism and also it reflects our society and culture.
There are many definition of fashion, based on Troxell and stone in their book “fashion
merchandising” fashion is a style that accepted and used by majority of a group at any
one time. From that definition we know that fashion is related to style, personality and
time. So it is understandable why the style in this month can be outdated in the next
month.
Troxell and Stone explain Fashion also can be categorized according to the group to
which they appeal; high fashion refers to those styles or designs accepted by a limited
group of fashion leaders, the elite among customers who are firsts to accept fashion
change. This fashion usually introduced, produced and sold in small quantities and
relatively high price this fashion is produced for socialites, entertainers and fashion
innovator, for example Louis Vuitton, Bally, Gucci. However, Mass fashion or volume
fashion refers to those styles or designs that are widely accepted. This fashion are
usually produced and sold in large quantities at moderate to low prices and appeal to the
greatest majority of fashion conscious consumer, for example many people go to ITC to
buy clothes because in there usually cheaper than in other store, and they also has
various models which always up to date, usually the customer buy in large quantity.
According to Solomon in his book “Consumer Behavior: European Perspective” fashion
is social diffusion where a new style where adapted by a group of consumer. Fashion
and style has different meaning. Style is a particular combination of attributes that
distinguishes it from others in its categories. In the other hand, design is a specific
version of style for example the skirt, it has many variations such as A-line, box-pleated,
and gored and knife pleated.
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Based on Solomon and Rabolt in their book “Consumer Behavior in fashion” fashion
can be thought of as a code, or language, that help us to decipher these meaning. Unlike
a language, however, fashion is context-dependent which the same item can be
interpreted differently by different consumers and in different situations. So, there is no
one precise meaning, but rather plenty of room for interpretation among perceivers.
2.2
Fashion Life Cycle
All marketers know that products have its life cycle, it the same with the context product
life cycle but the life cycle is focused in fashion product. Fashion cycle refers to the rise,
wide popularity and then decline in acceptance of a style. To understand about the life
cycle Music industry is the perfect example In introduction stage the song is listened by
a small crowd such as the producer, and the song only played in small local radio. In
acceptance stage the song launched through greater reach media and increases the social
visibility. In regression stage after the song become overused it eventually sinks into
decline and new song is rise. For more understanding about fashion life cycle see the
graph below.
Figure 1 – Fashion Life Cycle
Sources: Solomon, Rabolt In “Consumer Behavior in fashion” pp. 28 (2006)
In the graph we can see that fashion are characterized by slow acceptance at the
beginning, which rapidly accelerates and then taper off. Many retailers feel that the
fashion cycle moving faster than before.
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2.3
Consumer Behaviour
Based on Solomon in his book “Consumer Behavior: buying having and being” the
definition of consumer behavior is the study of the processes involved when individual
or group select, purchase, use or dispose of product, service, ideas, or experiences to
satisfy needs and desires. The item that are consumed can include anything such as
Gucci handbags, a messages, rap music or Prada shoes. The needs and desire has to be
satisfies from hunger and thirst of love, status, or even spiritual fulfillment. The need of
fashion product is based on what consumer needs. There are some important needs that
relevant to consumer behavior include:
•
Need for affiliation: this needs relevant to products and services that are
consumed in groups and alleviate loneliness such as college student often shop
for clothing together.
• Need for power
•
Needs for uniqueness: this needs is satisfied by products that pledge to
accentuate a consumers distinctive qualities.
In the book “Marketing: an introduction” it explain about consumer behavior in general.
Buying behavior is not simple, but it is essential for marketing management. These
books also explain the definition of consumer buyer behavior which is the buying
behavior of final consumers individual and households who buy goods and services to
personal consumption.
Everyday consumer makes many buying decision, even though it only a small things
such as choosing shampoo. The decision is very important in order to buy the product or
not.
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Figure 2 – Model Buyer Behaviour
Source: Armstrong, Kotler “Marketing: an introduction”
In the figure above explain about the model of buying behavior. We can see that the
marketing and other stimuli enter the consumer black box and then produce certain
responses, in this figure marketer has to find out what is in the buyer black box.
Based on armstong and Kotler on their book “Marketing: an introduction” explain that
they are many factor that affecting consumer behavior which is:
SOCIAL
Reference groups
Family
Roles and status
CULTURAL
Culture
Subculture
Social class
PERSONAL
Age and life cycle stage
Occupation
Economic situation
Lifestyle
Personality and self
concept
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Motivation
Perception Learning
Belief and attitudes
BUYER
Figure 3 - Factor that influence customer behavior
Sources: Armstrong, Kotler “Marketing: an introduction”
Cultural Factors, include:
a. Culture
Culture is the set of basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors
learned by a member of society from family and other important
institution.
b. Subculture
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Subculture is a group of people with shared value systems based on
common life experience and situations.
c. Social Class
Social class is permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose
members share similar value, interest, and behaviors.
Social Factors, include:
d. Reference Groups is a direct (face to face) or indirect point of comparison or
reference in forming a person’s attitudes or behavior. Especially in fashion
industry the opinion from the group are important, for example when we
want to buy skirt we need other opinion whether the skirt is good or not,
when the others think that it is not good, the customers tent to follow others
than her/him.
e. Family. Family members has a major influence in buyer behavior, family is
the most important consumer buying organization in society. For example
when choosing places for holiday, in the family sometime has a different
opinion on choosing holiday spot, to avoid fighting in the family so the
family will chose place when everybody can enjoy it.
f. Roles and status people usually chose the product that they want based on
their roles and status.
Personal Factors, include:
g.
Age and life-cycle stage, everybody is changing over their lifetime, when
they become old they also change everything from the taste of food, clothing,
furniture, and recreation. They will buy the product that suitable for their age.
h. Occupation and economic situation these two factor also can influence the
buyer behavior decision. For example blue collar worker tent to buy more
rugged work clothes whereas executive buy more business suit.
i. Lifestyle is a person pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities,
interest and opinions.
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j. Personality and self concept. Personality is a unique psychological
characteristic that lead to relatively consistent and lasting responses to one’s
own environment.
Psychological Factors, include: Motivation, perception, learning, belief and attitudes.
To understand more about consumer need it is better if we look at Maslow hierarchy that
will explain about consumer needs. The implication of Maslow hierarchy is that one
must first satisfy basic needs before progressing up the ladder. The same product or
activity can satisfy a number of different needs.
Maslow hierarchy categorizes one of the product fashions which are clothes as needs of
belongingness. However, designer clothing is one of esteem needs.
SelfActualization
Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Figure 4 - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Source: Armstrong, Kotler “Marketing: An introduction” p.139
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2. Physiological Needs
Physiological needs are those required to sustain life, such as:
•
air
•
water
•
nourishment
•
sleep
According to Maslow's theory, if such needs are not satisfied then one's motivation will
arise from the quest to satisfy them. Higher needs such as social needs and esteem are
not felt until one has met the needs basic to one's bodily functioning.
3. Safety
Once physiological needs are met, one's attention turns to safety and security in order to
be free from the threat of physical and emotional harm. Such needs might be fulfilled
by:
•
Living in a safe area
•
Medical insurance
•
Job security
•
Financial reserves
According to Maslow's hierarchy, if a person feels that he or she is in harm's way, higher
needs will not receive much attention.
4. Social Needs
Once a person has met the lower level physiological and safety needs, higher level needs
become important, the first of which are social needs. Social needs are those related to
interaction with other people and may include:
•
Need for friends
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•
Need for belonging
•
Need to give and receive love
5. Esteem
Once a person feels a sense of "belonging", the need to feel important arises. Esteem
needs may be classified as internal or external. Internal esteem needs are those related to
self-esteem such as self respect and achievement. External esteem needs are those such
as social status and recognition. Some esteem needs are:
•
Self-respect
•
Achievement
•
Attention
•
Recognition
•
Reputation
Maslow later refined his model to include a level between esteem needs and selfactualization: the need for knowledge and aesthetics.
6. Self-Actualization
Self-actualization is the summit of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It is the quest of
reaching one's full potential as a person. Unlike lower level needs, this need is never
fully satisfied; as one grows psychologically there are always new opportunities to
continue to grow.
Self-actualized people tend to have needs such as:
•
Truth
•
Justice
•
Wisdom
•
Meaning
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Self-actualized persons have frequent occurrences of peak experiences, which are
energized moments of profound happiness and harmony. According to Maslow, only a
small percentage of the population reaches the level of self-actualization.
Based on Maslow hierarchy fashion involvement can be occurred in the stage of social
needs, esteem needs and actualization needs. Because physiological and safety is the
basic needs that everybody have to has. However, for fashion it starts for the social
needs because fashion can help them to fulfill need of friends, they need to feel they
belong to the community. Many people will buy clothes based on the fashion trend,
these because they want to be accepted to the community. Some of the trying hard to be
accepted for example they will buy branded clothes just to be confidence and accepted
in high class people, sometime they do not care about the price as long as they can be
accepted.
2.4
Impulse Buying Behavior
When discussing about fashion product many people thinks that fashion is an important
need that they have to get. But they need to do information search to find out whether up
to date or not, so they know what they want. Sometimes many people only buy the
clothes to fulfill their need even though it is not important and it will create unplanned or
impulse buying behavior. According to Solomon and Rabolt in their books “Consumer
Behavior in Fashion” stated: “Impulse buying behavior occur when the person
experiences sudden an urge that he or she cannot resist.”
Solomon and Rabolt also explain about the categories of impulse buying behavior in
their books which:
•
Planned Impulse Buying: the purchase is dependent on sale condition. Consumer
wait and see what is available and the purchase decision is made in the store
•
Reminder impulse buying: the purchaser remembers a previous decisions, which
causes an on the spot purchase
•
Fashion oriented impulse buying: the customers see the product in a new style is
motivated by the suggestion and decide to buy it. This refers a person’s
awareness of the newness or fashion ability of an innovative design or style
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•
Pure impulse buying: the purchase occurs without any previous thought or a plan
to buy, it can be “escape buying” resulting from a sudden urge to buy something.
On the other hand, based on Solomon and Rabolt in their book “Consumer Behavior in
Fashion” stated that fashion student have been found to engage in more impulse buying
when compare with non fashion student and non student consumers. This buying
behavior also can be occurring based on fashion involvement. Fashion involvement is
important factors in consumer behavior.
In fashion marketing, fashion involvement refers to the extent of interest with the
fashion product category (e.g.Apparel). Fashion involvement is used primarily to predict
behavioral variables related to apparel product such as product involvement, buying
behavior and consumer characteristics.(Browne and Kaldenberg, 1997; fairhurst et al,
1989; Flynn and Goldsmith, 1993) Fashion involvement is composed of five fashion
related dimension which are: fashion awareness, fashion knowledge ability, fashion
interest, fashion interpersonal communication, and fashion innovative.
2.5
Hedonic Consumption
Hedonic consumption has been defined as those facets of behavior that relate to the
multisensory, fantasy and emotive aspect of consumption. This view suggests that
consumption is driven by the fun a customer has in using the product and the criteria of
success are essentially aesthetic in nature (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). Hedonic
shopping motives are similar to the task orientation of utilitarian, only the tasks is
concerned with hedonic fulfillment such as experiencing fun, amusement, fantasy and
sensory stimulation (Babin et al, 1994).