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

The continued viability of the American textile industry hinges on the ability of manufacturers, advertisers, and retailers to predict, develop, and communicate styles of apparel and other textile products that resonate with the desires of the consuming public. We are constructing an on-line visual database to allow us to explore the role played by the perceived "fit" between a product and a valued lifestyle in shaping the wants and needs of customers for textile and apparel products. Our conceptual framework emphasizes the role of consumer aspirations in shaping behavior, as well as the crucial role played by the media in determining the lifestyle connotations of specific products. And, while most research on apparel choices tends to be confined to a specific product category, we instead emphasize how textile and apparel products are evaluated in the context of other products with which they are jointly consumed to make a lifestyle statement. Selection of respondents and analysis of results will be facilitated by the cooperation we have secured from the Stanford Research Institute to integrate its’ widely-used VALS (Values and Lifestyles) consumer typology with our program of research. Project # A97-11 Page 3 Textiles and Lifestyles Our concentration 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. A long-standing body of research indicates that the preferences of these influential, "fashion-forward" consumers tend to be predictive of mass market choices at later points in time. Research Strategy and Current Status The research program builds upon the PIs’ prior work in the study of consumers' product preferences, and in how consumers' preferences are influenced by their desires to attain aspirational lifestyles and to distance themselves from avoidance lifestyles. The key question addressed by this program is to learn how consumers integrate information from mass-media (including advertising, entertainment, and editorial vehicles) depictions of these lifestyles as they form their own preferences for products and styles. Participants in our opinion leader panels will provide input on an ongoing basis by reacting to visual images culled from a variety of media, by supplying their own desired and undesired images, and by responding to research instruments intended to assess their perceptions of a range of products or styles from several textile categories that they associate with lifestyle ideals. Many of the product categories examined by consumer goods marketers tend to be driven to a greater extent by well-known brand names (e.g., Budweiser versus Heineken), while in the apparel or textile category stylistic elements play a very important role. This image-driven process points to the need to develop a visually-oriented methodology to examine consumers' preferences -a dimension that is not widely incorporated in most lifestyle research. A visual emphasis adds greatly to the richness of the data, but also presents a challenge as the coding and interpretation of non-lexical information is far more complex. This work combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify and interpret sets of relevant product images. Empirical techniques include the use of depth interviews with consumers, an open-ended elicitation task where respondents provide product associations with a set of lifestyles, projective measures based on responses to visual depictions of lifestyle imagery in apparel and textile advertising, and eventually a web-based survey instrument to assess and monitor evolving lifestyle associations in a nationally representative sample. Project # A97-11 Page 4 At the core of our methodological approach is the use of visual imagery (developed through our qualitative work with opinion leaders) as stimuli used to elicit cross-category product associations. This is used to identify the sets (or constellations) of products, activities, and media preferences that consumers themselves 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. Results from these sources will be combined with data reflecting consumers’ actual purchase behaviors to analyze the relationship between aspirations and future market behavior. We have secured the cooperation of the Stanford Research Institute to access VALS2, the widely-used consumer typology, and our project will be able to leverage this well-established and validated national source to specifically study the current issues of interest. One of the PIs (Englis) has already participated in an intensive training session at SRI headquarters in Palo Alto, and VALS data are now being made available to us that will enable us to identify a priori a set of respondents that belong to the desired VALS type categories. Fashion Opinion Leadership and VALS To date little research has been conducted on how lifestyle aspirations impact on the consumption behavior of opinion leaders, or on the mass market consumers who eventually follow their lead. To enable us to reliably model these effects, we have been granted access to the VALS2 database, developed by SRI International. The VALS2 framework is a psychographic segmentation system that divides the American public into eight general categories (and numerous subcategories) that are differentiated in terms of resources available (e.g., income, education, energy levels, eagerness to buy) and self-orientation (principle-oriented, status-oriented, and action-oriented). Consumers with a Principle orientation make purchase decisions guided by a belief system, and tend not to be concerned with the views of others. Those with a Status orientation make decisions based on their perceived opinions of peers. Action-oriented consumers buy products to have an impact on the world around them. We will identify and involve samples of American women who have been “VALStyped” into certain categories. In addition, the VALS2 database is now linked to the Simmons Study of Media & Markets, a major syndicated database that provides detailed consumption information obtained from a panel of over 20,000 consumers. Prior classification work conducted by SRI indicates that product innovations tend to be adopted first by certain VALS types. SRI’s work in this area has, however, tended to emphasize innovativeness in the adoption of technology rather than of style. Yet, this previous work also identifies VALS profiles associated with fashion innovativeness and the potential for application to aesthetic product categories is promising. Fashion-forward opinion leaders tend to be found in the high-resources region of the VALS typology and cluster primarily in the status-and action-oriented segments. During the first year of this project, we are developing and testing a methodology for eliciting visual images of styles desired by opinion leaders, and for examining their cross-category product associations with a set of lifestyles to be identified as either Project # A97-11 Page 5 aspirational or avoidance. Work is currently underway to develop a software tool that will be used in the consumer survey. This tool is a browser-based software interface with an extensive database layer, which handles storage and retrieval of visual images. Both components can be delivered to consumers in web and CD-ROM formats. During the first year of the project, this data collection tool will be refined through an interactive process of pilot-testing with consumers. Once this exploratory procedure is developed, in a later stage of the project we will validate and generalize these procedures using an ongoing, representative national sample (approx. 2500) of Generation X consumers sampled randomly and screened into appropriate categories using the VALS methodology. Consumer Lifestyles and Value-Added Marketing The mass media and commercial environments to which consumers are exposed are bursting with consumption imagery, and the depiction of products in such settings as store windows, print advertisements, and even television sitcoms, exerts a major influence on the meanings these items carry -as well as on the likelihood that they will be desired or avoided by purchasers. In particular, products acquire much of their symbolic meaning by virtue of the lifestyles with which they are associated. Expressive products, ranging from clothing and cosmetics to furniture and cars, typically are consumed as much for their intangible value as vehicles of taste or status as for their functional value. This process is particularly robust for apparel and textiles products, which are consumed largely for what they mean rather than for what they do. Two pairs of pants offered for sale side-by-side in a store may both provide adequate protection from the elements, but most likely one will be preferred because it is linked to a "look" desired by the shopper. Similarly, the array of couches on display in a furniture store all provide a reasonably comfortable place to sit, but it is unlikely that the average shopper would consider these different styles to be interchangeable. Because of this vital stylistic component, the market fortunes of a textile product largely depends on the ability of manufacturers and others in the apparel/textile pipeline to provide value-added by designing finished items that successfully compete in the "marketplace of taste." The fate of an expressive product ultimately is determined at the time of purchase by shoppers who "vote with their dollars" for an item that does the best job of conveying a desired meaning (whether elegant, stylish, avant garde, practical, etc.). Targeting (Assumed) Lifestyles Because so many intangible dimensions affect consumers' evaluations of competing products, it is imperative for design-oriented businesses to understand the factors that affect consumer demand and preferences. In addition, though, numerous other entities also cast important "votes" that help to determine market success or failure. These include "tastemakers" in the apparel/textile pipeline, such as magazine editors and retail buyers, who play a pivotal role in determining how a product will be depicted to consumers -or if it will ever be included in their decision set at all. Little is known about the evaluation criteria used by these members of the pipeline, nor of the factors that influence the initial design and manufacturing decisions of the Project # A97-11 Page 6 businesses themselves. This unexplored area is particularly important because the product meanings held by end consumers and the images of what businesses assume are held by them often differ dramatically. These agents in the apparel/textiles pipeline may well be basing their design and marketing designs on an illusion (or stereotype) of what "real people" actually like and wish to buy (cf. Solomon and Greenberg 1993; Englis and Solomon 1995). The Consumption Constellation These (idealized) consumption activities and products are often depicted in meaningful groupings, rather than in isolation. For example, a typical advertisement for a barbecue grill might depict a "familiar" backyard scene, complete with sizzling steaks, corn on the cob, an ice-filled cooler with chilled long-neck bottles, and a volleyball net. Similarly, Ralph Lauren's advertising and merchandising strategy uses groups of products, decor, and so on, to contextualize his products in an idealized image of patrician, moneyed, Americana. In each case, the meaning of the focal product is conveyed in part through the context in which it is shown a context created by presenting the focal product in what the marketer hopes is an appropriate lifestyle setting. A basic assumption of our perspective is that the way consumers think about a product is influenced by the other products they assume will go with it. These cross-category associations are used to assign products to categories, along with other related objects and activities (e.g., Cantor and Mischel 1979; Rosch 1978; Solomon 1988). For example, a "game day" category might include a football, food items associated with tailgating parties, portable seat cushions, apparel emblazoned with a team logo, and so on. Market researchers typically focus on within-category product associations (Ward and Loken 1986; Sujan and Bettman 1989), such as analyzing buyers' comparisons of three types of cameras, grades of produce, etc. In contrast, the present approach emphasizes between-category product category associations. The consumption constellation construct has been developed by the PIs in a research program spanning almost a decade to capture how these product associations are formed and perpetuated by the media (see, e.g., Englis and Solomon 1996; Englis, Solomon, and Olofsson 1993a,b, 1995; Solomon 1988; Solomon and Assael 1987; Solomon and Buchanan 1991; Solomon and Englis 1994). A consumption constellation is defined as a "cluster of complementary products, specific brands, and/or consumption activities used to construct, signify, and/or perform a social role." To illustrate, one study that sought to identify the contents of consumption constellations focused on the sets of products associated with distinct occupations. This study found, for example, that public defenders are thought to wear Levi's corduroys L. L. Bean shirts, and Calvin Klein glasses, to drive Volkswagen Rabbits, to drink Molson beer, and to read Esquire (a very different picture emerged for attorneys in private practice!). By choosing distinctive product groupings that are laden with symbolic meaning, consumers can communicate their affiliation with a positively valued, or aspirational, cultural category (a reference group, an idealized lifestyle, etc.). They may at the same time eschew other product clusters that are associated with negatively valued, or avoidance, groups. For example, a law student who shares the ideals of a public defender might express his/her affiliation with this job by purchasing Levi's cords, L.L. Bean shirts, Project # A97-11 Page 7 driving a Volkswagen, and so on, while studiously avoiding products associated with the private attorney. In order to generate effective marketing communications it is important to identify the mix of products that exist in the aspirationalversus avoidance-group consumption constellations for a particular target market. Several studies conducted by the PIs have focused on the contextual cues that might impact the symbolic meaning of advertised products (cf. Englis, Solomon and Ashmore 1994; Solomon, Ashmore and Longo 1992; Solomon and Greenberg 1993). A recent study anchored perceived constellations to the widely used PRIZM lifestyle clustering system, which is a geodemographic database that places consumers in clusters as a function of such variables as their place of residence and their patterns of product usage (Englis and Solomon 1995). First, profiles of the PRIZM lifestyle clusters were scaled in order to identify aspirational and avoidance categories. In a second study, respondents generated lists of products that they felt were consumed by the people described in these lifestyle groups. The aspirational group was perceived as most likely to drive 5-series BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches, or Acuras; as likely readers of Vogue, Business Week, and Fortune; and as drinkers of Heineken and Beck's beer, Scotch, and champagne. In sharp contrast, members of the avoidance lifestyle were seen as likely drivers of pick-up trucks, Chevys, or Fords; readers of People, TV Guide, Wrestling, and the National Enquirer; and drinkers of Budweiser and Miller beers and Jack Daniels bourbon. It is important to note that "one man's meat is another man's poison;" the products stereotypically associated with an avoidance group for one segment may in fact constitute an aspirational group for another. And, it is quite likely that aspirational products for, say, a rural consumer segment may in fact be avoidance products for cultural gatekeepers who belong to an urban segment geographically removed from the customer base. Marketing Implications for the Apparel/Textile Pipeline We believe that the consumption constellation concept may provide a useful rubric for understanding how depictions of apparel/textile products are organized by both consumers and producers. Consumption constellations may provide a valuable tool for analyzing and understanding product meaning and brand identity. Definition of a brand's identity should go beyond simple mapping of a target product vis-a-vis competitors, and instead should be framed in terms of a relevant consumption constellation and its meaning to consumers. The relevant consumption constellation can be identified as one which is associated with an aspirational reference group for consumers within a particular market segment. Avoidance groups may be equally important in that they may represent social identities that consumers wish to distance themselves from. Therefore, a product can be thought of as positioned within an aspirational group's consumption constellation and against an avoidance group's consumption constellation. By emphasizing how consumers’ aspirations are expressed visually as they evaluate and select products, we hope to forge a set of tools that will help the industry to better understand the specific lifestyle images sought by its customers. The tracking procedure we aim to develop will allow us to provide the industry with continuing information about the evolving stylistic and lifestyle preferences of a key consumer segment. This will add an Project # A97-11 Page 8 important layer of empirically-grounded information for the development of strategic positioning strategies by apparel manufacturers and retailers. Furthermore, we are hopeful that the model which will emerge from this work will facilitate efforts by American firms to penetrate global markets, where the issues of appropriate and timely product design and lifestyle positioning are even more pronounced.