Do Consumers' Perceptions of Product Quality Differ from Objective Measures of Product Quality

Do consumers' perceptions of product quality differ from measures of objective quality? This is an extremely important question for retailers to answer as they develop or alter their marketing strategies. Consumers may view products of equal quality quite differently. That perceived quality, in turn, would affect their purchase behavior. The general goal of this research was to determine if consumers perceive quality differences in men's apparel items even when no differences in quality exist. In this study, thirty percent of the participants could not identify apparel items as being of equal quality, even though tests for objective quality indicated there were no differences. Findings also indicate that no one type of consumer is better able to differentiate product quality than another which would suggest that marketing appeals based on product quality will probably have to be directed toward the individual consumer.