South African male consumers' involvement in their clothing purchases

Abstract

The study investigated South African men s clothing involvement and the possible influences of various factors such as demographic characteristics, expenditure on clothing, the frequency of clothing purchases, store patronage and men s work dress code. A survey was conducted across Gauteng which is the largest retail hub in South Africa with mainly urban areas. Most consumers in Gauteng have access to different clothing retailers. Consulta Research, a professional research company assisted with data collection. Data was collected by means of convenient sampling. Online questionnaires were distributed to their data base and a total of 479 usable questionnaires were completed. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, ANOVA s, Chi square tests and other post hoc tests. The study confirmed that men clothing involvement is not equally strong for all four dimensions of clothing involvement that are distinguished in literature. Previous studies suggested that involvement should be studied from an age ordering perspective, and therefore respondents demographic characteristics were vital in terms of the analysis of the data. Certain demographic characteristics seemed to be good indicators of men s clothing involvement, namely age and marital status while factors such as work dress code surprisingly do not seem to be useful to predict men s clothing involvement. The majority of the sample spent less than 5% of their monthly household income on clothing for themselves and indicated that they purchase clothing sporadically when necessary. Findings nevertheless indicated that expenditure on their clothing and frequency of clothing purchases are useful indicators of men s clothing involvement. Although younger men (generation Y) were more inclined to patronise specialised men s clothing retailers, irrespective of their work dress code, the majority of men patronised general retailers and department stores when purchasing their clothing. Findings confirm that consumption- and purchase involvement are the prevalent forms of clothing involvement that are relevant in terms of men s clothing behaviour. Indications are that men s advertising involvement is not particularly strong, which implies that they gain their product information and fashion information from alternative sources that rather relates to purchase involvement which tested high in most cases. This has implications for retail because men s stronger purchase involvement probably means that the physical retail environment is more important in terms of fashion information and to inspire men s clothing purchases. Therefore retailers should focus more on factors that make in-store decisions easier for males such as displays and placement of clothing. Male apparel is a potentially lucrative and growing market that can be even more profitable. Younger men spend more on their clothing therefore this group should therefore take preference but the older men should not be forgotten. Based on the findings of this study various recommendations are made with a large focus to either expand this study or build onto this existing research. Topics related to male clothing and involvement of clothing can definitely be built on and studied more in the apparel industry to fill a gap on knowledge that is lacking and should be explored further.