Consumer value structures reflected in clothing advertisements

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to construct consumer value structures for clothing. Design/methodology/approach – Using content analysis, a total of 301 advertisements from the New Yorker and Esquire magazines are analyzed during one representative year out of each of the last four decades. Findings – Consumer values reflected in clothing ads are identified as functional, social, emotional and epistemic. Functional value dominated throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, but showed a decreasing trend. By the 2000s, emotional value had overtaken functional value in emphasis. Consumer consequences and product attributes, which fell under each of the consumer values, are also revealed. Of all the consumer consequences, high quality was connected the most frequently with functional value. At the same time, high quality served as an intermediary qualifier for symbols of social status, a consequence of social value. Fabric was the attribute linked most frequently to functional and social consequences. Practical implications – Clothing companies can use the values, consequences and attributes presented here to differentiate between values, to determine the most effective attributes to emphasize, and to target certain audiences for their marketing and advertising strategies. Originality/value – The essential contribution of this paper is that this study reveals a hierarchical dimension to clothing value and is the first study which attempts to construct a means‐end chain through the content analysis of advertisements.