Market segmentation with respect to university students' clothing benefits sought : Shopping orientation, clothing attribute evaluation, and brand repatronage

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to segment the university student casual apparel market based on clothing benefits sought and develop a profile of each segment in terms of attribute evaluations, shopping orientations, and repatronage behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were distributed to 200 university students at Florida State University and 184 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Findings – The results were as follows. First, analysis of consumer clothing benefits sought generated six factors and attribute evaluation produced two factor solutions and shopping orientation generated three factors. Second, three consumer groups – utilitarian benefit group, hedonic benefit group, composite benefit group – with different clothing benefits sought were identified. Third, the study found significant differences in consumers' hedonic and utilitarian attribute evaluation among the groups. The study also revealed significant differences in shopping orientations and brand repurchase intentions among the groups. Practical implications – From these results, it is possible to identify that clothing repurchase intention was significantly different among three different groups with different clothing benefits sought. Furthermore, consumer classification according to clothing benefits sought in university students' casual wear purchase can be used by clothing marketers and managers to establish product plan and marketing strategy development. Originality/value – The study has originality and value in that the relationship between clothing benefits sought and repurchase intention has not been studied very much in the clothing domain.