A Study of Consumers’ Preferences in Choosing International Apparel Brand in Delhi

Ms. Amandeep Kaur Research Scholar Amity University

Dr. Garima Malik Assistant Professor Amity University

Abstract

Indian markets are emerging and when it comes to Delhi, it’s not just a metropolitan city but a fashion hub. International designers organize their fashion shows and bring international brands into this city. With the Indian demographics changing, there is a change in consumer tastes and preferences with respect to the association they want to crate with the brand. This study was conducted to find out the factors that determine the consumer preferences for international apparel brand in Delhi. The purpose is also to identify the predictors for internal brand apparels among Delhi young consumers. From the survey of the respondents from Delhi, the study found out that Advertisement for the brand has the strongest predictor for the consumer preference followed by quality and Land of original and style has less prediction towards the consumer preference. Overall, the survey shows that Delhi consumers have positive attitude towards international apparel brands and the influence of variables has numerous of implications for both academic and market view.

Keywords:- Consumer Preference, International, Branded Apparels, Style, Land of Origin, Advertisement

Introduction

Globalization is an important phenomenon that is leading the entire world towards becoming one market, a global market. In the pre-liberalisation era, Indian consumers were known to exhibit a distinctively higher preference for imported goods and ‘foreign brands’. However, post two decades of liberalization, the Indian apparel market is flooded with brands with their origin in foreign countries. The increased popularity of such international brands , and the relatively similar big city customer profiles across countries ( Quelch, 1999 ) are having an effect on the way marketers view the attractiveness of international markets. However, in India, for fashion brands "the tastes and preferences of consumers are beginning to develop in line with global front”. Consumers’ value brands with different perspectives where on one hand, they seem to attach value and admire international brands and regard such brands as a status symbol. On the other hand, international brands are often criticized for threatening the local differences and imposing the western cultures on our society, leading to a loss of cultural identity. It is argued that brands add value to consumer goods by supplying meaning (MsCracken, 1993), as well as communicating competence, standard and image to the consumer. Today, India is an important spot on every International fashion brand‘s international business map. Indian consumers especially in metropolitan, such as Delhi which is a fashion hub, are aware of international trends and have lots of exposure to western fashion sensibilities. There are several well known global luxury fashion brands that have made in road in the country’s market before with many more brands eyeing this booming market. These foreign brands are readily leveraging the potential of the Indian market.

Several apparel brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Marks Spencer, Peter England, Zara, Mango, Polo have marked fashion retailing in India offering world class fashion and shopping experience through shopping malls or through their franchised separate showrooms. Fashion is defined by the involvement of a product category which it represents the identity of the consumers with its brand traits (Aagerup, 2011). Hence, fashion basically represents a consumer’s outlook that has a positive influence on their style and status. Brand popularity is also one of the factors that influence the consumer preferences. Kinra (2006) reviewed that consumers tend to have positive brand image perceptions towards international brand of products. Major push to the Indian fashion has come from factors like increasing number of deep pocketed consumers and retail spaces such as malls and boutiques, fashion consciousness among the age group of below 45. Though there are many local brands, foreign brands have always caught the fancy of consumers here.

The following paper is divided into the four sections. Section 1 i.e., the present section gives the overview of advent of international apparel brands in the Indian market. Section 2 presents data and methodology. Section 3 exhibits analysis and interpretation of results and Section 4 concludes the paper.

Objectives of the Study

Ø To identify the factors affecting consumer preference towards International Brand Apparel

Ø To analyse the significance of demographic profile of consumers affecting the preference for International Branded apparels

Ø To investigate the relationship between incomes spending on apparel and factors leads to purchase of international brand with these spending.

Literature Review

There are numerous studies on consumer preferences but there are very few studies available for International Branded Apparels. Siu & Hui (2004) investigated that the relationship between consumers’ decision ‐ making styles and their choice between domestic and imported brand clothing using a sample of Chinese consumers. Empirical findings revealed that consumers who prefer to buy imported brand clothing tend to have a unique lifestyle and shopping orientation that differ from those who prefer domestic brand clothing.

Jung & Sung (2008) conducted a study to measure and compare the customer based brand equity of apparel products by three consumer groups across cultures. Among the elements studies, brand quality and brand awareness for American college students were higher than those for South Koreans in the USA and Korea.

Ismail, Masood, Mehmood (2012) conducted a study to determine the factors that affect the consumer preferences for global brands in comparison to local ones. The research was based out of Karachi. The survey from 200 people resulted that the most important factors are that influence consumer preference are price and quality.

Gharleghi (2013) Identified the factors that predict the consumer preferences for choosing international fashion abrands among Malaysian consumers. This study found out that country-of-origin is a factor that contributes more to suggest the consumer preferences followed by perceived quality, promotion, lifestyle etc.

Data Collection

The data was collected by using questionnaire to check the preference of consumer towards the International Apparel Brands. The questionnaire was designed to check the factors based on Land of origin, Style, Advertisement, Quality and Popularity of Brand influencing the purchase decision of consumers for International Brand Apparel.

The independent variables in this study are Land of Origin, Style, Advertisement, Quality and Popularity of Brand. The dependent variable of this study is preference of consumer towards International Brand Apparel.

The questionnaire was distributed through internet in Delhi. The sample size is 40. People from different work groups, students to private and public workers were approached and through questionnaire data was collected.

Methodology

Data was analyzed through SPSS. Factor analysis was run to capture the factors on consumer preference towards International Brand Apparel. It summarises the results of the factor analysis which was run using the Principal Component Approach with a varimax rotation. Bartlett’s test and Kaiser-olkin (KMO) measure are adopted to determine the appropriateness of data set for factor analysis. Reliability computed to check the questionnaire through Cronbach’s (alpha) method. Descriptive analysis used for frequency and percentage to examine the profile of the respondents. Independent sample t-test, one way Anova, Test of Pearson moment correlation, Two way Anova, Multiple Linear Regression. The level of significance at probability level of 5% was used.

Data Analysis

50% of the respondents surveyed were female and 50% were male. Almost half of the people surveyed, (i.e. 52.5%) belong to the age group 25 – 32, 42.5% belong to 18 – 25 and only 5.0% belong to 32-37. See Table 1 below:

Table 1: Demographic Variable

Details	Frequency(N)	Percentage
Gender Male Female	20 20	50% 50%
Age Group 18 - 25 25 – 32 32 - 37	17 21 2	42.5% 52.5% 5.0%
Monthly Income Spent on Apparel 0 – 1000 1000 – 5000 5000 - Above	6 30 4	15% 75% 10%
Frequency of Buying Branded Apparel More than once a month About once a month About once every three months About once every six months About once a year Anytime	6 11 9 3 1 10	15% 27.5% 22.5% 7.5% 2.5% 25.0%

Cronbach alpha test – Test for reliability scale

Reliability Measures: Reliability test was carried out using SPSS Software and the test measures are given below in Table 2 below. Face Validity of questionnaires was tested and it was found to be very high.

Table 2

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha	Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items	No. of Items
.922	.923	20

Bartlett's test of sphericity and Kaiser-Olkin (KMO) measures are adopted to determine the appropriateness of data set for factor analysis. High value (between 0.5 to 1) of KMO indicates that the factor analysis is appropriate, low value below the 0.5 implies that factor analysis may not be appropriate. In this study, the result of Barteltt's test of sphericity (0.00) and KMO (0.736) in Table 3 below indicates that the data are appropriate for factor analysis.

Table 3

KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.		.736
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity	Approx. Chi-Square	504.746
	df	190
	Sig.	.000

In this study, Factor Analysis was carried out in two stages. In stage one; known as the factor extraction process, objective was to identify how many factors to be extracted from the data. Using principal component analysis, 20 items were extracted by 5 factors. Only the factors having latent roots or eigen value greater than 1 were considered significant; all factors having eigen value less than 1 were considered insignificant and were discarded. All the five factors together accounted for 72.342% of the total variance.

In the second stage, all the factors were interpreted and labelled. Items having factor loading more than 0.4 were included in the interpretation. The factors identified and items grouped based on rotated factor loadings are as follow:

Table 4: Factor Loadings

Factor Labels and Items	Rotated Factor Loadings
Factor 1 : Style · The fashion styles of international brands are updated · International brand provides more variety of fashion styles · The international brands are more stylish	. 463 .778 .809
Factor 2 : Advertisement and Promotion · Do you attract towards the apparels advertisements · Is your apparels buying decision influenced by Offers/Discounts? · Advertising helps me to distinguish different brand	.725 .749 .789
Factor 3 : Popularity of Brands · I purchase that brand which is held high in esteem by its audience · The brand should increase my social status · Brand name is my priority when making a purchase decision	.641 .778 .600
Factor 4 : Land of Origin · Tag of International in Brand is the factor of purchasing · The nationality of Brand determines quality · The nationality of Brand determines the fashion of the country	.659 .796 .568
Factor 5 : Quality .I’m not price sensitive if the product quality is good .International branded products are more comfortable .Quality is one of the factors that influence my purchase decision	.820 .725 .607

To analyze the Consumer Preference for International Branded Apparel across demographics, the following hypothesis has been tested through T-Test and Anova

Gender Vs Consumer Preference

H₀: There is no significant difference between male and female preference towards purchasing international branded apparel

H₁: There is a significant difference between male and female preference towards purchasing international branded apparel

T- Test: Test of Significance between Purchase Preference & Gender of the Respondents

Table 5

Independent Samples Test
		Levene's Test for Equality of Variances		T-Test for Equality of Means
		F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)
Consumer Prefernce	Equal variances assumed	1.476	.232	1.008	38	.320
	Equal variances not assumed			1.008	32.844	.320

The above table indicate that significant value is 0.320 which is greater than (P>0.05), hence the null hypothesis is accepted and we may conclude that there is no significant difference between male and female preference towards purchasing international branded apparel.

Age Vs Consumer Preference

H₀: There is no significant difference among age groups preference towards purchasing international branded apparel

H₁: There is significant difference among age groups preference towards purchasing international branded apparel

Anova: Test of Significance between Purchase Preference & Different Age of Respondents

Table 6

ANOVA
Consumer Preference
	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	1.627	2	.813	1.776	.183
Within Groups	16.949	37	.458
Total	18.576	39

The above table indicate that significant value is 0.183 which is greater than (P>0.05), hence the null hypothesis is accepted. There is no significant difference among age groups preference towards purchasing international branded apparel.

The interaction influence of age and monthly income spending on consumer preference for international brand apparel was analyzed using Two-way ANOVA. Results are shown in Table 7 below:

Table 7

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: Consumer Preference
Source	Type III Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Corrected Model	7.068	6	1.178	3.378	.010
Intercept	111.606	1	111.606	320.041	.000
Age Group	2.390	2	1.195	3.427	.044
Income Spending	3.432	2	1.716	4.921	.013
Age Group * Income Spending	2.220	2	1.110	3.184	.054

The table above indicates that the independent variable Age and Income spending alone have an influence on consumer preference for international branded apparel. However, the interaction between age and income spending can or cannot be considered as statistically significant. P should be less than 0.05 for the results to be statistically significant. And in our case the P value for interaction is 0.054. Considering this thin difference, it can be stated that null hypothesis is accepted and that the interaction between age and income spending do not have influence on preference for international branded apparel.

Pearson Product Moment Correlations were computed on selected pairs of variables and this was conducted to test for direction and strength of the correlation between variables. Examination of the correlation of the variables, consumer preferences in choosing an international brand was found to be significantly correlated to LOO (r= .651, p<0.05), perceived quality (r= .718, p<0.05), Popularity of brand (r= .700, p<0.05), Style (r= .737, p<0.05) and Advertisement and promotion (r= .692, p<0.05)

Table 8 Correlations
		Consumer Preference
Land of Origin	Pearson Correlation	.651
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	40
Quality	Pearson Correlation	.718
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	40
Popularity of Brand	Pearson Correlation	.700
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	40
Style	Pearson Correlation	.737
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	40
Advertisement and Promotion	Pearson Correlation	.692
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
	N	40
Consumer Preference	Pearson Correlation	1
	N	40

Regression Analysis

Table 9

Model Summary
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.911a	.830	.805	.30491
a. Predictors: (Constant), Advertisement and Promotion, Quality, Popularity of Brand, Land of Origin, Style

Table 9 above shows that the coefficient determination (R²) = 0.830. It represents that Land-of-origin, quality, style, popularity of brand and advertisements have contributed to 83% towards consumer preferences in choosing an international brand.

Table 10

ANOVAa
Model		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	15.415	5	3.083	33.162	.000b
	Residual	3.161	34	.093
	Total	18.576	39
a. Dependent Variable: Consumer Preference
b. Predictors: (Constant), Advertisement and Promotion, Quality, Popularity of Brand, Land of Origin, Style

Based on Table 10 above, the F value is 33.162 is significant at the level of 0.000 (p <0.1). Hence, the overall regression model for Land-of-origin, quality, style, popularity of brand and advertisement is working properly in explaining the difference in consumer preferences in choosing an international brand.

Table 11

Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	.408	.223		1.832	.076
	Land of Origin	.075	.072	.103	1.035	.308
	Quality	.204	.084	.265	2.416	.021
	Popularity of Brand	.156	.070	.232	2.214	.034
	Style	.134	.084	.188	1.590	.121
	Advertisement and Promotion	.288	.058	.392	4.924	.000
a. Dependent Variable: Consumer Preference

The formula used to identify the beta value of standardized coefficients is stated as below and it shows how each of the independent variables (LOO, Q, S, P, A) impact on the dependent variable (CCP):

CCP = 0.103 LOO + 0.265 Q + 0.232 P + 0.188 S + 0.392 A

(t= 1.035) (t= 2.416) (t= 2.214) (t= 1.590) (t= 4.924)

CCP = Consumer Choosing Preference

LOO = Land of origin

Q = Quality

P = Popularity of Brand

S = Style

A = Advertisement

From Table 11 above, Advertisement has a significant positive influence on consumer preferences in choosing an international brand (p=0.000, t=4.924, β=0.392). If Advertisement increased by one unit, it will increase consumer preferences in choosing an international brand by 0.392 as well. Quality also has a significant positive influence on consumer preferences in choosing an international brand. The data are t=2.214, p=0.021, β=0.265. If quality increased by one unit, it will increase consumer preferences in choosing an international brand by 0.265 as well. However, Land of origin and Style have a comparatively less significantly influence on consumer preferences in choosing an international brand.

Summary and Conclusion

The research found out that Advertisement is strongest predictor towards international brand preference. Consumers will not look further to another factor if Advertisement and promotion is not affective. Furthermore, based on the findings in this study, quality is also considered as one of the strong impact on consumer preferences towards international branded apparel.

Also, males and females are not having any significant difference in their international brand preference. Males are equally interested in purchasing international brand apparel, even there is no significant difference among different age groups for international brand clothing.

Although this research has identified factors that influence consumer preference, however this study performed only in the Delhi context. Besides, the sample size was too small i.e. 40 to generalize reliable results. So, the future research needs to be conducted with more sample size and in different metropolitans to know more about consumer profile.

References

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