SUMMER PROJECT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN APPAREL INDUSTRY

Submitted by: Jatin Mandhyan (07) Department Of Fashion Technology Semester III

What is consumer behaviour?

Before understanding consumer behaviour let us first go through few more terminologies: Consumer: Any individual who purchases goods and services from the market for his/her end-use is called a consumer. Consumer Interest: Every customer shows inclination towards particular products and services. Consumer interest is nothing but willingness of consumers to purchase products and services as per their taste, need and of course pocket.

Consumer Behaviour is a branch which deals with the various stages a consumer goes through before purchasing products or services for his end use.

Why do an individual buys a product ? Need Social Status Gifting Purpose Why do an individual does not buy a product ? No requirement Income/Budget/Financial constraints Taste When do consumers purchase products ? Festive season Birthday Anniversary Marriage or other special occasions

What we buy, how we buy, where and when we buy, in how much quantity we buy depends on our perception, self concept, social and cultural background and our age and family cycle, our attitudes, beliefs values, motivation, personality, social class and many other factors that are both internal and external to us.

 Consumer behaviour can be defined as the decision-making process and physical activity involved in acquiring, evaluating, using and disposing of goods and services. It is not just the buying of goods/services. the process starts much before the goods have been acquired or bought.

A process of buying starts in the minds of the consumer

REASON FOR CHOOSING TOPIC

The reason why this topic was chosen was to get an insight into the industry and get information on how the consumer affects the production and working of the apparel industry.

The topic being a vast one allows interacting with a number of people related to apparel industry being it manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and even the consumers, people which are the backbone of apparel industry.

WORKING
For this a questionnaire was prepared which was filled by 271 people of various age groups to get the details of the wide aspect of people. There were many different views given on some questions which are worth studying the behavior of people in apparel industry.

QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear SIR/MAM, I am Jatin Mandhyan, a B.F.TECH student of NIFT HYDERABAD. I am conducting research on consumer behavior in apparel industry. This questionnaire consists of several multiple choice questions and this will take maximum 5 minutes of your time to fill it. All the information provided by you will be kept confidential and strictly used for research purpose only. q.1) Name q.2) Gender (a) Male (b) female q.3) Age group (a)Less than 20 years; (b) 20-33 years; (c) 34-50 years; (d) More than 50 years q.4) Occupation (a) Business; (b) Student; (c) Professional; (d) Self employed; (e) Others _____

q.5) Monthly income (a) Less than Rs. 20,000; (b) Rs. 20,000- Rs. 30,000; (c) Rs 30,000- Rs 45,000; (d)More than Rs 45,000; (e) Not applicable q.6) How often do you shop in an apparel and lifestyle showroom? (a) Once or more in a month; (b) Once in two month; (c) Only on special occasions; (d) Only when necessary. q.7) Where do you prefer shopping the most? (a) Lifestyle showrooms; (b) Boutiques/standalone stores. q.8) If lifestyle showroom, then in a: (a) Multi brand family store( for e.g. shoppers stop); (b) Private labels store (for e.g. pantaloons, wills lifestyle); (c) Not applicable (in case the preference is standalone stores).

q.9) When you go for apparels, your purchase remains: (a) Exactly what you need; (b) More than what you had planned; (c) Much more than planned. q.10) How often do you buy branded product in case of apparels? (a) Mostly; (b) Sometimes; (c) Never q.11) What attracts you towards a lifestyle showroom? (a) Product range and variety across all age group; (b) Multiple brands under one roof; (c) Loyalty programs; (d) Ambience/ in store setup; (e) Convenience in shopping; (f) Rebates and discount on purchase; (g) Visual display.

q.12)How much do you spend on your shopping? (a) Less than Rs 2,000; (b) Rs 2,000- Rs 5,000; (c) Rs 5,000- Rs 10,000; (d)More than Rs 10,000.

q.13) While buying apparel, which colors do you generally prefer? _________________________ q.14)Which size fits you best? (a) Small; (b) Medium; (c) Large; (d) Extra large; (e) Extra Extra large.

q.15) What types of clothes do you normally prefer? (a) Body hugging; (b) Skin tight clothes; (c) Loose fitting clothes; (d) Others _______________
q.16) While going for t-shirt/top what do you want it to be? (a) Printed; (b) Plain; (c) Stripes (horizontal/ vertical); (d) Quotes written on it; (e) Other: __________________ q.17)What type of lower body costume do you prefer? (a) Jeans; (b) Cargo; (c) Trousers; (d) Capris (e)Shorts/skirts; (f)Others q.18)Any suggestion/ recommendations?

OUTCOME

INTERPRETATION
The whole survey revealed many facts about the consumer in apparel industry. Its too fluctuating and one cannot easily predict what the consumer wants. Out of 271 people surveyed, there are some outcomes which will help to understand consumer in a better way. 98 males and 99 females who are student prefer going to lifestyle showrooms. Out of 38 people only 12 males prefer small size clothes. 76 males and 75 females go for medium size clothes. XL & XXL clothes are normally worn by males

 Out of total people who wear skirts/ shorts 99% are females. Student mostly prefers wearing t-shirts with quotes on it along with jeans. Jeans are the best lower body costume, which is preferred by mass. Skin tight clothes are worn by both males as well as females equally. Those who spend less than Rs. 2,000 are students who income is not applicable and at the same time they visit stores mostly when they need apparel during certain occasion. Visual display, Loyalty programs are the things which attracts customer less. Out of 271 people who filled the form 149 are male and 122 are female. So overall there is not much difference in the ratio of male: female.

 Maximum people (156) who filled this form belong to age group 2033 years, followed by age group less than 20 years whose number is (110) while 4 people and 1 people respectively belonged to age group 34-50yrs n 50+yrs. Out of 156 people between age group 20-33 years 65 are females while rest are males. of all the above people 234 people are students while, just 26 are professional, 6 people have their own business and rests 4 are self employed. 212 people replied that they do not have any monthly income mostly because they are students. It seems that around 20 individuals which are student got a good sum of pocket money while rest doesnt have much amount of money saved from their pocket money.

 Most people visit the store only when they need apparels. Mostly people visit the stores at least once in a month. There are 33% people who visit stores only when necessary which shows that still people dont go unnecessary for shopping.

 Recommendation/

suggestions.

The questionnaire must have been designed so as to mark two or more choices, where-ever applicable. There are more numbers of people with waist size 32 so generally I dont get 32 no. waists. They should keep more option for 32 waist size. Varieties are needed in collections with best fit. I think more of dresses should be available in basics fits and colors. On more than one occasion I have been a victim of BRAND. So I recommend that any apparel; you buy, examine it inside out even if it is a branded one. This form should contain checkboxes for multiple selections. . Get good collection clothes at reasonable rates.

More variety should be there at cheaper rate. Changes should be more frequent. More people should be aware of the type of clothes present in the mall.

Want some more trendy section on girls section; its not up to mark.
Enough options are not there for obese people. Very less variety of designs and clothes are found in the XXL zones. That is what I have observed. Even in the private label stores though all sections are their but they dont provide variant in designs. If that could be improved, a lot more people would return home happy.

Lifestyle showrooms are very costly. It should be cheaper to meet the size of pockets of common people.
Some personnel should be employed who can suggest which garment will suit most on me in which color and with which combination. Better VM will help in better marketing

BIBLOIGRAPHY
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/gform?key=0AkEkGD1jWB7 LdDZPMDItajhSaEN6X2h0N2g4OWVkbGc&gridId=0#chart https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkEkGD1jWB7Ld EtpYUVOUTBCdjFtWXotU05mYmIzTFE#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEtpYU VOUTBCdjFtWXotU05mYmIzTFE6MQ#gid=0

http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/000160.pdf
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/what-is-consumerbehaviour.htm

THANK YOU