Consumer Behavior

The processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires” (Solomon, 2020).

Consumer behavior involves a series of actions at different stages of consumption. For example, consumers might start by seeking recommendations for a product they are interested in buying, and so they compare different brands. Then they might choose to order their product online instead of buying it in person at a brick-and-mortar store. Post purchase and after using the product, consumers might decide to leave a positive comment online. Finally, they might become so emotionally attached to the product that they try to fix it when it is broken!

Consumer behavior is an ongoing process that starts long before and continues long after a consumer buys a product, service, or experience (Table 1).

Who are consumers?

Who are consumers, you may ask? The answer is simple: Anyone can be a consumer as long as they are involved in any of the behaviors in the process described above. However, different individuals may play different roles in the consumption process. For example, a parent may be the person who actually decides whether or not to buy a product instead of the child who chose the product from among other options because a YouTuber recommended it.

In this scenario, the parent is the buyer, the child is the user, and the YouTuber is the influencer. All of them are considered consumers as they are all engaged in one or more behaviors in the consumption process.

To study consumer behavior, in addition to understanding the behaviors per se, we also want to gain insights into why consumers do what they do as indicated by their demographic background, psychographics, values, upbringing, culture, and people they closely interact with. All of this information can have immense influence on how a consumer behaves in a certain way.

Why is consumer behavior important in fashion and marketing?

Because consumers’ decisions related to their appearance are largely influenced by their identity, culture, and social environments, the studies of consumers’ behaviors in the fashion/apparel fields need to emphasize specific areas.

For individual consumers, this systematic knowledge of their consumption behaviors helps us define and reinforce preferred behaviors and results (e.g., shop more aware of the environment and its sustainability) and avoid unwanted ones (e.g., overspending on fast fashion). Better knowledge of consumer behavior can help brands and companies identify their market and deal with opportunities and threats to their brands, products, and services.

Lifestyle segmentation marketing is both a tactic and a great example of consumer behavior knowledge application. This approach involves categorizing a target market into distinct groups based on patterns of their behavior in daily life. These patterns may include their activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) or more detailed psychographics pertaining to a certain type of consumption.

For example , professors Dahana, Miwa, and Morisada (2019) found that fashion lifestyles can be defined based on a consumer’s self-value (e.g., self-esteem, self-identity), self-image (e.g., social connectedness, brand consciousness), and fashion orientation (e.g., fashion involvement, self-expression, fashion leadership). They also found that segmenting consumers based on their fashion lifestyle can help practitioners identify customers who may shop more frequently, spend more, and stay loyal in the future.

This segmentation approach goes beyond basic demographic characteristics like age, gender, and income and focuses on understanding the deeper psychological and sociocultural aspects that influence consumers’ choices and preferences.