The new middle-aged women in 40s and 50s quickly rising as the new main consumer agent recently in 2-3 years intend to lead a young and healthy life with the desire of self-actualization and have the economic power, and diverse marketing strategies ta...
The new middle-aged women in 40s and 50s quickly rising as the new main consumer agent recently in 2-3 years intend to lead a young and healthy life with the desire of self-actualization and have the economic power, and diverse marketing strategies targeting them are in practice. They value themselves higher and feel self-love, and have the characteristic of aspiring to become superior to others, but the middle-aged mental crisis which is called the 2nd adolescence with question for self-existence, instability, and depression also exist, attributing the characteristics of only the new middle-aged women. Also, the new middle-aged that are actively responding to aging with enjoyment of cultural life and health management also have strong will for self-actualization and are active about management of appearances, so the interest in clothing is increasing.
Thus, this study intends to find out the influence of ego identity and subjective age on pursued clothing image and clothing purchase activity and analyze the relationship. The study subjects were women in 40s and 50s living in Seoul area, and surveys were conducted with half housewives and half career women in June 2010, and total of 400 surveys were used in the final analysis. For data analysis, the factor analysis, group analysis, t-test, ANOVA, technical statistics, frequency analysis, correlative analysis, regression analysis, and χ2 analysis of SPSS 17.0 WINDOW package were used, and AMOS 5.0 path analysis was exectued for overall path analysis.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
1. As the result of analysis of examining and materializing each sub-dimension of new middle-aged female consumers, the ego identity was factor-analyzed to 6 factors of identity foreclosure, identity moratorium, goal orientation, identity diffusion, self-assertiveness, and self-acceptance, and as the result of materializing groups, it was divided into the group with established ego identity, the group with confused ego identity, and the group with weak ego identity. The subjective age was factor-analyzed to 3 factors of feel & look age, do & interest age, and physical age, and the result of materializing groups was divided into the group with young perception and the group with perception of its actual age. The pursued clothing image was factor-analyzed to 5 factors of bold, elegant and classy, simple, decorative, and active clothing images, and the result of materializing groups was divided into group pursuing elegance/decoration and the group pursuing comfort activities.
2. As the result of factor analysis of clothing purchase activities, clothing purchase motivations was factor-analyzed into 3 factors of class/charm, rationality/economy, and pleasure/impulse, and the utilization of information sources was factor-analyzed into 3 factors of media, observation, and personal information sources. The clothing selection criteria were factor-analyzed into 3 factors of brand, quality management, and trend/becomingness and the store selection criteria were factor-analyzed into 2 factors of salesperson and transportation/store atmosphere.
3. The result of examining the relationship of ego identity, subjective age, and pursued clothing image is as follows.
First, as the result of examining difference per group of ego identity and subjective age, the group with established ego identity was found to have higher frequency of the group with young perception than others, and the group with weak ego identity was more likely to be in the group with perception of its actual age.
Second, the group with confused ego identity was found to have higher frequency of the group pursuing elegance/decoration than other groups, and the group with weak ego identity was found to have higher frequency of the group pursuing comfort/activity.
4. The result of examining the difference per group of clothing purchase activity according to ego identity, subjective age, and pursuing clothing image is as follows.
First, as the result of examining clothing purchase activities among ego identity groups, the group with weak ego identity exhibited higher rational/economical purchase motivations, and the group with confused ego identity exhibited higher rational/economical, pleasure/impulsive clothing purchase motivations and higher utilization of observation as information sources. The group with established ego identity was found to regard the characteristics of the product salespeople important when selecting stores and regard the quality management properties important when selecting clothing.
Second, as the result of examining clothing purchase activities among subjective age groups, the group with young perception exhibited higher class/charm, pleasure/impulsive clothing purchase motivations, and utilization of observation as information sources and brand characteristics, but the group with perception of its actual age exhibited higher rational/economical clothing purchase motivations.
Third, as the result of examining clothing purchase activities among pursuing clothing image groups, the group pursuing elegance/decoration exhibited higher class/charm, pleasure/impulsive clothing purchase motivations, utilization of media and observation as information sources, characteristics of brand and trend/fit, and characteristics of transportation/store atmosphere.
5. As the result of examining the relationship of ego identity, subjective age, pursuing clothing image, and clothing purchase activities in new middle-aged women, the ego identity had significant influences on subjective age and pusuring clothing image, and the subjective age was also found to have significant influences on pursuing clothing image. Especially, the goal orientation perceived the subjective age as younger, and the identity diffusion was found to pursue diverse clothing images. As the result of examining the clothing purchase activities of new middle-aged women, it was found that there were significant influences among clothing purchase motivations, utilization of information sources, clothing selection criteria, and store selection criteria. Also, the result of examining per group of ego identity groups, subjective age groups, and pursuing clothing image groups indicated significant influences.
This study is significant in that it revealed that ego identity, subjective age, and pursuing clothing image are variables that reveal the characteristics of new middle-aged women, and in turn provides resources for fashion-related industry targeting new middle-aged women to establish a marketing strategy.