As the lifestyle enjoying leisure activities have recently been popularized, the casual look based on sportism occupies 13.3% of the whole clothing market, and is growing by 11.1% annually. Encouraged by this continuous growth, many companies in this ...
As the lifestyle enjoying leisure activities have recently been popularized, the casual look based on sportism occupies 13.3% of the whole clothing market, and is growing by 11.1% annually. Encouraged by this continuous growth, many companies in this market are pursuing the sophistication and subdivision of their brands. Under the circumstances, sports clothing brands have developed a variety of strategies to induce potential consumers. One of those strategies is the experiential marketing, which is appropriate for sports clothing brands characterized as activity and participation. In particular, the experiential marketing is actively applied in road shops including flagship stores, because this type of stores usually are spacious enough to provide various experiential activities for customers to make them try on products and services.
Recognizing these characteristics, this study aimed to test the experiential marketing effects of the sports clothing brands, and made suggestions of establishing marketing strategies in the future of these industries. More specifically, this study explored what influences the experiential factors in sports brand stores had on the store satisfaction, brand attitude, and purchasing intention of potential consumers, and the moderating effects of impulsive buying. The subjects of this study were 306 adults in their 20s and 30s, including male/female graduate students and office workers, who had visited sports brand road shops in the past one year. To analyze the data, this study used the exploratory factor analysis to validate the measurement items of experiential factors, and Cronbach's α coefficients to analyze the reliability of data. In addition, the structural model analysis and path analysis were used to examine what influences experiential factors on the brand attitude and purchasing intention of potential consumers throughout store satisfaction.
As a result, this study reached four conclusions as follows. First, as for the relation between store satisfaction and experiential factors in stores, all aspects of experiential factors ('sense', 'feel', 'think', 'act', and 'relate') were evaluated to have positive influences on store satisfaction. That is, the experiential factors in a store increased the brand attitude and satisfaction of consumers, thus resulting in the enhancement of positive images about the store.
Second, consumers' store satisfaction positively influenced on their brand attitude. The brand attitude and satisfaction consumers got from stores extended to their brand attitudes on the related brands.
Third, consumers' store satisfaction had positive influences on their purchasing intention. Consumers' positive experiences in stores immediately increased their purchasing desire about the products and services of the brands.
Fourth, depending on the experiential factors, consumers' impulsive buying tendency was observed differently. For instance, consumers with a lower level of impulsive buying tend to be more influenced by 'think', 'relate', and 'sense' experiential factors to determine their store satisfaction. However, 'act', 'feel' experiential factors were measured to have more influences on store satisfaction among consumers with a higher level of impulsive buying.
In summary, this study shows experiential factors in sports brand stores have positive influences on consumers' store satisfaction, brand attitude, and purchasing intention. Hence, to take competitive advantages in the market, sports brands need to provide a variety of experiential marketing factors based on their unique identities. This strategy is expected to induce consumers' participation, and, consequently, increase their satisfaction on stores and brands.