The purpose of this study is to categorize the lifestyles of elderly female consumers in the ages between 60 and 70, and examine how lifestyle and perceived age affect clothing shopping behaviors such as clothing selection criteria, fashion informatio...
The purpose of this study is to categorize the lifestyles of elderly female consumers in the ages between 60 and 70, and examine how lifestyle and perceived age affect clothing shopping behaviors such as clothing selection criteria, fashion information sources, expenditures, shopping companions, and purchase locations, as well as store related behaviors such as salesperson’s characteristics importance and store assessment criteria.
In Korea these days, more elderly consumers enjoy rich and healthy lives due to the high income resulted from economic development, improvement of living standards, advancement of health and medical technologies. They tend to be psychologically confident with proactive lifestyles that are supported by physical and economical capabilities which contrast to the earlier generations. Moreover, their spending habits are independent, confident and proactive. For these elderly consumers, the role of clothing is essential. This generation who utilized clothing as a tool to express themselves even before they reached their golden years, carries on the desire to maintain their fashion senses. The outlook is that they will continue to be interested in clothing consumption. Therefore, the clothing market that targets elderly consumers is expected to grow rapidly. When considering clothing shopping behaviors of elderly female consumers, the role of a salesperson and store characteristics are important and this is because they tend to favor specific stores or brands during purchases unlike other age groups. Therefore, aside from the fundamental function of clothing, salespersons’ characteristics and store attributes may affect the purchasing activities of elderly female consumers.
Two important factors that may explain clothing shopping behaviors of elderly female consumers are their lifestyle and perceived age. A lifestyle can be explained by the belief, attitude, value, opinion, interest and latent behaviors while the perceived age maybe determined by individual characteristics, satisfaction toward life, awareness on physical health and desire for self realization, etc. Therefore, a study that grafts clothing shopping activities is deemed necessary. For this reason, this study defined the age of sixty and older females who are able to pursue various lifestyles and the clothing consumption as elderly female consumers for the convenience of market segmentation. Moreover, this study will examine the effects of physical, psychological and social characteristics on consumption habits with the focus on lifestyles and the perceived age by segmenting the elderly consumer market.
Specific research questions are as follows:
Q1. To examine the lifestyle of elderly female consumers.
1.1 What are the factors of elderly female consumers’ lifestyles?
1.2 How can the lifestyle of elderly female consumers be classified?
1.3 What are the demographic characteristics of each lifestyle groups of elderly female consumers?
Q2. To study elderly female consumers’ clothing shopping related activities according to the lifestyle pattern and the perceived age.
2-1. What are the effects of the lifestyle and the perceived age of elderly female consumers on clothing selection criteria?
2-2. What are the effects of the lifestyles and perceived age of elderly female consumers on the fashion information source on fashion?
2-3. What are the effects of the lifestyle pattern and perceived age of elderly female consumers on the expenditure, persons they accompany and the purchase location?
Q3. To study store related activities according to the lifestyle pattern and perceived age of elderly female consumers.
3-1. What are the effects of the lifestyle pattern and perceived age of elderly female consumers on the importance of salespersons’ characteristics?
3-2. What are the effects of the lifestyle pattern and perceived age of elderly female consumers on the store assessment criteria?
In order to examine the effects of the lifestyle pattern and perceived age of elderly female consumers on the clothing shopping activities, a survey was conducted on elderly female consumers in their 60s and 70s who reside in Seoul. The survey was distributed to elderly female consumers in their 60s and 70s who reside in 25 districts of Seoul. Out of total 250 surveys distributed and returned, 194 were used for the analysis. For data analysis, SPSS 12.0 was used and the percentage, average, standard deviation, frequency, percentage reliability (Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis, k-means clustering, frequency analysis, multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) analysis of variance (ANOVA) and lastly, Duncan test as the Post-Hoc test were conducted.
The results are as follows: First of all, factor analysis was conducted in order to identify the elements of the lifestyle that the subjects recognize, and 9 factors were identified: ‘inclination to advertisements and new products’, ‘maintenance of the living standard’, ‘awareness of physical security’, ‘exposure to foreign culture’, ‘utilization of personal information’, ‘inclination to daily leisure’, ‘maintenance of consuming activities’, ‘securing the future’ and ‘need for technological assistance.’ To classify the lifestyle patterns, a cluster analysis was conducted using the 9 factors’ means and as a result, the respondents were classified into the following groups: ‘proactives,’ who are socially active and frequently utilize information, ‘passive stagnants,’ who are in need of the technological assistance of others and with low interest in obtaining information or leisure activities, ‘independent misers,’ who are concerned of making ends meet with little interest in leisure and consuming activities, and ‘conservative consumers’ who are capable of basic consumption activities, and have high interests in information utilization and leisure, yet indifferent to advertisements or new products.
When the demographic characteristics of the four lifestyle groups were examined, ‘proactive’ was found to perceive themselves to be relatively younger, with higher education and high income levels, and more likely to be married. Current occupation tends to be full time homemakers. ‘Passive stagnants’ tend to perceive themselves younger than they actually are. They are either high school or college graduates with a middle range income and more likely to be married. This group tend to live with spouse or with their children. Occupations were vary from full time homemakers, to management, technical and service jobs. The perceived age of the ‘Independent misers’ was highest of the four groups. Their education and levels were relatively low, and they tend to work in the service industry. Many tend to live with a spouse, with children and/or grandchildren. ‘Conservative consumers’ tend to have lower perceived age than their actual age. Their income and education levels were relatively low, and many of them were married. They tend to live with a spouse, children, and/or grandchildren. Many were full time homemakers and service workers.
Next, the subjects were classified into three groups according to the perceived age: ‘younger group’, ‘average group’ and ‘older group,’ and examined the effects of elderly female consumers’ lifestyle and perceived age on clothing shopping activities. As a result, there are differences in clothing shopping related activities--clothing selection criteria, utilization of information sources, clothing expenditures and shopping companions, as well as in store related activities--importance of salespersons’ characteristics and store assessment criteria. However, there was no lifestyles by perceived age interaction effect.
Specifically, there were differences in clothing selection criteria depending on lifestyles. ‘Proactives’ group tend to conform to others than ‘conservative consumers’ or ‘independent misers’ groups. The perceived age seems to affect clothing selection criteria. ‘younger’ group and ‘older’ tend to seek emotions than the ‘average’ group, while ‘younger’ and ‘average ’ tend to conform to others than ‘older’ group.
For the information sources, ‘proactives’ tends to utilize media-directed than ‘conservative consumers.’ Among the perceived age groups, ‘younger’ and ‘average’ group utilize more store-directed information sources and consumer-directed information sources than ‘older’ group. Moreover, each lifestyle showed differences in clothing expenditure and shopping companions. ‘Proactives’ tend to spend more money on clothing and to shop with their spouse, friends or coworkers when go shopping for clothing compared to ‘passive stagnants’, ‘independent misers’ or ‘conservative consumers.’
When considering the importance of salespersons’ characteristics for each lifestyle group, ‘proactive’ tends to weigh heavily on appearance and images of salespersons than ‘independent misers’ while ‘proactives’ and ‘passive stagnants’ tend to consider professionalism more important than ‘conservative consumers.’ ‘Proactives’ value morality more than the other three groups while ‘proactives’ and ‘conservative consumers’ consider similarity more important than ‘passive stagnants’ and ‘independent misers.’ Finally, ‘proactives’ and ‘passive stagnants’ view customer orientation more important than the other two groups. Among the perceived age groups, ‘younger’ group tend to consider the appearance and images more important than the ‘average’ or ‘older’ groups, while ‘younger’ and ‘average’ groups tend to value professionalism more highly than ‘older’ group. ‘Older’ group also placed more importance on morality than ‘younger’ or ‘average’ group.
As for the store assessment criteria, ‘proactives’ value physical services more than ‘conservative consumers.’ Among perceived age groups, ‘average’ and ‘older’ groups view psychological stability more important than ‘younger’ group.
As described above, this study examined clothing shopping habits of elderly female consumers in their 60s and 70s, based on the lifestyle and perceived age. It was found that this age group has various lifestyles, and they could be classified into different groups based on their financial situations, health, safety and utilization of information. Moreover, depending on their health and active lifestyle, they perceive themselves as younger than their actual age while this perceived age makes a significant impact on clothing shopping habits. Besides, the classified lifestyle groups and perceived age groups showed differences in terms of their clothing shopping and store related behaviors. Among lifestyle patterns, ‘proactives’ generally scored high on the measures of clothing selection criteria, information sources, expenditures, shopping companions, salespersons characteristics and store assessment criteria, and it is because they have high interest in leisure activities supported by economic capabilities that result in frequent purchases of clothes. ‘Passive stagnants’ value professionalism and customer orientation of salespersons, while ‘independent misers’ are indifferent to clothes shopping. ‘Conservative consumers’ consider all factors insignificant except similarity.
Those who perceived themselves to be younger than they actually are, were more likely to consider appearance and images and professionalism important among other characteristics of salespersons and they tend to conform more to others and pursue emotions in selecting their clothes. They also highly utilized media-, store-, and consumer-directed information. In comparison, those who perceived themselves older than they actually are considered morality of the salesperson important and also valued psychological stability as a store assessment criterion.
The concept of lifestyle and perceived age may be utilized as a basis of market segmentation of the female elderly consumer market. For example, ‘proactives’ tend to be economically advantaged and active in leisure and cultural activities with high interest in clothes. Because elderly consumers in this group choose clothes as a tool to express themselves and consider clothing shopping as a leisure activity, they are more likely to be impacted by salespersons, stores’ interiors, background music and lighting, etc. Companies must recognize that they are an important segment with a big purchasing power, therefore initiate a marketing activity that provides value services such as recent fashion trend. While
‘passive stagnants’ group is indifferent to information and leisure activities, they tend to value professionalism and customer orientation of salespersons. In other words, they value the knowledge and respectful attitudes of salespersons. The industry is in need of educating salespersons to become more specialized and such effort can result in customer trust as well as a higher loyalty to the stores. ‘Independent misers’ work to make ends meet with low income. They are expected to prefer low price clothing that are not trend sensitive. They also are expected to use low-price or discount stores and respond sensitively toward promotional activities. They may also prefer second-hand stores. ‘Conservative consumers’ are relatively indifferent to clothing shopping but tend to consider the appearance of salespersons important and prefers to be assisted by similar age group. Because companies may find it difficult to hire similarly aged salespersons, existing sales force must be trained to provide customer oriented services toward elderly consumers.
Differences were also identified among the perceived age groups. The younger they perceive themselves to be, they were more likely to portray themselves younger through clothes. Therefore, the industry may conclude that the group that perceives themselves younger will actively participate in clothing shopping activities.
The results of this study will provide useful information for clothing manufacturing and retailing companies in analyzing and characterizing consumer activities as related to clothing and in establishing new marketing strategies.
Keywords: elderly female consumers, lifestyle, perceived age, importance of salespersons’ characteristics, store assessment criteria, clothing selection criteria, fashion information sources