Unit 6b - Business and Marketing Theories: Consumer Fashion Leaders

Introduction: Consumer Fashion Leaders

Unit 6b will explore research on fashion change agents or consumer fashion leaders. This research profiles fashion innovators, fashion opinion leaders, and innovative communicators. Before continuing with this section of the course, you should complete Units 1-5 and 6a.

Who are the consumer leaders of fashion? What are their characteristics? How influential are these consumers in influencing others? These are the questions researchers have attempted to answer with regards to consumer fashion leaders.

The study of consumer fashion leaders has been given a great deal of attention over the past 30 years. This is primarily due to the fact that fashion leaders are often a prime target market for companies. To no one's surprise, in general these studies have found that fashion leaders are socially active, attuned to what is going on in the world, spend a higher percentage of their income on fashion-related goods, and are highly involved in fashion (i.e., aware of and knowledgeable of fashion). The readings included in this section are a representative sample of the many studies that have focused on understanding the role of consumer fashion leaders in the fashion process. The outline/notes below will provide you with a general framework for understanding this area of study.

Research on Fashion Leaders

The numerous research studies on fashion leaders fall into one of two general categories:

• Research profiling fashion leaders as a market segment by comparing fashion leaders with non-fashion leaders according to demographic characteristics, social variables, mass media readership/exposure, fashion-related variables, and attitudes and values.
• Research examining cognitive orientations of fashion leaders including traits such as self-monitoring and cognitive level.

Measuring Fashion Leadership

Three concepts associated with fashion leadership have been operationalized and measured in the study of fashion leadership:

• fashion innovativeness
• fashion opinion leadership
• fashion involvement

Fashion Innovativeness

Fashion innovators are the first to adopt a new fashion within their social group. They often bring attention to the new fashion and play a role in early adoption of the fashion innovation. Fashion innovators are often "watched" by the fashion industry as their behavior often influences the direction fashions take. Fashion innovativeness has been measured as both a personality trait and as a behavior. Measurement techniques have included:

• self-designating questionnaire (e.g., are you willing to try new ideas about clothing fashions?)
• measuring current ownership of specific "new" styles
• questionnaire to assess past innovative purchase behavior
• researcher's assessment of the fashionability of apparel owned or worn by the individual
• scale on which individuals agree to a series of statements related to fashion innovativeness
• individuals' perceptions of "new" items using bi-polar adjective scales (e.g., very new -- very old).

Fashion Opinion Leadership

Fashion opinion leaders influence the adoption and diffusion of fashions within a social group. Some fashion opinion leaders may also be innovators, but not necessarily. When individuals play both roles, they are referred to in the literature as "innovative communicators." In the research, fashion opinion leadership has been measured primarily using:

• self-designating questionnaire (e.g., do you influence the types of clothing fashions your friends buy?)
• peer reports (e.g., who among your friends influences the types of clothing fashions you buy?)

Fashion Involvement

Fashion involvement is a multidimensional personal characteristic. It includes five dimensions:

1. fashion innovativeness
2. fashion interpersonal communication
3. fashion interest
4. fashion knowledgeability
5. fashion awareness

Additional work in this area

Note -- most of this work was conducted in the 1970s and 1980s

Baumgarten, S. A. (1975). The innovative communicator in the diffusion process. Journal of Marketing Research, 12, 12-18.

Darden, W. R., & Reynolds, F. D. (1972). Predicting opinion leadership for men's apparel fashions. Journal of Marketing Research, 9, 324-328.

Darden, W. R., & Reynolds, F. D. (1974). Backward profiling of male innovators. Journal of Marketing Research, 11, 79-85.

Lennon, S. J., & Davis, L. L. (1987). Individual differences in fashion orientation and cognitive complexity. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 64, 327-330.

Mason, J. B., & Bellenger, D. (1973-74). Analyzing high fashion acceptance. Journal of Retailing, 49 (4), 79-96.

Midgley, D. F., & Dowling, G. R. (1978). Innovativeness: The concept and its measurement. Journal of Consumer Research, 4, 229-242.

Polegato, R., & Wall, M. (1980). Information seeking by fashion opinion leaders and followers. Home Economics Research Journal, 8, 327-338.

Robertson, T. S., & Myers, J. H. (1969). Personality correlates of opinion leadership and innovative buying behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 6, 164-168.

Schrank, H. L. (1973). Correlates of fashion leadership: Implications for fashion process theory. Sociological Quarterly, 14, 534-543.

Summers, J. O. (1970). The identity of women's clothing fashion opinion leaders. Journal of Marketing Research, 7, 178-185.

Summers, J. O. (1971). Generalized change agents and innovativeness. Journal of Marketing Research, 8, 313-316.

Tigert, D. J., Ring, L. J., & King, C. W. (1976). Fashion involvement and buying behavior. Advances in Consumer Research, 3, 46-52.

Venkatraman, M. P. (1990). Opinion leadership, enduring involvment, and characteristics of opinion leaders: A moderating or mediating relationship. Advances in Consumer Research, 17, 60-67.

Workman, J.E., & Johnson, K.K.P. (1993). Fashion opinion leadership, fashion innovativeness, and need for variety. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 11 (3), 60-64.