소비자 의류제품지식과 의복구매시 평가기준과의 관계

The Relationship between Clothing product Bnowledge and Evaluative Criteria in Clothing Purchase Process

Consumer knowledge has been discussed as an important concept to understand information processing such as information search and evaluation process. It has been defined as the amounts and contents of information in consumer's memory accumulated by experiences. According to literature review, experts who have much knowledge are likely to retrieve their information related to products for a purchase efficiency. Therefore, they are likely to simplify the information processing for a choice. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between clothing product knowledge and evaluative criteria for a purchase. The results were as follows; First, it was found out that evaluative criteria were composed of four dimensions such as the management, the esthetic, the fitness and the brand. Therefore, it is implied that evaluative criteria for purchasing clothing products were multidimensional. Second, the level of objective knowledge was low, and consumers perceived that they didn't have much knowledge related with clothing products. Also, the relationships between objective and subjective knowledge were positive but low. Third, the evaluative criteria were effected by the level of consumer's knowledge significantly. In subjective knowledge, the subjects in a high group considered all criteria more deeply than in a low group. But there was a significant difference only in the esthetic between two groups in objective knowledge. The results of this study imply that consumer knowledge may influence evaluation process. Knowledgeable consumer would consider product attributes deeply for evaluating clothing products, and especially, the esthetic would be an important factor as an attribute including the instrumental and expressive functions in a purchase phase. Therefore, consumer knowl- edge would be a basis of predicting expert's information processing and managing heavy buyer or loyal consumers in apparel industry.