Middle-aged Consumers' Preferences for Clothing Images

중년 남녀 소비자의 선호 의복이미지에 관한 연구

The purposes of the study were to explore differences in preference for clothing images according to wearing situations and clothing product involvement. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher and was collected by 101 men and 100 women aged between 40 and 59. Data were analyzed by factor analysis, repeated measure ANOVA, t-test adjusted by Bonferroni, paired sample t-test, and independent sample t-test. The results of the study showed that clothing images were classified into five factors including hard cold image, modern urban image, bold unique image, and heavy luxurious image. There were significant differences in preference among clothing images according to wearing situations and clothing product involvement. While modern urbane image was most preferred, hard cold image was least preferred in both formal and informal wearing situations, and for either high or low involvement clothing products. Also, there were significant differences in clothing image preference according to wearing situations and product involvement. In formal situations, stronger preference for modern urban image and heavy luxurious image showed than in informal situations, and bold unique image and heavy luxurious image were more preferred for high involvement clothing product than for low involvement clothing product. In addition, there were significant differences in preferences for clothing images between groups according to gender and age. In both formal and informal situations, men showed stronger preferences than women for hard cold image, but women for bold unique image. For either high or low involvement clothing products, men preferred hard cold image, modern urban image and heavy luxurious image more than women, but women preferred bold unique image more than men. Lastly, for high involvement clothing product, subjects aged fifties showed stronger preferences than forties for modern urban image and heavy luxurious image, but for low involvement clothing product, modern urban image was more preferred.