Young consumers' perceptions and purchase intentions towards mass-designer lines

Abstract

<p>A mass-designer line is an exclusive line that a fashion designer develops for a specific mass market retailer. There are increasingly more high-end fashion designers and mass market retailers cooperating with mass line development. The purpose of this study is to investigate young consumers' perceptions and purchase intentions towards mass-designer lines within the attitude-intentions paradigm (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The aim is to understand the relationship between perceptual variables and their influence on young consumers' decisions when they purchase mass-designer line products.</p> <p>An online questionnaire was developed based on relevant literature. Measures included attitude, purchase intentions, and five consumer-oriented variables (fashion involvement, price consciousness, value consciousness, past experience, and perceived mass store image). Three thousand and five hundred college female students at a major midwestern university were invited to participate in the study. An analysis of the causal model was conducted using the maximum-likelihood estimation procedure of Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) for hypotheses testing.</p> <p>Results showed that attitude was the most significant predictor of purchase intentions. Moreover, past experience with designers was also a significant predictor of purchase intentions. The results also revealed that perceived mass store images significantly influenced young consumers' attitudes, however, no significant relationship was found between perceived mass store image and purchase intentions. By testing the role of attitude as a mediating variable, it was determined that past experience with designers exert influence indirectly through attitudes on purchase intentions towards mass-designer lines. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are provided.</p>