DIMENSIONS OF APPAREL QUALITY INFLUENCING CONSUMERS' PERCEPTIONS

Percep/rral and Motor skill.^, 1996, 83,299-305. O Perceptual and Motor Skills 1996

DIMENSIONS OF APPAREL QUALITY INFLUENCING CONSUMERS' PERCEPTIONS '

SANDRA FORSYTHE, ANN BETH PRESLEY KAREN WILSON CATON

Auburn University, Aubzrrn, Alabama University of Alabama, Birmingham

Sz~mmaty.-Given a lack of knowledge about the dimensions of apparel quality s igdicant to consumers, manufacturers may mistakenly focus attention on product attributes which are not salient to consumers. Therefore, a better understanding of the quality dimensions perceived by consumers and of the intrinsic cues they use in mak- ing judgements of products' salient qualities is needed. In this study, 122 adult shoppers evaluated the quality of men's dress shirts. Three dimensions of perceived quality emerged which were defined as Sturdiness/ Durability (garment seams, stitching, fabric construction), Style/Aesthetics (garment design, styling and over-all appearance), and LastingICare (garment life and care required). Multiple regression showed that two of these factors, StyldAesthetics and Sturdiness/Durabiliry, predicted consumers' perceptions of apparel quality. Thus scyling, design, and over-all appearance are com- bined with sturdiness and durability as integral components of consumers' perceptions of quality.

Qual~ty, a major concern of U.S. apparel companies as they strive to remain competitive, is c o m p e h g companies to aspire to higher product performance based on the needs of the consumer (Abraham, 1992). Understand- ing consumers' perceptions of quality is the first step in providing satisfaction to customers (Garvin, 1988) so the attributes of clothing that consurn- ers associate with quality are of considerable interest to marketers. However, little information is available on the specific attributes most salient to consumers in malung judgements about quality.

Consumers use evaluative cues to judge the quality of apparel. These cues can be characterized as either "intrinsic" or "extrinsic." Intrinsic cues are inherent to the product in the sense that they cannot be changed or experimentally manipulated without also changing the physical characteristics of the actual product (Davis, 1985; Jacoby, Olson, & Haddock, 1971). Extrinsic cues are product-related; however, they are not a part of thc physical product. Consumers appear to evaluate apparel products, differentiate among products, and form impressions of quality and value through the use of extrinsic cues (brand name, price, package, and store image) and through intrinsic cues which include the design, style, fabric type, fiber content, and the construction details of the garment (Forsythe, 1991). However, intrinsic cues may be more influential than the extrinsic cues on consumers' percep-

'Address enquiries to Dr. S. Forsythe, Department of Consumer AFfairs, Auburn University, 308 Spidle Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849-5603 or e-mad ([email protected]).

3 00 S. FORSYTHE, ET AL.

tions of quality (Jacoby, et al., 1971). Forsythe (1991) and Abraham-Murali (1995) found that consumers rely on tangible characteristics of garments (intrinsic cues) more heavily than brand name as primary indicators of quality.'

Consumers do not use the term the same way researchers or the industry define quality (Holbrook & Corfman, 1985). Industry definitions of apparel quality tend to focus on physical qualities which can be measured objectively (Abraham, 1992). Perceived quality, however, deals with objective components of product performance as well as subjective components which arise from the perceptual process of the consumer (Cardozo, 1965; Oliver, 1980; Ryan, 1966; Swan & Combs, 1976). Consumers' perceptions of the quality of apparel include both concrete and abstract features of the product (Abraham, 1992). Perceived quality may be more important than the objective quahty of a product because it is subjective reality rather than objective reaLty which determines most of human behavior (Jacoby & 01- son, 1985).

Studies by Fiore and Damhorst (1992) and Zeithaml (1985) clearly indicated that perceived quality was a multidimensional construct. However, few studies have examined the dimensions of the construct. Analyzing the multiple dimensions of perceived quality can provide greater insight into how consumers' judgements of quality are formed (Garvin, 1988). The objectives of this research were to identify the dimensions of an apparel product's quality from the consumer's perspective and identify those intrinsic attributes of apparel which contribute most to perceptions of quality among consumers.

METHOD A mall-intercept procedure was employed to collect data on consumers'

use of intrinsic product attributes in evaluating quahty for an apparel product. An important methodological consideration in studying consumers' perceptions is realism of s t i m d and data collection process. Holbrook (1983) examined the importance of using real products in a realistic environment and concluded that product evaluation is influenced by a wide variety of cues found in the shopping environment. Some of these cues are missing or dstorted in artificial settings. McIntyre and Bender (1986) found point-of- purchase data collection to be more accurate and higher in response rate than mail or telephone surveys. Consumers may not be as accurate in judging the importance of criteria they use to evaluate apparel in general as they are in judging a specific item because the estimation of salience for criteria across a large number of purchases is complex (Eckman, Damhorst, & Ka- dolph, 1990). Therefore, using a real product in the retail setting may reduce distorted conclusions about the process of consumers' evaluation.

'For an excellent summary of findings from previous studies of intrinsic and extrinsic evaluative criteria for apparel, see Eckman, Damhorst. and Kadolph (1990).

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Men's dress shirts were selected as the stimulus product because most consumers are very fam~liar with this category of product. Three white dress shirts similar in style but representing three different levels of quality were used in the study-budget, moderate, and better.j Ddferent levels of quality were represented to ensure that dimensions salient to consumers were consistent across levels of quality. All labels and hang tags were removed from the shirts so consumers' ratings would be based only on intrinsic attributes of the shirt.

Data Collection Data were collected from shoppers at a regional shopping mall in a

Southern U.S. city. Of 234 mall shoppers approached 122 agreed to partici- pate and were systematically assigned to evaluate one of the three shirts. Given no extrinsic cues, e.g., brand name, price, or store name, each subject examined one of the three shirts and responded to a series of statements re- garding various intrinsic attributes of the shirt which was evaluated. Each shopper was exposed to only one shirt to prevent fatigue and increase the participation rate among mall shoppers because shoppers were reluctant to commit the time necessary to evaluate three shirts. Forty-nine respondents rated Shirt I , the high quality (better) shirt; 45 rated Shirt 2, the middle quality (moderate) shirt, and 43 rated Shirt 3, the low quality (budget) shirt.

Questionnaire The questionnaire was based on attributes previously found to be sa-

lient to consumers' perceptions of the quality of the product (e.g., Abraham- Murali, 1995; Eckman, et al., 1990; Francis, 1991; Karnes, 1991). It included 26 questions related to consumers' perceptions of fabric quality, construction quality, style, and aesthetics of the garment, and its over-all quality and durab~l i t~ . Questions addressed concrete, tangible features of clothing such as fabric as well as attributes that were abstract and intangible such as durabhty and whether the garment looked good on the wearer. This is consistent with the idea that perceived quahty includes a number of associated concepts a t various levels of abstraction (Hmes & O'Neal, 1995). Product attributes were rated on a >-point scale. Response categories were anchored by Strongly Disagree (1) and Strongly Agree (5) . The questionnaire was pre- tested to examine ease of administration, appropriateness of terminology, and clarity of questions. Principal components factor analysis with varimax

'An experimental panel of five experts in apparel quality (four retail buyers of men's shirts re resentin major U.S. department stores and one apparel quality control expert) evaluated tfi shirts. ~ t e evaluarions of product quality by the expert panel were consistent wirh the quality evaluations by researchers, thereby confirming the existence of three levels of product quahty. Product quality was designated as budget, moderate, and better for the three levels of product quality.

302 S. FORSYTHE, ET AL.

rotation was employed as a data reduction technique to remove the redun- dancy from a set of correlated items. Only items with factor loadings greater than .50 and less than .3O on other factors were retained in the final set of items in pretest data. Factor loadings using oblique rotation were not dis- cernibly different from the factor loadings derived with varimax rotation. The factors were not related to one another (average correlation < .14).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A comparison of the sample demographics to the population demo-

graphics in the retail trade area showed the sample was somewhat younger than the area population. Sampling protocol encouraged participation of men since the product was a man's shirt; 53% of the respondents were men. A majority of the respondents had purchased a man's dress shirt in the past three months, and 95% had purchased a dress shirt within the past year, in- dicating famharity with the product.

Analysis of variance indicated that consumers' ratings for each of the three shirts (representing three levels of objective quality) were not signifi- cantly different, so the data were pooled for analysis."Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded three factors having eigenvalues greater than 1.00. Approximately 50% of the variance was jointly explained by these three variables. Factor 1, Sturdiness/Durabihty, had an eigenvalue of 8.26 and explained 31.8% of the variance; Factor 2, Style/Aesthetics, had an eigenvalue of 2.41 and explained 9.3% of the variance; and Factor 3 , Lasting/Care, had an eigenvalue of 1.58 and explained 6.1% of the variance (Table I) .

The first dimension, Sturdiness/Durability, was defined as representing the consumers' beliefs and attitudes toward the garment and fabric construction and included items about the garment seams, stitching, and fabric construction. The second dimension, Style/Aesthetics, was related to consumers' perceptions of the aesthetic attributes of the shirts and included items con- cerning garment design, styling, and over-all appearance. The third dimension, Lasting/Care, represented the amount of care required by the garment as well as its longevity and included several items concerned with the garment life and care required.

Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis was used to assess the salience of each of the three factor-loaded scales on perceptions of over-all quality, i.e., a single item measure of global quality.5 This analysis indicated

'Scree tests indicated the three factors derived from the analysis fell to the left of the base of the scree curve slope, sug esting the three-factor solution is supported by the scree test. 'Over-all uality stem an! response categories were "The over-all quality of this shirt is good" and stronJy Disagree (1) and Strongly Agree (5).

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TABLE I DIMENSIONS OF PERCEIVED QUALITY EMERGING FROM FACTOR ANALYSIS

FactorNariables Loadings Cronbach a

Sturdiness/Durability .70 Thread of shirt WLLI remain secure. .79 Collars and cuffs will not fray. .63 Stitching is even. .57 Fabric is sturdy and durable. .5 1

Style/Aesthetics .79 Design is attractive. .60 Styling of shirt is good. .84 Style will look good on person wearing it. .80 Fabric will feel good againsc my skm. .59

LastingKare .65 Cosdtime involved in care will be minimal. .69 Shirt will be easy to care for. .78 Fabric will not stretch our during wear and care. .55

that only two factors, Sturdiness/Durabihty and Style/Aesthetics, significant- ly predicted consumers' perceptions of garment quality (Table 2 ) . 6 Sturdi- ness/Durability contributed the most to the model, although the net effect of Style/Aesthetics was not appreciably less. The net effect of the Lasting/ Care variable, however, was not significant. Durability of the garment and aesthetic attributes appear to be the key dimensions affecting consumers' perceptions of apparel quality. How well the garment lasts and the care re- ¶uired are important to consumers in rnalung purchase decisions but d o not appear to be related to the perceptions of garment quality.7

TABLE 2 RESULTS FOR MODEL OF OVER-ML QUALITY REGRESSED ON CARE, S m E , A N D D U M I L I ~

Variable b p SE

Sturdy/Durable .245* ,435 ,044 Style/Aesthetics ,154" .3 85 ,028 LastingKare -.029 -.042 ,053 Constant .047 Adiusted R' .411*

'Model F 32.60, p < ,001

Intrinsic attributes contributing most to consumers' perceptions of Stur- diness/Durabllity of the garment were items related to thread, seams, hem

bInspec~ion of the zero-order intercorrelation matrix resulted in no hi h intercorrelation (e.g., r > .75) among independent variables. Moreover, diagnostic tests for cof/inearity gave no indica- $on of roblems with muldcollinearity. T-test fbr pardelism of slope coefficients showed no significant dderences by gender.

3 04 S. FORSYTHE. ET AL.

stitching, and the fabric's durabhty (Table I ) . Product attributes contributing most to the Style/Aesthetic dimension were related to design, styling, and over-all appearance. These results suggest that consumers do not consid- er a garment high quality if it is not the right style or design or if they do not feel that the garment is durable or sturdy.

Conclusions Quality dimensions identified in this research are consistent with three

of the four general categories of evaluative criteria identified by Eckrnan, et al. (19901, aesthetic criteria, performance, and quality criteria. These findings are generally consistent with findings of Hines and O'Neal (1995) that consumers evaluated the quality of apparel using attributes which they associated with social, economic, physiological, and aesthetic consequences.

Apparel manufacturers and retailers need to inform consumers regard- ing the quality of their products as a part of their over-all marketing strategy. For example, advertising and other promotional strategies could call attention to attributes of quality of a product such as fiber content, double- needle stitching, and care required. Apparel con~panies could benefit by in- corporating the dimensions of quality most important to consumers into their product development and marketing strategies.

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DIMENSIONS OF APPAREL QUALITY INFLUENCING CONSUMERS' PERCEPTIONS