Impact of fashion clothing brand advocates on consumer purchasing decisions

Naše vedenje ne izvira le iz nas samih. Človek je družbeno bitje in skozi socializacijo na nas vplivajo ljudje, s katerimi smo obkroženi. Z novo informacijsko družbo nove razmere mladim omogočajo hitro razvijanje novih oblik druženja. Danes je vsak človek lahko tako imenovani zagovornik, ki drugim deli nasvete glede področja, za katerega se zanima. V diplomski nalogi se osredotočam predvsem na pojav zagovornikov, kajti s potrošnikovo vpletenostjo v blagovno znamko se je zanimanje za razumevanje vedenja potrošnikov v obeh svetovih – digitalnem in fizičnem, le še povečalo. Namen diplomskega dela je raziskati vedenje mladih ženskih potrošnic pri nakupovanju modnih znamk oblačil ter preveriti, ali jih učinek ljubezni in zaupanja do modne blagovne znamke pripelje do zagovarjanja. Dotaknem se tudi vprašanja, ali potrošnice zaupajo osebam, ki zagovarjajo modne znamke oblačil. Metodološki del preko kombinacije kvalitativnega ter kvantitativnega raziskovanja pokaže, da so zagovorniki (prijatelji, družina ali vplivneži, katerim sledijo na družbenih omrežjih) za potrošnice le delno pomemben vir informacij o modi. Med ugotovitvami se pokaže tudi, da se zagovornice modnih blagovnih znamk izražajo v različnih oblikah zagovorništva. Zanje velja, da rade komunicirajo z drugimi, vendar na eni strani z osebno komunikacijo, v fizičnem svetu, na drugi strani pa z neosebno komunikacijo, preko družbenih omrežij.Our behavior does not only originate in ourselves. Humans are social beings and through socialization we are influenced by the people we are surrounded with. Together with new information society come new conditions which allow young people to quicky develop new forms of socializing. Today, any person can be so-called advocate, who shares advice on an area of his or her interest with others. In my thesis I focus primarily on the emergence of advocates because with consumer involvement in brands, interest in understanding user behavior in both worlds - digital and offline - has only increased. The purpose of the research is to investigate the behavior of young female consumers when shopping for fashion clothing brands and to check whether the effect of love and trust towards a fashion brand leads them to advocacy. I also touch on the question of whether consumers trust people who advocate for fashion brands. The methodological section, through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, shows that advocates (friends, family and influencers on social networks) are only a partially important source of information for consumers. The findings also show that fashion brand advocates express themselves in various forms of advocacy. They like to communicate with others, but on one hand with personal communication, in the physical world, and on the other with non-personal communication, through social networks