Taiwan's female fashion consumers and the implications for the Taiwanese women's wear market

Changes in the political and social environment with economic growth since 1985, have made Taiwan society move forward at a staggering pace. The long negligence of the local market, lack of information, as well as the discrepancy in role development in the varied sectors of the fashion industry have aroused a need for a fashion consumer study. This research aims at providing the industry with comprehensive experimental data in both the social/psychological and the behavioural aspects of clothing consumption in the Taiwanese women's wear market. The outcomes of this research could inform the consumer-driven fashion industry of the social/culture-related attitude, preference, and disposition, as well as other clothing-related behaviour which could help formulate effective business strategies, so as to provide the market with what the fashion consumer really wants. It also functions as an initial step by building up a universal research methodology to stimulate further consumer studies in the local fashion market or in different cultural contexts. The strength of this research arises from its interdisciplinary nature. It was executed using multiple methods, including qualitative and quantitative studies, to explore the overall Taiwanese female fashion consumers' social psychology and behaviour towards clothing from cognitive, symbolic-interactionist, and cultural perspectives. Female fashion consumers aged 25 to 39 were the focal group in this research that was carried out from late 1992 to late 1997 in the Taipei Metropolitan area. The samples were drawn from the commercial districts in the vicinity of various retailing outlets. In the qualitative phase, three techniques were applied to analyse the narrative data of the female fashion consumer using in-depth interviews: grounded theory and ethnographic analysis, and descriptions based on an existential-phenomenological perspective. Based on the propositions derived from the findings of the qualitative study, quantitative surveys were carried out to test for generalisation in the market place and to build up models of the correlations between demographics, self-concept, clothing attitudes, and overt consumer behaviours. The Taiwanese women's wear market was also segmented deductively and the consumer profile and behavioural pattern of each segment was described and explained accordingly. This research makes accomplishments in the various aspects listed below: 1. A grounded theoretical model of the holistic phenomenon of consumers' clothing management in a cultural context; 2. A clothing attitude scale; 3. A theoretical model of the social psychology of clothing based on the correlations between demographics, self-concept, attitudes and consumer behaviour towards clothing; 4. Segmentation in the Taiwanese women's wear market with clear demographic and social psychological profiles in each segment; 5. A universal methodology of enquiring into holistic clothing consumer behaviour