A Study on Knitwear Image Preference and Purchasing Behaviors by Benefit Sought in Clothing of Male University Students

남자 대학생의 의복추구혜택에 따른 니트웨어 선호이미지와 구매행동 연구

The purposes of this study were to segment male university students on the basis of benefit sought in clothing, and to investigate knitwear image preference and purchasing behaviors of each segmented market. The research method was a survey and subjects were 249 male university students in Daejeon and Chungnam province. The questionnaire consisted of measurement items for benefit sought in clothing, knitwear image preference, knitwear purchasing behaviors, and subject's demographic attributions. The data were analyzed by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, factor analysis, cluster analysis, ${\chi}^2$ test, ANOVA and Scheffe test. The results were as follows. First, male university students were segmented into 6 consumer types (practicality pursuit, individuality pursuit, comport pursuit, brand pursuit, social status pursuit, and unconcern type) by benefit sought in clothing. Second, male university students generally preferred dandy image and causal image, however, brand pursuit type more preferred trendy image, and practicality pursuit type more preferred active image than other consumer types. Third, the segmented markets showed many differences on knitwear purchasing behaviors. On clothing selection criteria, practicality pursuit type considered resonable price as important, whereas brand pursuit type considered brand reputation. On fashion information source, individuality pursuit type considered store display and other people's clothing, while unconcern type considered advice from friend and family. On main purchasing place, individuality pursuit type more used speciality store with no brand, whereas brand pursuit type more used department store and brand store than other consumer types. The results of this study supported that benefit sought in clothing can be useful as an effective variable for market segmentation.