Characteristics of the Heavy User of Fashionable Clothing

Marketing strategies are often based on identifying heavy users and using demographics to profile and to distinguish them from light and non-users. Frequently, however, demographics do this poorly and/or may give poor insight into their reasons for disproportionate product usage. This paper presents a theoretical account of heavy usage and reports findings from a survey of 323 adult consumers showing that even when gender and age were controlled, buyers who spent the most on new fashionable clothing were significantly different from light and non-users. They were more involved with fashion, more innovative and knowledgeable about new fashions, more likely to act as opinion leaders for new fashions, and were less price sensitive. They were also more likely to seek out fashion information from various media and to shop more for clothing. Overall, the psychological variables were more strongly associated with product use than the demographics were.