The Qualitative Study on Consumers' Price Related Response in Clothing Purchase Decision-Making Process

Consumers' price related response in the clothing purchase decision-making process includes their expectation of price, price perception, attitude toward price and consequent behaviors. The purposes of this research are to systematically organize consumers' price related responses in the clothing purchase decision-making process, and to explain the effect of price on their purchasing. The qualitative research including shopping observation and in-depth interview was conducted. The result identified stages that showed different price related responses in clothing purchase decision-making process, and clarified each stage's characteristics. In the internal search stage, consumers recalled price information from memory and had a specific expectation about the price. This set a direction for the external search. In the external search stage, consumers selected brands or stores by a non-compensatory evaluating with an expectation of the price, and narrowed these down to several determinant alternatives by actively evaluating the products. In case a sufficient amount of price information was not recalled, the consumer established reference price through the external search. Finally, in the purchasing stage, consumers evaluated the determinant alternatives based on their compensatory evaluation. When perception of price was negative, consumers evaluate price combined with the higher criteria of clothing benefits, such as symbolic value and usability. The research is expected to contribute to predicting consumers' responses to price, and to establishing an effective pricing strategy.