Fashion Opinion Leadership and Media Exposure among College Women in India

Abstract

The concept of fashion leadership among college women in India was examined by assessing the attention given to media exposure (fashion information sources) of identified opinion leaders and fashion nonleaders. A survey design with a pre tested questionnaire was used to conduct the research. The final sample con sisted of 509 college women from four universities in northwestern India. Anal ysis of variance and chi square analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that fashion opinion leaders used significantly more sources of fashion information and more often than nonleaders (p < 0.05 to p < 0.01). Fashion magazines were a significantly discriminating fashion information source for the two groups during the awareness, comprehension, and legitimation stages of fashion adoption (p < 0.01). Although most of the findings were consis tent with Western literature regarding the fashion adoption process, the role of parents and family members in legitimating the fashion choices of the respon dents did reflect a cultural difference.

Clothing deprivation, clothing satisfaction, fashion leadership and Hong Kong young consumers

“…In comparison with previous studies (Painter and Granzin 1976;Polegato and Wall 1980;Chowdhary and Dicky 1988; Goldsmith et αl. 1991;Workman and Johnson 1993;Goldsmith et al 1996), the distribution of fashion groups was different in Hong Kong.…”

“…Marketer-dominated sources were important to fashion leaders, but consumer-dominated sources were important for fashion followers. In addition, Painter and Granzin (1976) and Chowdhary and Dicky (1988) further investigated fashion leaders from the viewpoint of gender. Painter and Granzin reported that male fashion innovators tended to be young, mobile, have few children, and have a higher education level than non-innovators.…”

“…For female fashion leaders, fashion magazines seemed to serve as an important source of fashion information. During the awareness, comprehension and legitimation stages of fashion adoption, family influence was important among college women in India (Chowdhary and Dicky 1988). In addition to 'self' factors, other researchers have studied topics related to information seeking and fashion leadership.…”

“…In the literature it is generally accepted that there are four types of fashion groups, namely fashion innovators, fashion leaders, fashion innovative communicators and fashion followers (Painter and Granzin 1976;Chowdhary and Dicky 1988;Workman and Johnson 1993;Goldsmith et al 1996). Fashion innovators provide visual image or display to the public by wearing the latest fashion styles the earliest.…”

“…There are numerous studies regarding consumer grouping in terms of fashion adoption from the angles of demographic features (Chowdhary and Dicky 1988) and psychological difference (Goldsmith et al 1996). In the literature it is generally accepted that there are four types of fashion groups, namely fashion innovators, fashion leaders, fashion innovative communicators and fashion followers (Painter and Granzin 1976;Chowdhary and Dicky 1988;Workman and Johnson 1993;Goldsmith et al 1996).…”