CHAPTER II

REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter will provide a foreign and local literature review based on the topic

inclined in the research study.

Foreign Literature

According to Edirisinghe, et al. (2020), the garment sector has expanded as a

result of globalization, which has also market factors have greatly influenced customers'

cultural preferences across a range of market segments. The most pressing problems

facing marketing managers today, are the changes in cultural values, consumer tastes,

and buying intents toward designer goods. Businesses adopt a customer-centric

marketing strategy based on consumer self-esteem traits to increase purchase

intentions for fashion products.

According to Kuhn and Mostert (2018), the marketing repercussions including

inconsistent product supply, supply of low-quality products, fluctuating prices due to

product shortages, poor reputation of manufactured goods, low motivation for

advertising, low marketing orientation, and a general consumer dissatisfaction with

homemade goods. Every day, many people consume a wide range of garment

products, from essentials to pricey collectibles. Consumer behavior refers to how

individuals use their available resources, such as time, money, and effort, to decide

which personal things to purchase.

 In according to Achabou (2020), a product can be evaluated by consumers on

various levels. The core benefits provided to a consumer are referred to as the basic

qualities of items, which are intrinsic to the generic form. Customers evaluate a product

using two different types of factors: external factors like culture, reference groups,

lifestyle, and personality; and intrinsic factors like price, brand, warranty, and place of

origin. Other factors that contribute to this stereotyping include sentiments about the

citizens of a particular nation, familiarity with the nation, and the consumer's

background.

According to Zhu, et al. (2020), customers are uninformed of domestic fashion

companies and have poor regard for their ability to produce fashionable goods. Instead,

they use the clothing from other countries as the benchmark against which to measure

local businesses. The local fashion labels are untrustworthy because the majority of

designers can't produce high-quality goods on schedule. One distinctive and salient

characteristic that distinguishes behavior is the way others perceive a person's

personality. Fashion displays influence people with high social standing and adaptability

to lifestyle changes.

In according to Yang, et al. (2019), consumer involvement in fashion items is

influenced by their own perceptions as well as how their peers view them and their

capacity for change. Consumers view the relationship between clothing and identity

from the perspective of the values they have developed via diverse social contacts.

Customers display their clothes and lifestyle as a visually appealing approach to

express their personalities. As a result, clothing is frequently seen as a means of

expressing a person's new sense of identity, as is the case in many nations.

 According to Pebriani, et al. (2018), input, selection, and processing of

information are perceived as arranged and interpreted by a single person. Quality,

which is taken into consideration while choosing clothing, is one of the variables that

affects how consumers perceive a brand. A brand's identity is fundamentally based on

its quality. Price can be utilized as a criterion for garment selection in two different ways:

choosing the cheapest option to reduce financial risk or choosing the most expensive

option to attain product quality. Another element that significantly affects how customers

make decisions is the influence of others. Customers frequently seek recommendations

from one another about a new brand or product.

The purchasing decisions of people are also influenced by advertising. Ads are a

prominent type of communication.

According to Pandey and Chawla (2018), customers are significantly impacted by

such brand convenience, including accessibility. Another important element in

contemporary marketing is customer satisfaction. The likelihood that customers will

purchase the goods again rises if they are happy with the services rendered. One of the

reasons why consumers do not trust domestic fashion designs is that domestic

companies have low credibility. This likewise explains why Kenyans are unwilling to

spend a lot of money on homegrown products. They seek an explanation for the

exorbitant costs of the regional clothing brands. Understanding the demands and wants

of the consumer is equally crucial.

 In according to Hidayat and Prakoso (2018), as an ongoing arrangement of

motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes with regard to particular

parts of the individual's reality, attitude has been characterized. A person's attitude is the

result of learning processes and is influenced by their personal experiences, their family,

their friends, and marketing tactics. A person either grows to like or dislike the learnt

consequence as a result of it. Attitudes are present because they fulfill a purpose for the

person and are influenced by their underlying motivations. Experiences help us formed

our attitudes. Knowledge about something (cognition), how strongly a person feels

about something (affection), and the intention to act on something (intention) all

influence attitude (behavior).

According to Dabija (2018), consumer ethnocentrism (CE) is the tendency for

consumers to favor homegrown goods or harbor bias towards imports. Consumer

ethnocentricity, a distinctly economic form of ethnocentrism that is domain-specific for

the study of consumer behavior and has marketing implications, was coined by Shimp

and Sharma in 1987. It is asserted that it embodies consumer attitudes regarding the

morality and appropriateness of buying things created abroad rather than locally.

In according to Thompson, et al. (2018), CE gives the person a sense of

identification, a sense of belonging, and knowledge of what purchases are acceptable

or unacceptable to the in- group (i.e., those with whom the person identifies). Some

academics have asserted that ethnocentrism is a psychological feature that is a natural

component of human nature. So, it may be concluded that ethnocentric tendencies are

in fact unrelated to assessments of product quality or prior customer experiences.

Customers with strong ethnocentric inclinations are probably the most likely to make
biased assessments since they are more likely to value local production's advantages

and downplay those of imported goods.

Dressing behavior is influenced by a myriad of factors, including psychological,

social, and environmental elements. According to a study by Gigauri (2024), consumer

behavior related to clothing is significantly impacted by marketing and social influences.

The research highlights that individuals often choose their attire based on both personal

preferences and external pressures from fashion marketing campaigns. This dual

influence underscores the complexity of dressing behavior, suggesting that students

may select clothing that aligns with societal expectations, particularly during stressful

periods when they seek social acceptance or validation.

Local Literature

According to Dealca, et al. (2022), buying imports is bad since it is not only

unethical and unpatriotic but also harmful to the home economy and causes job losses

in sectors of the economy that are subject to import competition. Even though local

goods are more expensive and of lower quality than imports, consumers prefer to buy

them. Also, strongly ethnocentric individuals generally take pleasure in their own

traditions, symbols, and people and see domestic goods as more emblematic of who

they are than those from other nations.

According to Biana (2020), consumer attitudes are less favorable and customers

are less likely to possess preferences and values when a country is more ethnocentric.

Purchasing plans for imported goods. Also, ethnocentrism is likely to increase as

economic conditions deteriorate because it is implied that adopting a foreign product will

endanger native industry. Non-ethnocentric customers, in contrast to ethnocentric

consumers, think that foreign items should be judged on their own merits as well as the

utility and benefits they provide to consumers, without regard to the country in which

they were produced or assembled. Moreover, CE varies from culture to culture and from

one country to another in terms of its strength, intensity, and size.

In another study, Chola et al. (2023) explored the factors influencing clothing

selection among adolescent girls in Zambia. Their findings indicate that psychological

factors such as self-esteem and peer group influence play crucial roles in dressing

behavior. The study reveals that adolescents often dress to attract attention and

conform to the standards set by their social circles. This aligns with the notion that

clothing serves as a form of communication about one's identity and emotional state,

particularly in high-stress environments where fitting in can be paramount.

In according to Tajonera et al. (2019), some research has been done in

developing economies, it is unclear how CE presents itself there. The characteristics

that may influence the association between CE and propensity to purchase products

created domestically in developing nations are also not well studied. The argument that

it is imperative for less developed countries to be more aware of the concerns

surrounding Country of Origin (COO) and the idea of CE is gaining greater support. The

academics argued that a number of options emerge when analyzing the combined

impacts of COO and CE.

In according to Mwasomola and Ojwang (2021), consumer patriotism is another

element that may have an impact on brand attitude. Patriotic feelings among consumers
have a big impact on their views and purchase intentions. A person's willingness to

make a sacrifice in order to buy a native brand might be characterized as consumer

patriotism. So, it makes sense to assume that customer sentiments toward foreign

brands may be significantly influenced by consumer patriotism. Consumers in

developing and transitional economies may be prompted by the generally low quality of

native goods to compromise between patriotic sentiments and product quality.

According to Ong, et al. (2021), objective quality refers to observable and

provable superiority above some predesigned standards. The perceived quality is

defined as a consumer's assessment of a product's overall excellence or superiority. In

contrast to the objective quality, which calls for consumers to use their own experience

and expertise to evaluate a product, perceived quality is viewed as a subjective

category with substantial variability. When a consumer is physically evaluating a product

before making a purchase, the objective evaluation, also known as observable quality,

plays a significant role. It is linked to sensations (sensory, emotional and expressive).

According to Bonus et al. (2022), customers rarely possess the knowledge

necessary to evaluate a product impartially. That is presumably the reason why surveys

and questionnaires rather than experimental methods are more frequently used to

assess the perceived quality of a product. Similar observations were made, such as the

fact that verbal information based on respondents' opinions and without any actual

contact with the product dominates consumer research in the subject area. Given the

huge variety of products available on the clothes market, comparing their perceived

quality to the actual one as determined by consumers sounds like an intriguing research
challenge. This issue may also be particularly significant when contrasting similar

products from different companies.

In according to Ala et al. (2022), one of the key elements influencing consumer

purchasing decisions is a product's quality. Quality, along with price, is a major factor in

consumer decision-making, according to research on consumer behavior in connection

to clothing products. Especially from the perspective of the consumer, defining the

qualities of clothing and the factors influencing it can be challenging. Physical qualities

like design/style, fabric type, fabric content, physical and chemical properties, materials

and construction details, workmanship in sewing, and performance features like

aesthetics, or the usefulness and functional aspects of clothes, are the key intrinsic

traits.

According to Oblea and Cabauatan (2022), customers prefer to concentrate on

the product's inherent qualities, which relate to so-called observed quality and

experiences (visual and touch). It is also important to note that over time, as a result of

the aggregation of individual customer experiences, intrinsic traits may have an impact

on how well consumers evaluate the quality of the items. Extrinsic characteristics, on

the other hand, have a subjective nature and include a brand name, compatibility for a

certain choice, fashionable or trendiness, pricing, package, and store image. When

consumers are choosing products, they place varying values on intrinsic and external

characteristics. Two fundamental categories of values, namely performance and

emotional values, can be identified when examining how customers view quality

attributes.
 A research conducted by Saiki et al. (2022) examined how perceived stress

affects dressing habits among university students. The study found that stress can lead

to variations in clothing choices, with some individuals opting for more formal or

fashionable attire as a coping mechanism, while others may neglect their appearance

altogether. This dichotomy illustrates the diverse ways in which stress can manifest in

dressing behavior, highlighting the need for further exploration into how different

individuals respond to stress through their clothing choices.

A quantitative study published in the British Journal of Education (2022)

investigated the relationship between stress and clothing selection among students. The

results indicated a positive correlation between stressful activities and specific clothing

choices, suggesting that students may consciously or unconsciously select outfits that

reflect their emotional state or coping strategies during high-stress periods. This finding

emphasizes the role of clothing as an extension of personal identity and an indicator of

psychological well-being.

These studies collectively underscore the multifaceted nature of dressing

behavior among students. They reveal that clothing choices are not merely about

aesthetics but are deeply intertwined with psychological states, social influences, and

individual coping mechanisms in response to stress. Understanding these dynamics can

provide valuable insights for educators and mental health professionals aiming to

support students in navigating their emotional challenges through positive self-

expression in their attire.

 In according to Medalla, et al. (2021), performance values are linked to meeting

the functional needs of the user (such as usability, dependability, durability, etc.),

whereas emotional values are linked to meeting the nonfunctional needs (e.g., the

aesthetic value of the product). The set of product features (intrinsic and extrinsic) that

consumers will focus on when evaluating products in a subjective manner will differ

depending on which values people favor more. This will directly affect how high a

product's perceived quality.

According to Castillo (2018), a product's brand is becoming a more significant

factor in how consumers nowadays choose what to buy. Branding is the process by

which a business develops and manages its brand and conveys its messages and

values to its customers in a highly competitive global market. As such, branding is a

crucial strategic activity for businesses looking to differentiate their products. They also

hope to enthrall new customers and involve them in stories that personify the ideals that

they uphold by wearing and purchasing the brand.