Fashion Clothing Consumption Among NMIMS Students

1.0 Introduction
Fashion through clothing is a uniform pattern of consumer behaviour. There are a couple of
factors which influence the consumer’s choice to invest in different types of clothing. In the
modern era, consumers also show preference towards particular brands irrespective of their
prices. With this backdrop, we tried to explore the fashion clothing consumption pattern
among NMIMS students who fall in the age group of 18 to 21 years.

2.0 Purpose of this study

The primary purpose of this study was to understand the behaviour of students ( consumers)
with respect to their preference choice and influencing attributes or factors influencing their
clothing consumption patterns. The specific objectives were the following:
(i) To understand the frequency, purposes, and places where students usually buy
their clothes.
(ii) To understand factors that influence their choice of buying new clothes.
(iii) To asses the amount of money which students spend on clothes.
(iv) To understand whether brands plays any role to influence fashion choices of
students.
(v) To examine whether gender and place of origin ( where students are from) play
any role to influence the choice of students.
(vi) To see whether ongoing fashion trends in the fashion industry play any role in
influencing clothing choices and preferences among youngsters.

3.0 Methodology
We conducted an online survey among 260 students using Google Forms. However, only 201
students completed the survey and the remaining 59 students didn’t respond to the study.
Thus, our whole analysis is based on these 201 respondents.
3.1 Tool
We have developed a structured tool to assess the above-mentioned objectives. The study tool
didn’t include any personal information to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of students.
We have asked two personal questions including gender and place of origin (home-town).
The survey tool also captured the following aspects:
(i) Frequency of purchase
(ii) Sources of purchase
(iii) Factors influencing these purchases
(iv) Reason for purchasing
 (v) Amount of money they spent on clothing
(vi) Brand preference
(vii) Eco-friendliness of products

A total of nineteen questions were asked in our survey.

3.2 Analysis
We used both Microsoft Excel as well as IBM SPSS ( Trial Version ) software for our
analysis. We analysed descriptive statistics including Mean, Median, Mode, Percentages,
Standard Deviations, Skewness, and Kurtosis.
To understand variations by gender and place of origin, we also analysed bi-variate tables
using crosstabs. Further, to asses association between two variables, we have analysed co-
relation and regression under this study.

4.0 Findings
There were several interesting facts that we observed in this study:
(i) 59% of the respondents were male followed by 41% who were female.
(ii) 32% respondents were from Mumbai while 68% were from other cities/locations.
However, one respondent did not disclose their place of origin.
(iii) Around half of the students (49.8% to be exact) purchase clothes with an interval
of few months.
(iv) Around one-thirds each buy clothes either to replace their old ones (34.8%) or to
keep up with the fashion trends (30.3 %)
(v) Majority of the students (41.8%) prefer shopping for cloths in high street fashion
stores.
(vi) Majority of students’ ( 41.8%) fashion style is influenced by friends and family,
followed by another group of students (35.8%) who are influenced by fashion
bloggers.
(vii) For around 43% of the students, price is the most important factor while shopping
for clothes.
(viii) Around half of the students (48.3%) said that their clothing choices are not
influenced by celebrity fashion labels.
(ix) Female (40%) students are likely to buy clothes for fashion than their male (23%)
counterparts, while more number male students (39%) purchase new clothes for
replacing the old one than female students (28%).
(x) Students of Mumbai (42%) are more likely to buy clothes for replacing old one
compare to other students(32%) who originally come from other cities and towns.
(xi) Students of Mumbai (50%) are also more likely buy clothes from high street
stores compare to other students (37%) come from different cities and towns
 (xii) Female students more likely to follow the fashion bloggers (49%), while male
students follow friends and relatives for buying new clothes ( 50%)
(xiii) However, students are ready to pay more for an established brand like Levis as
compared to Roadster which is still a growing brand.

5.0 Limitations of the Study

This study needs to be viewed with few limitations:

(i) A limited sample size of 201 respondents
(ii) Responses are inconsistent at times, either because of misunderstanding or lack of
seriousness among the respondents while filling the survey.
(iii) The sample doesn’t represent the general youth population under the age group of
18 to 21 years as this survey was restricted to students of NMIMS only who are
mostly homogenous in their socio-economic background.

6.0 Recommendations
This analysis has given unique opportunity to analyse our own primary data and understand
the preference of students to buy fashionable clothes. However, we didn’t get much time to
pre-test the survey questionnaire.
The analysis reveals that students are price sensitive and adhere to brands. Family and friends
also influenced the preference.

7.0 Acknowledgements
This analysis would have never been possible without the help of our Professor, Sneha Kotian
ma’am who taught us the required skillsets for carrying out such an analysis on IBM SPSS and
Microsoft Excel. We also share our sincere thanks to IBM for giving us an opportunity to use
the trial version of SPSS without paying any fees. This report would remain incomplete of we
don’t give our sincere thanks to all anonymous respondents who spared their time to fill in our
survey tools.