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Individual Digital Report:
Consumer Psychology Analysis Report Jandira de Carvalho Torquato – 8309608 Fashion Brands and the Psychology of consumer behavior Tutor: Claudia Behnke 1
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Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………….4 Brand overview………………...………………………………………………..….4 The communication campaign…………………….……………………….….….5 The self……………………………………………………………………………...6 Attitudes………………………………………………………………………….….8 The ELM model…………………………………………………………….………9 Privacy………………………………………………………………...……….…..10 Sustainability……………………………………………………………………...11 Issues in fashion with gender, subcultures and social classes…………...…13 Conclusion and recommendations……………………………………………...14 Images references…………………………………………………..…………....15 References……………………………………………………………..……….....16 Appendices: Interview……………………………………………………….……18 Ethics forms…………………………………………………...……20
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Introduction The aim of this report is to analyse an Anthropologie’s communication campaign considering its engagement with consumer psychology regarding internal influences on the consumer behaviour in the fashion industry regarding persuasion, the self and attitudes, utilising the elaboration likelihood model (EML). I’ll be exploring the impact of ethics and codes of conduct in organizational practices of this brand and how they can influence the consumer decision-making. Nowadays consumer’s focus on ethical and sustainability experiences is rising, and for a well-known international brand as Anthropologie it is important to aim attention at its privacy policy and sustainable actions through their business, in order to reach their most conscious costumers. This examination of an online or offline brand strategy will reflect on psychologic concepts that will help to understand different ways to expose the target consumer to stimulation acts that affects their actions, choices or opinions.
Brand overview Anthropologie is a high-end lifestyle brand that is known worldwide by its unique and authentic style. This American brand performs in different market ranges, selling clothes to women including footwear, underwear, eyewear, leather goods, accessories, house & home wear, perfumes, beauty and wellness products and gifts. The brand mission has always been ‘’surprise and delight their costumer with unexcepted and distinctive finds’’ offering a care and curated collection of products that made Anthropologie a destination for free-spirited and creative women (Anthropologie, 2020)
Anthropologie is part of URBN, an ample recognized American company which owns a portfolio of global urban brands such as Urban Outfitters and Free People, providing the costumer with an exclusive shop experience while inspiring them to ‘think outside the box’ (URBN, 2020).
Figure 1. Interior store display
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The story of the brand is linked with its founder Dick Hayne, when in 1990 noticed that their customer was longing for a store to ‘’indulge her creative side’’ and build a lifestyle brand in addition to his other brands. Anthropologie was named after his graduation studies’ name and established in 1992 in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Opened their first store in London in 2009, was considered as a portal of discovery to 28-30 years old creative, educated, fashionable, well-travelled women who appreciate art and innovation. The brand support collaborations and partnerships with upcoming and established artist to luring their consumers with a mix of different products that reflect their bohemian style and personal passions (URBN, 2020; (Anthropologie, 2020).
The campaign The communication campaign chosen to analyse was part of the online brand strategy in Christmas 2019 called #ThisMerryMoment.
Figure 2. The campaign video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVMHwiL8N8
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‘This merry moment’ is an advertisement video on their YouTube channel which explores a situational factor, as Christmas holyday, to affect the consumer purchase decision. In 1998, following the internet boom, Anthropologie started making steps to an online shopping experience and established a direct-to-consumer business by opening a web store (URBN, 2020). Since then, the brand has used social media to reach a connection with their target. Unlike other brands, Anthropology doesn’t use print advertisement in magazines or tv commercials, to focus on the delivery of products with quality and excellent store experience. They have taking advantage of the understanding they have of their loyal target market to continuously sell their products by being aware of their lifestyles, their preferences, and needs. The target here is focused on young and mature independent women, with high/middle income and different race backgrounds balancing their professional working life with important relationships with their families and friends, framing into the regular brand target demographics. The video shows the celebration of a happy holiday in different places in the world, showcasing a mix of products that goes from casual clothes, pyjamas, party dresses, accessories, kitchen and dining utensils, and gifts cards. Associating the magic of this specific time to their unique craftsmanship products and singular brand. The brand adopted a relational marketing oriented on the relationship towards the brand, product benefits, high customer retention and commitment. They wanted to use a big cultural marketing impact on the way viewers perceive this message of good social and family relationships, concentrating on the joyful Christmas’s time as inspiration so consumers pay attention and enjoy the experience (Solomon, 2020).
The self According to Solomon, the self-concept influence strongly consumer behaviour because it’s a reflection of people’s attitudes towards themselves and those will help to guide a purchase decision. The self is composed of factors like idea, feelings that make up an individual and these factors can be responsible of how we respond to communications and how we live, thus why and how we buy (Sethna and Blythe, 2020). ‘’Gender identity is an important component of a consumer’s self-concept’’ (Solomon, 2020) Anthropologie tends to be based on ‘’womanhood’’ and passes a message of a confident, professional, cultured, trendy women emphasizing the uniqueness of the self like most brands in western culture (Anthropologie, 2020). 5
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Their marketing makes the audience conform to the culture’s expectations of how they should act, bringing a sense of beauty, optimism, reassurance from others to see the happy perfect family and social relationships. Regarding to the campaign, consumer behaviour can be influenced by the components of the self by: The self-image, which is modified over time by other people opinions, costumers chose the products thinking of serving their actual self; The looking glass self, which inaccurately we think of how other people are seeing us, lead them to buy the products to help feel good in other people eyes; reaching to the ideal self, which make us wish to be that person we idealize and purchase to fulfil that needs. Meaning, loyal customers won’t want to threaten their active, cool image and new customer will want to adjust the differences. (Solomon, 2020; Sethna and Blythe, 2020)
Figure 3. Womanhood initiative
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Attitudes Consumers evaluate positively or negatively a product or brand through attitudes. Their feelings, beliefs and intention of action towards the product must be determined by identifying the 3 components of attitudes, affect, behaviour and cognition. Attitudes are formed in several ways and are not created equally, depending of the commitment level of the attitude influences (Solomon, 2020). The brand adapted to a new online era to enlarge the target market, by being active on social media they increased their performance and measure customer attitudes through trust, satisfaction, relationship with the brand, since the quick access give everyone an easy way to give reviews, opinions and comments (Fournier, S. 1998).
Figure 4. Print screen Anthropologie Instagram activity
Figure 5. Brand consumers reviews
Figure 8. Brand consumers reviews Figure 7. Brand consumers reviews
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Figure 9. Brand consumers reviews
According to online activity, the brand’s overall satisfaction rating is bad or medium, always less than 4 stars, where opinions may vary, from weak customer service and bad refund policy to a good satisfaction of the product (Anthropologie, 2020; sitejabber, 2020). I guess that, regarding the hierarchy of effects, this consumer enhances its attitude toward a product after he buys it. Acting first on the basic knowledge and forms an evaluation only after the purchase, framing the low-involvement hierarchy: think, do and feel - where ‘’attitudes are based on behaviour learning processes’’ (Solomon, 2020). Attitude towards the brand differs from attitude towards an advertising (Sethna and Blythe, 2020). In the first can be affected by different factors and the latter is meant to cause an affective response, like the campaign video presented above.
The ELM models The Elaboration Likelihood Model suggests two main routes, in which the communication can be made to persuade the customer to change the attitudes towards a product or brand, depending on how involved they are. Although Anthropologie customers tend to be loyal and attentive for the trends and details, using a cognitive consumer decision to repeat the purchase behaviour. They should find the message relevant, high interested, focusing on the arguments and creating cognitive responses, choosing the central route to persuasion path.
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But taking the peripheral route of persuasion, this campaign aims to portray emotions as joy, love, hope, togetherness, bringing a sense of beauty, making the viewers feel warm, sympathetic. The audience is more likely to associate these feelings to an affective decision purchase behaviour, being highly motivated about the attractiveness of the source rather the arguments (Solomon, 2020; Sethna and Blythe, 2020)
‘’People with a low need for cognition tend to like products that are advertised in a likeable way’’ (Reinhard and Messer, 2009) Usually, low involvement hierarchy establishes a peripheral route response to the message delivered. The emotional appeal normally depends on the costumer’s relationship with the product, in this case, the advertising. It makes the costumer’s purchase decision be responded by a stimulus or connection. The trigger of emotion, optimism, reassurance from others to see their cool and unique relationship with the brand and feeling of belonging (Solomon, 2020; Sethna and Blythe, 2020)
Privacy Nowadays, consumers are more aware of how ethics works inside companies and are committed to examining if everything is done with a more sustainable focus. The ethical values we acquire through life can influence our purchase decisions. So, the amount that consumers are spending on experiences and well-being linked on good consumption is increasing and because of that brands are adopting god practices of sustainability and ethics often (Anthropologie, 2020; (Sethna and Blythe, 2020) The privacy policy at Anthropologie outlines the way data is collected and how its managed. The data is collected always with the costumer consent. Names; addresses, phone number; email; bank details; purchase history; product and service preferences; personal characteristics; internet activity like comments and reviews, are used on their behalf for marketing purposes, said by the manager interviewed (Interview 1, 2020; Anthropologie, 2020). The sources can be newsletter and store email subscription; e-receipt; order and delivery confirmation; product browsing; interaction with website, app and media; cookies, chats and tags; and Anthopersks membership card. The analyse, observation and algorithms are obtained for marketing purpose. To identify the correct target market and potential customers; deliver the right goods; personalize services; measure engagement and understand the loyal customer base. The customers show their preferences through the exploration of trends, the display of products, the acceptance of promotional discounts, contests. They develop a connection feeling with the brand, creative discovery and escape from the
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real world and are educated enough to make-a-decision (Anthropologie, 2020; Rauturier, S. 2019).
Figure 10. Interior display of Anthropologie store
Sustainability The ethical eco-literate consumer is the main reason why the company started segmenting its products and actions to reach the needs and preferences of these individuals (Sethna and Blythe, 2020). According to Blythe, environmental consciousness is directly linked to purchasing behaviour. Based on their knowledge, people can change their behaviour and attitudes, willing to pay more for green products (Sethna and Blythe, 2020). Anthropologie offers a compelling list of sustainable products include the store bags, and, the store ambiance sets an artfulness creative and sustainable world with crafted elements, hand-made and recycled materials for merchandise and window display. Raising the feeling of uniqueness and environmentally conscious when costumer purchase brand high-quality fair-trade products.
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It’s an international trustworthy company that integrates corporate social responsibility actions to increase awareness about environmental / social issues and are committed though California Transparency in Supply Chains Act certification to conduit business in a lawful ethical manner from manufacturers to suppliers (Anthropologie, 2020). As URBN owned chain, the brand donates to several charities and participates in Global Community Initiatives through volunteer work, events, and collaborations that make a difference, to make an impact (URBN,2020).
Figure 11. Charity sustainable event
One of the charitable events was a collaboration with Traid to host an ‘’exclusive pop-up shop of vintage and second-hand womenswear’’ to encourage people to accept pre-loved fashion and discharge clothes unwanted to reduce the fashion footprint (Santamaria, 2019).
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Issues with gender, subcultures and social classes The cultural context must be considered in line with consumption and purchase behaviour (Solomon, 2020). Although Western culture has more impact around the world, companies must to adapt their products to different cultures and modified business plans to expand the probability. Family remains the social group with more power to influence consumer decision making. But family concept has been changing through the years and vary in different cultures. Nuclear families enlarged or become single parent household, the marital roles are not specific anymore, religion, nationality, social class can modify the pattern of decision-making. Per example the age subculture exists because the members have different attitudes and values. We should not assume that old consumers wouldn’t be prime candidates for purchase, since the market for over fifties is vast and they are the ones with high income to buy products. Gender role orientation is also important for purchase decision, and their shift affected the business that must start lunch no gender products, or advertising campaigns that include the LGBT households, because they’re more likely to buy than heterosexuals. People and organisations play a crucial role in the fashion industry, but because people don’t receive the same meanings to the messages and products, marketers must change the appeal of their communications adopting multicultural efforts and make modifications regarding the gender, the income disposable, the age, or the country they sell to. (Sethna and Blythe, 2020; Solomon, 2020)
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Conclusion/ recommendations According to the information analysed in this report, also the primary research that consisted into a store visit and a manager and costumer interview I can conclude that some advancements are required to the improvement of the brand. Although they have been a successful brand without advertising, I guess that promote the brand through different channels, such as printed media can help to increase the clients base and expand the target market. Apparently, the company have reached their goals, since that they still have loyal customers who will chose Anthropologie over the competition, but create awareness with their social media content and build a constant connection in which consumers can relate not only with brand values and its products, but also with the social media image upgrade their attitudes towards the brand and maybe based the behaviour purchase in cognitive more than feelings. The sustainable image they want to express should be improved by development of collaborations with in-local artists raising competitive advantage and local appreciation of the brand. And by the improvement of the transparency in their supply chain and actively work for more sustainable habits in the sore environmental, such as, according with the interviewed, they should decrease or stop the plastic package in e-commerce and deliveries. And be aware of the manufacturers and supply source and continuously confirm if they are well adjusted with ethical and positive practices (work conditions, pay rate) as the brand promote, knowing that consumers are becoming more eco-literate and won’t be easily green-wash.
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Image references Figure 10 – photo taken by Jandira Torquato Figure 11 - 2020. [image] Available at: <https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Anthropologie-teams-up-with-traid-tocelebrate-vintage-fashion,1121409.html> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Figure 2 – photo taken by Jandira Torquato Figure 3 – 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVMHwiL8N8> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Figure 4 – 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/storieson-womanhood> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Figure 5 - 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/anthropologie/?hl=pt> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Figure 6 – 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/anthropologie.com> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Figure 7 – 2020. [image] Available at: <https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/anthropologie.com> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Figure 8 – 2020. [image] Available at: <https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.anthropologie.com> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Figure 9 - 2020. [image] Available at: <https://bestcompany.com/homefurniture/company/anthropologie#reviews> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Figure1- photo taken by Jandira Torquato
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References 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/stories-onwomanhood> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/help/our-story> [Accessed 19 April 2020]. Anthropologie.com. 2020. Anthropologie. [online] Available at: <https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/?ref=logo> [Accessed 19 April 2020]. Best Company. 2020. Anthropologie - Real Customer Reviews. [online] Available at: <https://bestcompany.com/home-furniture/company/anthropologie#reviews> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Fournier, S. 1998. Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research. Instagram.com. 2020. Anthropologie (@Anthropologie) • Fotos E Vídeos Do Instagram. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/anthropologie/?hl=pt> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Rauturier, S. 2019 ‘how ethical is Anthropologie?’. Good on you [online] 20 September. Available from <https://goodonyou.eco/how-etihical-is-anthropologie/> [Accessed 23 April 2020]. Sethna, Z. and Blythe, J., 2020. Consumer Behaviour. 3rd ed. London: Sage. Sitejabber.com. 2020. Anthropologie Reviews - 2.6 Stars. [online] Available at: <https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/anthropologie.com> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Solomon, M., 2020. Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being. Ebook. 13th ed. London: Pearson education LimiteE. Urbn.com. 2020. Campus Life. [online] Available at: <https://www.urbn.com/who-weare> [Accessed 19 April 2020].
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Urbn.com. 2020. Our History. [online] Available at: <https://www.urbn.com/who-weare/history> [Accessed 19 April 2020]. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.anthropologie.com/help/privacy-policy> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Urbn.com. 2020. Community Empowerment. [online] Available at: <https://www.urbn.com/making-an-impact/community-empowerment> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Santamaria, B., 2019. Anthropologie Teams Up With Traid To Celebrate Vintage Fashion. [online] FashionNetwork.com. Available at: <https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Anthropologie-teams-up-with-traid-tocelebrate-vintage-fashion,1121409.html> [Accessed 22 April 2020]. Trustpilot. 2020. Anthropologie Is Rated "Bad" With 1.3 / 5 On Trustpilot. [online] Available at: <https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.anthropologie.com> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
Reinhard, M. and Messner, M. (2009) The effects of source likeability and need for cognition on advertising effectiveness under explicit persuasion. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 8 (4): 179-91)
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Appendixes Interview: Interview: How costumers engage with the brand and its influences in their behaviour Interviewer: Jandira Torquato Interviewee A: Assistant Manager Anthropologie Marylebone High Street store, London Interviewee B: Sales assistant (as a costumer) Anthropologie High Street store, London
1- Normally what is the costumer profile of this store? A: Mostly women from 30 to 50 years old, professionals who have a high income and mothers with free time. They like to travel and spend time with friends. Usually do shopping in the neighbourhood and identify themselves with the brand style. They like colourful, different and bold clothes, also home section and sustainable products.
2- In your opinion is this a sustainable brand? A: No, but the brand is working in new ideas to be more sustainable regarding their supply chain. For example, changing the delivery package.
B: No. As a consumer, I can see that they try to give costumers sustainable products. For example, some products are durable, I can use them more than once and they don’t damage fast, this is a way of decreasing waste and consumption, but the brand itself is not too sustainable. I call them ‘green wash’, they want to raise awareness although I can’t see any information about their positive responsible actions regarding environmental and social issues.
3- There aren’t many marketing campaigns to promote the brand, why do you think costumers choose to buy Anthropologie?
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A: the brand is more focused in provide a unique costumer experience and sell products that connect with the costumer. Most of the people who buy here are loyal customers, who first know about the brand through word of mouth and some through social media. I guess the perceptions they have about the brand is related to the fact that they want to belong to something different. B: Personally, I feel more this brand as a lifestyle. I like the art displayed, the collaborations with small artists, and the sustainable products they sell. Makes me feel creative and explorer. In there I can buy trousers, a mug or a notebook.
4- How the brand deals with data? A: they collect the data from membership card, from store Wi-Fi, also when we ask for email to electronic receipt, or ask for personal data to order online products from store or when they purchase directly from website. The company use the data for their behalf, to know how many people they can reach. 5- Attitudes from costumers towards the brand. As a manager, how do you think people react when they come shopping and what are the opinions regarding the brand? A: Costumers come looking for an experience. They want to feel unique and creative such as the environment of the store which is inspired in art, fashion and entertaining. They like the variety of the products and timeless trends. As a costumer, how frequently you purchase? And what type of products? What is the main purpose of your purchase? B: I like mostly the home section over clothing. I first came to buy in Anthropologie by recommendation from friends. Despite being a little too expensive for me, I do like the ambiance of the store. I think is different, cool and some of their products can be cute and useful. I only buy occasionally. It’s a good place to buy gifts.
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