PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

 

e-ISSN 2231-8534
ISSN 0128-7702

Home / Regular Issue / JSSH Vol. 21 (1) Mar. 2013 / JSSH-0178-2010

 

Exploring Influences of Consumer Socialization Agents on Branded Apparel Purchase among Urban Malaysian Tweens

Carol Boon Chui Teo, Samsinar Md Sidin and Mohd Izzudin Mohamad Nor

Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Volume 21, Issue 1, March 2013

Keywords: Tweens, consumer socialization, parental influence, peer influence, parental selective power

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Tween consumers today interact with brands, television media and friends as their main agents of socialization. These agents have impacts on their consumption patterns. In the Malaysian market, the tween segment has emerged and also taken the retail trade by storm. Tweens are now able to influence their parents' purchasing decisions and this has changed the spending behaviour of their family. This paper seeks to examine consumer socialization sources for tweens and how these socialization agents can influence their preference for branded apparels. Data was collected using a structured survey questionnaire to elicit responses on the purchase preferences of branded apparels. The respondents comprised of 150 urban tweens between the ages of 8 to 12 years. Findings revealed that urban tweens had relatively high awareness on brand names and strong purchase preferences for branded apparels. Peer, parental and advertisement influences, combined with their obsession for television media, have significantly affected their purchase of branded apparels. Arguably, parental selective power still has some exertion on tween's purchase decisions although the influence is declining. Parents and tweens often wear apparels of the same brands. The findings of this study have several implications for marketers, consumers, and family policy makers.

ISSN 0128-7702

e-ISSN 2231-8534

Article ID

JSSH-0178-2010

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