Analisys of Some Aspects That Influence the Perception and Buying Decission of the Women’s Business Jacket

Analisys of Some Aspects That Influence the Perception and Buying Decission of the Womens Business Jacket

Carmen Melania Blejan, Manuela Lacramioara Avadanei Antonela Curteza,

Faculty of Industrial Design and Business Management

Gheorghe Asachi Technical University Iasi, Romania

Zlatin Zlatev

Faculty of Technics and Technologies Trakia University

Yambol, Bulgaria

Abstract – Currently, the biggest challenge for companies in the fashion industry is to produce clothing products that meet the requirements and needs of the consumers with the aim of reducing, among other things, the huge amount of textile waste and, consequently, the negative effects on the environment.

The study aims to highlight the importance of integrating the consumer's aesthetic perception and preferences into the sustainable design of garments. Besides the fact that the fashion product will be developed according to the consumer's expectations, it will meet the stringent sustainability requirements through the possibility of extending the product life.

Also, knowing the socio-demographic profile of the consumer helps companies and designers to identify and to outline the target consumer profile, in order to subsequently carry out in- depth investigations aimed at the needs and preferences related to the product to be developed.

The presented study focused on analyzing some aspects related to the way women's business jackets are perceived and evaluated by their wearers. To this end, a questionnaire was drawn up and answered by 100 women who wear business jackets. The processing of information obtained from the questionnaire showed that the most important influencing factors in the purchase decision are the jacket size and fitting. Equally important are the wearing comfort, the jacket's model and fabric. The next top-ranked factors are the jacket's color and style. It was also found that the respondents preferences were influenced by socio-demographic features and job-specific situations.

Keywords: perception, visual, consumer, preferences, business jacket for women, design.

1. INTRODUCTION

   The clothing industry has gone through a number of changes over the last 35 years. The trigger factor was the democratization of luxury, which involved marketing mass products perceived as premium products by a large audience. This trend, known as fast fashion, made fashionable clothing accessible to the masses, but came with significant social and environmental costs. The main disadvantages of the fashion

   industry are uncontrolled clothing production, environmental damage and poor working conditions [1].

   The fashion industry's impact on the environment is a state of current concern and of collective interest due to the significant contributions it currently makes to carbon emissions, water scarcity, pollution, reduction of natural raw material resources, and loss of biodiversity [3]. The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions, more than international flights and maritime shipping combined [4]. This is due to the use of tons of water that produce excess carbon dioxide gas, excessive energy use to produce clothing and the use of non-renewable sources for fiber, as well as environmental pollution with harmful chemicals [5].

   The sustainable growing mouvement in the fashion industry aims to reduce environmental impact and improve the way workers are treated [2]. Ray and Nayak (2023) highlighted the need for further research on B2B marketing, circular economy and sustainability-oriented innovations [6]. Sambargi and Tripathi (2023) emphasized that consumer awareness and perception of sustainable fashion is crucial to combat climate change. The author promotes cooperation between businesses, consumers, governments and civil society [7]. Bairagi and Acharya (2022) also pointed out the need to integrate biocentric and socio-ecological principles into product design and development [8].

   Ensuring wearing comfort is very important in the development of clothing products, from the consumer's perspective, and increase chances both of purchase and product life extension.

   Identifying the needs and preferences, more quickly and efficiently, can be done on the basis of feedback collected from the consumer through various methods such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, workshops, observations, literature reviews. By applying collaborative methods in the product development process can also be successfully achieved a more sustainable design.

   The paper focuses, first of all, on analyzing the consumer's perception of the attractiveness and buying probability of women's business jacket, and the main influencing factors.

   Including a business jacket, for certain professions, in the day- to-day attire at work, is the most feasible and quickest choice to complete a professional image. Women's business jacket design has undergone various shapes throughout history, influenced by human progress, women's desire to gain financial independence and build professional careers. This emphasizes the need to constantly investigate consumer expectations imposed by current conditions in society and fluctuating consumer preferences.

   The first impression of a person can be made by the way is dressed. Factors such as clothing style, fit, color, design, comfort, job position and company dress code are important considerations in choosing the right outfit. Therefore, the right business jacket is essential both for a successful career and for personal satisfaction, safety and well-being [10].

2. WORK METHOD

   The current research aimed to integrate the consumer's perception into product design and development by assessing, among others, the attractiveness and buying probability of the women's business jacket.

   The qualitative research methodology used in the study was the survey through a self-administered questionnaire including visual stimuli. The questionnaire was completed by 100 respondents, women, who wear a business jacket at their workplace.

   Participants were recruited through a message sent on the social networking platform Facebook. After confirming their participation in the study, they received an email with the necessary data related to the study in order to complete the questionnaire, and a link to the questionnaire. Data collection and processing was carried out in strict compliance with the University's Code of Ethics and Professional Deontology, TUIASI.COD.01.

   A starting point in fashion product development is to analize the socio-demographic profile of the consumer, and the specific needs and preferences related to the targeted clothing product.

   The socio-demographic data of the participants included age, marital status, education, living environment (urban or rural), residence/housing situation, members living under the same roof, number of children (table 1).

   TABLE 1. Socio-demographic features of the participants in the study

   Socio- demographic features and codes assigned	Number of participants in the study
   	Categories	Frequenc y	Percentage
   F1 – Age	<30	38	38
   	31-40	42	42
   	41-50	12	12
   	51-60	6	p>6
   	>60	2	2
   F2 – Marital status	Married	53	53
   	Single	41	41
   	Other	6	6
   F3 – Education	High school	1	1
   	University	71	71
   	Master	22	22
   	Other	6	6
   F4 – Living area	Urban	82	82
   	Rural	18	18
   F5 Domicile /housing situation	Living in their own home	62	62
   	Living with parents / grandparents / a distant relative	6	6
   	Living in rented accommodation	29	29
   	Other	3	3
   F6 – Members living under the same roof	Just me	8	8
   	2-3 members	76	76
   	4-5 members	15	15
   	More than 5 members	1	1
   F7 – Children	Yes, I have a child	30	30
   	Yes, I have 2 children	16	16
   	Yes, I have more than 2 children	0	0
   	No children	54	54

   Job-specific situational data or the occasion on which the product will be worn are important factors that can influence consumer choice and preferences regarding, in this case, the women's business jacket. The job-specific situational data, taken into analysis, included: financial status, work field, work area, labor category, company size where they work, job seniority, dress code at work, type of interaction with colleagues/customers (table 2).

   TABLE 2. Job-specific situational features of the respondents

   Job-specific situational features and codes assigned	Number of participants in the study
   	Categories	Frequenc y	Percentage
   F8 – Financial status	Almost decent income	9	9
   	Decent income	69	69
   	More than decent income	22	22
   F9 – Work field	Industry	33	33
   	Commerce	10	10
   	Hotels and restaurants	2	2
   	Information and communication	12	12
   	Financial intermediation and insurance	5	5
   	Real estate transactions	2	2
   	Public administration and defense	2	2
   	Education	14	14
   	Health and social work	9	9
   	Other	11	11
   F10 – Work area	Public	72	72
   	Private	28	28
   F11 – Employee status	Employee	84	84
   	Employer	3	3
   	Mixed	13	13
   F12 – Company size	Micro enterprise (1- 9 employees)	10	10
   	Small enterprise (10-49 employees)	17	17
   	Medium enterprise (50-249 employees)	20	20
   	Large enterprise (250-499 employees)	12	12
   	Very large enterprise (more than 500 employees)	31	31
   	Self-employed	10	10
   F13 – Job seniority	Under 2 years	44	44
   	Between 2 and 5 years	23	23
   	Between 6 and 10 years	18	18
   	Over 10 years	15	15
   F14 – Dress code at work	Yes	25	25
   	No	75	75
   F15 – Type of interaction with colleagues/ customers	Face to face	47	47
   	Online	18	18
   	Mixed	35	35

   The realization of the study also involved visual stimuli. These stimuli contain 9 black and white CAD drawings of women's business jackets and 10 color CAD images with Pantone color swatches. The images of the women's business jacket designs were drawn using Adobe Illustrator CC 2021.25.1 (Adobe Inc., San Jose, California), a vector graphics editor and design software [12]. The images were used to evaluate the attractiveness and buying probability, being considered as dependent variables. Table 3 shows the nine proposed models of the women's business jacket and the assigned codes.

   The respondents' color preferences for the women's business jacket were analyzed through 10 proposed color CAD images presented with Pantone color swatches. The color samples were selected on the basis of an analysis of women's business jacket colors encountered at the most recent fashion shows of internationally renowned brands. The color trends recommended by Pantone LLC, available on the site, were also taken into account when defining the color samples. The samples were coded according to the Pantone Matching system [13]. In Table 3 are presented the 10 proposed colours with the assigned codes and the corresponding Pantone codes.

   TABLE 3. The womens business jacket models

   M1	M2	M3
   M4	M5	M6
   M7	M8	M9

   TABLE 4. Proposed colors for womens business jacket

   ID code	Specimen	Color and Pantone code	ID code	Specimen	Color and Pantone code
   C1		After Midnight 19-4109	C2		Mykonos Blue 18-4434
   C3		Rhodonite 19-3838	C4		Fire Whirl 18-1453
   C5		Downtown Brown 19-1223	C6		Bayberry 18-5315 TCX
   C7		Olive Branch 18-0527	C8		TCX Rose Dust 14-1307
   C9		TPX Pecan Brown 17-1430	C10		Ultimate Gray 17-5104

3. ANALYSIS OF WOMENS BUSINESS JACKET PREFERENCES AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

   The 100 subjects who answered the questionnaire evaluated the 9 business jacket models. First, participants rated the business jacket attractiveness, based on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with 1 indicating Unattractive and 5 indicating Very Attractive. The second assessment consisted of choosing the buying probability of the models based on a 5-point Likert- type scale, with 1 indicating Definitely would not buy and 5 indicating Definitely would buy.

   When assessing the preferences of women's business jacket attractiveness resulted that the most attractive model for the respondents is M4. This model is followed by M1 and M8. On the opposite side of the ranking, among the less attractive models, on the last place was M3, followed by M9 and M6. Fig. 1 shows the participants' responses on the preference of the women's business jacket attractieness.

   IJERTV13IS070041

   When participants were asked if they would buy these models, the top of the rankings changed slightly. Thus, the first model chosen when assessing the purchasing probability of the women's business jacket was M1, followed by M4 and M8.

   Fig. 1. Model preferences of the womens business jackets as regards attractiveness

   As for the models with the lowest buying probability, again the ranking underwent changes. Thus, the lowest purchase percentages were recorded by the M9 model, followed by the M3 and M6 models. However, the two groups of models, the most preferred (M1, M4, M8) and the least preferred (M3, M6, M9) remained the same in terms of attractiveness and willingness to buy. Fig. 2 shows the participants' responses on the buying probability of the women's business jacket.

   Fig. 2. Model preferences in terms of buying decision

   After analyzing the buying probability, respondents rated the factors that may contribute to the purchase decision of a women's business jacket, based on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with 1 indicating Not important at all and 5 indicating Very important.

   The most important criteria, according to the respondents, is the size and fitting of the jacket – whether it fits well the body size. After size, equally important are wearing comfort (ensuring mobility and allowing for wide range of movement), the jacket's model and fabric. The next top-ranked factors are the color and style of the jacket. The less important selection criteria are the brand and the model's up-to-dateness.

   Fig. 3 shows the respondents' answers regarding the factors that may contribute to the purchase decision of a women's business jacket. These criteria and their importance, in line with respondents' assessment, could explain the small differences that appear in the evaluation of attractiveness and the buying decision of the business jackets.

   (This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)

   International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology

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   Fig. 3. Criteria influencing the buying decision

   In terms of wearing comfort of the business jacket for women, 71% of the respondents answered that it is very important and 29% that it is important enought. No respondents rated this factor as neither important, nor unimportant, less important or not important at all. Fig. 4 shows the answers regarding the importance of wearing comfort.

   Fig. 4. The importance of the womens business jackets wearing comfort

   When evaluating color preferences for women's business jackets, most respondents chosed black and navy blue. These are followed by gray and green, and then pink and beige. Respondents dislike olive and brown colors for the business jacket. In fig. 5 are presented the answers regarding color preferences for the business jacket.

   Fig. 5. Color preferences of the womens business jacket

   With regard to how varied is the color palette of the business jacket in their wardrobe, the respondents' opinion is divided into 3 large groups. The first group has more than 3 colors for the business jacket in the wardrobe, representing 43%. The same percentage of 43% was obtained by the second group of respondents, who have 2-3 colors in their wardrobe. For only 14% of respondents a single color of women's business jacket is predominant in their wardrobe. In fig. 6 are presented the answers regarding the color palette of the business jacket found in respondents' wardrobe.

   Fig 6. Color palette variation of the womens business jacket

   The correlation of the respondents' socio – demografic features with the models and colors preferences is very important and decisive in the development of business jacket models for women. The analysis of these features was conducted to determine what influence the choice of womens business jacket. Principal component analysis (PCA) technique was used for the data analysis [11].

   Fig. 7 shows the number of observations for each of the features mentioned in tables 1 and 2 (F1 F15), and their corresponding weights that have values in the range of 0 – 8. From the figure it can be seen that two of the features are of the greatest importance in choosing a business jacket model. These are F4 and F11. They are related to whether the respondents live in urban or rural area and what is their labor category. The most insignificant features are F2 and F12. These are related to the marital status of the respondents and the size of the company they work for.

   Fig 7. Features that influence the womens business jacket choise or preference

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   Fig. 8 shows the respondents' answers related to the business jacket and situations that may be encountered at work. According to the respondents answers, three issues are considered to be important when wearing the business jacket at work. Firstly, the results showed that they like to wear a business jacket. They consider that wearing the jacket gives them a certain prestige. They are also self-assured and confident when wearing a business jacket. On the other hand, respondents strongly disagreed with other aspects. Specifically, they do not believe that wearing a business jacket is only due to obligation because of the specifics of their work. Wearing such a jacket does not affect their productivity. They do not consider that it is necessary to wear different models of business jackets just because of a certain occasion. Respondents do not wear a business jacket just to please their colleagues.

   Fig. 8. The womens business jacket and situations encountered at work

4. CONCLUSIONS

The presented study was mainly aimed at analyzing some aspects and elements that influence the wearers' perception of the women's business jacket and their purchase decision. It was based on the answers given by 100 women to a questionnaire. The questionnaire included information related to socio- demographic and job-specific situational features. The analysis was based on visual stimuli, namely 9 models for the business jacket, and 10 color proposals for them. These were selected based on the latest trends presented on the Pantone website and at international fashion shows.

Responents to the questionnaire rated the business jacket attractiveness and buying probability based on a 5-point Likert- type scale. Based on the answers received, their frequency and their corresponding weights, it was found that the most popular models were M4, M1 and M8, and the least popular were M3, M9 and M6. The highest likelihood of purchase is, again, for M1, M4 and M8 models, and the lowest likelihood for M9, M3 and M6 models. In addition, the factors influencing the purchase decision for this product category were also analyzed. The most important criteria, according to the respondents, are the size and fitting of the jacket, the wearing comfort, the jacket's model and fabric, and the less important criteria are the brand and the model's up-to-dateness.

Since among the factors mentioned was wearing comfort, it was analyzed how important it is for the 100 respondents, and

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the results showed that 71% of the respondents consider that it is very important, and 29% that it is important enough.

To analyze the possible link between socio-demographic factors and the women's business jacket choice or preference, the principal component analysis (PCA) technique was used. The results obtained, in this case, showed that the most important factors are those related to living area (urban or rural) and the labor category (employee or employer), and the least important are the marital status and size of the company they work for.

In view of a deeper analysis, the situation in the workplace influencing the context of wearing business jackets was also followed, which revealed that respondents like to wear a business jacket, are more confident and perceive a certain prestige when wearing the jacket.

In terms of color preferences, the most popular colors are black and navy blue, and the least popular for this product category are olive and brown.

The results obtained showed that the socio-demographic profile of the consumer can influence the preferences and likelihood of buying business jackets. Job-specific situational factors or the occasion on which the clothing product is worn, may also influence the consumer's choice and preferences, in our case the womens business jacket.

Such studies can also be applied to other product and wearers categories. The results obtained can be implemented in the design process of the garments, giving designers the possibility to:

• select from the set of criteria in design only those agreed by the consumer as the most important, and for which the purchase probability is highest;

• focus on the designs identified as being preferred by the consumer;

• develop fashion products in line with consumer expectations, thus preventing uncontrolled clothing production;

• obtaining a complete fashion product that meets both the aesthetic and sustainability requirements of the consumer.

In order to ensure the shift towards more sustainable fashion product development, it is also necessary to quickly identify, among others, the needs and preferences of the consumer, and to incorporate them at an early stage in the design process. In addition to the fact that the fashion product will be manufactured in accordance with the consumer's expectations and perception, will increase the likelihood of purchase and reduce negative environmental impacts by the possibility of extending the product's lifetime and reducing the textile waste.

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