Intercultural Differences in the Purchase and Information Behaviour of Young Consumers

Abstract

Pressures in the contemporary marketing environment are getting bigger and companies and marketers are required to know consumers and their purchase and information behaviour. In this article we studied the behaviour of consumers and the fac­tors of purchase and information behaviour of young consumers when choosing clothes. We found out about the meaning of individual clothing characteristics having impact on the purchase decision making (price, trademark, fitting of clothing, design, quality, etc.). Consumers receive and look for information at different sources (radio commercials, TV commercials and shows, fashion magazines, catalogue sales, social networks, friends and acquaintances, etc.). With the empiric research we wanted to find out to what measure individual sources influence the purchase decision of an individual. We studied young people aged from 15 to 24 in the countries of the EU (Slovenia, Austria and Germany) and the United States of America. We especially focused on characteristic differences. Knowing intercultural differences is important for global companies of the clothing industry for forming their marketing strategies. On the sample of 440 young people who took part in the survey we found out that intercultural differences exist regarding the influence of individual information sources and regarding the factors of purchase decision making. Considering the stated we propose companies operating in global markets on both continents to prepare differentiated marketing strategies.