Methodology Development and Implementation for the estimation of the brand’s personification on the example of fashion apparel market

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is developing and implementation of the methodology for estimation of the brand’s personification. In the article the concept of the brand personification based on the scale proposed by Jennifer Aaker is represented. Two knowledge sources and methods are combined to derive an original model of brand’s personification: factor analysis used for latent factor’s extraction and classification methods (ABC-analysis, analytical method) for correlation matrix reduction in order to improve the interpretational properties of the models built. It leads to single some consumer profiles out for three different fashion brands on the local market. For the purposes of research 300 people living in Novosibirsk at the age of 15 to 35 were interviewed on the issue of each brand (N = 900). The people were familiar with the fashion brands under the study. A remote metropolitan area (Novosibirsk) was chosen as quasi-laboratory setting to estimate the brand’s personification models. Research limitations of the study are: the necessity to ensure in sample representativeness; the consistency of allocated consumer profiles with real consumer segments; the necessity to fulfill the prerequisites of factor analysis. Moreover, the results obtained for one local market may not be clearly transferred to the other markets. Practical implications: for each brand the different profiles have been formed. It proves the uniqueness of personification models and the necessity of particular positioning for every certain brand. The results reveal the correspondence between the identified consumer profiles and the apparel collections of manufactured brand owners.