In addition, this study discusses implications for marketing strategies and makes recommendations for further marketing research of gay consumers. Given the scant literature on gay consumers in clothing consumption it is the hope that this paper will serve as a catalyst to marketing researchers and become a useful reference to marketing practitioners. Specifically, the purpose of the current study is to explore the clothing purchase behavior characteristics, specifically with regards to the impact of marketing mix factors on clothing consumption.
This study explored the clothing purchase in relation to one facet of this issue in particular, namely purchase behavior of gay professional men in Toronto, Canada. Thus, this kind of research will be very valuable and insightful. Whereas, nobody could deny that disclosure to different groups of people will largely decide the purchase behavior of gay men (Kates, 1998). Thus, few studies were done to reveal various purchase patterns related to different identity management. Homosexual identity is perhaps the biggest obstacle in doing any research on homosexuals.
Gay men have much distinction in many aspects, although they also share some similarities with heterosexual men.
Many researchers have studied gay men in the context of social psychology literature, but only a few have explored the characteristics from the angle of consumer behavior. Whatever the number, this sizable population has been put into a profile that is young, affluent, well-educated, brand conscious, interested in fashion and style, and willing to spend money (Schwartz, 1992).
The number of gays, considered as 10% of the population in the USA by some researchers, the population seems to be still underestimated. Maybe they assumed that gay men should be highly homogeneous in North American. Still, in the shadow of Americas influence, most available studies concentrated on gay consumers in the United States. Extended research is not only limited but also provides little insight into the current characteristics of gay consumer behavior. Due to the difficulty of identification of gay men and homophobia, gay consumers remain an under represented market segment and are still undervalued and underrepresented in research, especially in the field of consumer studies. įinding the demographics simply too alluring to pass up, more and more mainstream marketers are headed straight for the gay market. Linda Scott and Craig Thompson, Madison, WI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages. Joseph Chen, May Aung, Jianping Liang and Ou Sha (2004) ,"The Dream Market: an Exploratory Study of Gay Professional Consumers Homosexual Identities and Their Fashion Involvement and Buying Behavior", in GCB - Gender and Consumer Behavior Volume 7, eds. Finally, marketing implications and limitations are also presented. The results of our exploratory study revealed that all informants belong to the category of disclosure to heterosexuals and they seemed to be more self-centered and brand loyal toward product selection. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with gay professionals. The study further explores the impact of marketing mix factors on clothing consumption. ABSTRACT - This paper explores the clothing purchasing behavior characteristics occurring in gay professional consumers according to their different identity management- 1) disclosure to gay others, 2) disclosure to heterosexual others, and 3) resistance rituals (i.e., not identifying with gay men) (Kates 1998) in downtown Toronto.