THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPES OF NEEDS AND CONSUMER CHOICES
IN APPAREL INDUSTRY OF BANGLADESH

By
Evana Jahan
B.B.A, North South University, 2016

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA
September 2021
© Evana Jahan, 2021

Abstract
Consumer behavior signifies the way of people’s purchasing and consuming products and
services. It is a hotbed of research which is intensely associated with human psychology and is
essential for companies that are trying to sell their products or services to as many consumers as
possible. Since various facets of consumers’ lives affect what they purchase and why they
purchase, research on consumer behavior resolves the issues of understanding – how individuals
respond to advertising and marketing, individuality – if the process can determine consumers’
personalities, social status, decision-making process. Consumer behavior research is important to
determine how best to sell products or services by influencing consumers’ fears, their least
healthy habits or their worst tendencies.
This study has examined the relationship between consumer needs and consumer
purchase behavior in terms of consumer choices of Bangladeshi customers for apparel
market. Types of consumers’ choices and types of consumers’ needs are associated with
each other. Types of needs are the underlying determinant of types of choices to satisfy
consumers’ apparel necessity and these three categories of needs, that are recognised to
satisfy apparel necessity (i.e. functional needs, social needs and experiential needs), are
fulfilled by consumers through three recognised categories of choices (i.e. choice freedom,
choice difficulty and choice confidence). Different categories of consumers have different
types of needs and they behave differently while purchasing clothes, therefore, this study
has figured out how consumers of Bangladesh make their choices according to their needs in
apparel purchases. This study also examined how income levels work as a moderator while
consumers make decisions. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the relationship of the
consumers’ needs and choices. The key objective is to investigate how the correlation between

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consumers’ needs and choices influences the insights of consumers and their decision-making
process. This study also inspected the affiliation between the needs and choices for the
population with respect to certain key questions. Consequently, it identified a better
understanding of the links between needs and choices and set a special consideration of how
choices interact with various situations which is very important to sell the apparel products in
best way.
The study employed a survey research design which is quantitative in nature.
Quantitative survey quantifies the problems by generating numerical data which can be
converted into functional statistics and it is mostly used to measure attitudes, opinions, behaviors
and any other defined variables (DeFranzo, 2011). The data was collected through a structured
Likert-scale questionnaire which fulfilled the quantitative research nature. The included
questions were related to the types of needs and choices theories, with focus on consumers’
purchase behavior. Therefore, it was able to investigate quantitatively due to the nature of the
research. Respondents completed the questionnaire which was administrated via online
electronic form through SurveyMonkey. After collecting the data, it ran ordinal regression
models on the basis of dependent and independent variables of the questionnaire and that
provided a clear indication of consumers’ actual preference structure.
This research paper was demonstrated with the broad overview about the consumers’
choices according to the types of their needs. The study found that types of needs are positively
associated with types of choices and low-income level and high-income level have decreased and
increased impact accordingly with the positive relationships of needs and choices. The findings
of the paper offer some valuable considerations for related theories, especially on topic of
consumers’ purchase behavior by highlighting the contextual differences between needs and

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choices and by highlighting the other influencing factors associated with these. It contributes to
build up new concepts of consumer purchase behavior theory in terms of branding theory and
consumers’ needs and selection process also demonstrates that how types of needs influence
consumers’ purchase decision through types of choices. Moreover, new concepts or strategies
and psychological explanations of consumers help the managers to sell their products
appropriately.

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Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………........2
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………….5
List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………………8
List of figures…………………………...…………………………………………………………8
Acknowledgement……………………………...…………………………………………………9
Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………….……10
Chapter Two: Literature Review…………………………………………………………………16
Apparel Industry………………………………………………………………………….17
Consumer Needs………………………………………………...……………………….20
Functional Needs………………………………………….….………………….23
Social Needs………………………………………………………………….….24
Experiential Needs……………………………………………………………….25
Consumer Choices……………………………………...…………………….………….26
Choice Freedom………………………………………………………………….28
Choice Difficulty…………………………………………………………………29
Choice Confidence…………………………………………………………....….30
Income levels…………………………………………………………………………….31
Chapter Three: Hypotheses Development……………………………………………………….36
Relationship between Functional Needs and Choice freedom……………………….37
Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Functional Needs and
Choice freedom …………….…………………………………………………….…….39
Relationship between Social Needs and Choice Difficulty………………….……….41

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Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Social Needs and
Choice Difficulty….……….…………………………………………………….……...43
Relationship between Experiential Needs and Choice Confidence.………………....44
Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Experiential Needs
and Choice Confidence…………………………………………………………….……45
Research Model………………………………………………………………………….46
Chapter Four: Methodology…………………………………………………….……………….49
Questionnaire Development………………….………………………………………….49
Demographics (Section 1) ……………………………….………………………49
Scaling of Income Level………………………………………………………….49
Independent Variables - Functional Needs, Social Needs and Experiential
Needs (Section 2) …………………………....…………………………….….50
Dependent Variables – Choice Freedom, Choice Difficulty and Choice
Confidence…………………………………………………………………………….51
Research Design………………………………………………………………………….52
Justification of Approach……………………………………………………...…………53
Operationalization………………………………………………………………….…….54
Chapter Five: Results and Discussion……………………………………………………………56
Sample Size and Power…………………………………………………………...……...58
Normality Test…………………………………………………………...………………59
Hypothesis 1(a) Route-one Result……………………………………………………….60
Hypothesis 1(a) Route-two Result……………………………………………………….62
Hypothesis 1(b) Result……………………………...……………………………………62

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Hypothesis 2(a) Route-one Result…………………………………………………...…...63
Hypothesis 2(a) Route-two Result…………………………………………………...…...64
Hypothesis 2(b) Result………………………………………………………...…...…….65
Hypothesis 3(a) Route-one Result…………………………….………………………….66
Hypothesis 3(a) Route-two Result…………………………………………………...…...67
Hypothesis 3(b) Result…………………………………………...………………………67
Demographic Component Analysis Result……………………………………………….69
Discussion………………………………………………………...…...…………………72
Theoretical Contributions ……………………………………………………………….73
Managerial Implications………………………………………………………………….74
Chapter Six: Conclusion and Limitations & Future Research……...…………………………….77
Conclusion…………………………………….................................................................77
Limitations & Future Research……………….………………………………………….78
References…………………………………………………………………………………….….80
APPENDIX: Likert scales………...………………………………...……………………………95

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List of Tables
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Data Collected………….……………………………...…56
Table 2: Means – Standard Deviations of Data Collected………………….………….…....57
Table 3: Normality Test of the Collected Data…….………………………………………...59
Table 4: Normality Test of the Collected Data after Log Transformation……….………....60
Table 5: Statistical Relationship between Functional Need and Choice Freedom…….……60
Table 6: Moderating Effect of Income Level on the Relationship between Functional Need
and Choice Freedom……………….………………………………………………………....62
Table 7: Statistical Relationship between Social Need and Choice Difficulty….……...…..63
Table 8: Moderating Effect of Income Level on the Relationship between Social Need and
Choice Difficulty……………………………………………………………………….….….65
Table 9: Statistical Relationship between Social Need and Choice Difficulty…….….…….66
Table 10: Moderating Effect of Income Level on the Relationship between Experiential
Need and Choice Confidence…………….……………………………….…………….….…67
Table 11: Impact of Demographic Variables ……………………………….……….…….…….69

List of Figures
Figure 1: Research Model……………………………………………………………………….48

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Acknowledgement
Firstly, I am thankful to almighty Allah. Secondly, to my caring and supportive parents Mr. &
Mrs. Matin and my loving husband Mr. Momen, their encouragement and support has pushed me
to succeed and to make them proud.
I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to my research supervisor Dr. Wootae
Chun, Marketing, School of Business, UNBC, for his priceless guidance, expertise, and
assistance in the completion of this study. Without his help this study would not have been
possible. Special thanks to my committee members Kafui Monu, Management Information
System (MIS), School of Business, UNBC and Pranesh Kumar, Statistics, School of
Mathematics and Statistics, UNBC for their excellent academic support, guidance and direction
and also thanks to the Masters of Business Administration Program, the University of Northern
British Columbia.

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Chapter One: Introduction
The most valuable asset for any business is consumers. Consumer is a person or set of people
who choose, buy, use or dispose of products or services to gratify their wants and cravings
(Shrivastava & Bisen, 2014). In other words, consumer is the one who obtains products or
services for direct usage or ownership rather than for resale or usage in further production or
manufacturing. Consumers are the ultimate target of any products or services (Shrivastava &
Bisen, 2014). Hence, it is necessary for manufacturers to expose the drivers that manipulate
consumers. The way in which consumers make decisions to consume products or services is
called consumer behavior. In other words, the procedures by which consumers select, lock, and
order products or services to fulfil wants and the effects that these procedures have on the
consumer and society is called consumer behavior (Shrivastava & Bisen, 2014). Consumer
behavior includes an inspection of the range of customers’ needs, attitudes, and motivation to
purchase (Borden, 1964) and there are several factors that are associated with consumers’
behavior, like – psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography,
marketing, economics etc. It (consumer behavior) mixes components from sociology, social
anthropology, psychology and economics (Shrivastava & Bisen, 2014). Thus, research into
consumer behavior is essential for a better understanding about purchase decision making
process in both ways - individually and in groups. Consumer behavior is involved with
characteristics of consumers, for example- consumers’ demographic information and consumers’
behavioral variables help to understand their needs (Shrivastava & Bisen, 2014). Buyers
behavior study is based on their purchasing behavior where buyers play the three distinct roles of
user, payer and buyer (Thapa, 2012). In the age of globalization, the number of international
trades is increasing, and so companies are more concerned about consumer behavior.

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Consumers’ decision-making process that occurs form unconscious awareness can influence
their consume behavior (Chartrand, 2005). Fulfilling fluctuating consumer needs by providing
the right products or services has been an ongoing marketing experiment for retailing in
competitive international markets (Kim et al., 2002). Besides, consumer or buyer behavior does
not only indicate the interaction between consumers and manufacturers at the purchase time but
also includes several phases in the consumption procedure: pre-purchase issue, purchase issues
and post purchase issues (Nguyen & Gizaw, 2014). Since the success of companies’ marketing
policies depends on managers’ understandings of consumer behavior, so it is important for them
to know the link between marketing strategy and consumer behavior. Consumer purchase
decisions highlight how well the company’s marketing strategy fits market demand. Therefore,
marketing starts and finishes with the consumers or buyers. Generally, consumers choose
particular products or services on the basis of two things- functional or performance benefits
of the products or services and consumers’ personality or consumers’ internal psychological
needs (Kim et al., 2002).
Functional or performance benefits of the products or services: Functional benefits are
product or service features which provides functional utility to consumers. It relates to the
physical functioning of the products in terms of the capability of the product to implement its
functional, utilitarian or physical purposes (Donoghue et al., 2008). Whenever consumers buy
something they think about the features of the products or services and at that point they
(consumers) think about that what differentiate the product for which they should select a
product over the others.
Consumers’ personality (inner psychological needs, such as the need for change or
newness): A person's personality represents his/her uniqueness. Personality is the thing which is

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associated with who they are to others. That come to them by the way of heredity or personal
experiences or lifestyle. Personality demonstrates the inner psychological characters that reveal
how a person responds to his environment. It shows the distinct choices for several products and
brands. Consumers’ buying decision gets influenced by their personal choices. They choose such
brands or products whose features are similar with their own personal characteristics (Govers &
Schoormans, 2005).
Consumers’ product choice or preference for a particular product is generally affected
by consumers’ types of choices. Consequently, consumers’ needs which reflect their wants
or desires should imitate their choices through purchase and consumption decisions, and
therefore consumption behavior.
Consumer needs get fulfilled significantly with the socio-economic and cultural
differences among consumer markets (Kim et al., 2002). According to the differences’,
consumers preserve a list of acceptable and extreme unacceptable features of product in
their mind while buying product (Gurhan-Canli 2003; Kardes & Allen 1991). According to
Yau (1994), many extreme social influences affects consumers’ product choice or
preference for a particular product or brand. So, consumers’ types of needs affect
consumption decisions or consumption behavior in terms of their choices. But it is also
noticeable that over time consumers’ preferences change for certain products or brands
because of the change in their consumption situation and environment (Yau, 1994).
From the middle of 19th century, fashion has been described visually and verbally
through various media for many reasons, like- marketing, advertising, art, costume history,
social research and cultural dissemination (Mora & Pedroni, 2017). Though it (fashion) has
been denoted as a significant part of material culture in contemporary business metropolitan

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societies and in postcolonial and non-western contexts, now a days a change in this picture
is noticeable since social issues, environmental and cultural sustainability is controlling
many areas of human activity (Mora & Pedroni, 2017). The industry is related to variations,
newness, and the context of period, place, and weather. Fashion works as a procedure of
“collective selection” where the creation of taste originates from a group of people
responding together to the zeitgeist or “spirit of the times” (Blumer, 1969). Fashion impetus
comes from several sources, like the concurrent overview and exhibition of many innovative
styles, the selections by the modern consumer and the concept of “spirit of the times”.
Currently, the most significant challenge that fashion retailers face is engaging with
consumers. Consumers’ personal views of likes and dislikes influence their thoughts (Cho &
Workman, 2014), therefore, positive attitudes have a habit of triggering positive intentions
(Engel et al., 2005). The framework chosen for this study is apparel fashion as volume of
sales of this arena is large because of the frequent offered design innovations. From a
consumer psychology perspective, this study highlighted the types of consumers’ needs and
choices since fashion is psychologically essential to them in their self-confidence and
fulfills primary needs; besides, fashion facilitates social presence and avoidance of bullying.
The study contributed to identify the proofs which provide enough evidences to build a
certain theory regarding Bangladeshi consumers’ purchase behavior according to their
different needs and choices. It is essential for international marketers to recognise types of
consumer needs in targeted international consumer markets and to know how these needs
affect purchase behaviors. Classifying types of needs in certain global consumer markets
can benefit in developing effectual marketing strategies attractive to the specific needs of
those markets. Fulfilling consumers’ needs through consumption of goods and services is

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considered as a portion of attitudinal variables measured as actions, interests, and views
(Homer & Kahle, 1988), and needs can be a predecessor of attitudes and purchase behavior
to create a hierarchical connection of consumer types of choices and consumers’ types of
needs. The purposes of this study are:
¡ To examine the relationship between consumers’ types of needs and consumers’
choices when they make a decision to purchase apparel products or brands in
Bangladesh.
¡ To examine how consumer behavior changes in terms of making choices when they
also want to fulfill their needs for apparel products or brands in Bangladesh.
This study hypothesized a conceptual outline addressing the relationship between
consumer types of needs and consumers’ choices. Firstly, underlying dimensions of
consumers’ needs are identified and categorized into experiential needs, social needs and
functional needs. Secondly, consumer choices are identified into confidence, difficulty, and
freedom. Then, it has the intention to examine the relationship between consumer needs to
be met through apparel, and apparel purchase choices of consumers in Bangladesh. Then, it
has identified two moderators of these relationship which are- low-income level and highincome level, to identify how income level of the society moderates the relationships of
consumer needs and choice behavior for apparel market. Finally, findings are discussed of
this market as it may be reflecting in the impacts of consumer purchase behavior through
their choices. The relationship between the hypotheses and the findings are discussed for
this consumer market. It also explored the inferences of consumer choices for developing
successful choices based on product image.

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This study presented a brief review of associated literature of the needs’ and choices’
constructs, a summary of the research methodology, a discussion of findings, statements on the
limitations of the paper, possible future research and managerial implications of the findings.

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Chapter Two: Literature Review
Apparel industry is involved in manufacturing apparel products and accessories and it
plays a very important role in the global economy as it produces what people wear in their daily
life according to their needs and buying capability (Guo, Wong, Leung & Li, 2011). The apparel
industry has become interesting to researchers and practitioners because of growing complexity
in consumers’ behaviors. The competitive environment of this industry has become more and
more intimidating (Kilduff, 2000) because of consumers’ different needs, their complex buying
behavior globalisation process. In this industry competition is ferocious, especially within the
retail environment (Newman & Cullen, 2002).
To date there has been no research done that highlights the specific drivers of consumers’
buying behavior through their choices according to their needs and also the moderators of such
behaviors. Owing to the lack of preliminary research and an existing framework for the study of
this particular research issue literature reviewed in preparation for this study included associated
existing literature from journal articles, newspapers, books, websites and various organizations’
corporate annual reports. In this section of the research, all the constructs are discussed with the
theoretical concepts and the association of those with the research questions. These literary
resources were chosen for its relevance and importance in providing a concrete theoretical
framework for assessing consumers’ types of needs and their choices as well as evaluating the
moderators’ impacts on the identified relationships of the apparel industry of Bangladesh.
In the past two decades emerging markets have become the focus of continued research.
Many apparel industries are looking to the world’s emerging economies in their apparel industry
investment strategies to seek optimal returns. Though the apparel industry of Bangladesh is well
established but it does not have any established concept of its own consumers' buying behavior

16

according to their needs that can help the industry to be more successful and stronger and can be
helpful to be more appealing to the investors of this industry. In 1980 a World Bank economist
referred to emerging market as the market activity in the countries that are in the phase between
developing and developed status (Ganster, 2007). In spite of being in the common usage of the
term Emerging Market, there is no general statement either the theoretical or the operational
explanation of what establishes an emerging market (Kearney, 2012). Now a days many
consumers of Bangladesh apparel industry like foreign branded clothes rather than their own
clothes. So, in that sense, it can be considered as an emerging market. Rather than that the
research paper can contribute for other emerging market like- China, India, Vietnam etc.

Apparel Industry
Universally the industrial area has been the handler of progress as nations have
progressed from low to middle-income status. Industrial growth is an important mechanism for
any economy. Bangladesh has attained rapid economic growth through apparel industry and
made steady gains in terms of social progress, but major challenges remain to eliminate poverty
and unlock the country’s development potential.
At the time of the post-independence period, industrial growth of Bangladesh has been
focused by numerous industrial guidelines- industrial plan of 1973, the new industrial plan of
1982, the modified industrial plan of 1986, industrial plan of 1999 trailed by a number of other
strategies, with the latest industrial plan of 2010 (Yunus & Tatsufumi, 2012). All these
guidelines have tried to enrich the industry and to generate a durable business base in the
economy. As a result, according to the latest Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data
(FY2017-2018), the involvement of the industrial sector to GDP is 11.99 percent, which was

17

noted 10.22 percent in FY2016-2017. The BBS verified the growth rate of the industrial sector at
3.10 percent in FY2017-2018. There are top five industries which contributed to sectoral growth
and the first of those is exporting ready-made garment (RMG) and the other four industries
belong to import- substituting category: pharmaceuticals, bidi (kind of tobacco), publication and
printing and re-rolling mills. Over the last two decades there has been important shift from
resource-based to process-based exports and, from a major requirement of primary supplies to
mass-produced ones within the export bin. Many researchers and academics stated that two-sided
quota system enforced by developed apparel countries and little salaries in Bangladesh have
attributed a remarkable growth in ready-made garment exports (Siddiqi, 2004; Razzaque, 2005;
& World Bank, 2005). Studies have also initiated that technological developments are a vital
element in explaining the export enactment of businesses in developing countries (Kumar &
Siddharthan, 1997).
Since in Bangladesh the garment industry is an essential business sector, companies of
this industry must be able to apply sustainable business strategies to maintain the growth of this
sector (Islam & Liang, 2012). Consequently, Bangladesh has changed the export bin from jutecentric export arrangement to ready-made garment-centric one, as a result, the degree of
attentiveness in exports has grown up expressively in the 1990s (Yunus & Tatsufumi, 2012). In
the late 1970’s, the readymade garment (RMG) sector started as an insignificant non-traditional
sector with narrow export base, but by the year 1983 it appeared as an auspicious export earning
sector of the country and within a short period this sector has achieved high significance for its
huge contribution to GDP (Islam & Liang, 2012).
Bangladesh garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is the zenith of
4637 apparel- manufacturing companies of Bangladesh; the association works as a safeguard to

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protect the highest interest of RMG sector of this country (BGMEA, 2017) and it (BGMEA) also
controls trade negotiation in international market, concerned UN agencies like- ILO, UNCTAD
global trade bodied like- WTO etc. (Islam & Liang, 2012). Through this association (BGMEA)
Bangladesh managed Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) and Generalized System of preference
(GSP) which assisted the quick development and enlargement of the industry and the country got
benefit from MFA and GSP facilities to come into the US, Canada and EU market magnificently.
At the beginning of the 2005 after the end of the MFA, and the conversion of the New World
Trade regime it was a distress that the industry may suffer as it would lose business to countries
like China and India but luckily, so far this forecast for the country has been proven erroneous; in
fact, the industry has sustained with a healthy rate (Morshed, 2007). In 1978, Bangladesh was
able to generate export earnings of barely one million dollars as it had only 9 export-oriented
garment manufacturing units and few of those units were very tiny and used to produce garments
for both domestic and export markets (Yunus & Tatsufumi, 2012). Reaz garments was one of
those units which was established in 1960 and started as a small tailoring outfit, named after
Reaz store in Dhaka. It operated in the local markets for 15 years and in 1973, it transformed its
name to M/s Reaz Garments Limited (Yunus & Yamagata, 2012) and in 1978, by the shipment
of 10,000 pieces of Bangladesh made garments (men’s shirts) which value was 13 million
Frances to a Paris-based firm it has started a new height in Bangladesh export industry
(Acknowledgement Garments in Bangladesh, 2012).
As a developing country, Bangladesh has a well-established garment industry where local
demand of apparel products is growing at a rate of more than 10% (Bangladesh Bank, 2016).
There is a major market for apparel products in the developing countries, like- Bangladesh, but
there is no such research on exploring desirable fashion needs and choices of the consumers of

19

this market. Therefore, it is important to identify its own consumers’ apparel needs and buying
behavior to address the appropriate managing strategies for the managers, so that, it (the
industry) can manage its local market suitably and can fulfill the consumers apparel needs
properly with its own apparel products which will also help to reduce the import section of this
sector. And research on Bangladesh garment industry is the key source for economic progress of
the country, hence, it demands inspections and valuations of multidimensional part of apparel
sector and its impact on the economic condition of this country. Another imperative reason
behind this research is that- one of the most important components for the fashion industry is
new product development (NPD) and investments in design can lead to the growth of completely
new trends or can change a surviving trend in such a way that can propose latest aspects in the
industry (Chowdhury, 2019). Hence, to have effective new product development (NPD)
strategies and lucrative investment in design, it’s essential to recognise consumers’ needs and
choices.

Consumer Needs
Identifying other people’s preferences and approaches is a fundamental requirement for
effective social communication (Funder, 2003). Thus, it is not astonishing that researches in
social psychology have dedicated great efforts to identify the accuracy of interactive perception
in both personal (e.g., spousal relationships) and professional (e.g., personnel selection,
performance appraisal) perspectives (Fiske, 1993). Though precise individual view does not
establish a conclusion for itself, but it helps to attain exact perspective communication
objectives, like – forming and stabilizing relationships (Swann, 1984). In marketing, precise
documentation of other people’s preferences is also fundamental (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990).

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Implementing marketing concept for frontline employees is very essential in many companies
because of their direct consumer communication (Gwinner., 2005; Liao & Chuang, 2004).
Furthermore, for substantial heterogeneity of consumer needs, it has become progressively
important to effectively disclose the needs of each consumer (Van Dolen, 2002). Hence, to
develop a high degree of customer need knowledge for their companies and implement the
marketing concepts properly, companies should know the precise perceptions of individual
consumer needs (Goff, 1997; Homburg et al., 2009).
Now a days consumers are no longer agreeing for a “one-size-fits-all” deal experience.
Consumers now have the authority to expect more from their facility suppliers because of a
dwindling economy, enhanced technology, and growths in rivalry. Modest products and services
are no longer satisfactory to consumers because of their expectations that have lifted to the
aspiration for individualized customization (Wilder et al., 2014). Nevertheless, many researches
have revealed that to get the benefits of long-term relationships and in some cases even
consumer satisfaction, the enclosure of consumer information and preferences into the
manufacture of a service can be very important and useful (Day & Montgomery, 1999).
Companies must need to construct great customer experiences to appeal, preserve, and satisfy
consumers (Stewart & O'Connell, 2017). According to Peter Drucker, the purpose of business is
to build a consumer (Drucker,1995). Though the idea seems very simple, it is a hard job to do.
To make the job easy, companies need to know how they can build right consumers whose
needs, wants and prospects are in appropriate manner with what the companies can provide and
will do repetitively, unfailingly and preferably. And the companies also need to know how to
keep the consumers that they build, rotating a contract or even a series of them into a relationship
that the companies’ value, and from which they can pull profits for a long time (Stewart &

21

O'Connell, 2017). Marketing practice needs a profound understanding of consumer needs which
helps to segment the market, classify strategic proportions for differentiation, and create wellorganized channel management decisions (Timoshenko & Hauser, 2019). It is also particularly
significant for product development (Kano, 1984; Mikulic & Prebe ´ zac, 2011). For example,
the breakthrough of Kao Group’s (Japan) laundry detergent “Attack”. Before Kao’s revolution,
Procter & Gamble competed to fulfill the primary consumer needs of outstanding cleaning, ready
to wear after washing, price according to quantity and quality, ease of use, good smell, blameless
for the environment and personal satisfaction. Several new products established to enter on these
recognized primary consumer needs. Therefore, it is always important to fold perceptions about
consumers’ needs into achieving and tracking suitable inventions in companies’ operations, and
it can also help to know that how the innovation affects companies’ outcomes, is drawn. The
approaches and guidance of knowing consumers’ needs apply to companies of every kind
(Bayus, 2008). The literature on consumer needs and wants is meagre (Roberts, 2015; Sheth,
1982) and clear descriptions are tough to come by (Fennell, 1978). Hence, consumer needs are
described as a lack of something that generates a dynamic force to fulfill it (Senyszyn, 1995).
This kind of short specificity is a discrete characteristic of consumer needs (Arndt, 1978). And
it’s a very critical job for a market-oriented philosophy to understand and satisfying consumers’
latent needs (Slater & Narver, 1998). To identify consumers’ needs for marketing tactic and
product development or expansion companies usually trust interview and focus groups technique
(Timoshenko & Hauser, 2019). In a company marketing concept and its philosophies are
important issues to meet consumers’ needs with their satisfaction and so a company should keep
trying to satisfy its consumers (Kehinde et al., 2016). Specifying the current needs of consumers
for a guarantee of safety does not specify the irrelevance of a great deal of the information. Good

22

quality information is a necessary prerequisite for an active partnership between supplier and
consumer (Salaün & Flores, 2001). Joint manufacture of quality information can boost mutual
understanding and can give clues to the growth of trust and consumer loyalty (Salaün & Flores,
2001).
Any product or service needs to be analyzed in terms of its utility to consumers and its
capability to meet their needs (Shendo & Shendo, 2016). Consumers obtain and show physical
possessions to feel distinguished from other people and so they are pointed with a diversity of
marketing stimuli that effort to enhance self-perceptions of uniqueness. Hence, researchers
fostered and validated a trait measure of consumers’ need for uniqueness as the pursuit of
distinguishing (or counter-conformity motivation) differs across individuals to influence
consumer responses (Tian et al., 2001).
The ultimate goal of marketers is meeting consumers’ needs. Consumer products are
usually promoted to attract three basic types of consumers’ needs, and those are- functional,
social and experiential needs, (Park, 1986; Keller, 1993; Kim et al., 2002).

Functional Needs
Functional need is the most basic need that companies can market. Functional
features of a product gratify consumers’ needs to constrain or resolve problems (Kim et al.,
2002). Functional needs provoke consumers to search for products that resolve problems which
are related to consumption (Fennell, 1978). Therefore, if companies get to know the way of
maximizing current and potential consumers’ functional needs, they can definitely increase their
sale. A new report from Bain & Company named The Elements of Value was printed in
September 2016, issue of Harvard Business Review which reported 30 general building blocks or
23

elements of value and revealed that the basic features of any product or service address four
types of consumer needs: functional, emotional, life changing, and social impact (Marketwired,
2016). Functional needs are connected to precise and useful consumption problem, so, a
brand’s concept can be functional, and therefore concentrating into consumers’ functional
needs is very important (Park et al., 1986). Hence, consumers’ functional or utilitarian needs
can be subjugated with a ‘functional brand concept’ (Bhat & Reddy, 1998). For example, in a
study it was found that to meet consumers’ functional needs they (Consumers) show brand
preference for Toyota Corolla based on their positive assessment of the functional aspects of
the brands, such as- safety and reliability (Allen, 2001) According to the rational school or
the “economic man” model consumers are sensible and they try to make the most of total
utility (Bhat & Reddy, 1998). They ensure that (maximum utility) by purchasing products
based on objective criteria, like- price per ounce or gallons per mile (Schiffman & Kanuk,
1994).

Social Needs
The most important basic human needs are social needs (Ten et al., 2018). According to
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs they come right after physical needs and safety (Maslow,
1970). Those are gratified by social images, like- social approval, affiliation or personal
expression (status, prestige) and outward directed self-esteem (Kim et al., 2002). Consumers who
hold higher level social needs may value a socially noticeable product or brand which affords
respect and exclusiveness (Solomon, 1983; keller 1993). From product’s functionality consumers
originate functional utility and from comparison with a reference group they originate social
utility (Amaldoss & Jain 2005a, 2008, 2010; Sun et al., 2013). Social needs are often fulfilled not

24

only through contacting with other people but also through consuming consumer products, such
as- consumers may buy products or services to attain love, attention and emotional pleasure
(Mourey et al., 2011).
Mental and physical health problems may arise when social needs are unsatisfied, so,
satisfying social needs is very important for people to stay healthy and community-dwelling (Ten
et al., 2018). Fulfilled social needs defend against diseases and depression as well as have a
positive influence on self-esteem and life fulfilment (Miura & Agari, 2006). Social needs change
with age as well as social relations (Ten et al., 2018). Since consumers are vulnerable to social
pressure and anxious about their image in the society at large thus social psychological attributes
are considered as most crucial stimulus (Wang, 2017). Therefore, knowing consumers’ social
needs is very important for managers to attract the target market effectively. Status is one of the
most powerful elements of consumers’ social needs. To gain status among peers or society
purchasing and using any product is called status consumption (Teah et al., 2015). The prime
influences of humans’ decision-making lie in the changes of social roles (Antonucci, 2001).

Experiential Needs
Experiential needs reveal consumers’ needs for uniqueness, diversity, and sensual
satisfaction or pleasure (Park, 1986). They have been documented as a significant aspect in
consumption and exclusively arouse new demand of consumer products (Kim et al., 2002). A
number of studies has found a strong constructive association between fashion leadership
and experiential needs in which it was mentioned that fashion leaders want change,
variation, venturesome and new practises (Schrank, 1973; Summers & King, 1969;
Workman & Johnson, 1993; Kim et al., 2002). Since, fashion arouses continuous demand for

25

new apparel products by satisfying individuals’ need to experience change and variety
(O’Shaughnessy, 1987), fashion leaders struggle to satisfy consumers’ experiential needs
(Kaiser, 1990; McCracken, 1986; O’Shaughnessy, 1987). Thus, it is noticeable that fashion
leadership might be observed as a replacement for experiential needs as they seem to signify
the same concept essentially (Kim et al., 2002). Unraveling the consumers’ experiential
needs can assist the fashion leaders as experiential approach is the subsequent rational stage
in consumer demands beyond commodities, products or services (Srinivasan & Srivastava,
2010). Often consumers select apparel products on the basis of their interest in their own
personal fashion needs rather than needs of others involved in the clothing supply chain or
paying attention to ethical issues (Vehmas & Mensonen, 2018). However, consumers select
products according to their needs, for example- one may wear a luxury watch to heighten his/her
social acceptance, another may wear that for his/her self-actualization, yet another can wear that
because of a fashion of chronology (Srinivasan & Srivastava, 2010). Therefore, it is very
important to identify the relationship between experiential needs and consumers’ purchase
behavior according to their choices regarding apparel product.

Consumer Choices
Understanding how and why consumers make the choices they do is essential for
mangers to establish a successful business. Choice is a thinking procedure in which people
evaluate the qualities of multiple possibilities and then prefer or select one of them on which to
perform, for example- people make dozens of choices daily- what to eat, what to wear, which
patient to assess first, which beeping or buzzing piece of technology to troubleshoot first
(Carroll, 2008). Some choices are simple and straightforward on the other hand some are much

26

more complex (Carroll, 2008). Whether a person is choosing and want to do something or not is
a universal state of action in all civilisations as choosing demonstrates itself in several ways,
like- supporting an outcome by rejecting others, expressing through active responses (e.g.
Selecting and purchasing products or services to use) or through passive responses (e. g. deciding
to support a preservation rather than a sorting position in argument over wood chipping)
(Louviere et al., 2000). Consumers’ psychology was related to consumer choice theory early
in the neoclassical revolution, then strictly got detached during the ordinal and revealed
preference revolutions and now it is possibly back again and is associated with latest
developments in experimental, behavioral and neuro-economics (Hands, 2009). Individuals
choose anything on the basis of their custom, inertia, knowledge, publicity, peer pressures,
environmental constraints, stored belief or judgement, house- hold and family constraints etc.
and these set of stimuluses reflects one’s temporal nature of choice outcomes segments within
the constraint set, such as- income levels of house- holds (Louviere et al., 2000). Consumers
first become aware of their needs which is tracked by a period of information search in
which they learn about products that can placate their needs and at the time of search and
learning consumers capture beliefs about which products are able to accomplish their
objectives, products’ features relevant to their choices and features’ values offered by the
products as well as associated uncertainties (Louviere et al., 2000). Finally, consumers pick
one or more options in certain amounts and with specific purchase timings (Louviere et al.,
2000). There are several types of choices associated with consumers’ behavior but the most
associated types of consumers’ choices in the context of Bangladeshi apparel industry arechoice confidence, choice difficulty and choice freedom.

27

Choice Freedom
Freedom of choice is related to the obtainability of alternatives (Catania, 1975; Monroe et
al., 2014; Banja, 2015) and to the consumers’ functional needs. More choice freedom and
flexibility are better for consumers and this concept has been built from the faith that the
obtainability of more choices and information help consumers since it upsurges the prospects of
every individual finding products or services that better match their own preferences to perceive
highest utility (Rogge, 2017) and because of it (obtainability of more choices and information)
consumers have more opportunities to keep alternatives open for changes of their tastes and
preferences (Kahneman & Snell, 1992; Rogge, 2017) and arouses a feeling in consumers that
they are more in control in their lives (Ryan & Deci, 2000, Rogge, 2017). Many researchers
explored how choice freedom associates to the excellence of the choices which is made by
consumers and amount money that they willing to spent in that choice making decision and
found that choice task becomes more complex because of a lot of choice alternatives or
information or a combination of both (Bettman et al., 1998). For example- travelers works
around to catch the most satisfactory tickets and therefore they search several websites of airlines
and collect information to get the best deals (Botti & Hsee, 2010). Higher choice-related costs
and possibly lower quality choice outcomes as more choice freedom becomes a bind to the
majority of consumers (Rogge, 2017). Consumers have the tendency to underestimate the
temporal cost of their decision or choice and therefore they insist on exercising their choice
freedom even if it may lead them to poor outcomes (Botti & Hsee, 2010).

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Choice Difficulty
Decision-making task happen faster on easy vs. difficult judgements in a decision-related
brain region (Rolls et al., 2010). Consumers prefer to choose from bulky item or product sets as
they like diversity, but bulky items or products set may arise a phenomenon called ‘choice
difficulty’- it is very difficult to choose from bulky items set and consequently decision makers
are dissatisfied with their choice (Willemsen et al., 2016). Many researches on consumer and
social psychology has shown that offering bulky attractive items have major disadvantages
particularly when consumers do not hold strong preferences and as a result of that choice
difficulty arises (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000; Scheibehenne et al., 2010; Chernev, 2003). These
literatures suggest that the available variety of items or products is an essential factor of choice
difficulty and consumer satisfaction (Willemsen et al., 2016; Bollen, 2010). Choice difficulty
depends on how the options are mentally represented for consumers, but some choices are
naturally difficult as the notion of choice is a fundamental aspect of most consumers purchase
situation (Cho et al., 2013). Although consumers select many products on the basis of their needs
or desires, many consumers choice apparel products for them on the basis of their social needs.
Choice difficulty can be compressed by decision context characteristic, like- the emotionality of
the condition and the ambiguity of both product information and product preferences (Coupey et
al., 1998; Broniarczyk & Griffin, 2014). For example- it is easy to decide when purchasing
breakfast than to decide when and how to pay student loans (Kristof, 2009; Cheng, 2018). Many
researches have mentioned choice difficulty as a personal feeling (Hanselmann & Tanner, 2008;
Cheng, 2018).

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Choice Confidence
Choice confidence can be seen to arise from the dynamics of noisy accumulators, leading
to double belongings of difference in value and response time on confidence (De Martino, 2013).
In most cognitive theories, it is assumed that confidence and choice may occur equally on the
basis of same information (Yu et al., 2015). Confidence judgement may arise from a postdecisional evidence accumulation procedure (Yu et al., 2015). Post-decisional evidence
accumulation procedure is where consumers make a list of advantages and disadvantages of the
decision of buying any product. To regulate consumers thinking process and decision-making
process at the time of purchasing, choice confidence works as a strategic role (Andrews, 2016)
and it reflects the degree to which consumers note their choice judgement to be accurate
(Heitmann et al., 2007; Petrocelli & Rucker, 2007) and trusts that they are in controller of choice
situation (Nataraajan & Angur, 1998). Consumers who are confident enough about their choice
decision show intense will to pay (Thomas & Menon, 2007), stronger choice obligation
(Clarkson et al., 2008), greater obtaining intention (Laroche & Kim, 2003), quickness in
purchase (Greenleaf & Lehmann, 1995) and greater gratification (Heitmann et al., 2007). Briefly
it can be said that consumers who have confidence in their choice decision is prospective
superior consumers (Andrews, 2016). It is essential to inspect the stimuluses connected to sales
promotions which are expected to be employed to understand the influence of product
information in retail perspective (Andrews, 2016). It is not surprising that some businesses have
made consumers’ choice confidence as their priority since it (choice confidence) is significant,
for example- Cars.com launched the ‘Bring out Your Confident You’ advertising campaign in
2012 that perceived a big amount of confidence by increasing information on its company's Web
site (Andrews, 2013).

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Income Levels
Consumers’ social status is the position that consumers hold in a society or a group, in
other words, classification of a society or a group in terms of their social and economic status.
It’s a comparative rank in a social hierarchy based on honor and prestige that consumers hold
with appeared rights, duties and lifestyle (John & Shaan, 2015). It categorizes people of a society
according to their holding of more or less income level and it reflects through their lifestyles.
Since social classes are divided according to consumers’ social and monetary resources (Kraus et
al., 2010), so, it can be measured by pointers of material wealth, such as-individual’s educational
achievement (Snibbe & Markus, 2005), income (Kraus & Keltner, 2009), occupational prestige
(Oakes & Rossi, 2003) etc. Consumers’ social class is determined by their economic position and
their status is determined by their prestige (Weber & Max, 1921/2015). Thus, consumers’ social
class actually reflects consumers’ social status through their lifestyles as lifestyle depends on
their income level. It shapes how consumers perceive and respond to maintain their social status.
The holding social status of consumers is an influential motive that can drive much of
consumers’ behavior. Bangladesh is a country where social classes are basically divided into
three sections on the basis of their income levels and lifestyle, those are- higher income level
people, middle income level people and lower income level people.
In Bangladesh, the lower income level people are classified by poverty, homelessness and
unemployment. Few of this class people have finished high school. They always lack adequate
food and housing, medical care, decent clothing, safety and vocational training. The media often
denounce the lower-class as ‘the underclass’.
They are also those people who are minimally educated and engage in ‘manual labor’
where they have little or no prestige. They are usually underpaid and have no opportunity for

31

career advancement. Their jobs are typically more physical exhausting and, in some cases, quite
dangerous. There are two types of lower income level working-class people, they are- skilled and
unskilled workers.
The middle-income level people are the ‘Sandwich’ class. The skilled workers have more
money than them (middle-income level people) though they (middle-income level people) are
above in the ‘social ladder’. Middle income level people have minimal wealth, education and
prestige, such as- managers, teachers, highly educated business owners, doctors, lawyers,
stockbrokers and CEOs.
Comparatively only 1-3% of the population, the upper-class people hold more than 25%
of the nation’s wealth. They make money from investments, business ventures and so forth. Few
of them are aristocratic and ‘high society’ families with ‘old money’, they have been rich for
generations. The higher income level society is the highest prestigious class of the society. They
are exceptionally rich; thus, they have more money than they could possibly spend. Therefore,
they have much money for nurturing a variety of interests. They live in exclusive neighborhoods,
get together at luxurious social clubs and send their children to the finest schools of the country.
They also have access of a great deal of influence and power in both ways nationally as well as
globally.
People of different income levels in society do different things, engage in different
activities and follow different aptitudes. Class in terms of income levels system is achieved not
ascribed. Income level is almost universal phenomenon with which class is associated. A social
class is a group of people who is relatively a stable group. It is distinguished from each other by
its accustomed modes of behavior.

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The social class concept is a bit blurred as it creates a certain way of elucidating
economic inequalities and also works as an impelling factor economic inequality (Anthias,
2001). As ‘classed’, researchers describe values, statements activities and performances without
depending on concepts of collectivity, solidary organization, bitterness or certain relational
conflict with other social groups- class is defined as pressuring on as individual rather than a
collective level (Bottero & Irwin, 2003; Devine et al., 2000). In the procedure of individuating
class has a risk that systematic modes of social diversity may lose its importance, as individual
reactions, values and behaviors become a crucial part of concern (Anthias, 2013).
Social-class is a stratification system that positions people by their variance access to
materials, social and cultural resources which shapes their needs in their way (Moya & Fiske,
2017). A person’s income level has a significant impact on his/her lifestyle and his or her ability
to receive facilities. While gender plays significant roles in explaining fashion industry in
Bangladesh, socioeconomic status is the greatest determinant of an individual’s needs for
apparel. Social factors that influence needs of apparel depend on economic and social conditions
of consumers that influence individual and group differences in apparel choice. Social
determinants work as risk factors in individual’s living and working conditions which includes
the distribution of income, wealth, influence and power. Therefore, these determinants can be
used to predict an individual’s types of needs for apparel and can also indicate how vulnerable an
individual is to make choice for apparel products. It is obvious that individuals of low-income
level people have lower level of overall lifestyle than that of higher social class. Apparel industry
of Bangladesh have traditionally not paid much attention to social class or SES as a determinant
of consumers’ apparel needs instead the focus has been on categories, such as – race, gender and

33

age. Thus, in this research it is very important to concentrate on the income level of consumers to
understand the type of individual’s need and choices for apparel.
Based on World Bank definition of high income, upper middle income, lower middle
income and low income, countries are often defined by their national income per capita levels
and within the world regions there are huge differences in terms of gross national income per
capita among the different countries (Zubizarreta et al., 2017). Income inequality of a nation
influences the needs and wants of the nation. Now a days socioeconomic status and income
inequality are acknowledged as an important factor of determining consumers’ needs and there is
growing interest in uncovering the intermediary psychological pathways through which the
socioeconomic context influences consumers’ needs.
In 2015, Bangladesh has joined in the group of lower-middle income countries and
currently has a per capita GDP of USD1827.00 (Bangladesh GDP, 1960-2019). It has also set up
an agenda to take place in the middle-income economy countries group by 2021, which would
demand an annual GDP growth rate of 7.5-8.0% for the residual period (Hasan & Mozumder,
2017). This kind of growth is a far from historical rates (approximately 6.3% since 2010) and it
will need huge improvements in the physical infrastructure of the country (World Bank, 2016).
On the basis of market, economy of Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economy of the
world. Recently, IMF has recognised Bangladesh’s economy as the second fastest growing major
economy with a rate of 7.1% (Tribune, 2014; Devnath, 2016). As the economy is increasing the
income level of the people of this country is also increasing and in Bangladesh, income level is
the actual determinant of social-class identification. The average income level of people is
12549.33 BDT/Month from 2013 until 2017 (Trading Economics, 2019).

34

Bangladesh’s economy got improved with the implementation of investment friendly
economic policies, budgetary discipline, privatization of public industries and liberalization of
trade. Over the years, household income, expenditure and consumption have been growing
slowly at a high annual rate (Hossain, 2011). Average household monthly consumption has risen
from USD 61 to USD 103.26 which is about 69% in only 30 years (Hossain, 2010a).

35

Chapter Three: Hypotheses Development
This study wants to examine the relationship between consumer needs and consumer
choices for two reasons. The first is the gap in the research described in the literature on
customer’s type of needs and purchase behavior. For example, Kim, Forsythe & Moon (2002)
analyzed the effect of types of needs on customer purchase amount behavior and brand loyal
behavior. Researchers conducted a study on psychological factors that influence consumer
behavior (Vainikka, 2015) and examined the relation between consumer based corporate
reputation (CBR) of fashion retailers and customer- perceived risks and two relation outcomestrust and commitment (Walsh et al., 2017) but none of the existing research has evaluated the
relationship among type of consumer needs (functional, social and experiential needs) and type
of consumer choices (Choice confidence, choice difficulty and choice freedom). Second, this
matter is important to retailers because it is exactly the level of effect that affects target
consumers’ purchase decisions and helps to sustain the apparel industry in the promotional
cycles. This study validates a measure for assessing choice confidence, choice difficulty and
choice freedom that is affected directly by consumers’ types of needs.
Though significant research has acknowledged several market sections, researchers have
frequently failed to narrate apparel market sections intended to report precise consumer
needs sections, besides, previous dissections have focused almost completely on US
consumers; hence, these dissections may have imperfect applicability to global markets.
Therefore, global clothing product marketers, especially- Asian marketers may apply their
promotion powers with the information regarding consumer needs and choices for apparel
products in Bangladesh market. Based on literature review, this study proposes the

36

following hypotheses for Bangladesh apparel market to inspect the relationships of
consumer needs and consumer choices- purchase behavior:

Relationship between Functional Needs and Choice Freedom
While buying clothes consumers preference criteria have long been acknowledged as a
compulsory issue to inspect for many consumer behavioral studies (Mannes, 2012;
Robinson & Doss, 2011). Among US consumers it was found that comfort, aesthetic,
personal choice, current fashion trends, cultural influences, age gender, body shape lifestyle
and personal fit preferences were essential criteria to choose cloths (Pisut & Jo Connell,
2007). A study on young Australian exposed that fabric quality, simple designs, trendy
styles, lower prices and matching accessories are important features to keep in mind while
buying apparel products (Jegethesan et al., 2012). In a study on young Vietnamese
consumers, found that fit, comfort, latest fashion, renowned and prestigious brand, quality
fabrics and materials are the most influential attributes to buy apparels (Lee & Nguyen,
2017). Chinese consumers prefer savings, sustainable materials and need for further
investment (Wei & Jung, 2017). In UK consumers’ cloths determining factors are fit, size,
price quality, colour, durability, originality, fabric, comfort and print type (Knight, 2012). In
a comparative study on US and Korean consumers, it was found that monetary value, more
cloths functionality, right fabric, appropriate for lifestyle are important for US consumers
Ko et al., 2009). On the other hand, brand image, compatible with needs, advantages, social
risk free, easy to explain the benefit of the apparel to other are more important for Korean
consumers (Ko et al., 2009). Consumers’ buying decision may get influenced by not only
physical apparel attributes- like- style, fabric, construction, color and general appearances

37

but also by performance attributes- like- care, fit, durability and comfort. From all these
studies on fashion attributes, it is noticeable that functional attributes, like- primary function
and comfortability, of apparel are very important to apparel consumers. Functional apparel
is a module of dress which establishes a warm environment by providing visible and nonverbal means of message (Thompson & Anyakoha, 2012). Consumers’ functional needs are
about if the product is fulfilling the basic necessities and if that (product) is comfortable for
them (consumers) (Kim et al., 2002) and marketers are very anxious about consumers’
perception of product features (Du Plessis & Rousseau, 2007). Consumers’ functional needs
can be the determinants for which consumers may prefer choice freedom behavior as more
available options of a given product can lower the consumer welfare (Sanchis et al., 2014)
but it can higher the consumer welfare as well, in terms of the relation between the size of
the choice range and choice time, since, consumers spend more time in choice making when
they have more available option, more information or both (Arunachalam et al., 2009; Botti
& Iyengar, 2006; Schwartz, 2004; Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Therefore, it’s very important
to know how consumers behave or how they make choice when they have several options
for fulfilling their functional needs while buying cloths and it is essential to know- do they
give priority to comfortability and functionality- like- fit, size, materials, print types,
durability of the cloths or they consider more about fashion, trend, personal choice,
monetary value etc. Bangladesh is a country with wide seasonal variations in rainfall, high
temperatures and humidity, so, lightweight cotton clothing is preferred by consumers
throughout the year, for dry winter, consumers prefer sweater and warmer clothing. For
distinct season’s consumers buy distinct cloths and Bangladesh has a lot of branded or nonbranded, cheap or expensive, imported or local functional clothing options. Thus, they have

38

more choice freedom and flexibility which may influence their buying decision enormously.
At this scenario, it is supposed that consumers who care about functional features of the
clothes do not desire to have choice freedom while buying clothes to select the best one.
Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis to examine the relationship between
functional need and choice of freedom:
H1(a). Functional needs are negatively associated with Consumers’ choice freedom
behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Functional Needs and
Choice Freedom
Since in terms of buying apparel products social classes are intensely associated with
consumers’ types of needs and their buying behavior, this study is going to examine the
influence of income level in consumers buying behavior for apparel products as well.
Bangladesh is an agricultural country where 90% of the population live in the rural arena
and is associated with different domains of agricultural production which contributes over
55% of the gross national product (Statistical Digest of Bangladesh, 1972). Most of the rural
people of Bangladesh are landless farm laborers or owners of trivial or very trivial pieces of
property for whom many forms of sharecropping continue to this day to hold the basic form of
land contract (Gankovsky, 1974). The number of working-class people in Bangladesh is about
600,000 of which plantation workers are about 100,000, transport workers are about 100,000 and
the largest group of the working-class people are the textile workers (Statistical Digest of
Bangladesh, 1972). A crucial role in the political life of Bangladesh is played by the
intelligentsia, who are about 300,000 and a large part (about 70%) of them work in state

39

institutions and private farms, as well as teach in the elementary schools, receiving miserly
wages (Gankovsky, 1974). Other than them craft workers, laborers in factories, restaurant
workers, nursing home stuff, repair shops and garages workers and delivery services workers are
also considered as working-class people. These people live in comparatively stable
neighbourhoods, urban or rural. Many of them do not even have any work, they are homeless or
nearly homeless and some shift from place to place and keep looking for any means to sustain
themselves financially. Some of them earn brief period of financial stability and some try hard to
get involved with honest work while some of them turns to crime, alcohol and drugs.
The contextual lower income level people are deprived of standard life. They grow up in
lower-class environment and have fewer resources available to them and consequently they have
stronger beliefs about the degree to which they can figure their own social outcomes (Kraus et
al., 2012). There is a good empirical support for this linkage, that- due to this reason they are
more concerned about functional need rather than social or experiential needs while buying
apparel products. Since they have low income-level and they live their lives on day to day basis,
so it is very important for to spend their money in a way which will give them long-term benefit.
By looking on the apparel buying trends of lower income level people, it is noticeable
that because of low income level and low life- standards, they are more concerned about
functional needs of clothes. Whenever they buy clothes they are more concerned about the
functions of the clothes rather than the fashion or trend as they struggle a lot with their
lives, so they are very conscious when they spend money on apparel products. And when
there are a lot of options available which means even if they (low income level people) have
choice freedom and flexibility, they cannot buy anything what they want due to their low-

40

income level. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis to examine the
relationship among lower-income level, functional needs and choice freedom:
H1(b). As income level decreases, the negative relationship between functional needs
and choice freedom increases in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Relationship between Social Needs and Choice Difficulty
Though the importance of apparel needs differs from country to country (Jin &
Bennur, 2015), there is an absence of research in this field on developing countries whereas
developed countries have been conducted a lot of studies on this. Consumers’ social needs
are involved with their social status and brand qualities (Kim et al., 2002). A study on
European consumers stated that consumers are not only concerned for style, fabric, quality,
price and trend but also concerned for store environment and social acceptance of the cloths
(Wang, 2010). Another study on Chinese and Taiwanese consumers stated that consumers
not only care for fit and comfort but also care for brand name and references from friends
while decide to buy a cloth. Indian consumers are more concerned about value, credibility
of the brand and reference by friends for buying apparel products (Prasad, 2012). Fashion
can represent a symbolic identity through its sign-value system, therefore, it is not only
characterized by the use and exchange value only but also by sign-value that represents
prestige, power, luxury etc. (Mostafa, 2019). Apparel consumption can also be represented
as the way to negotiate social-status or professional image (Al-Mutawa, 2016). So,
consumers buy apparel products not only because of functional needs but also because of
social needs as they not only care about what the clothes can do for them but also do what
the clothes say about them (Lang, 2006). In a study it was stated that “clothing draws the

41

body so that it can be culturally seen” (Silverman, 1986) so it can be claimed that apparel
consumption is simply the ‘systematic act of the manipulation of society’ (Morillo &
Pablos, 2016). Consumers like diversity and often prefer to make choices from vast options
but when there are a lot of options, those make the choice decision difficult which is known
as choice difficulty (Willemsen et al., 2016). Bangladesh is a country where people care
about society a lot; social acceptance is the first priority to many consumers while buying
products, like- 90% of the population of Bangladesh is Muslim. Muslim women maintain
their identity and their obedience to spiritual dress code, such as- hijab/head scarf (Galadari,
2012). Here is the difficulty - a woman has a lot of options for buying attractive clothes, as
mentioned before that Bangladesh has a lot of branded or non-branded, cheap or expensive,
imported or local, designer or designer clothe options which are very stylish and elegant.
But she cannot buy anything what she likes due to the threat of social acceptance. Such asshe likes a dress which is sleeveless, but she cannot buy that as being Muslim will not allow
her to buy that dress; her society may not accept that as there are other clothing options
available which are more suitable for her society or community. Another determinant of
social needs is social-status which basically represents the social-class of the consumers. In
such case, people do not care much about religion or culture or value rather they care much
about brand image, price, friends’ references and buy such products which will represent
their social-status perfectly. Consequently, consumers’ social needs are associated with
consumers’ choice difficulty since there are several brands available in the market (Gordon
& Bruner, 2009) and it becomes difficult for them to choose the suitable brand to fulfill
their social needs. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis to examine the
relationship between social needs and choice of difficulty:

42

H2(a). Social needs are positively associated with consumers’ choice difficulty behavior
in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Social Needs and
Choice Difficulty
In Bangladesh, people who are associated with logical and technical area, such asengineers, lawyers, university faculty, manager and directors of public and private
organizations are considered as middle-income level people. They have good incomes and
high social prestige but not nearly as much as the rich and they are well educated. So, it is
reflecting that their income level is low than the higher-class people. Other than them
people who are associated with clerical-administrative work, provide support for
professionals, engage in data collection, record keeping, bank tellers, sales, blue-collar
workers in skilled trades are also considered as middle-income level people. Defining
middle-income level people is more than just income, it is about lifestyles, resources etc.
Recently in Bangladesh, there has been a remarkable rise of the middle-income level
people because of huge economic prosperity. While it clearly has economic significances, it
has social one as well. With the improved country’s situations, the expectations of middleincome level people are growing and evolving. People of this group are no longer satisfied
with simple outmoded lifestyle they are increasingly concerned with their needs while
careful about their social culture and prestige, but they recognize their potential to bring
about social changes. They enjoy high moral and spirit, big expectations and rising sense of
a bright future. They follow the religion at their level best and care a lot about society, likewhat people will think about their attire, qualifications, behavior etc.

43

As, In Bangladesh, middle-income level people are more concerned about their
prestige and honor in the society so even if they have a lot of options and increased income
level, they cannot buy anything that they want which makes the situation of choice
difficulty for them. Thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis:
H2(b). As the income level decreases, the positive relationship between social needs and
choice difficulty decreases in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Relationship between Experiential Needs and Choice Confidence
It is said that, the notion of ‘need’ for consumers has been changed over a period of
time. Earlier consumers used to search needs to be fulfilled in products or services now
consumers seek needs in experiences which is named as ‘experiential needs’ (Frow &
Payne, 2007; Woodruffe-Burton & Wakenshaw, 2011; Lang & Hooker, 2013). In fashion
industry experiential needs are associated with consumers’ knowledge about fashion trends,
having aim to be the first one to try a new fashion, intention to be a fashion leader and
purchasing latest fashion (Kim et al., 2002). In a comprehensive research on young
consumers stated that style, appearances, enjoyment, to be in fashion work as vital factor of
buying clothes (Dutton, 2006). It has been investigated that apparel consumers make buying
decision either on the basis of experiential needs or hedonistic attributes, such as- trendy,
latest style; or on the basis of functional needs, such as- durability, comfort and quality
(Parker & Wang, 2016). In a study on Australian consumers it was found that appropriateness,
style, to be in fashion etc. are the preferable attribute to buy apparel products. Fashion is
basically connected with newness (Evans, 1989). Consumers who aim to be the first one to try a
new fashion often compere themselves with fashion leaders as self-concept has been discovered

44

with fashion leader and followers (Goldsmith et al., 1996) and this adapting attitude is often
considered as a unique manner to express their ‘self’ to others (Midgley & Wills, 1979). Since
consumers’ choice confidence reflects the extent to which they perceive their buying decision is
correct (Heitmann, 2007; Petrocelli, 2007) therefore it is rational to link it up with consumers’
experiential needs for apparel as to fulfill apparel experiential needs consumers show their
coolness and confidence on their choice. Consumers’ experiential needs are related to consumer’
choice confidence because it (choice confidence) not only helps consumers to make best
preferences but also fulfills consumers’ needs in the best way (Bearden & Netemeyer, 1999).
Though Bangladesh is a developing country, in fashion industry it has shown its astonishing
growth and so apparel consumers of Bangladesh are very demanding and confident enough to
carry new trends or fashion. A research has found that uniqueness, match with personality,
creative design and celebrity endorsement are the dominant factors for Bangladeshi apparel
consumers (Ahmed & Ahmed, 2013). Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis to
examine the relationship between experiential needs and choice confidence:
H3(a). Experiential needs are positively associated with consumers’ choice confidence
behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Moderating Impact of Income Level on the Relationship between Experiential Needs and
Choice Confidence
Demonstration of wealth through dress has become usual now a days and a person’s class
affiliation can be assessed with relative luxury, hence, apparel product is recognised as a
significant and powerful social dissimilarity (Medvedev, 2010). In Bangladesh, people who are
associated with institutional leadership, head of multinational corporations, foundation and

45

universities are considered as upper or high-income level people. Other than them owners of
lands, stocks and bonds and other assets- wealth derived from what they own. More than half of
high-income level people is inherited. Treasure which is newly attained has vast amount of
money but not habitually accepted into ‘old money’ circles. Since, they (high income-level
people) have a lot of money and they lead exclusive lifestyle, so this study is predicting that
high-income level people prefer experiential needs as they want everything exclusive and
unique. Early sociologist paid attention on fashion as a higher-class sensation (Crane, 2012)
which claims that higher-income level people have experiential needs for apparel products.
It is rarely seen that high-income level people being pushed around. They are cool and
calm, and they manage to look a person in the eye and speak their mind. They spend their money
smartly, not just to be gaudy or for reaction, but they want something unique. Experiential needs
fulfill that features of the need as it helps to be a fashion leader, be the first one to wear
something new and makes fashion trends. Since, to be fulfilled experiential needs can be
expensive, so, this study is proposing the following hypothesis:
H3(b). As income level increases, the positive relationship between experiential needs and
choice confidence increases in apparel industry of Bangladesh.

Research Model
This study has proposed a research model on the basis of past literature reviews. Since
consumers choose products or services according to their needs therefore it is very essential to
learn about the matter that- how consumers’ types of needs influence consumers choices and
thereby consumers’ behavior and what are the moderators that affect their behaviors. The
46

proposed research model is given in the following (Figure 1). A product’s functions or forms
may create an effective response as products interconnect to the consumers through those (Lee et
al., 2018). Functional needs are associated with consumers’ choice freedom behavior because
there are a lot of options available with different price range and consumers can choose apparel
products according to their functional needs and it cannot be associated with choice difficulty
because they have their functional needs clearly in their mind, so it does not make any difficulty
for them to make buying decision even if a lot of options are available. On the other hand,
consumers’ functional needs cannot go with consumers’ choice confidence because they buy
clothes according to their functional needs even if they are not confident enough with that
product, so functional needs cannot go with choice confidence as well. According to Crane
clothing is one of the most visible forms of consumption that plays a chief role in the social
construction of identity (Crane, 2012) and from which consumers’ social needs arise. Social
needs are associated with consumers’ choice difficulty because there are a lot of options
available but consumers who have social needs they have some social criteria in their mind, likebrand, social status, prestige, value etc. so when they buy apparel products they face difficulty to
make buying decision so social needs cannot be associated with consumer choice freedom. On
the other hand, it cannot be associated with choice confidence as well because consumers who
prefer social needs they are not always confident enough about their choice since sometimes they
make choice even if they cannot fulfill their satisfaction level. According to Fu & Kim (2019),
individuals’ differences in experiential need for variety and fashion interest and ecological and
social consciousness can impact consumers’ information processing and decision making in the
context of fashion (Fu & Kim, 2019). Experiential needs are associated with consumers’ choice
confidence because consumers prefer experiential needs when they want something different and

47

exclusive and they feel confident enough with their choice. They do not care about people’s
criticisms. Since experiential needs are about something different, exclusive and expensive those
cannot be associated with choice freedom and consumers do not feel shy or uncomfortable to
make buying decision so experiential needs cannot be associated with consumers’ choice
difficulty as well.

Income Level

Types of Needs

Functional Needs

Social Needs

Experiential Needs

H1(a)

Types of Choices

H1(b)

Choice Freedom

H2(b)

H2(a)

H3(a)

Choice Difficulty
H3(b)

Figure 1: Research Model

48

Choice Confidence

Chapter Four: Methodology
Questionnaire Development
The 22 question items were divided into two sections. Section 1 had 4 demographics
related questions. Section two asks participants 18 items that measure the dependent
variables (functional need, social need, and experiential need) and independent variables
(choice freedom, choice difficulty, and choice confidence).

Demographics (Section 1)
Age

: Will help the researcher to learn if “Age” has an effect on
functional need, social need, or experiential need.

Education level

: Consumers’ education level may influence their needs.

Occupation

: Consumers’ needs may vary according to their occupations.

Income Level

: High-income level and low-income level may play the role of
moderator while consumers fulfill their needs.

Scaling of Income Level
The variable, Income level, was collapsed into two categories by combining groups.
Grouping or splitting variable is beneficial for sorting data by group (Grouping Variables,
2021). It makes easy to compare frequency distributions or descriptive statistics with respect
to the categories of some variables and helps to separate tables of results for each group
(SPSS TUTORIALS: Grouping Data, 2021). Respondents reporting less than 250000 and
250000-400000 were labelled as ‘Low Income Level” and coded by assigning value 1,
whereas respondents reporting 400001-600000 and 600001 or more were labelled as “High

49

Income Level” and coded by assigning value 2. Since, there is no fixed income level is given
or found from the previous researches on Bangladesh, so the income level ranges of this study
were set on according to the calculation of income tax to be paid of National Board of Revenue
(NBR), Bangladesh (NBR, 2020).

Independent Variables - Functional Needs, Social Needs and Experiential Needs
(Section 2)
The question items for functional need, social need, and experiential need are
adopted from a previous study named “Cross-Cultural Consumer Values, Needs and
Purchase Behavior” by Kim et al., (2002). Functional need has 2 measurement items;
social need has 2 measurement items; and experiential need has 4 measurement items;
(α=0.05), testing the extent to which consumers perceive their needs to be salient. The
measurement items are as follows;

Functional need
1. I wear clothes that are primarily functional.
2. I believe comfort in clothing is more important than fashion.

Social Need
1. Wearing well- known brand clothing provides prestige.
2. Wearing designer clothes gives one social status.

50

Experiential Need
1. I am aware of fashion trends and want to be one of the first to try them.
2. I am the first to try a new fashion.
3. It is important for me to be a fashion leader.
4. I always buy at least one outfit of the latest fashion.
These items measure consumer’s need to be identified for clothe on a singular linear
continuum through 5-point Likert-scale (1-Strongly disagree to 5-Strongly agree).

Dependent Variables – Choice Freedom, Choice Difficulty and Choice Confidence
freedom has 4 measurement items and Choice difficulty has 3 measurement items;
these were selected from Gordon & Bruner’s Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of
Multi-Item Measures for Consumer Behavior & Advertising Research (2009). Choice confidence
has 2 measurement items and these were selected from Bearden & Netemeyer’s Handbook of
Marketing Scales: Multi-item measures for Marketing and Consumer Behavior Research (1999).
The measurement items are as follows;

Choice Freedom
1. I believe I had some choice about selecting this particular clothe.
2. I selected this particular clothe because I wanted to.
3. I selected this particular clothe because I had no choice. (R)
4. I selected this particular clothe because I had to. (R)

51

Choice Difficulty
1. I thought it would be easy to justify a purchase decision, in case someone challenges it.
2. I was able to see at first sight that some products were superior.
3. In order to decide for one product, it was not necessary to make any difficult trade-offs.
Choice Confidence
1. It was impossible to be certain which product fits my preferences best.
2. I felt confident when identifying one product that best matches my preferences.
3. I was convinced to find a product that best fulfils my needs.
These items measure consumer’s choice behavior to be identified for product on a singular
linear continuum through 5-point Likert-scale (1-Strongly disagree to 5-Strongly agree). Item
number 4 and 5 of Choice Freedom (items 15 &16 in survey package) are reverse coded.

Research Design
First phase of the study tested the three main hypotheses proposed earlier. The objective
of these hypotheses was to investigate the relationships between consumers’ types of needs
(Functional, Social & Experiential) and consumers’ choice behaviours (Choice Freedom, Choice
Difficulty & Choice Confidence) accordingly. Since the data set was not normally distributed,
ordinal regression was applied for statistical analysis. The ordinal regression has followed two
routes. One of the main differences between route-two result and route-one result is the Exp(β)
column and Confidence Interval (OBUS, 2021).
For the second phase, 3 extended hypotheses proposed earlier were tested. Objective was
to investigate the effect of income level (High & Low) as the moderator for consumers’ types of
needs and choices which were discussed letter in chapter five.

52

Justification of Approach
Researchers refer to Ordinal Regression when a variable denotes as an ordinal variable
and its categories have a natural order (Stevens, 1946). Likert-scale may place respondents in
one of a number of ranked categories, such as, "strongly disagree," "disagree," "neutral," "agree,"
or " strongly agree" with a statement (Winship & Mare, 1984). In this process, continuous
variable denoting respondents’ disagrees of agreement is plotted into categories that are ordered
but are unglued by unknown distances (Winship & Mare, 1984).
Ordinal regression is a common approach for survey questionnaires and this approach is
applied once the data is collected and is categorical, afterward, data is compared to summarize
about the whole surveyed population with regard to the specific variables (Goff & Stanley,
2021). The most advantageous part of this approach is simplicity of data collection and
categorization. (Goff & Stanley, 2021). It is a newly discovered statistical method to analyze
ranked outcomes; in the past, ranked scales used to be analyzed by assigning arbitrary numerical
scores to the rank, whereas now, ordinal regression models make full use of ranked data (Scott et
al.,1997).
The patterns that create advantages of the ordinal regression also create certain
disadvantages; sometime the respondents’ responses are so narrow in relation to the question that
they generate or expand bias that is not considered into the survey (Goff & Stanley, 2021). For
example- on the question about satisfaction level with the government, individuals might be
satisfied with his/her job performance but unsatisfied about a recent scandal. The survey
question can lead respondents to state their dissatisfaction about the scandal, in spite of
satisfaction with his/her job performance - but the statistical output will not be changed (Goff

53

& Stanley, 2021). For this study, there is no such threat so there is no risk of using ordinal
regression.
The chief reason of doing ordinal regression analysis for this study is that the dependent
variables are categorical and ordered. Ordinal regression method takes account of this order and
produce the effect of each independent variable (Evangeline, 2019). Multinomial logistic
regression could be used for this study but MLR (Multinomial logistic regression) does not
reserve ranking information in the dependent variable when produce the effect of each
independent variable (Evangeline, 2019).

Operationalization
To develop the sample data of consumers’ behavior through choice making in terms of
needs, the researcher collected data from total of 155 respondents from Bangladesh. The data
was collected from 155 respondents through snowball approach where respondents recruit other
respondents for a test or a study (Horse, 2016). And the approach helps to get maximise reach
(Patterson et al., 2014) and also helped to cover all income level people easily. Due to corona
pandemic restrictions, snowball approach was the most appropriate approach to collect data for
this research. In this approach, questionnaire was sent to 25 people (family & friends) initially
through email and was asked to forward the questionnaire link to more 3 people. The primarily
selected respondents were selected in a way where 5 respondents were form high- income level
area, 10 from mid-income level area and the rest are from low- income level area. By this
approach it’s been easy to collect large amount of data in this pandemic as well as it helped to
cover all income level people. The questionnaire contained five-point Likert scale for every
question except demographic questions. The questionnaire was administrated via online

54

electronic form through SurveyMonkey. Informed consent from the respondents was obtained
prior to survey starting. This informed consent letter presented information about the study and
addressed data confidentiality, privacy, instructions of participating and other rights of the
participants. Last two pages were actual questionnaire. Participants were allowed to retain the
informed consent letter page to learn about the study and contact researcher to know about the
findings, if they were interested. It was mentioned that participation in the study is completely
voluntary and participants were not needed to mention their name or any other mean through
which they can be identified. Participants were able to participate in the survey only by accepting
the terms and conditions of the informed consent letter, as suggested by the Research Ethics
Board of University of Northern British Columbia and outlined in the informed consent letter.
The survey didn’t take time longer than 10 minutes to finish. Data was coded into Microsoft
Excel 2016 for further statistical analysis. Item 15 and 16 were reverse coded.

55

Chapter Five: Results and Discussion
After collecting the data, the researcher ran some initial analysis. IBM SPSS v26 was
used to perform data analyses. The data was cleaned and checked for linearity and normality
to determine if the data has been collected from a normally distributed population or not. In
this chapter, results obtained from the statistical analysis are discussed.
Descriptive statistic table represents the summery of continuous data. The descriptive
statistics of the collected data are given in Table 1.

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Data Collected
Variable

Count

Percentage

Age

18 to 25 years
26 o 40 years
41 o 60 years
More than 60 years

108
40
6
1

69.7
25.8
3.9
.6

Education

Primary
Secondary
Graduate
Post Graduate

1
35
86
33

.6
22.6
55.5
21.3

Occupation

Student
Jobless
Service holder
Businessman\woman

101
10
33
11

65.2
6.5
21.3
7.1

Income Level

Less than 250000
250001 – 400000
400001- 600000
600001 or more

97
31
12
15

62.6
20.0
7.7
9.7

56

All the items in their subsequent scales were found to be internally consistent, except
following;
Item 13: I believe I had some choice about selecting functional cloth.
Item 13 was in Choice Freedom. This item indicating corrected item-total correlation less
than .2 meaning this item cannot be correlated well with the scale overall (Field, 2009).
Item 13 reported an item-total correlation of 0.059 and removing this item resulted in better
alpha for the overall scale. In addition, the scale of Functional Need, Social Need,
Experiential Need, Choice Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence were also
found internally consistent with Cronbach’s Alpha 0.425, 0.550, 0.838, 0.378, 0.696, and
0.568 respectively. Table 2 represents the means and standard deviations for all the
variables included in study.
Table 2: Means – Standard Deviations of Data Collected
N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Functional Need

155

3.7839

0.78546

Social Need

155

3.2065

0.95650

Experiential Need

155

2.9790

0.93409

Choice Freedom

155

3.1763

0.65829

Choice Difficulty

155

3.3462

0.72063

Choice Confidence

155

3.6688

0.66068

Valid N (listwise)

155

As shown by Table 2, Functional Need, Social Need, Choice Freedom, Choice
Difficulty, and Choice Confidence have a mean of 3.78, 3.20, 3.17, 3.34, and 3.66
respectively. However, Experiential Need reported fairly low mean score of 2.97.
57

Sample Size and Power
The researcher has tested weather the sample size is providing a satisfactory
statistical power to perceive a statistical effect under the assumption that the null hypothesis
is rejected. For that reason, power analysis was used as it helps to determine the required
sample size to identify an effect under a given level of statistical power. A large sample size
may not be compulsory, whereas inadequate data may fail to deliver enough power (Irfan,
2019). Collecting a large amount of data is a costly and time-consuming process. Hence, while
using a small amount of data in a study, it is important to know if the study has adequate
statistical power and to resolve the question a power analysis can be conducted. A power
analysis can be run on two bases- priori basis or post-hoc basis. A priori basis power analysis is
conducted before the data collection to determine the adequate sample size and a post- hoc basis
power analysis is conducted after the data collection to detect if statistical power was attained.
Since the data collection process for this study required the researcher to obtain participants’
consents prior to the collecting data through survey questionnaire and the data was collected
through snowball approach therefore it was unknown beforehand how many participants will
actually participate in the survey and how long would it take. Thus, instead of conducting priori
base power analysis it was decided to conduct a post-hoc base power analysis after the data is
collected.
To manually determining a power analysis there are four relevant statistical parameters:
power (1-β), the criterion for statistical significance (α), sample size (N), and effect size
(Cohen,1998). According to Cohen (1998), these perimeters are intensely related to each other
that if any three of them are fixed, the forth can be automatically determined. G* power package
software was used to conduct the power analysis of this study, where used an alpha of 0.05,

58

setting α=0.05 the effect size (f=0.57) for Functional Need, (f=0.95) for Social Need, and (f=
0.72) for Experiential Need, and the sample size (N=155). The values of the effect size were
obtained from ordinal regression route-two results. Observed power of 0.99, 1.00, and 1.00 were
obtained for Functional Need, Social Need, and Experiential Need respectively. Consequently, a
sample size of 155 provided satisfactory power to study the hypotheses developed for this study.

Normality Test:
Table 3: Normality Test of the Collected Data
Kolmogorov-Smirnova

Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic

df

Sig.

Statistic

df

Sig.

Functional Need

0.189

155

0.000

0.915

155

0.000

Social Need

0.137

155

0.000

0.955

155

0.000

Experiential Need

0.109

155

0.000

0.977

155

0.011

Choice Freedom

0.148

155

0.000

0.953

155

0.000

Choice Difficulty

0.128

155

0.000

0.955

155

0.000

Choice Confidence

0.150

155

0.000

0.952

155

0.000

After combining the items for every variable, the researcher run the Normality test of the
collected data. As shown by able 3, Functional Need, Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice
Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are significant (p < 0.05) that means
the data is Not Normally Distributed.

59

Table 4: Normality Test of the Collected Data after Log Transformation
Kolmogorov-Smirnova

Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic

df

Sig.

Statistic

df

Sig.

Log Functional Need

0.230

155

0.000

0.790

155

0.000

Log Social Need

0.210

155

0.000

0.877

155

0.000

Log Experiential Need

0.172

155

0.000

0.907

155

0.000

Log Choice Freedom

0.151

155

0.000

0.885

155

0.000

Log Choice Difficulty

0.186

155

0.000

0.852

155

0.000

Log Choice Confidence

0.161

155

0.000

0.855

155

0.000

After transforming all the variables on logarithmic scale, the researcher ran the Normality
test of the collected data again. As shown by table 4, Functional Need, Social Need,
Experiential Need, Choice Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are
significant (p < 0.05). Hence, the data is Not Normally Distributed. Since the collected data
is Not Normally Distributed, the researcher run Ordinal Regression for further analysis.

Hypothesis 1(a) Route-one Result:
Table 5: Statistical Relationship between Functional Need and Choice Freedom
Correlation Coefficient for Functional Need

0.187

and Choice Freedom
Model Significance Level

0.020

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.002

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.348

60

Significance Level of Parallel Line Tests

0.540

Significance Level of Choice Freedom (P)

0.011

Estimate of Choice Freedom

0.565

Exp (B)

1.759

The correlation coefficient for Functional Need and Choice Freedom is 0.187. p-value for
this correlation coefficient is significant (p < 0.05). Therefore, the relationship between
Functional Need and Choice Freedom is statistically significant. The model fitting table tells how
well the model fits the data. The model is significant (p < 0.05) that means the model fits the data
very well. This goodness of fit contains Pearson and Deviance Chi-Square test which are useful
to describe if the model is good fit for data. Non-significant test results are indicators of that the
model fits data well. In this case, though the Pearson Chi-Square test is less than 0.05, the
Deviance Chi-Square test is greater than 0.05 which means the model fits the data well. Test of
Parallel line tests the assumptions of proportional odds. The Parallel line test is also significant (p
> 0.05) which means the data is not validate to test assumptions of proportional odds. The
independent variable, Choice Freedom, is statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Freedom has a
significant positive predictor of selecting Functional Clothes. For every one-unit increase in
Choice Freedom, there is a predicted increase of a 0.565 in the log odds of being at a higher level
on selecting Functional Clothes.

61

Hypothesis 1(a) Route-two Result:
Researcher tested for route-two result as well to get the details. Odds ratio for Choice
Freedom: the odds ratio indicates that the odds of being in a higher level on selecting Functional
Clothes increases by a factor of 1.759 for every one-unit increase on Choice Freedom.
Results of table 5 revealed that Functional Needs are positively associated with
consumers’ choice freedom behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh. This finding does not
support the proposed hypothesis. The finding is dissimilar to the statement that more alternatives
for a certain product are not advantageous for consumers (Sanchis et al., 2014) whereas, it is
similar to the statement that more alternatives for a certain product make consumers spend
more time in choice making which is actually advantageous for consumers to meet their
exact need (Arunachalam et al., 2009; Botti & Iyengar, 2006; Schwartz, 2004; Iyengar &
Lepper, 2000).

Hypothesis 1(b) Result:
Table 6: Moderating Effect of Income level on the Relationship between Functional
Need and Choice Freedom
Model Significance Level

0.018

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.139

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.970

Significance Level of Choice Freedom

0.012

Estimate of Choice Freedom

0.556

Estimate of Low-Income Level

-0.634

Significance Level of Low-Income level (P)

0.027

62

The model is significant (p < 0.05), therefore, the model fits the data very well. In this
test, the Pearson Chi-Square test and the Deviance Chi-Square test are also significant (p > 0.05)
which means the model fits the data very well. The independent variable, Choice Freedom, is
statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Freedom has a significant positive predictor of selecting
Functional Clothes. For every one-unit increase in Choice Freedom, there is a predicted increase
of a 0.556 in the log odds of being at a higher level on selecting Functional Clothes. The
significance level of low-income level is also significant (p < 0.05). Low-income level has a
negative predictor of selecting Functional Clothes. For every one-unit increase in low income
level, there is a predicted decrease of a 0.634 in the log odds of being at a higher level on
selecting Functional Clothes.
Taking a quick glance at table 6 revealed that- as income level decreases, the positive
relationship between functional needs and choice freedom also decreases in apparel industry
of Bangladesh which is another essential information to the fashion houses. This finding
does not support the proposed hypothesis. The finding is parallel to the belief that lowincome- leveled people can figure out their own needs according to their capability (Kraus et
al., 2012).

Hypothesis 2(a) Route-one Result:
Table 7: Statistical Relationship between Social Need and Choice Difficulty
Correlation Coefficient for Social Need and

0.346

Choice Difficulty
Model Significance Level

0.018

63

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.139

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.970

Significance Level of Parallel Line Tests

0.926

Significance Level of Choice Difficulty (P)

0.000

Estimate of Choice Difficulty

0.946

Exp (B)

2.576

The correlation coefficient for Social Need and Choice Difficulty is 0.346. p-value for
this correlation coefficient is significant (p < 0.05), therefore, the relationship between Social
Need and Choice Difficulty is statistically significant. The model is also significant (p < 0.05),
therefore, the model fits the data very well. In this test, the Pearson Chi-Square test and the
Deviance Chi-Square significant (p > 0.05) which means the model fits the data very well. The
significance level of Parallel line test is also significant (p > 0.05) which means the data is not
validate to test assumptions of proportional odds. The independent variable, Choice Difficulty, is
statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Difficulty has a significant positive predictor of selecting
Social Clothes. For every one-unit increase in Choice Difficulty, there is a predicted increase of a
0.946 in the log odds of being at a higher level on selecting Social Clothes.

Hypothesis 2(a) Route-two Result:
Researcher tested for route-two result also to get the details. Odds ratio for Choice
Difficulty: the odds ratio indicates that the odds of being in a higher level on selecting Social
Clothes increases by a factor of 2.576 for every one-unit increase on Choice Difficulty. By
taking a look at table 7, it can be discovered that social needs are positively associated with

64

consumers’ choice difficulty behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh which supports the
proposed hypothesis. The finding supports the statement that social needs are associated
with choice difficulty while many options are available in the market (Gordon & Bruner,
2009).

Hypothesis 2(b) Result:
Table 8: Moderating Effect of Income level on the Relationship between Social Need
and Choice Difficulty
Model Significance Level

0.000

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.081

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

1.000

Significance Level of Choice Difficulty

0.000

Estimate of Choice Difficulty

0.963

Estimate of Low-Income Level

-1.318

Significance Level of Low-Income Level (P)

0.001

The model is significant (p < 0.05), and the model fits the data very well. In this test, the
Pearson Chi-Square test and the Deviance Chi-Square test are also significant (p > 0.05) which
means the model fits the data very well.
The independent variable, Choice Difficulty, is statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Difficulty
has a significant positive predictor of selecting Social Clothes. For every one-unit increase in
Choice Difficulty, there is a predicted increase of a 0.963 in the log odds of being at a higher
level on selecting Social Clothes. The significance level of low-income level is also significant

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(p < 0.05). Low-income level has a negative predictor of selecting social Clothes. For every oneunit increase in low income level, there is a predicted decrease of a 1.318 in the log odds of
being at a higher level on selecting Social Clothes. Table 8 shows that- as the income level
decreases, the positive relationship between social needs and choice difficulty also
decreases in apparel industry of Bangladesh which supports the proposed hypothesis.

Hypothesis 3(a) Route-one Result:
Table 9: Statistical Relationship between Social Need and Choice Difficulty
Correlation Coefficient for Experiential Need

0.263

and Choice Confidence
Model Significance Level

0.001

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.227

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.528

Significance Level of Parallel Line Tests

0.748

Significance Level of Choice Confidence (P)

0.001

Estimate of Choice Confidence

0.718

Exp (B)

2.050

The correlation coefficient for Experiential Need and Choice Confidence is 0.263. pvalue for this correlation coefficient is significant (p < 0.05), therefore, the relationship between
Experiential Need and Choice Confidant is statistically significant. The model is also significant
(p < 0.05), therefore, the model fits the data very well. In this test, the Pearson Chi-Square test
and the Deviance Chi-Square test are significant (p > 0.05) which means the model fits the data

66

very well. The Parallel line test is also significant (p > 0.05) which means the data is not validate
to test assumptions of proportional odds. The independent variable, Choice Confidence, is
statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Confidence has a significant positive predictor of
selecting Experiential Clothes. For every one-unit increase in Choice Confidence, there is a
predicted increase of a 0.718 in the log odds of being at a higher level on selecting Experiential
Clothes.

Hypothesis 3(a) Route-two Result:
Tested for route-two result also to get the details. Odds ratio for Choice Confidence: the
odds ratio indicates that the odds of being in a higher level on selecting Experiential Clothes
increases by a factor of 2.050 for every one-unit increase on Choice Difficulty.
Table 9 demonstrates that experiential needs are positively associated with consumers’
choice confidence behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh. The result supports the
proposed hypothesis. This finding supports that choice confidence assists consumers to pick
the best product to fulfill their experiential needs in the best way (Bearden & Netemeyer,
1999).

Hypothesis 3(b) Result:
Table 10: Moderating Effect of Income level on the Relationship between Experiential
Need and Choice Confidence
Model Significance Level

0.000

Pearson’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.337

Deviance’s Goodness-of-Fit

0.998

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Significance Level of Choice Confidence

0.001

Estimate of Choice Confidence

0.718

Estimate of High-Income Level

0.023

Significance Level of High-Income Level (P)

0.000

The model is significant (p < 0.05) thus, the model fits the data very well. In this test, the
Pearson Chi-Square test and the Deviance Chi-Square test are also significant (p > 0.05) which
means the model fits the data very well. The independent variable, Choice Confidence, is
statically significant (p < 0.05). Choice Confidence has a significant positive predictor of
selecting Experiential Clothes. For every one-unit increase in Choice Confidence, there is a
predicted increase of a 0.718 in the log odds of being at a higher level on selecting experiential
Clothes. The significance level of high-income level is also statically significant (p < 0.05).
High-income level has a positive predictor of selecting Experiential Clothes. For every one-unit
increase in high-income level, there is a predicted increase of a 0.023 in the log odds of being at
a higher level on selecting Experiential Clothes.
Table 10 shows that- as income level increases, the positive relationship between
experiential needs and choice confidence also increases in apparel industry of Bangladesh. The
result supports the proposed hypothesis. This finding is similar to the traditional belief that
fashion is a higher-class sensation (Crane, 2012).

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Demographic Component Analysis Result:
Table 11: Impact of Demographic Variables
As shown by Table 11, Age has significant effect on all types of Needs and Choices. The
correlation coefficients for Age and Functional Need, Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice
Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are 0.160, 0.163, 0.394, 0.227,0.382 and
0.161 respectively. The p-value of these correlation coefficients are significant (p < 0.05).
Demographic
Information

Constructs
Functional

Social

Experiential

Choice

Choice

Choice

Need

Need

Need

Freedom

Difficulty

Confidence

Age

0.160

0.163

0.394

0.227

0.382

0.161

Education

0.024

0.437

0.222

0.002

0.216

0.286

0.071

0.375

0.352

0.005

0.232

0.234

Level
Occupation

Therefore, the relationship of age and types of needs and choices is statistically significant.
Education has significant effect on Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice Difficulty,
and Choice Confidence but no effect on Functional Need and Choice Freedom. The correlation
coefficients for Education and Functional Need, Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice
Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are 0.024, 0.437, 0.222, 0.002, 0.216 and
0.286 respectively. The p-value of the correlation coefficients of Social Need, Experiential Need,
Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are significant (p < 0.05) but the p-value of the
correlation coefficients of Functional Need and Choice Freedom are not significant (p > 0.05).

69

Consequently, the relationship of education and types of needs and choices is statistically
significant.
Occupation has significant effect on Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice Difficulty
and Choice Confidence but no effect on Functional Need and Choice Freedom. The correlation
coefficients for Education and Functional Need, Social Need, Experiential Need, Choice
Freedom, Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are 0.071, 0.375, 0.352, 0.005, 0.232 and
0.234 respectively. The p-value of the correlation coefficients of Social Need, Experiential Need,
Choice Difficulty, and Choice Confidence are significant (p < 0.05) but the p-value of the
correlation coefficients of Functional Need and Choice Freedom are not significant (p > 0.05).
Consequently, the relationship of education and types of needs and choices is statistically
significant.
Types of consumers’ choice behavior (choice freedom, choice difficulty, and choice
confidence) seem to be the mechanisms impacting types of consumers’ need (functional
need, social need, and experiential need), independent from each other. In addition, types of
need are also influenced by other factors- age, education level, and occupation. Consumers’
choice behaviors appear to be determined by the situational factor of consumers’ buying
patterns, whereas age, education level, and occupation are consumers’ demographic
information. This finding can be interpreted like- consumers’ types of need not only
influenced by consumers’ types of choice behavior but also influenced by consumers’
demographic features.
The findings of this study suggest that, despite having some common components,
consumers’ types of choice behavior are different from each other. There are three types of
choice behavior (choice freedom, choice difficulty & choice confidence) functioning in this

70

study but due to contextual differences, all these three cannot function in all three types of
need (functional need, social need & experiential need). Since Consumers’ buying behavior
patterns have not the same meaning of buying habit (Radu, 2019) and consumer behaviors are
influenced by not only environmental and marketing factors but also consumers’ personal and
psychological factors, family and culture (Ramya & Ali, 2016) so contextually different choice
behaviors cannot function in all these three types of need. Bangladesh market has consumers of
diverse cultural backgrounds and maintain their cultural traditions, values and beliefs and so their
needs and behavior differ from each other. However, presence of types of choice is favorable for
individuals to fulfill their apparel needs appropriately. On the other hand, consumers’
demographic information has also the power to influence consumers’ types of need and choice.
Age influences all types of apparel need, whereas education and occupation influence social
need, experiential need, choice difficulty and choice confidence but not functional need and
choice freedom. Clothes related researches have always focused on age as fashion and age are
intensely correlated (Lin & Xia, 2012). There is a long history of clothes to be in age ordered that
means there is a systematic pattern of clothes which is designed hierarchically on the basis of age
concept (Twigg, 2018). Age is a significant demographic variable for all types of need and the
finding is similar to the traditional belief that dress patterns are linked to both the changes of
consumers’ age and also the cultural formation of acceptance and unacceptance in every stage of
life (Twigg, 2013). Accordingly, in different stage of ages, consumers of Bangladesh fulfill their
different types of apparel need through different types of choice behavior.
Selecting clothes reflects consumers’ self-expression and autonomy and consumers select
clothes according to their leanings and preferences. In a research, it was observed that different
level of educated people has different level of knowledge, attitude and behavior (Abner et al.,

71

2019). Educated consumers are more conscious about selecting their clothes. Since education
changes consumers’ knowledge, attitudes and behavior so educated consumers are more
concerned about social acceptance and trends rather than function of clothes.
Occupation basically resembles to income and educational achievement. It is not only the
main detector of different socioeconomic classes (Connelly et al., 2016) but also a great
instrument in analyzing consumers’ profile, social circle and activities (Song et al., 2011). As
occupation is associated with income and education so it’s usual that it will influence consumes’
social need and experiential need. There is no evidence of association between occupation and
functional need though in some profession consumers need to fulfill their functional need strictly
(Susan, 2020). These findings can assist local and multinational apparel suppliers to prepare
their clothes according to the inclinations of Bangladeshi apparel consumers.

Discussion
While the role of types of needs for apparel has been established in previous literature on
fashion related studies, there is inadequate research on the degree to which types of needs and
types of choices affect consumers behavior. Furthermore, the effect of income levels has not
been examined before when it comes to their influence on consumers’ decision-making process.
This creates a gap in the theoretical literature and managerial implications for the selling of
apparel products in Bangladesh and other developing countries like Bangladesh.
The study contributes to the knowledge of consumers’ types of needs according to their
choice behaviors for apparel products. No existing studies have: (a) attempted to test types of
needs for apparel products in consumers’ choice behavior context, (b)investigated how the
income-level play the role as a moderator, and (c) impact of age, education, occupation on

72

the relationship between types of needs and choice behaviors. Regarding (a), this study
established that a significant and satisfactory measurement of types of needs and choice
behaviors could be developed as a study (dependent & independent) variables. In
accordance with (b) and (c) it was established that, demographic features have significant
influence on the relationship between types of needs and choice behaviors, interactions
between the dependent variables and income levels were obtained. An interaction arises
when an independent variable has a different effect on the output depending on the values of
another independent variable (Foster et al., 2005). Results were produced by ordinal
regression analyses. However, the main effect of the independent variables on the dependent
variables also were tested.

Theoretical Contributions
First, this study established a clear understanding of the relationship between types
of needs and types of choices for apparel industry, specific to consumers’ decision-making
process, and its impact on consumers’ behavior while buying clothes. Existing literature
specifies an understanding of importance of types of needs and types of choices with
different related constructs (Sanchis et al., 2014; Arunachalam et al., 2009; Botti & Iyengar,
2006; Schwartz, 2004; Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). However, any existing literature does not
show any evidence of how impactful types of choices can be to types of needs in apparel
industry. Second, the increasing and decreasing income levels, have never been examined to
the above relationship before to test its influence as a moderator. As cited in the literature
chapter, income level is an important factor in Bangladesh. It divides social-class and
Bangladesh is a country where people are always concerned about maintaining their class

73

and so people’s needs and their choice behavior are associated with income level intensely.
Third, the study has tested the impact of relevant demographic features on the relationship
between types of needs and types of choices. Although, there are comprehensive literature
on demographic features and fashion industry (Lin & Xia, 2012; Twigg, 2013, 2018; Abner et
al., 2019; Connelly et al., 2016; Song et al., 2011; Susan, 2020), existing literature does not
connect demographic features and its impact specifically on types of need and types of
consumers’ choice behavior. This study found that impact of demographic features is
independently significant to consumers’ need and consumers’ behavior for apparel industry.
All of the above contribute to the existing theory and literature by addressing the gap
on the impact of types of choices on types of needs, more specifically consumers’ behavior
and its relation to types of need for apparel products. This study outspreads the
understanding by testing three types of choices for the first time in relation to three types of
needs for apparel products. Furthermore, this study contributes to the theory and literature
by connecting income level to the relationship between needs and choices.

Managerial Implications
On the basis of findings, this study has momentous managerial implications for
refining marketing managers of apparel industry of Bangladesh and other developing
countries. This study determined that functional needs are positively associated with
consumers’ choice freedom behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh. So consumers, who
care about functional features, desire to have choice freedom while buying clothes to select
the best one. Hence, having more options for certain functional clothes with different
features is an important information to the fashion houses. This finding is also providing an

74

important information to the apparel companies that they can differentiate themselves by
having more options with more features for a certain functional clothing item. The study
found that- as income level decreases, the positive relationship between functional needs
and choice freedom also decreases in the apparel industry of Bangladesh which is essential
information to the fashion houses. It helps fashion houses and apparel companies with the
information that they should set low a pricing strategy for functional clothes while offering a lot
of options. According to the findings, the best conceivable way to appeal to consumers
would be offering more options for certain functional clothes with different features with a
low pricing strategy.
This study found that social needs are positively associated with consumers’ choice
difficulty behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh which gives a crucial information to
the fashion houses that a verity of options can confuse consumers who want to meet their
social needs. Apparel companies should offer limited variety of options to consumers for
fulfilling their social needs to minimize their choice difficulty. This study found that- as the
income level decreases, the positive relationship between social needs and choice difficulty
also decreases in apparel industry of Bangladesh. Most of the people of Bangladesh care
about their societal prestige and honour and follow their religion strictly so they do not buy
whatever they like rather they consider their social and religious criteria which creates
choice difficulty for them while there a lot of options are available. However, consumers’
choice difficulty decreases when they have low income so to fulfill consumers’ social needs,
apparel companies can minimize consumers’ choice difficulty by offering limited options at
low price.

75

This study also found that experiential needs are positively associated with
consumers’ choice confidence behavior in apparel industry of Bangladesh which means the
consumers of Bangladesh are very confident to carry new trends or fashion, so the fashion
houses and apparel companies should focus on the clothes’ uniqueness, creative design and
celebrity endorsement to dominate these consumers of the market. The study discovered that- as
income level increases, the positive relationship between experiential needs and choice
confidence also increases in apparel industry of Bangladesh. According to this finding, the best
way of attracting high-income level consumers would be creating exclusive clothes with a highpricing strategy and low- income level consumers would be offering unique products with a low
pricing strategy and the availability of the clothes must be limited.
The study found significant influence of age, education and occupation
independently on the constructs. In different stage of ages, education level, and occupationconsumers of Bangladesh fulfill their different types of apparel needs through different types of
choice behaviors, so apparel companies should categorise their products according to different
age, education and occupation level of their (apparel companies) targeted consumers.

76

Chapter Six: Conclusion and Limitations & Future Research
Conclusion
Now a days consumers’ choices of Bangladesh seem to be changed rapidly because of
globalization. In developing countries, like- Bangladesh, globalization is affecting consumers’
life in every facet. Consequently, identifying the consumers’ needs and behaviors is very
important for mangers to make a decent marketing strategic plan. The paper contributes in this
context for Bangladeshi apparel market as well as for the other emerging markets like
Bangladesh.
As there is a lack of studies on fashion industry of Bangladesh and other developing
countries, like- China, India, Vietnam etc., this research minimizes the gap. It offers three types
of needs and three types of choices behavior with 18 items which are statistically valid and
reliable fashion needs and choice behavior index for the market. Also, the research model
validates (for the first time) the types of needs for apparel with consumers’ behavior in terms of
choice theory. To develop the index, this study collected data from 155 respondents regarding
their demographic features, needs, choices, and income level. The results of this study are that all
types of need are positively related to all types of correspondent choices and income level plays
an important role as a moderator. Since Bangladesh is a developing country and most of the
people here belong to middle and lower social-class, so, they cannot afford expensive clothes.
Besides, it is supposed that to fulfill experiential needs for clothes consumers need to spend a
good amount of money on that which is quite impossible for the bigger portion of the population.
Thus, the bigger portion of the population concerned about functional and social needs to fulfill
their apparel needs. Only people who belong to higher class they show importance for

77

experiential needs. However, they can positively behave and make choices (freedom, difficulty
& confidence) according to their any type of needs. So, it is noticeable that Income level is an
important moderator of this research model.
This study has significant theoretical contributions regarding a clear understanding of
the relationship between types of their needs and types of choices for apparel industry;
regarding income level and demographic features impacts on the relationship between types
of needs and types of choices for apparel industry. It filled the theoretical gap by identifying
preferred fashion needs and choices in developing countries. The study advocated a method of
evolving a statistically reliable and valid fashion needs and choices index. This study, building
on existing literature, investigates Bangladeshi consumers’ purchase behavior according to their
different needs and choices. It is crucial for international marketers to recognise types of
consumer needs in targeted international consumer markets and to know how these needs affect
purchase behaviors; and classifying types of needs in certain developing consumer markets can
benefit in evolving effectual marketing strategies attractive to the specific needs of those
markets.
Limitations & Future Research
One of the limitations of this study is that the researcher collected data via online where it
was mentioned in the information letter for consent that respondents self-identify as local apparel
shoppers. It may be that some of the respondents are not regular apparel shoppers. Since
researcher could not collect data in person by going to shopping malls physically, there is a
chance that respondents might lie regarding the matter. Therefore, it is difficult to completely
rely on the matter that- all the respondents are regular local apparel shoppers.

78

Whereas past researches have established relationships among consumers’ values,
attitudes and purchase behaviors, this study is designed to enlarge the understanding about how
consumers’ needs influence consumers’ behavior by making-decisions through choice theory.
The findings of this study can be enriched by testing more interactions by adding other
relevant independent variables. Other relevant independent variables could be consumers’
values, importance of brand etc. since consumers’ values and brand priority was found
effective in a previous study (Kim et al., 2002).
Consumers’ segmentations should also be considered to get a depth understanding of the
drives that may influence consumers’ needs and in a bigger frame consumers’ choice. As a
result, it is necessary to identify the apparel consumers’ segmentations in detail which can be
underneath drives of consumes’ behavior through their (consumers) needs so that it can help
marketers to develop a definite need and choice-based marketing strategy.

79

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Appendix
Likert Scales:
Functional Needs
I wear clothes that are primarily functional.
I believe comfort in clothing is more important than fashion.
Reference: Kim, J. O., Forsythe, S., Gu, Q., & Moon, S. J. (2002).
Social Needs
Wearing well- known brand clothing provides prestige.
Wearing designer clothes gives one social status.
Reference: Kim, J. O., Forsythe, S., Gu, Q., & Moon, S. J. (2002).
Experiential Needs
I am aware of fashion trends and want to be one of the first to try them.
I am the first to try a new fashion.
It is important for me to be a fashion leader.
I always buy at least one outfit of the latest fashion.
Reference: Kim, J. O., Forsythe, S., Gu, Q., & Moon, S. J. (2002).
Choice Freedom
I believe I had some choice about selecting this particular ___(clothe)_______.
I selected this particular __________ because I wanted to.
I selected this particular __________ because I had no choice. (r)
I selected this particular __________ because I had to. (r)
Reference: Gordon, C., & Bruner, I. I. (2009).

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Choice Difficulty
I thought it would be easy to justify a purchase decision, in case someone challenges it.
I was able to see at first sight that some products were superior.
In order to decide for one product, it was not necessary to make any difficult trade-offs.
Reference: Gordon, C., & Bruner, I. I. (2009).
Choice Confidence
It was impossible to be certain which product fits my preferences best.
I felt confident when identifying one product that best matches my preferences.
I was convinced to find a product that best fulfils my needs.
Reference: Bearden, W. O., & Netemeyer, R. G. (1999).

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