Appearance Management: Shopping Styles, Dress Styles And Personality Traits Of Female Young Adults

ABSTRACT An understanding and application of consumer behaviour to fashion product development and marketing provides a competitive advantage that leads to the success of every fashion business. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the relationship among shopping styles, dress styles and personality traits of Ghanaian female young adults. A cross-sectional design with a quantitative approach was used to conduct the study. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 447 Ghanaian female resident undergraduate students, aged 18 to 25 years from three halls in the University of Ghana, Legon. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on respondents’ demographic characteristics, shopping styles, dress styles and personality traits. With the aid of IBM SPSS Version 20, the data were analysed using Principal Component Analysis and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation. The results showed that the personality traits of the female young adults predisposed them to multiple shopping and dress styles, and these traits were also reflected in how they scouted for stores, selected and purchased clothing for creating their personal appearance. Their conscientious nature, rather than their tendency to trust made them high-quality conscious consumers who mostly remained loyal to the brands that met their needs and expectations. Although, their agreeable nature and receptivity to a variety of interests, ideas and experiences predisposed them to adopt an ethnic-inspired look, less than half of the respondents mostly wore clothing that depicted their cultural and national heritage. The findings have implications for the fashion industry and policy makers. It is therefore recommended that producers of fashion merchandise should develop products of optimum standard in order to satisfy the needs of Ghanaian female young adults, as this could positively impact their businesses. The government of Ghana should also develop and implement policies, as well as intensify public sensitization on the ‘Wear Ghana Initiative’ in order to promote the sale of Ghana-made clothing, create jobs, and maintain the cultural identity of Ghana.