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- Title
When Retailers Target Women Based on Body Shape and Size: The Role of Ethical Evaluation on Purchase Intention.
- Authors
Walters, Hannah D.; Wiese, Michael D.; Bruce, Michael L.
- Abstract
The purpose of this research was to assess consumers' ethical evaluation of a company's practice of targeting women based on body shape and size in the clothing retail industry and its impact on the consumer's purchase intention. Many companies target those consumers they have the greatest chance of satisfying, leading to greater profit potential for the firm. The sophistication of target marketing helps marketers achieve efficiency and effectiveness. However, targeting may be an ineffective strategy when it results in controversy. The ethical dilemma of targeting lies within the explicit inclusion or exclusion of groups of customers. Under the framework of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES), this research incorporated ethical evaluation into TPB. This study found that consumers evaluate retailers who target women based on body shape and size as less ethical than retailers who do not target women based on a body shape and size. However, the consumer's unethical evaluation of the company did not divert the consumer's intention to buy the company's products. The results demonstrated that when retailers target women based on body shape and size, ethical evaluation significantly influences attitude and subjective norm, but does not significantly influence purchase intention.
- Subjects
BODY size; PURCHASING; RETAIL industry; MARKETING ethics; STRATEGIC planning; PLANNED behavior theory
- Publication
Journal of Research for Consumers, 2018, Issue 32, p1
- ISSN
1444-6359
- Publication type
Article