Brand loyalty and fashion marketing: a case study of Romanian youth

The aim of the article. Our paper tackles a novel issue of brand loyalty within the realm of fashion marketing. Fashion marketing represent a very creative, innovative and rapidly growing field with the earnings randing in billions of dollars each year. We analyse the patterns and the choice of brands using the empirical analysis of the attitude and loyalty to a brand of a group of young Romanians aged between 18-30 years. Our sample includes 200 people who took part in the consumer survey. Our results show that the main determinants of selecting certain brands are reason and value as well as the social status. It appears that education has a negative outcome on brand loyalty and the higher personal income increases the probability of going for the brand. The main objective of paper is to investigate the consumer preferences and choices for the popular fashion brands. Moreover, we want to understand the main motivations and determinants of consumer loyalty and brand loyalty. We employ empirical analysis and statistical models and tools to achieve these goals.The results of the analysis. Our results demonstrate how brand loyalty and the willingness to pay for the loved brands might help the companies to tie up and to retain its customers.The outcomes of the principal component analysis in the empirical part of the paper show that the reasons for the loyalty to a certain brad are related to seasonal wardrobe renewal and manufacturing. The wage has a positive impact on a decision to be loyal to a certain brand. Contrary to our expectations, people with higher education are more interested in diversity than to follow a certain brand. The source of information regarding brands is reflected by the comparisons of traditional stores. The availability of Internet did not act like a factor that promoted the favoured specific brand. Moreover, the frequency of buying products of the same brand can be explained by several factors: the selection of shops with several brands and those with prices below a certain level, as well as the existence of a scholarship. Typically, the profile of young consumers who often buys clothes of the same brand reflects a young person who visits shops selling clothes from multiple brands or with lower expected prices and who, in most cases, has a scholarship. Manufacturing and fabric tend to be the most important factor that influences the frequency of buying clothes of the same brand.Conclusions and directions of further research. Our results might be of help for major fashion brands and the new fashion start-ups that are starting to build their marketing strategy on the competitive markets.As for the directions for further research, it seems that a more segmented analysis embracing the youth from several Central and Eastern European countries, or comparing the samples of respondents from the new and old EU countries might be very helpful in learning how different nations perceive brand loyalty and how they react to the marketing strategies that are targeted at promoting the brands.