Pre‐adolescent consumer conformity: A study of motivation for purchasing apparel

Pre‐adolescents (children between the ages of eight and 12) are becoming increasingly important in today's market segment, in terms of both absolute size and spending power. Although much research is available concerning adolescent consumer behaviour, very little is known about pre‐adolescent consumer behaviour. The purpose of this research was to examine the extent to which normative and informative conformity issues affect the purchase of apparel products by pre‐adolescents. Results from the 200 pre‐adolescents interviewed indicate that: —as pre‐adolescents age, social conformity influence increases; —both males and females are concerned that others like the clothing they purchase, and purchase clothing to look like peers; —they purchase clothing to conform with both social and organised groups; —they most often observe informational clothing behaviours from peers, athletes, entertainers and siblings. This study revealed that pre‐adolescents begin to use clothing to conform to peer groups as early as age eight, a finding never before reported.