When it comes to selling clothes retail marketing is never easy. Since most people have their own self-image, as well as the image of an ideal self, it is very hard to find a model that can help promote clothes to any kind of target audience.
While it is clear that most clothes look well enough on slim models, displaying clothes only with the help of slim models will mean negligence and even infringement of the rights of large people; hence, the need to introduce larger models arises.
Gender is another tricky aspect; putting a clothing item that suits both men and women on a female model can possibly avert the male audience from the given item. That said, it is necessary to figure out what influence different means of promotion have on the target audience.
Research Methods
Since the given research presupposes the analysis of the efficiency of the existing marketing methods carried out with the help of questionnaires, it can be considered that the basic method of the given paper is quantitative research.
It is also worth mentioning that, to evaluate the efficiency of the current marketing strategy, extensive statistical data have been derived from the created questionnaires and conducted opinion polls. The research offers statistics on a number of demographic characteristics, as well as on the opinions of the chosen type of demographics.
Participants
Speaking of the participants of the research, one has to mention that the research was conducted among students. However, the opinion of the older people was also taken into account. Therefore, the age in the participants’ group varies from 18 to 78. Hence, the mean age of an average participant in the research made 28.5 years (SD = 16, appr.), which means that the number of the young people prevailed in the given research.
The research was conducted in a mixed group; therefore, both men and women were invited to participate. It is also worth bringing up that each of the participants had to evaluate the look of each model, i.e., both the models of the same and the opposite sex. Of the total number of people, 36% were men (N=90), and 64% were women (N=162).
Materials and Procedure
It is important to mention that in the course of the research, the online server Qualtrix was used to analyze the research data. The study was carried out with the help of a mixed (quantitative and qualitative) analysis. The participants of the research were offered questionnaires to fill in. Later on, the answers were gathered and analyzed.
Research Results
Analyzing the research conclusion, one must mention that the expected results do not differ considerably from the ones obtained in the course of the research. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the differences in the answers of the research participants.
As a reminder, the research revolves around two key variables, which are:
- how a person rates him-/herself with respect to thin model selection (You thin);
- how a person rates him-/herself with respect to curvy/heavy model selection (You curvy).
That said, the results of the research are quite predictable, given the modern idea of being thin as the key principle of beauty. According to the research, the Pearson correlation concerning the You thin model remained mostly within the 0.5 range (F(1; 254) = 0.002, DS = 0.2733, p<0.5), which means that there is no major difference between the opinion of men and women concerning the attractiveness of the clothes when they are put on the You thin model.
The same cannot be said, however, about the attractiveness of the model itself; as the research shows, F(1;254) = 0.002, SD = 0.2033, p > 0.5, which means that there are different opinions on the You thin model. Finally, when answering whether the clothes on the You thin model could look just as good on them, the participants of the research responded mostly positive (F(1; 254) = 0.002, SD =.3979, p < 0.5).
As for the You curvy model, the opinions vary even more. It is noteworthy that in case of liking the clothing out on the curvy model, p equals 0.38, which means that most of the respondents would rather try the clothes on the You-thin model as well. Therefore, it can be concluded that the You thin model correlated with the participants’ ideal self-image.
The same cannot be said, however about the You-curvy model. Though the given variable featured the same set of options, the choices were less definite. It is impressive that the appeal of the clothes was increased (F (1; 254) = 0.5365, SD = 0.3480, p > 0.5 for model attractiveness, F (1; 254) = 0.5365, SD = 0.846, p < 0.5 for clothes attractiveness on the model and F (1; 254) = 0.5365, SD = 1.1, p < 0.5 for clothes attractiveness on the participant.
Therefore, it can be deduced that the You curvy model, which did not relate to the modern ideal of beauty, destroyed the participants’ ideal self-image, thus, ruining the effect that the clothes produced.
It is also impressive that the standard deviations in the You thin and You curvy models differ greatly; while in You thin model, the standard deviation is rather low, which means that the participants have more or less similar viewpoints concerning the look of the clothes, the model and themselves in these clothes, the standard deviation is very high.
The given information means that there has been a considerable difference between the answers that the respondents gave. Therefore, it can be concluded that the You curvy model contributes to shaping a negative (“curvy,” “large”) image of the respondents’ selves, which results in a low “grade” for the You curvy model.