A Study on the Purchashing Condition of Brassiere for Korean Women

우리나라 성인여성(成人女性)의 브래지어 구매실태(購買實態)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究)

The purpose of this study is to provide for the basic data useful to the effective production and marketing of the brassiere befitting adult women's body shapes and preferences, and thereby, help them improve their apparel life. For this purpose, 563 Korean adult women aged between 20-59 were sampled to survey their practices of purchasing the brassieres and positively identify the factors affecting the practices and thereupon, determine the correlations among them by age group. Data is processed by a computer(SAS) and analyzed by using frequency, percentage, $\chi^2$-test, ANOVA, Duncan-test. The main results of this study are as follows; 1. The adult women tend to use such mass media as TV, magazines, catalogues and DM to decide for themselves which brassiere befits them most, and to check the brand-name(78.8%) or the sizes(93.4%), but more than 90% of them purchase their brassieres without trying on them. 2. The places of purchasing on which adult women rely most for their brassiere are department stores(32.6%), agencies(26.1%) and discount or pension shops(25.4%), while more than 90% of the sample women often visit bargain sale shops. The average number of brassieres possessed by our adult women is 5.7, and an adult women buys 2.6 brassiere costing 10-30 thousand wons a year on average and consumes a brassiere for the period from 6 months to 2 years. 3. It had been disclosed that the brand favored most by adult women is Venus(56.2%), followed by Vivien (17.6%), Wacoal(6.8%), Amie(2.5%) and Body Guard(2.3%). The most influential factors for the popularity of brands are fitting condition(40.3%) and design(23.8%), which suggests that consumers appreciate functionality and aesthetics. The most important reference affecting our women's choice of brassiere is size(64.4%), followed by design and functionality. The brassiere style favored most by adult women is a wire-type 3/4 cup brassiere made of thin material with sewing lines, while the most favorite color is white. In all, it has been found through this study that adult women's practices of buying their brassieres differ by age group, which may well suggest that brassiere production need to take such age-wise practices into consideration in setting up their brassiere production and marketing strategies.