Comparative study of lower and middle class women’s consumer behaviour towards clothing: a case study of women in mathare valley estate and garden estate in Nairobi city county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to establish the similarities and differences of lower and middle class women‟s consumer behaviour towards clothing. The study also seeks to determine the factors that influence consumer behavior of women towards clothing in Mathare Valley and Garden estates in Nairobi, Kenya. This paper adapts a descriptive study that aims at describing a market phenomenon involving women clothing consumer behaviours in Nairobi, Kenya. . A questionnaire was drafted with closed questions that aided in the data collection from 198 women respondents from Mathare Valley and Garden estates. The study concludes that there are more differences than similarities when it comes to lower and middle class women‟s consumer behaviour towards clothing. For instance the study concludes that there are more married women in both estates despite social class difference. The study also concludes that majority of women from both Mathare valley and Garden estate spend less than 2 hours while shopping for clothes. In this study there exist very many differences especially when it comes to age, marital status, monthly income, education level, occupation status of respondents, the places they shop from, the amount they spend in shopping and many others. This in turn influences women from the two social backgrounds differently. This study also concludes that different factors influence women to different degrees in regards to their clothing shopping behaviour; some factors are highly regarded whereas others are lowly regarded. For instance in this study factors like amount of income, occupation status, marital status and social class were highly regarded by respondents from both estates. The findings of the study might interest consumer behaviour researchers and also add more information to the existing literature.