BUYING LINGERIE FOR WOMEN: AN APPLICATION OF SEGMENTATION BASED ARCHETYPES

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze attitudes for consumption and purchase of lingerie considering attitudes, symbolic consumption and archetype for the development of a segmentation proposal. The work begins with a brief theoretical revision followed by the presentation of the results of the survey, with a non probabilistic sample composed by 150 women aged between 18 and 51 years. The research instrument was structured and it was applied in Sao Paulo, through personal interview. The data had been analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics (factorial and cluster analysis). Amongst the main findings it may be considered the influence of demographic variable such as age or income in the purchase frequency and type of lingerie, as well as in the differentiation of the lingerie attributes if for daily use (comfort and price) or for special occasion (color and model). The women present highly favorable attitudes related to lingerie. Factor analysis indicated the existence of three underlying factors that were named according to the archetypes: Aphrodite, Artemis and Demeter. The three identified clusters accompanying such archetypes as the 21st century feminist (53% of sample); the mommy (11% of the sample) and, finally, the seductive women; (36% of the sample). [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]