Opinion Leadership in Clothing Fashions with Specific Reference to Student Community: An Analysis

Abstract

Abstract: This study investigates the role of fashion opinion leaders and followers in information seeking within the clothing fashion domain. The research focuses on examining the number, frequency, type, and variety of fashion information sources used by leaders and followers during different stages of the fashion adoption process, namely awareness, comprehension, and legitimation. However, opinion leaders demonstrated a higher propensity to consult a greater number of sources and do so more frequently compared to followers. Moreover, both leaders and followers recognized marketer-dominated sources as influential in creating awareness of new clothing styles. Notably, during the comprehension stage, the most significant sources differed between the two groups, with opinion leaders relying more on marketer-dominated sources, while followers leaned towards consumer-dominated sources. Additionally, the research examined demographic characteristics of the respondents but found no significant differentiation between opinion leaders and followers based on these factors. This suggests that the distinction between leaders and followers in fashion opinion is not necessarily driven by demographic attributes