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Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers and A Quality Function

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 TEKSTİL VE MÜHENDİS
(Journal of Textiles and Engineer)

http://www.tekstilvemuhendis.org.tr

Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers and A Quality Function

Deployment Application

Türk Tüketicilerin İç Giysi Satın Alma Davranışları ve Kalite Fonksiyon Göçerimi

Uygulaması

Hande Gül ATASAĞUN1, Eren ÖNER2, Bekir BOYACI3, Ayşe OKUR4

1
Department of Technical Programs, İzmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
2
Department of Textile Engineering, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey
3
Sun Group R&D Center, İzmir, Turkey
4
Department of Textile Engineering, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey

Online Erişime Açıldığı Tarih (Available online):30 Haziran 2019 (30 June 2019)

Bu makaleye atıf yapmak için (To cite this article):

Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER, Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR (2019): Underwear Purchasing
Behavior of Turkish Consumers and A Quality Function Deployment Application, Tekstil ve
Mühendis, 26: 114, 168-175.

For online version of the article: https://doi.org/10.7216/1300759920192611406

Sorumlu Yazara ait Orcid Numarası (Corresponding Author’s Orcid Number) :

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6956-8727
 TMMOB Tekstil Mühendisleri Odası
Yıl (Year) : 2019/2
UCTEA Chamber of Textile Engineers
Cilt (Vol) : 26
Tekstil ve Mühendis
Sayı (No) : 114
Journal of Textiles and Engineer

Araştırma Makalesi / Research Article

UNDERWEAR PURCHASING BEHAVIOR OF TURKISH CONSUMERS AND A

QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT APPLICATION

Hande Gül ATASAĞUN1*

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6956-8727
2
Eren ÖNER
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2770-414X
3
Bekir BOYACI
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4557-0990
4
Ayşe OKUR
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2204-3699
1
Department of Technical Programs, İzmir Vocational School, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey
2
Department of Textile Engineering, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey
3
Sun Group R&D Center, İzmir, Turkey
4
Department of Textile Engineering, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey

Gönderilme Tarihi / Received: 16.07.2018

Kabul Tarihi / Accepted: 02.05.2019

ABSTRACT: In this study, it was aimed to determine the underwear preferences and expectations of Turkish consumers and to
evaluate the factors affecting them. In addition, the quality function deployment (QFD) technique was used to establish the
importance level of various technical requirements in order to develop underwear which satisfied consumer expectations. The results
indicated that gender played an essential role in consumers’ underwear preferences. Furthermore, the findings of QFD revealed that
the most important technical requirement in underwear production was the selection of appropriate raw material. The results of this
study will help underwear manufacturers and designers to develop underwear taking into account consumer expectations.

Keywords: Consumer expectation, consumer preference, quality function deployment (QFD), underwear

TÜRK TÜKETİCİLERİN İÇ GİYSİ SATIN ALMA DAVRANIŞLARI VE KALİTE FONKSİYON

GÖÇERİMİ UYGULAMASI

ÖZET: Bu çalışmada Türk tüketicilerin iç giyim tercihlerinin ve beklentilerinin belirlenmesi ve bunları etkileyen faktörlerin
değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Ayrıca, tüketici beklentilerini karşılayan iç giysiler geliştirmek için çeşitli teknik gerekliliklerin
önem düzeyini belirlemek amacıyla kalite fonksiyon göçerimi (KFG) tekniği kullanılmıştır. Sonuçlar, cinsiyetin tüketicilerin iç giyim
tercihlerinde önemli bir rol oynadığını göstermiştir. Ayrıca, KFG’nin bulguları iç giysi üretiminde en önemli teknik gerekliliğin
uygun hammadde seçimi olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bu çalışmanın sonuçları, iç giyim üreticileri ve tasarımcılarının tüketici
beklentilerini dikkate alarak iç giysi geliştirmelerine yardımcı olacaktır.

Anahtar kelimeler: Tüketici beklentisi, tüketici tercihi, kalite fonksiyon göçerimi (KFG), iç giysi

Sorumlu Yazar/Corresponding Author: [email protected]

DOI: 10.7216/1300759920192611406, www.tekstilvemuhendis.org.tr

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
SAYFA 168
 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

1. INTRODUCTION helps to develop new products meeting consumer expectations

[10-12]. While Akao [13] described QFD as “a method for
Performance, functionality, and usefulness of textile products
developing a design quality aimed at satisfying the customer and
have become important for consumers in recent years, and
then translating the customer’s demand into design targets and
consumer expectations and purchasing behaviors have highly
major quality assurance points to be used throughout the
changed. Therefore, textile producers have started to take into
production phase”, Shahin [14] identified this term as "a
consideration their customers’ preferences and expectations, as
customer-driven product development”. Translating the textile
well as innovations in the textile industry in order to manufacture
market demands from consumers’ viewpoint into technical
high-quality and marketable products and to increase their
product characteristics through QFD is essential for the textile
competitive abilities in the market. Also, the research of consu-
industry. Huang and Tan [11] examined factors influencing
mer purchasing behavior is an essential tool for the companies to
garment design and product quality using the QFD approach.
analyze their target market and purchaser society and is
They found that keen observation ability, marketing analysis and
beneficial to develop the right marketing strategies. In the
market development of a company were crucial factors in order
literature, many researchers have evaluated factors influencing
to manufacture high value-added products. Golshan et al. [15]
the textile consumers' purchasing behaviors and expectations.
gathered information about the factors affecting male customers’
Eckman et al. [1] conducted free-response interviews with
garment selection through a questionnaire and also, determined
female customers to explore the factors affecting garment buying
the most critical technical characteristics using the house of
decisions. It was observed that the color/pattern, styling, and
quality considering customer expectations. The findings showed
fabric of garments were the most crucial factors influencing the
that suitable design, printing and packing specifications, essential
garment selection from display racks. Also, the fit, styling, and
requirements, optimization of production planning, and
appearance of garments affected the adoption or rejection of
appropriate sewing machine settings influenced on the purchase
garments. Shim and Bickle [2] investigated female apparel
of a textile product. Kamal et al. [16] used the QFD method to
market segments and developed a profile of each segment
redesign a textile cultural product, called Malaysia Batik sarong.
regarding psychographics, shopping orientations, patronage
The source of fiber and the finishing had the highest relative
behaviors, and demographics. They reported that there were
weights among all examined factors.
three groups of female consumers: symbolic/instrumental, prac-
tical/conservative, and apathetic users of clothing. Yoo [3] Even though many studies about textile consumer preferences
examined factors influencing the jacket design preferences of and perceptions were done, there were a few studies about the
females. According to the results of this study, their preferences underwear market in the literature [8, 17-19]. This study was
were related to age, ethnicity, clothing design elements, ability to aimed to evaluate the underwear preferences and expectations of
modify self-presentation, self-monitoring, and body shape. consumers through a questionnaire. Besides, the importance
Young adult consumers’ buying behavior for casual clothes and level of technical characteristics to produce underwear
sports shoes were examined by Lu Hsu and Chang [4]. They considering consumers’ perspective was investigated through the
pointed out that the brand of products and the suggestions of Quality Function Deployment approach. This knowledge will
salespersons and consumers' friends had significant impacts on assist underwear manufacturers and designers to manufacture
the buying decisions of consumers. Kinley [5] determined that marketable products which meet customer expectations.
the female consumers shopping from specialty store preferred
garments which gave fashion-forward, sexy, and reputation 2. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES
benefits. In addition, these benefits sought had effects on their
This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing the
clothing purchase frequency, shopping behavior, and the amount
preferences and expectations of Turkish underwear consumers.
of money spent on a product. Risius et al. [6] conducted a survey
Therefore, two research models were designed (Figure 1 and 2),
in order to identify primary bra variables. The findings showed
and a questionnaire structured into three sections was used to
that these variables were the comfort, bra’s ability to stay in
collect data. The first part of this questionnaire was about the
place, optimal fit, the appearance under clothing, support,
demographic details of respondents. The second part consisted of
discreetness, shoulder strap design, upper torso silhouette, breast
multiple-choice questions about their underwear preferences
shape, fabric and the breast lift for survey respondents.
(e.g., shopping frequency, preferred raw material, and price). In
In an attempt to make contact with customers and to understand the last part, their expectations from the underwear were
their demands, suppliers and researchers use various data collec- determined through 16 questions using a 5-point Likert-type
tion tools such as questionnaires, keeping statistics, tracking scale (5-very important, 1-not important).
shopping data and so on. Also, many different methods are used
In this study, convenience sampling method, which is the least
to analyze gathered data, to understand what consumers want and
expensive and time-consuming method, was used to collect the
to translate consumer expectations into product specifications [7-
data. The sample size was calculated as at least 384 individuals
9]. Quality Function Deployment (QFD), which links production
(d=0.05, p and q=0.5 at 5% tolerance with a 95% possibility)
techniques and consumer demands, is one of these methods and
[20]. 462 questionnaires were responded through emails or were

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Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
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 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

filled directly by participants, and a total of 438 usable 3. RESULTS

questionnaires were analyzed. This research was done from
January to March of 2015. The composition of respondents was 3.1. Consumer Preferences
156 males (35.6%) and 282 females (64.4%) who work in the
office (28.3%), class (32.6%), home (9.6%), outdoors (8.4%), Table 1 provides information about the underwear preferences of
factory (8%), and other places (13%). 40% of the respondents consumers and shows the relationship between their choices and
demographic data. The chi-square test revealed that significant
were aged between 15-25 years old, and 30.1% of them belonged
differences existed between males and females regarding their
to the age group of 26-35 years. The remaining respondents
responses to people who buy their underwear (p<0.05). 86.1% of
(29.9%) were more than 35 years of age. the respondents stated they bought their own underwear. More
The statistical analyses were done using the Statistical Package than half of these respondents who answered the question in this
for the Social Sciences Statistics version 22.0 (IBM, Armonk, way were female. The number of male consumers who said that
NY, USA). The results were evaluated with variance analysis, their underwear was bought by their parents/spouses was more
and p < 0.05 was considered to be significant. The differences than that of females. Age and workplace were related to the
between two groups were determined using the Mann-Whitney U responses of people who reported that their underwear was
test. On the other hand, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for bought by their parents/spouses (p<0.05). 34% of the
comparing data from three or more independent groups, followed respondents who said that their underwear was bought by their
by pairwise comparisons by using the Mann-Whitney U test with spouses were the office worker. Besides, more than half of the
the Bonferroni correction method. Also, the Quality Function respondents who stated that their spouses bought their underwear
Deployment (QFD) method was used to turn the demands of were older than 36 years old. 76.9% of the respondents who said
consumers into technical product requirements. For this purpose, that their underwear was bought by their parents were in the 15-
a house of quality (HOQ) was formed to link the voice of to-25 year age range.
customers to the voice of the product development team.

People who buy underwear

Age Place to go shopping

Gender

Shopping frequency
Gender

Willingness to pay price

Workplace

Raw material

Ambient conditions

Figure 1. A conceptual model for underwear preferences of consumers.

Age
Ease of use
Gender
Willingness-to-pay price
Tactile sensation
for underwear which is
Workplace satisfied consumers’
expectations
Fashionableness
Shopping frequency
Thermal sensation
Willingness to pay price

Figure 2. A conceptual model for underwear expectations of consumers.

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
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 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

Table 1. The relationship between the consumer preferences and demographic characteristics.
p
Consumer preferences Frequency %
Age Gender Workplace
People who buy underwear
Myself 377 86.0 0.398 0.000 0.125
My parents 52 11.9 0.000 0.001 0.000
My spouse 50 11.4 0.000 0.000 0.025
Other 8 1.8 0.081 0.391 0.133
Places to go shopping
Supermarket 36 8.2 0.334 0.000 0.850
Online shopping 38 8.7 0.621 0.050 0.009
Mall 130 29.7 0.686 0.347 0.242
Underwear store 279 63.7 0.000 0.000 0.054
Open-air market 84 19.2 0.000 0.002 0.001
Other 17 3.9 0.256 0.002 0.933
Shopping frequency
Once a year 33 7.5
Once every six months 76 17.4
Once every three months 170 38.8 0.005 0.000 0.086
Once a month 124 28.3
More than once a month 35 8.0
Willingness-to-pay price
between 1 and 10₺ 157 35.8
between 11 and 20₺ 131 29.9
between 21 and 30₺ 108 24.7
0.010 0.000 0.000
between 31 and 40₺ 20 4.6
between 41 and 50₺ 15 3.4
over 50₺ 7 1.6
Raw materials
Cotton 368 84.0 0.049 0.000 0.015
Wool 46 10.5 0.009 0.841 0.352
Blending 31 7.1 0.389 0.123 0.210
Synthetic 16 3.7 0.190 0.079 0.000
Other 57 13.0 0.416 0.202 0.343
Underwear preference depending upon environmental conditions
Yes 291 66.4
0.060 0.233 0.038
No 147 33.6

By examining the shopping place preferences of respondents to The results of the shopping frequency revealed that 38.8% of
buy underwear, it was observed that 63.7% of them preferred respondents bought the underwear once every three months.
shopping in underwear stores. Age and gender factors affected Gender and age affected the shopping frequency significantly
significantly the preferences of respondents who shop from (p<0.05), and 72.4% of females reported that they bought under-
underwear stores (p<0.05). 71% of them were female, and more wear once a month or every three months. On the other hand,
than 70% of the respondents aged 36 and over also stated that approximately 60% of males stated that they went shopping to
they prefer shopping from underwear stores. The supermarket buy underwear once every three or six months. While the
shopping behavior was statistically only related to gender respondents aged 15-35 years said that they generally bought
(p<0.05), and there were twice as many males as the females underwear once a month or every three months, the respondents
who shopped from the supermarket. Moreover, online shopping aged 36 and over had a tendency to buy underwear once every
was statistically associated with people’s workplaces (p<0.05), three or six months.
and the majority of respondents who preferred online shopping
The maximum price that people would be willing to pay for
stated that their workplaces were the classrooms. Age, gender,
underwear was mostly under 30₺, and 35.8% of the respondents
and workplace were related to the responses of people who
stated that they could pay less than even 10₺. The willingness-to-
prefer to buy underwear from the open-air market (p<0.05).
pay price was found to be associated with gender, age, and
60.7% of these respondents were between the ages of 15 and 25
workplace (p<0.05). It was determined that 50.6% of males
years. Also, males and the people working in the classroom (i.e.,
wanted to pay less than 10₺ for underwear, and 62.4% of females
students, teachers) had more tendencies to shop from the open-
were willing to pay between 11₺ and 30₺. Almost 50% of the
air market than other respondents.
respondents who want to pay less than 10₺ were between 15 and

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
SAYFA 171
 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

25 years old, and 85.7% of people who would pay over 50₺ were number of latent constructs and the underlying factor structure of
above 36 years of age. In addition, 32.4% of people working a set of variables [22]. The factors were rotated by an orthogonal
outdoors stated that they would pay more than 30₺ for Varimax rotation. To determine the number of factors, Kaiser’s
underwear. criterion (eigenvalue>1) was considered. The EFA identified
four dimensions of consumer expectations from the underwear
The results of raw material preferences of underwear consumers
named as the ease of use, tactile sensation, fashionable, and
indicated that the vast majority of people preferred cotton
thermal sensation, which are shown in Table 2. These factors
underwear, and this preference varied with the age, gender and
accounted for 65% of the total variance in the dataset.
workplace of the respondents (p<0.05). People working outdoors
preferred cotton underwear less than other working groups, and The tactile sensation (i.e., itchy, softness, wetness) was the most
43.8% of people working outdoors stated that they preferred regarded factor that its mean score was 4.62. On the other hand,
synthetic underwear. Furthermore, females tended more to prefer the mean score of fashionable dimension (i.e., trendy, branded,
cotton underwear in comparison with males. The workplace of color assortment) was 3.56, which was the lowest value among
people played an essential role in how they chose their others. As can be seen in the research model given in Figure 2,
underwear depending on environmental conditions (p<0.05). the effect of gender, age, workplace, shopping frequency, and
66.4% of the respondents stated that their underwear preferences willingness to pay the price on these dimensions were examined,
and the significant differences are shown in Table 3. Females
depended on the environmental conditions.
have higher expectations from underwear than males, and this
difference was statistically significant regarding all the factors
3.2. Consumer Expectations (p<0.05). The age of respondents played a role in how they rated
the factors, except for the fashionableness dimension, and all
In this study, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha (α) was calculated to factors were more important for people above 35 years old. The
assess reliability and internal consistency. All the reliabilities people working in the classroom and the office had lower
ranged from 0.772 to 0.824 and were over 0.7, which is the expectations from underwear in terms of the factors of ease of
recommended value [21]. To assess the suitability of the use and fashionableness as compared to the people working in
respondent data for factor analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) other places. Besides, the fashionable dimension was related to
Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity people’s shopping frequency and willingness-to-pay price for
were used. The KMO index was 0.861, and Bartlett’s test was underwear. As expected, the fashionableness of underwear was
statistically significant for the factor analysis (p<0.05). The more important for people who often go shopping and spend
exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the more money.

Table 2. Exploratory factor analysis of consumer expectations regarding underwear.

FACTORS
Consumer expectations Thermal
Ease of use Tactile sensation Fashionableness
sensation
Should not be tight .779
Should not restrict movement .730
Should be washable .703
Should be easy-care .639
Should fit tightly to the body .611
Should be thin and lightweight .767
Should be soft .756
Should not produce body sweat .692
Should not cause a wet feeling .676
Should not itch .550
Should be trendy .878
Should be branded .833
Should have different color options .792
Should keep warm in winter .888
Should keep cool in summer .769
Should give a warm feeling .608
Eigenvalue 5.954 1.963 1.401 1.086
Reliability 0.810 0.818 0.824 0.772
Mean score 4.446 4.619 3.563 4.290
Percentage of total variance explained: 65.024 KMO: 0.861 Bartlett: 3089.891
(p=0.000)

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Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
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 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

Table 3. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test results.

Factors Test statistics
Ease of use p Differences (5= very important; 1= not important)
Gender .000 Male (Median=4.40); Female (Median=4.60)
Age .000 15-25 (Median=4.40); Above 35 (Median=4.80)
Workplace .006 Classroom (Median=4.40); Other places (Median=4.80)
Tactile sensation p Differences (5= very important; 1= not important)
Gender .004 Male (Median=4.60); Female (Median=4.80)

Age .000 15-25 (Median=4.60); 26-35 (Median= 4.80)

15-25 (Median=4.60); Above 35 (Median=5.00)
Workplace .048 -
Fashionableness p Differences (5= very important; 1= not important)
Gender .001 Male (Median=3.33); Female (Median=3.66)

Workplace .023 Office (Median=3.67); Other places (Median=4.00)

Classroom (Median=3.33); Other places (Median=4.00)

Once a year (Median=3.00); Once a month (Median=4.00)

Once a year (Median=3.00); More than once a month (Median=4.00)
Shopping frequency .000 Once every six months (Median=3.33); Once a quarter (Median=3.67)
Once every six months (Median=3.33); Once a month (Median=4.00)
Once every six months (Median=3.33); More than once a month (4.00)

.002 between 1 and 10₺ (Median=3.33); between 31 and 40₺ (Median=4.83)

Willingness-to-pay price
between 1 and 10₺ (Median=3.33); over 50₺ (Median=5.00)
Thermal sensation p Differences (5= very important; 1= not important)
Gender .010 Male (Median=4.17); Female (Median=4.33)
Age .004 15-25 (Median=4.33); Above 35 (Median=4.67)

Figure 3. The willingness-to-pay price for underwear at present and after meeting the expectations.

Figure 3 illustrates the difference between the underwear prices expectations, the price was statistically related to the ease of use,
that consumers would pay at present and after meeting their the tactile sensation, and fashionableness of underwear.
expectations. Most people tended to pay between 1₺ and 30₺ for However, there was not any significant effect of the thermal
underwear in both cases. With regards to the willingness-to-pay sensation factor on this price (p<0.05).
price at present, as the price increased, the percentage of people
decreased. The percentage of people who would pay between 3.2. The House of Quality (HOQ)
21₺ and 30₺ for underwear after meeting the expectations
increased significantly, rising from 24.7% to 36.5%. It was In this study, the QFD tool was used to determine the importance
observed in both cases that there was a sharp drop after the 21- score of the technical requirements of underwear, and the HOQ
30₺ range, and the percentage of people remained steady. was occurred by using consumer expectations and the evaluation
Examining the effect of factor dimensions on the maximum price of the product development team for underwear. The findings
that people are willing to pay after meeting their underwear obtained from the factor analysis were used in the classification

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
SAYFA 173
 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

of customer expectations. However, since the dimension of frequency was higher than that of older people, and younger
fashionableness had the lowest mean score amongst others, it people tended more to buy their underwear from the open-air
was not used in the HOQ. The relationship between customer market. The shopping frequency of people being older than 35
demands and technical characteristics are listed in a matrix in years old was lower. However, they paid more money for
Table 4. This matrix was developed by a focus group. This group underwear than younger people and shopping from the
consisted of 8 members including textile engineers and garment underwear store was more popular among older people. This
designers because the customer requirements were needed to result is in accordance with the study of Moye and Giddings [26]
translate into technical specifications that are significant for
who reported that older people spend more money on shopping.
underwear producers. The results of questionnaires were used to
determine the importance of quality demands for underwear, and The workplace was also crucial for consumers' underwear
there were three correlation symbols were used in the matrix. preferences. As with the study of Khan et al. [27], online
The symbol (ʘ) represents a strong relation (value of 9); the consumers were generally younger in our research, and people
symbol (Ο) represents a medium relation (value of 3); the who work in the classroom (i.e., students, teachers) preferred to
symbol (Δ) represents a weak relation (value of 1). The buy underwear from the online shopping and the open-air
importance score of technical requirements in the quality house
market. Also, people working outdoors tended to buy more
was calculated by multiplying the factor importance and the
synthetic underwear and were willing to pay the highest price
correlation values.
among other groups because they expect additional properties
Examining these importance scores (in the bottom of Table 4), from their underwear.
the mean relative importance of physical and structural According to the results of the HOQ study, selecting appropriate
properties of underwear was the highest among others. It was raw material to use in different environmental conditions is the
observed that the most crucial factor in the production of most important technical feature for the satisfaction of underwear
underwear, which meets customer expectations, was the consumers. To exemplify, the producers should use moisture
selection of appropriate raw material (15.3%), followed by the management fibers (e.g. Coolmax, Aerocool) in the production
selection of proper knitting structure (11.7%) and finishing of the underwear of the people doing sports. In addition, keeping
process (9.3%). The fabric color and the preliminary finishing warm might be provided with the utilization of modified cross-
processes were of the least importance according to the matrix. section fibers [28-30]. Another crucial factor that should be
considered in the production of underwear was the selection of
the appropriate knitting structure. For instance, the usage of
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS fabric structure having high porosity might help to solve some
problems with underwear, such as unsatisfied wet feeling, the
This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of various factors
restriction of movement. Convenient finishing process was
(e.g., gender, age, and workplace) on the preferences and
another essential technical requirement determined in the house
expectations of underwear consumers living in Turkey. In
of quality. This feature might provide some advantages to
addition, the importance level of technical features of underwear
underwear, such as softness, easy-care, preventing itching. This
to take into consideration during the production was determined
study can contribute to underwear producers and designers to
by using the quality function deployment (QFD) approach.
manufacture the underwear considering both technical
requirements of the underwear and consumer expectations.
As with the studies of Ling and Yazdanifard [23] and Grębosz
and Wrońska [24], it was found that gender played an important Although the study could be used as a first step to understand the
role in consumers’ underwear preferences in our study. Although underwear consumers, this study had some limitations. The main
the great majority of consumers bought their own underwear, limitation of the study was conducted in Turkey only, and we
spouses/ parents were more effective on the males’ preferences. focused on the preferences and expectations of underwear
According to these findings, underwear companies should consumers lived in İzmir that is a metropolitan city in Turkey.
develop marketing strategies considering female customers. Therefore, the usefulness of findings might be limited in other
places. Future research should include the evaluation and the
While males tended to prefer supermarkets and open-air markets comparison of the expectations and preferences of underwear
to buy underwear, females preferred to go shopping in underwear consumers living in other countries using the modern (blitz)
stores. This result is consistent with Shim and Kotsiopulos [25] QFD approach.
who revealed that male consumers did not care about underwear
fashion. On the other hand, adult female consumers followed the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
fashion in our study and can be described as the Fashion-
The study was supported by the Technology and Innovation
Forward who preferred to shop in specialty stores for desired
Funding Programs Directorate of the Scientific and Technological
benefits [5].
Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) (Project number:
Examining the age groups of consumers, younger people’s
3140737).
underwear were mostly bought by their parents. Their shopping

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
SAYFA 174
Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

Cilt (Vol): 26 No: 114

Journal of Textiles and Engineer Tekstil ve Mühendis
SAYFA 175
 Underwear Purchasing Behavior of Turkish Consumers Hande Gül ATASAĞUN, Eren ÖNER
and a Quality Function Deployment Application Bekir BOYACI, Ayşe OKUR

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