Lingerie Purchasing by Women: A Segmentation Proposal Based on Archetypes

Abstract

The principal objective of this study is to analyze the attitudes of the purchase and wearing of lingerie, concerning the attitudes, symbolic consumption and archetypes for the development of a market segmentation proposal. The paper begins with a brief theoretical review followed by a presentation of the empirical quantitative survey results, with non-probability sampling covering 150 women between the ages of 18 and 51. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire applied in Sao Paulo, through personal interviews. 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 variables, such as age or income, in the purchase frequency and type of lingerie, in addition to differentiation of the lingerie attributes if for daily use (comfort and price) or for special occasions (color and model). The women have highly favorable attitudes relating 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 “21st century feminism” (53% of those sampled); the “mommy” (11% of those sampled) and, finally, the “seductive” women; (36% of those sampled).DOI: 10.5585/remark.v9i3.2182