Dress with finesse: Why people wear clothes with logos

Abstract

Logos are part of a brand’s identity, responsible for its recognizability and what it stands for. Research showed that buying products easily recognizable by others is associated with status and/or conspicuous consumption. This research aimed to determine the reasons behind consumers wearing logo clothes. Building on existing literature, it investigated how status, conspicuousness, self-monitors, self-esteem, materialism, brand loyalty, opinion seekers and leaders, and gender influenced wearing visually branded clothing. A conceptual model was developed combining these constructs. An online questionnaire was conducted amongst 206 individuals, and the model was tested using PLS-SEM. Results indicated that materialism, conspicuous consumers, and brand loyalty affected the decision to wear logo clothes, whereas status consumers, self-monitors, self-esteem, and opinion seekers and leaders were not significant in explaining the dependent variable. Future research could expand the research to different countries and age groups.