Special edition – demographic change and the fashion market

Citation

(2005), "Special edition – demographic change and the fashion market", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 9 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmm.2005.28409caa.002

Special edition – demographic change and the fashion market

The major markets for fashion have traditionally been the developed economies, but these markets currently present a number of severe challenges to fashion marketers, such as saturation of the market place and falling prices. In addition, the demographic structure of their populations is changing in ways, which most experts would regard as unhelpful. In the case of the UK and most other Western European countries the most obvious manifestation of these changes is the rapid ageing of the population. In the UK, for example, the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over will rise substantially after 2010. In general macroeconomic terms this may represent a threat as the ratio of the population of pensionable age to the working population deteriorates. In relation to fashion markets there is a more specific problem in that the conventional wisdom is that young people are more interested in fashion than older people and research suggests that spending patterns vary with age. There are, of course, other dimensions to the demographic question and some of these raise issues in the newer, emerging markets as well as in the developed ones.

It will be the aim of this special edition to explore a range of issues in a range of countries around the general theme of the influence of demographic change on the demand for fashion products. One paper will explore the purchasing decisions of senior consumers in Slovenia as an example of an emerging market in Eastern Europe. A second will examine the potential impact of demographic change on the demand for “fair traded” products such as textiles, apparel and accessories, while a third will study the demographic influences on young Chinese consumers' fashion purchasing behaviour. The special edition will not only cover a wide range of issues and countries but also embraces a diversity of research methods including a statistical study of the American market which estimates demand equations for the fashion market and explores the influence of socio-economic and demographic variables. In this way it is believed that the volume will make a significant contribution to our understanding of these important issues.