Consumer Socialization Agents' Influence on College Students' Athletic Footwear Purchasing

Purpose:College students are one of the most important markets for many profit-oriented

organizations. According to Alloy Media & Marketing (2007), approximately 16 million college students spent more than $180 billion on product purchasing and influenced an additional $300 billion to $500 billion each year. College students spent over $2.9 billion for athletic shoes in 2007 (Grannis & Krugman, 2007). Although the college student market is a very lucrative market in the sport industry, no studies in the athletic shoes business have found the influence of socialization agents in college students athletic shoe purchases. Developing knowledge about factors which influence college students' purchase of athletic shoes will lead marketers to devise a more effective marketing strategy in order to generate more profit.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how socialization agents influence college students' decision-making process for athletic shoe purchases and to examine the relationship between various demographic segments.

Methods:Data were collected to determine if the influence of socialization agents differed between participants' genders, living status, and income sources. Four socialization agents, family, peers, mass media, and salespeople, were identified from the literature review and the pilot study. A 5-point Likert scale survey instrument was used to measure the degree of influence of socialization agents for college students' athletic shoe purchasing. A total of 418 college students were surveyed from a southeastern university. Chi-square analysis was used to test the differences among demographic segments of college students.

Analysis/Results:The results of the chi-square analysis indicated that overall the peer group had the greatest influence on college students' athletic shoe purchase decision-making process, while family had the least influence. The socialization agents' influence on college students' decision making in athletic shoes significantly differ between genders and among income sources as well as living status.

Conclusions: Marketers who target college students should consider some demographic variables that affect athletic shoe purchases among college students to develop more useful marketing strategies.