The purpose of this study was to investigate the marketing strategies of custom clothing home-based
business owners by identifying selected demographic characteristics, general business information,
marketing strategies, and current and potential future marketing support from members who were custom
clothier home-based business owners affiliated with the Professional Association of Custom Clothiers in
the Oregon Chapter. The PACC is an organization developed to assist custom clothier home-based
businesses and commercial businesses that are in fields associated with the sewing industry.
There is limited research developed exploring areas focused on the marketing of custom clothier
home-based businesses. The custom clothier home-based business owner acts as the research and
development manager, production manager, and accountant as well as the marketer of the business
Therefore, as concluded in previous studies the examination of the marketing strategies used by custom
clothiers and any marketing support offered by professional organizations that assist home-based
businesses, required further investigation.
A self-administered mail survey questionnaire was mailed to all members of the PACC
organization in order to collect data for this study. Only members who owned a custom clothier home-based
business were asked to participate. The data from 45 of the returned questionnaires were identified as
useable and analyzed using a Statistical Analysis System (SAS) version 7.
Percents and frequencies were used to analyze the demographic characteristics, marketing
strategies, and current and potential future marketing support from the PACC organization. Eighty percent
of the respondents had been members of the PACC organization for three years or more. The greatest
percentage of the respondents (13.33%) had owned their custom clothier business for 12 years. The
majority of the respondents contribute fifty percent or less of the total household income. The respondents
in the survey confirmed that word-of-mouth communication was the most effective method of promotion
for the custom clothier home-based business owner. Networking was the most beneficial item of marketing
support the respondents derive from membership in the PACC organization. A Likert Scale with the
endpoints of "Very Beneficial and Not Very Beneficial" identified that the respondents also perceive
product/service development at meetings as a very beneficial source of marketing support from the PACC
organization. Future ideas for possible potential marketing support for the PACC organization included: 1)
using the PACC referral service, 2) more publicity for the PACC organization, and 3) more exposure at the
national level.
Fisher's Exact Test was used to analyze data. Four separate two-by-two tables were developed to
compare the respondents as two groups of 1) those respondents who had marketing experience and/or
education to 2) those respondents who did not have marketing experience and/or education. Therefore, the
column factor in the columns of the two-by-two tables was marketing experience and/or education and was
indicated by the respondents on the questionnaire with a "yes" or "no" response. The row factors in each of
the four separate two-by-two tables were: 1) geographic range of the clientele. 2) number of competitors in
the local area. 3) requests for new fabrics, embellishments, or interfacings, and 4) satisfaction with the level of profits from the business.
This investigation revealed that the proportion of the respondents who had marketing experience
and/or education were inclined to have clientele outside the designated local area of a 50-mile radius within
the location of the home-based business. The two-by-two table that compared the column factor of
marketing experience and/or education and the row factor of satisfaction with the level of profits from the
business revealed no significant differences between the two groups of respondents. Satisfaction of the
business was not associated with either having marketing experience and/or education or not having
marketing experience and/or education.
Research investigating the marketing strategies of custom clothier home-based business owner is
an important topic. The marketing of the custom clothier home-based business is often a complex process
and is difficult to master and implement. / Graduation date: 2000
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33105 |
| Date | 27 April 2000 |
| Creators | Frisbie, ZoeDel E. |
| Contributors | Bryant, Nancy O. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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