Team Project

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TEAM PROJECT How Families Manage Their Clothing: Acquisition, Consumption, & Disposition

Why Clothing Disposition is Important: We are increasingly becoming “throw-away” society. Consumerist worldview defines well-being, happiness, and success in terms of the acquisition and consumption of material possessions. The prevalence of consumerism and the view of consumption mostly as a one-way linear movement from acquiring new to disposal, understanding the totality of consumers’ decisions with respect to the acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, time, and ideas by human decision-making units are important in today’s world. Disposal is a process that begins with a consumer’s decision to stop using a still-usable product. The consumer must then decide how to dispose of that product. He or she may store it, transfer it temporarily or permanently to other individuals or organizations, or throw it away. In the United States alone, households spend approximately US$350 billion annually on clothes and shoes (American Apparel and Footwear Association, 2012). Certain marketing strategies increase the frequency of consumer shopping and stimulate the major clothing markets. For example, ‘‘fast fashion’’ (retailers such as H&M, Zara and Topshop) involves the production of low-cost clothing based on the latest fashion trends, thus increasing sales through impulse purchasing. Of course, this strategy creates major sustainability issues due to the rate of consumption. The accelerated pace of consumption in the Western world has led to an increase in clothing disposed of in the garbage rather than being reused or recycled—which would be more environmentally sound. Consumer decisions on clothing disposal are important from an environmental point of view, as they have an effect on the lifespan of clothing, as well as the potential for reuse and recycling. Sustainable clothing consumption includes several stages, not only the purchase but also post-purchase components such as use, care and disposal. Hence, the promotion of recycling and socially responsible behavior has become increasingly important. The purpose of this project is to understand consumers’ clothing consumption and disposal behavior and how this behavior might be modified to encourage recycling, giving away, or donating to charities in order to reduce the amount of clothing in landfill sites. Disposal Methods: Jacoby et al. (1977) have developed a conceptual disposition decision taxonomy, which shows that consumers have three general choices when discarding a product: to keep it, dispose of it permanently or dispose of it temporarily.

• Keep it: Keeping includes converting to use for another purpose or storing.

• Permanent Disposition includes: o Throwing or giving away: charitable donations or handing down to friends, family, neighbors or

other acquaintances (without economic gain). o Selling or Trading: when clothing is exchanged for money through different channels such as the

Internet, garage sales or flea markets etc. (for economic gain).

• Temporary disposition includes: o Loaning or renting used when clothing is exchanged for other clothing, usually in an informal

meeting between friends or in organized happenings with larger number of participants (with or without economic gain).

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Clothing Disposal Reasons/Motivations:

Although many factors influence consumers’ disposition choices, here are three important reasons:

• Psychological characteristics of the decision maker: personality, attitudes, emotions, perception, learning, creativity, intelligence, social class, level of risk tolerance peer pressure, social conscience etc.

• Intrinsic to the product: condition, style, value, technological innovations adaptability, reliability, durability, replacement cost etc.

• Situational factors extrinsic to the product: storage space, financial situation, urgency, fashion changes, circumstances of acquisition (gift versus purchase), functional use, economics (demand and supply) legal, considerations (giving to avoid taxes) etc.

Readings & Video:

Before you start the project, read these papers (posted on blackboard “Team Project” folder) and watch video: • Reacquiring Consumer Waste: Treasure in Our Trash? • What about Disposition? • The Opposite of Hoarding • Aging Parents With Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t Want It • Harnessing the Science of Persuasion • Watch Video: How to persuade people (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmkfg_dcHFI)

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TEAM PROJECT DETAILS

WHAT

The project consists of four phases: (1) collecting data (interviews), (2) reporting your empirical results (project report), (3) designing persuasive ads for “clothing drive campaign,” and (4) presenting the results of “clothing drive campaign.” You will be examining how families manage clothing consumption and disposal. You will work with your team members on the project.

WHEN

REPORT, PEER EVALUATION & PRESENTATION

PROJECT REPORT DUE (all teams): Tuesday, November 14 (in-class) • All teams will submit their project report in class on Tuesday (Nov 14). See “Step 7” (next page) for details.

PEER EVALUATION DUE (all team members): Tuesday, November 14 (in-class) • All team members will submit peer-evaluation form in class on Tuesday (Nov 14).

PRESENTATION (12-minute, time will be strictly monitored): Tuesdays, November 14 and November 28 • Each team will prepare a 12-minute presentation about “Clothing Drive Campaign” Experience. • Presentation will take place on Nov 14 & Nov 28. Teams will be randomly assigned to a date to present. • Be creative. Be interactive. Prepare 10-12 slides (no more than 12 slides) • Presentation should include followings:

o Results of Clothing Drive Campaign: Survey results – which ad was most effective? Which persuasive technique worked best for the campaign? How many people actually donated clothes (donation receipts, total number of cloths donated etc.)? Share photos of your clothing drive effort.

o What did you learn from this experience? How are you going to use this experience in future? • All teams should bring their presentation in a USB drive and come to class 10 minutes early to upload their

presentation on class computer

HOW

STEP 1

SELECT TWO FAMILIES TO INTERVIEW. Family choice criteria: • They must not be related to you or to your team member(s), though they can be related to any other classmate • They must be willing to supply their name and phone number so that I may contact them if necessary (e.g., to

verify the accuracy of the data, etc.) [please note this information will be known only to me and to your team member]

STEP 2

DEVELOP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS • Develop a set of interview questions to address your research question, which is: “How do Families manage

their clothing consumption and disposition?” • To start, look at the sample questions below. Develop any additional questions as needed.

1. Do people look for any bargain price or discounts when they shop for clothing? 2. Are they brand loyal for their cloth consumption (for example always shop from Macy’s.....)? 3. Do they care about "fair trade" sign when buying any apparel? How does that factor into their decision? 4. How do they view ethical clothing consumption? 5. Do they practice Wardrobing? (Wardrobing is a form of return fraud. It is the practice of purchasing an item, using it, and then returning

it to the store for a refund. It is most often done with expensive clothing) 6. How do people dispose of clothing in general? 7. Why do people discard clothing that still have some functional use? 8. What factors influence a person’s disposal decision? 9. What disposal alternatives do people consider for clothing? 10. Do they donate unused clothes to charities (Goodwill or others)? 11. Do they just put their unused clothes in trash? 12. Do they recycles their cloths? 13. Do they swap their cloths with friends/families/others? 14. Do they rent their unused cloths (for money)? 15. Do they sell their cloths to eBay etc. (for money)? 16. Demographics (age, gender, education, occupation, marital status, social class etc.) 17. Any additional question that your team decides.

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STEP 3 CONDUCT INTERVIEWS. Dive in. Get out there. • Interview two (2) families (family of two or more people). Within each family, at least two (2) members

should be interviewed. [2 families x 2 interviews from each family = total 4 interviews] • Take extensive notes, and I suggest you to record all interviews (seek permission before recording). • Look within family for areas of agreement and disagreement and think about both the family’s and each

individual’s strategies for managing household inventory of clothing. Think about the similarities and differences between the inventory management of their clothing. Look for well-being, happiness, and success in terms of the acquisition, consumption and disposition of clothing possessions.

• Look for: socially responsible behavior, sustainable consumption, ways of disposing, recycling, donation behavior, sharing behavior, ethical concerns, product boycott, mindfulness, happiness and well-being through acquisition, consumption, and disposition, etc.

• Try to understand what they feel, what they care about, and what that implies.

STEP 4 RECOMMENDATIONS. How can you help Marketers and Policy Makers? • Come up with one recommendation for marketers (strategic decisions about segmentation, targeting,

positioning, promotion etc. to promote “mindful” clothing consumption) • Suggest one recommendation for policy-makers (local, national, global) (e.g., how to motivate people to donate

clothing? How to promote “mindful” clothing consumption to reduce carbon footprint?)

STEP 5 CLOTHING DRIVE CAMPAIGN. Time to Give Back. • Main objective: “Clothing Drive” will teach students the valuable professional skills while promoting empathy

and the importance of giving back. Most notably, this effort would include—camaraderie & fun. • Read: Robert Cialdini’s “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion” (and watch video). • Based on the reading, each team will create two print advertisements (full-page ads) using any two persuasion

techniques to promote the benefits of “Clothing Donation.” • Next, teams will conduct surveys (among friends/families/neighbors/co-workers) to examine the effectiveness

of two ads by measuring how many people actually donate clothes. Details survey procedure will be discussed in class. • Teams will collect all clothing donations and will transport them to Goodwill/other charities of their choice

(keep donation receipts as proof). Take photos of your clothing drive effort.

STEP 6 REFLECTION. Looking back… • What was the most difficult portion and the most satisfying/rewarding portion of the project? What did you

learn from this experience? If you were to start the project over again, what would you do differently?

STEP 7

SUMMARIZE YOUR LEARNINGS in 6-page REPORT. REPORT SHOULD INCLUDE:

Page 1: Cove Page • Project title/due date/team number/team members name/course name, & professor’s name.

Page 2: Process & Clothing Disposal Methods • Process: Brief description of two families, and data collection method. • Disposal Methods: Summarize your findings about various disposal method(s) used by two families.

Page 3: Clothing Disposal Reasons/Motivations • Summarize reasons/motivations for clothing disposal reported by two families. • Similarities/dissimilarities about clothing disposal between two families that you observed during interviews. • Other interesting clothing disposal facts that you learned from intervening two families.

Page 4: Recommendations for Marketers and Public Policy Makers • One recommendation for marketers (to promote “mindful” clothing consumption using segmentation, targeting, positioning,

promotion etc.), and one recommendation for policy-makers (local, national, global) (e.g., how to motivate people to donate clothing? How to promote “mindful” clothing consumption to reduce carbon footprint?)

Page 5 & 6: Two Clothing Drive Print Advertisements • Add two Clothing Drive Print Ads on page 5 and 6.

Page 7-onwards: Appendix • Appendix does not count towards 6-page limit • Interview questions, demographics of two families & contact information, charts/graphs/tables etc.

FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS: • Use paragraph format with appropriate headings and subheadings. • Single-spaced (with spacing between sections and paragraphs), page numbering, 1-inch margins, Times New Roman, 12-pt. • Any charts/graphs/figures/references should be added in appendix.

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TEAM PROJECT & PRESENTATION GRADING CRITERIA

PROJECT REPORT (38 points) Cover Page:

• Project title/due date/team number/team members name/course name, & professor’s name

1 point

Process & Clothing Disposal Methods • Process: Brief description of two families, data collection method. • Disposal M ethods: Summarize your findings about disposal method(s) used by two families.

8 points 4 points 4 points

Clothing Disposal Reasons/Motivations : • Summarize reasons/motivations for clothing disposal reported by two families. • Similarities/dissimilarities that you gathered about clothing disposal between two families. • Other inserting clothing disposal facts that you learned from intervening two families.

10 points 4 points 4 points 2 points

Recommendations for Marketers and Public Policy Makers: • Come up with one recommendation for marketers • Come up with one recommendation for policy-makers

8 points 4 points 4 points

Promotional Print Advertisement: • Create two print ad (A4-size) for “Clothing Drive.”

10 points

Formatting/Spelling/grammar etc. [whether instructions were followed or not]

3 points

Peer Evaluation Submission

3 points

PRESENTATION (10 points) Presentations will be graded based on a 10-point scale on five dimensions (average of 5 dimensions):

Poor content organization 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Good content organization Main points are not clear 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Main points are clear

Keep audience disengage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Keep audience engage Visual aids are not creative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Visual aids are creative

Little care has been taken in the presentation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extra care has been taken in the presentation