Abstract: College students are one of the most important markets for many profit-oriented organizations. In 1998, approximately 14.1 million American students were enrolled in one of over 3,000 colleges in the United States. College students were estimated to have spent more than $96 billion on product purchasing. As in other industries, the college student market is a very important market in the sport industry. College students spent over $1.6 billion for athletic shoes in 1997. Sixty-seven percent of college students bought at least one pair of athletic shoes in 1996.
The purpose of this study was to use the consumer socialization model to investigate how socialization agents influence college students' brand preferences for athletic shoes and to examine the relationship between various demographic segments. Data were collected to determine if socialization agents differed between participants' genders, favorite shoe brands, living status, and income sources. Four socialization agents were identified from the literature review and the pilot study. They were family, peers, mass media, and salespeople.
A 5-point Likert scale survey instrument was used to measure the degree of influence of socialization agents for consumers' athletic shoe purchasing. A total of 418 college students were surveyed from a southeastern university.
Chi-square analysis was used to test the differences between groups. The results of the chi-square analysis indicated that overall peer group had the most influence on college students' athletic shoe brand preferences, while family had the least influence. The socialization agents' influence for college students' athletic shoe brand preferences did not significantly differ between genders, favorite shoe brands, and income sources. The socialization agent's influence for college students' athletic shoe brand preference significantly differed according to students' living status.
The results of this study revealed that socialization agents' influences on college students' brand preferences can be affected by individuals' some unique environmental status. Marketers who target college students should consider some antecedent variables that affect brand preferences to develop more useful marketing strategies.