Consumer Behavior project: The evolution and "consumption" jeans over time

[sonick]

Alright guys,

So for my Consumer Behaviour class, my prof is making us do a paper or presentation on anything remotely related to anything consumer behaviour, and I was thinking of doing a presentation on denim jeans, and how the "consumption" of jeans has changed so dramatically over time, from what once was strictly utilitarian for blue-collar workers are now being worn by the biggest celebrities in the world.

Also, I was thinking of how different jeans can connotate different 'roles' and 'personalities' of the wearer, such as the difference between the consumers of $20 Wal-Mart jeans, $400 Victoria Beckham/R&R/TR etc. jeans, and the dry denim 'culture'. Or even going into how something as "simple" as the cut of the jean carries whole subcultures within it (hip hop, emo, etc.)

I'm posting this coz I basically have some general ideas of what to discuss, and wanted to get some more ideas together so I could flesh out some of these ideas (exactly what to expand on, etc.) and give it enough depth for a 15 minute presentation.

Thanks

 

[poly800rock]

thought you said consumer beavers

 

[whodini]

I think you have moooore than enough for a 15 min presentation. All you need is to sit down, research these ideas, and then either narrow it down more or make a kind of superficial timeline showcasing your focus.

Lastly, if it's power point, be sure to share with the rest of us.

 

[Bandwagonesque]

Just buy a plane ticket for Fok and have him do the presentation for you. If Fok doesn't have the money, he can start a fund here and .... oh wait.

 

[Stazy]

You might want to discuss the conflict between Levis and repo companies in Japan, and why consumers were forced to look for Levis knock offs.

 

[Jared]

Any one of those topics would be plenty, and they're all pretty easy given the resources at your disposal. I'd say go with whichever strikes you as the most accessible/interesting and come back with a more specific query. (I think it'd be hard to advise you on which issue is best.)

 

[sonick]

Yeah but the thing is I need 5 academic sources, and I'm not sure daSteez counts as one

 

[Max]

There is no dry denim culture, only nerds on the internet.

 

[michaeljkrell]

What is considered an academic source? Only journals and the like?

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by sonick

Yeah but the thing is I need 5 academic sources, and I'm not sure daSteez counts as one

WTF? da steez is the authoritay on denim.

 

[LA Guy]

Originally Posted by Max

There is no dry denim culture, only nerds on the internet.

Perhaps unremarkable, but there is a remarkable amount of academic literature about these nerds

 

[whodini]

^^^

I'd trust the TA.

 

[Jared]

Originally Posted by sonick

Yeah but the thing is I need 5 academic sources, and I'm not sure daSteez counts as one

Oh that's easy, then: just go to Google scholar and start punching in ideas; when something returns a hit list with good information scent, go with that. Even this search has a few ideas on the first page: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=denim+consumer (What year course is this, anyway? It makes a big difference about what kind of research you should be doing...)

 

[sonick]

3rd year, 300-level course.

Yeah, academic sources are Journals, etc. I'll need to go broad coz I don't think there are many scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles on sick crotch whiskers and honeycombs

 

[Jared]

Wow, I never expected to see an article about "the emotional and sensory experience of wearing denim clothing" (by Fiona Jane Candy, no less) in a journal of the Association for Computing Machinery! I am so in the wrong subfield.

Anyway, for a 15 min 3rd year presentation you might be able to get away with a pretty general overview of the market. As Stazy suggests, it looks like there is a lot of research on Levi's' implosion. I had no idea there was so much being written about the clothing industry, though, so you can probably follow citations to easily get up to 5 articles...