Why we buy? Modeling consumer selection of referents

• How Greeks prioritize reference points with regard to apparel products?.
• To model explicit and implicit referents, a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative techniques was employed.
• The most important explicit referents for Greek consumer are those that arise from the brand of the product, price, store location and the store environment. Conversely, the most important implicit referents are those that arise from personal/financial/social and cultural dimension.

This paper investigates the dynamic concept of reference points through an empirical evaluation of consumer selection of referents related to apparel purchase decision-making. The overarching aim is to build a new multi-item measurement scale that exhibits sound psychometric properties and which can be reliably replicated across different sample populations. A mixed-method research approach is employed in data collection, comprising both qualitative (i.e. focus group discussions) and quantitative (i.e. survey instrument) techniques. The results produced a model made up of seven dimensions that underlined the highest first order constructs of implicit and explicit referents. The seven dimensions are: EXPLICITREFERENTS (BRAND, PRICE and STORE), IMPLICITREFERENTS (PERSONAL, FINANCIAL, SOCIAL and CULTURAL).The characteristics of the reference points inventory (RPI) can guide marketing managers to promote and advertise their products more effectively. The evolving categorization of referents adds value to, and extends, the reference points literature from the consumers׳ perspective.