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Challenges and opportunities for the clothing industry in Eastern and Southern Europe. Liesl Riddle
Introduction
The setting of this paper is Kazakhstan, one of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of independent states formerly dominated by the USSR, and is comprised of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Republic of Georgia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. It is located in Central Asia with an area approximately 28 percent the size of the USA but with only slightly more than 5 percent of the population (estimated in July 2005 at 15,185,844 ([6] CIA Factbook, 2005)). Upon the liberation of Kazakhstan, Russia withdrew fiscal, social, and other forms of support, leaving the nation to find its own way in the world after over 100 years of Russian occupation and over 70 years of indoctrination that portrayed the western world negatively. Today, Kazakhstan is a country of contradictions: governmental wealth from huge oil reserves in the western regions yet government acceptance of charitable goods and services from other nations who are concerned about average income of approximately $8,000 USD per year in an economy where rents on new apartments can be as high as $3,000 USD per month.
This paper identifies the several market segments within the target market of primarily women in the emerging economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Women comprise 51.4 percent of Kazakhstan's population ([30] Romanenko, 2004, p. 2) representing a significant market. To define the segments, the following questions were posed to focus groups.
Discussion questions asked of the women in the focus groups included but were not limited to:
- Who do you think influences your clothing or fashion purchases? (Spouses/peers/parents/reference groups/magazines/television).
- What is the modality of your purchase, i.e. the internet, in-person, catalogue, etc.?
- How often do you buy?
- Are your clothing purchases affected by your moods and emotions?
- Who accompanies you to you buy your clothes?
- How do brand names affect your clothes' or fashion purchases?
- How do retailers affect your clothes' or fashion purchases?
- What is your perception of clothes made outside Kazakhstan?
- How do promotions or sales affect your buying decisions?
- Are you influenced by the clothes celebrities wear?
We focus upon how fashion...