Croatian T&C industry and students customer satisfaction with clothing products produced in domestic companies

Sa？etak In today’s world of globalization and economic crisis threats for the manufacturing business in such competitive market is also the case in sector of fashion industry. It brings worries for the future and is growing every day, especially for small and medium enterprises (makes 98,56% of all) in clothing industry (C14) in Croatia in the year 2011. In creating an effective marketing strategy it is important to identify factors that determine demand, satisfaction and idealistically, brand loyalty. This paper examined some macroeconomic indicators of Croatian textile and clothing (T&C) industry sector and demand for clothing products trough students customer perception and behaviour about Croatian producers clothing products, their satisfaction and their brand loyalty. Data were collected by surveying student population - customers of Croatian clothing products. On-line surveying students (N=311) from three faculties of University of Zagreb (EFZg, AgrF and TTF)* showed that the most of them do buy Croatian clothing products. Products quality showed to be an important factor in their purchase. Other important factors are price, fashion trends, brand image and companies’ image. Furthermore, consumers are very pleased with products quality, but discontented with price, promotion and availability of products. There are a large number of customers that are not loyal to Croatian brands. Results show that Croatian clothing companies don’t have clearly developed marketing strategy and should pay more attention to developing long-term relationships with their customers, researching reasons for their loyalty and developing loyalty programs. All customers agreed about buying more Croatian clothing products in case of better and more modern design, lower price, bigger promotion and wider distribution. The scientific contribution of this paper are new insights and better understanding of the demand for clothing products in Republic of Croatia, as well as the specifics required to build a competitive marketing strategy