MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF Business • VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 50 MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF BUSINESS - VOLUME 7 ISSUE 4 MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF BUSINESS - VOLUME 10, ISSUE 1, 2015 Customer progression and perception about premium men’s apparel brands: A case of Indian male professionals Supriti Agarwal (1) Sonia Singh (2) (1) Assistant Professor, Amity University, Noida, India (2) Assistant Professor Al Dar University College Dubai, United Arab Emirates Correspondence: Dr Supriti Agarwal Assistant Professor, Amity University, Noida, India Email: sagrawal2@amity.edu Abstract A major challenge before companies today is to under- stand the hybrid behavior of the customer. On one side customers are becoming price sensitive for bargains and on the other they want to enjoy world class brands and luxury goods. Literature also shows that in recent time there is a considerably huge economic rise of dis- posable income within the middle class which is lead- ing to consumption of branded products in masses. Today luxury brand have changed to affordable luxury brand and will change to premium brands in the near future. This study explores the variables influencing consumer progression and perception towards pre- mium brands. This study also explores the relationship between demographics and the brand preference. To accomplish this task a questionnaire was prepared and a total of 190 respondents who have earned a profes- sional degree like engineering or management or some higher educations like Ph.D were interviewed. We have considered those respondents who are employed in private or government sectors only. It was found that most consumers associated greater accessibility of pre- mium brands in the Indian market with better quality, though at higher price as they evaluate them higher on quality, status and esteem. This paper tries to segment the market on the basis of different clusters and also tries to find factors affecting the perception of custom- ers for the buying of apparel. Key words: Customer perception, men’s apparel brands, Indian professionals Introduction With every passing year, intensity of competition is becoming fiercer due to globalization. Competition is rising not only in differentiating one product and service from another but also in logistics, access to information and so on. Now-a-days cus- tomers are becoming more hybrid as they are not only bet- ter informed but also they have wider choices of less distin- guishable products due to easy access to internet and online shopping trend. Across the world customers are aware of their increasing power due to which there is a sharp increase in customers’ expectations from the companies in terms of their basket of offerings has been noticed. After New Economy Pol- icy 1991, the Indian economy noticed a remarkable increase in the investment by MNC’s which in turn increases the living standard of Indians, especially the middle class who have the highest marginal propensity to consume. Due to all this in In- dia high end luxury, high value services, high information ac- cess and high technology are increasing. India is moving fast in each spectrum be it retail, services, real estate, hospitality on the consumer front or value added B2B services or even our capabilities in out sourcing at company front. All these have given a sharp increase in both income and mindset of the mid- dle class income group, for them luxury is now a life style not only a fashion statement. Luxury items may be automobiles to clothing, accessories, perfumes, all are beating sales target in India. 2. Research Purpose Now in India with the advent of MNC’s and subsequent rise in white collar jobs, the apparel industry, especially in the men’s segment, is increasing. The young generation, especially in management positions, are cognitively orienting towards brands and trying to find psychological identity by grooming personality and self concept. So in this paper we try to find the factors affecting perception for buying the premium brands and we also try to segment the market for branded apparels. 3. Literature Review Alden, D.I., Steenkamp, J.B. and Batra, R., (1999), proposed, oper- ationalized and tested a new construct, GCCP-Global Consum- er Culture Position. This construct associates the brand with a widely understood and recognized set of symbols believed to constitute emerging global consumer culture. Holt, D.B., Quelech, J.A., and Taylor, E.L. (2004) argued that global brand- ing should not be interpreted as a call to rid traditional brands of their national brands of their national heritage, the two rea- sons. Firstly, while globalness has become a stronger quality signal than nation of origin, consumers still prefer brands that hail from countries that are considered to have particular ex- pertise : Switzerland in chocolates, Italy for clothing, France in cosmetic, Germany in cars, Japan in electronics, for example.