Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Mabini Campus
Sta. Mesa, Manila

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON THE CLOTHING BRAND

PREFERENCE OF FILIPINO YOUNG ADULTS
IN METRO MANILA

In partial fulfillment for the subject

The Contemporary World
(GEED 10043)

SUBMITTED BY:
CASANGUAN, Sittie Kayla Farhana M.
BSA 1-18

SUBMITTED TO:
Mr. John Paolo C. Dalupang, PhD

October 2018
 I. INTRODUCTION
Due to the modernization in our country, several innovations has created that highly
affected and increased the way of living of the Filipinos compared to the past years. Innovations
had a big impact on the personal preference of the Filipinos. A good example of it is the way
Filipino perceive about fashion and clothing. In the Philippines, fashion and clothing refers to the
way the Filipino people dress up all the time such as whenever they are at work, travelling, when
attending special occasions, and even whenever they’re only at home. One of the innovations
that had a big impact to the Filipinos is the mass media. Young adults were more exposed in
using mass media, and through the use of it, they were easily introduced to various styles,
designs, and everything about fashion and clothing. The Filipino taste for imported or foreign
brands is empowered by the advertisement that they have posted on mass media particularly
the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Gaining popularity of
shopping malls like SM Supermalls and Ayala Malls also increased the ability of the young
Filipinos to buy clothes since it is the best place to go to if they need to purchase something to
satisfy their needs or wants. The boost of the Philippine economy in the past few years has
attracted various international businesses to make significant investments in our country. One
of the most well-known examples of it is the increase in multinational clothing brands that have
expanded and developed their respective businesses here in the Philippines. The researcher
chose to study about this topic because knowing that the Filipino consumers are one of the most
powerful buyers across the world today, the researcher wants to scrutinize what does Filipino
young adult consumers perceive about the emergence of international clothing brands and if the
rise of these brands changed their clothing brand preference.

II. STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Consumerism is one of the issues here in the Philippines. The competition between local
and international brands is still ongoing, and because of globalization, international brands are
still constantly coming in our country. The main problem of this study is to find out how does
globalization affects the clothing brand preference of Filipino young adults in Metro Manila.
Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:
1. Does the emergence of international clothing brands extremely affects the preference
of the Filipino young adults?
2. Which type of clothing brand is more preferred by the Filipino young adults?
International or local brands?
3. What are the possible factors that affect and influence the clothing brand preference of
Filipino young adults?
4. Does the name of the brand really a big deal for the Filipino young adults?

III. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

The researcher will focus on how does globalization affects the clothing brand preference
of Filipino young adults. More specifically, to know if the emergence of the international clothing
brands affect their clothing brand preference, to test which type of clothing brand is more
preferred by them (international or local brands), to find out what are the possible factors that
affect their clothing brand preference, and lastly, to know if the name of the brand really affects
the preference of the young adults. The researcher will be collecting data through conducting a
survey and interview only with the Filipino young adults whose ages ranged around 15 to 21
years old.
The collection of the data will be conducted in Metro Manila areas only. Lastly, this study
will consist of various valid and reliable information about the topic being studied that happened
in the last 5 years to make sure its relevance and timeliness.

IV. LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The following literature review provided the study a generalized view regarding the topic
of clothing brand preference of Filipino young adults. In this paper, the researcher will first look
at literature reviews of relevant concepts such as the colonial mentality of the Filipinos and the
continuous emergence of international brands.

Colonial Mentality of the Filipinos

Lansang and Pascual (2014) described colonial mentality as is when a certain society
thinks that foreign talents and products are always better than their local products. An example
of this is our use of their fashion and products. Ambag, Baslot, Celeste, Eltagon, and Namocatcat
(2016) stated that the status quo of our country in this modern time is that, we Filipinos are no
longer the ruler of our own homeland but rather the aliens or foreigners now control our economy,
we are stuck in the hustle-bustle of choosing foreign products rather than our own and that is
why our country’s economy has drop vertically nowadays. Ambag et al. (2016) also said that in
the Philippines, colonial mentality is most apparent in the presence of bias for Filipino mestizos
in the diversion business and broad communications, in which they are getting broad introduction
in spite of constituting a little populace in the nation (Lago, 2012) that is the reason why the local
brand Penshoppe imports international artists to endorse their clothing brand. In addition to this,
Armecin (2017) argued that aside from purchasing, Filipinos tend to be picky when it comes to
the brand they purchase. The brand sealed one’s economic status, and more and more Filipinos
who don’t enjoy any elitist status are buying brands that they cannot afford. Overall, Filipinos
prefer imported products over the local ones. It is more expensive, but aside from the price they
are convinced that when an item is produced international, it is better than anything they can
buy locally. This might sound absurd, but this mentality is deeply rooted in the
Filipino consciousness.

The Emergence of International Brands

According to Lim (2015), the entry of international brands have challenged our local
apparel outlets to level up and because Filipino consumers love design and quality, which are
both present in global and local brands, they are interested to purchase both. Also with the
growing consumer power and fashion-conscious outlook of the middle class, especially the
young professionals, apparel will always enjoy capturing a sizable chunk of the market. Global
brands also challenge the local brands in terms of advertising, Danlos’ (2016) study shows that
today, the branding strategy of a company has to include a new channel in their advertising
campaign. Meanwhile, De Borja & Gan (2017) stated that local brands, because of their structure
(compared with global companies), are much more nimble, it is also more entrepreneurial, and
therefore not afraid to take risks. It also speaks the local language, and therefore build better
brand-consumer relationships versus global brands that have a singular voice across various
cultures. While Salustiano (2017) mentioned that Filipino consumers see global brands as
superior. Except of some products, a lot of Filipinos generally have global preferences, and are
very much open to international brands. We think that these brands to be “cooler” and with higher
quality, and we tend to be accepting, as long as it is affordable.

Based on the mentioned concepts, articles, and related literature studies above, a
conceptual framework was developed as shown below:

Colonial Emergence of
Mentality of International
the Filipinos Clothing
Brands
Clothing
Brand
Preference of
Filipino
Young Adults

Through the compiled past literatures and studies, the researcher hypothesized that the
colonial mentality of the Filipinos and the continuous emergence of international brands keeps
the competition between local and international clothing brands here in the Philippines even
more tighter. Through these literature reviews, the researcher seeks to know if the idea between
these two concepts really affect the clothing brand preference of the Filipino young adults
nowadays.

V. METHODOLOGY

This research is an inferential study and more of a quantitative nature and was conducted
to identify and analyze the impact of globalization on the clothing brand preference of Filipino
young adults. To gather information that are needed for this study, the researcher chose to get
valid and credible information from recent relevant news, related articles posted on the web, and
journal articles. The researcher also conducted a survey to gather data directly from the
respondents of this study. The respondents are 50 chosen Filipino young adults whose ages
range around 15 to 21 years old and currently lives in Metro Manila to be more specific. The
researcher chose to conduct an online survey since it is more convenient, easy, and most of all,
inexpensive. The researcher began the survey by creating a survey form in Google Forms and
then proceeded to obtaining respondents online by personally messaging the chosen
respondents to answer the survey form. The researcher made sure that all of the respondents
were aware that all of their answers were to be kept confidential and will be used for academic
purposes only. The survey form includes a three-item personal information questions (name,
age, and location) and four closed-ended questions that are related to the topic being studied.
Tables and charts will be used to present and evaluate the results of the survey. In addition to
this, the means of different factors that influence consumers’ preferences of the local and
international brands were used to determine which factors are considered the most by
consumers when purchasing clothes. The needed data was collected over a period of fourteen
days or two weeks. The data collected will be analyzed and interpreted inductively by the
researcher to come up with a conclusion.
 VI. DATA GATHERED AND SUMMARY OF RESULTS

The following data presentations are all based and gathered from the respondents’
answers on the online survey form.

QUESTION 1. Which type of clothing brand do you prefer?

Respondents International Local Brands Total

(Filipino Young Adults) Brands
Frequency 38 12 50
Percentage 76% 24% 100%

QUESTION 2. If you chose international brands, what are the possible factors why you prefer it
over local brands?

Influence of Mass Media 18.42%

Price 5.26%

Style and Quality 31.58%

Current Fashion and Trends 23.68%

Brand's Celebrity Endorsers 21.06%

QUESTION 3. If you chose local brands, what are the possible factors why you prefer it over
international brands?

Influence of Mass Media 16.67%

Price 50.00%
Style and Quality 8.33%

Current Fashion and Trends 8.33%

Brand's Celebrity Endorsers 16.67%

QUESTION 4. Does the name of the brand play a big role on your clothing brand preference?

18%

82%

YES NO
VII. DATA ANALYSIS

The researcher interpreted the respondents’ answers by using figures such as frequency
table, bar chart, and pie chart. Each of the figure represents the statistical data presentation of
the data gathered from the survey.
By analyzing the presented data, the researcher has come up with the following analyses:

1. Out of 50, 38 respondents or 76% prefer buying on international clothing brands and
only 12 respondents or 24% chose to stick with local brands.
2. Out of 38 respondents who prefer international clothing brands, 7 or 18.42% of it are
because of the influence of the mass media, 2 or 5.26% are because of its price, 12
or 31.58% are because of its style and quality, 9 or 23.68% are because of the current
fashion and trends, and 8 or 21.06% are because of the brand’s celebrity endorser.
3. Out of 12 respondents who prefer local clothing brands, 2 or 16.67% of it are because
of the influence of the mass media, 6 or 50% are because of its price, only 1 or 8.33%
is because of its style and quality, also 1 or 8.33% is because of the current fashion
and trends, and 2 or 16.67% are because of the brand’s celebrity endorser.
4. Out of 50 respondents, 41 or 82% answered that the name of the brand plays a great
role on their clothing brand preference, while only 9 or 18% said that the name of the
brand is not a big deal.

VIII. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

A. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

1. Most of the respondents prefer buying clothes from international clothing brands than
the local ones.
2. Only some of the respondents chose to buy in local clothing brands.
3. The factors that affect and influence the clothing brand preference of the respondents
are the influence of the mass media, price, style and quality, current fashion and
trends, and the brand’s celebrity endorsers.
4. The styles and designs that can keep up with the current fashion and trends and also
the quality of the clothes are the factors why most of the respondents prefer
international clothing brands.
5. The affordability of the clothes is the reason why some of the respondents still prefer
buying in local clothing brands.
6. Most of the respondents says that the name of the brand plays a big role in their
clothing brand preference.

B. CONCLUSION
The researcher therefore conclude that globalization extremely affected the clothing
brand preference of the Filipino young adults. The colonial mentality of the Filipinos and the
emergence of the international clothing brands really influenced their purchasing behaviour and
clothing brand preference. Based on the conducted survey, it obviously shows that there are a
lot of Filipino young adults, especially those who’s economically stable, prefer international
clothing brands, and are very much open to it. International clothing brands clearly have a huge
advantage over the local ones because of the quality and credibility perception of the
consumers. Even though they are aware that local clothing brands are much cheaper and
affordable, they are ignoring this fact, and continuously patronizing and still willing to spend for
the much more expensive international clothing brands because they think that foreign products
are always better than the local ones, and it is because of the globalization that’s why Filipino
young adults are now having high standards when purchasing clothes.
IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ambag, A. T., Baslot, T. A., Celeste, C. T., Eltagon, J. M., & Namocatcat, J. P.
(2016, May 19). The Effects Of Colonial Mentality On The Filipino Culture.
Retrieved from https://arndreblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/the-effects-of-
colonial-mentality-on-the-filipino-culture/

Armecin, C. (2017, August 04). Consumerism In The Philippines: Why Do

Filipinos Patronize Foreign Products? • PhilippineOne. Retrieved from
https://philippineone.com/711-2/

Danlos, M. (2016). Digital Branding. Social Media and Fashion: How People Can
Influence Marketing Strategies?,17-18. Retrieved from
http://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/124066/Danlos_Maurane.pdf;jsessionid
=1D95FCABBD3257C5520A0C7A3FDE5236?sequence=1

De Borja, J., Gan, E., Salustiano, J., & Reyes, D. (2017, June 26). Q&A: Local brands
versus global brands in Philippines. Retrieved from
https://www.campaignasia.com/article/qa-local-brands-versus-global-brands-in-
philippines/437568

Lansang, L., & Pascual, G. (2014, August 12). Colonial Mentality in the
Philippines. Retrieved from
https://worldculturesproblemsinthephilippines.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/
colonial-mentality-in-the-philippines/

Lim, S. (2015, March 15). How Pinoy retail brands are competing with global brands.
Retrieved from https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/03/15/15/how-pinoy-retail-brands-
are-competing-global-brands