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This paper aims to explore marketing practices related to online halal maternity wear by examining the characteristics of halal maternity wear promoted to Muslim women (Muslimah) and how these differ between sponsoring websites.

A qualitative content analysis of 24 websites promoting halal maternity wear to pregnant customers was undertaken.

Several issues related to the availability and promotion of halal maternity wear online, particularly when addressing the needs of Western Muslim women, were found. Successful marketing solutions to the problems of halal maternity wear require solving a number of tensions arising at the intersections of the following distinctions: mahram versus non-mahram settings, crude versus stylish fashion and the normative perceptions of immodesty versus modesty.

Careful research and attention need to be taken before promoting and targeting products as appropriate for Muslimah maternity wear. Those brands that display the requisite skills and knowledge necessary to determine whether a product meets the needs of modesty, fashionability and local climate/weather conditions in their maternity lines have much to gain from the Muslimah maternity market.

The availability of maternity wear that makes Muslimah feel comfortable and satisfied with their appearance will contribute to a positive pregnancy body image. Positive pregnancy body image is associated with positive pre and postnatal infant attachment by the mother, which in turn leads to beneficial outcomes for mother and baby.

Research to date has focused on Islamic fashion in general, with a dearth of research on Islamic maternity wear. This paper addresses the gap by focusing on maternity wear and associated marketing practices, from the Islamic point of view.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Generation Z's physical expectations of being pregnant and their outlook for maternity wear shopping.

Females in this cohort (n = 207) participated in an online survey that included questions about perceptions of pregnancy, physical self-concept and forecasted shopping behaviors.

Results indicated that this group is concerned with physical changes of pregnancy and expect to treat each area of the body in a different way. Women's expected physical concerns of pregnancy predict how much they anticipate accentuating their pregnant body. Gen Z anticipates wearing loose maternity garments and they envision a thoughtful, in-store shopping experience for styles that are equally fashionable and comfortable, such as dresses.

This study should be extended to future generational cohorts like Generation Alpha, along with Gen Z outside of the United States and women in the United States who are non-white. Further studies should take a longitudinal approach to gauge changes in this cohort's expectations as they progress through pregnancy.

This paper provides maternity wear retail brands and designers a foundation for product development and marketing geared toward this large cohort.

The study is the first to inquire about Gen Z's outlook on pregnancy, specifically their envisioned changes to each body area and the role of maternity garments to fulfill needs and concerns.

This chapter focuses on the culturally assumed link between femininity and pregnancy. It situates itself using the feminist theories of performativity (Butler, 1990), female masculinity (Halbertstam, 1998) and the queer art of failure (Halberstam, 2011). The chapter is based on ethnographic research with butch lesbians and genderqueer individuals in British Columbia, Canada. It focuses on these individuals’ desires to experience pregnancy, find appropriate clothes to wear when pregnant, and not being simultaneously socially recognized as both pregnant and masculine. It argues that feminism is still needed to broaden how we gender pregnancy, and to challenge the assumptions and social pressures that link individuals with uteruses to female to femininity to pregnancy and motherhood.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to illustrate issues in offline marketing and strategy for an in-store business, familiarize students with the challenges involved in the decision-making in integrating online and offline marketing strategies, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of online and offline marketing and motivate students to apply marketing strategies to real-world business situations

Deepa Kumar, the founder of Yashram Lifestyle, had successfully built a niche brand with a strong online presence in the lingerie industry. Yashram Lifestyle was known for its innovative products and commitment to addressing the real-life vulnerabilities faced by women at different stages of life. With a vision to be a one-stop destination for all intimate and practical needs of women and girls, Yashram had introduced unique products such as period panties, starter bras, incontinence underwear and hygiene panties. On the contrary, Kumar acknowledged that offline marketing strategies, such as pop-up stores, collaborations with physical retailers and participation in industry events, could provide valuable insights into customer preferences, enhance brand visibility and foster direct customer engagement. Offline channels might also enable Yashram Lifestyle to better understand the market dynamics and further drive product innovation. However, owing to the associated costs, logistics and potential risks, Kumar was apprehensive about venturing into offline marketing. She wondered whether Yashram Lifestyle had the necessary assets and expertise to successfully scale up its operations while making these alternate decisions. Furthermore, she questioned herself whether offline marketing efforts would be worth the investment and whether they could lead to substantial growth and increased market share for Yashram Lifestyle.

The purpose of this case study is to provoke critical thought among undergraduate and postgraduate business and management students about Kumar’s potential course of action for Yashram Lifestyle to engage in offline marketing. It applies to the implementation of marketing strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Plus size clothing is becoming a fashion trend worldwide due to the body positivity movement sparked off by the growing obesity rates and fat shaming incidents reported around the world. Although the problems relating to plus size clothing in the global context have been addressed, thereby establishing certain norms in the market, none of this work has proved helpful in assessing the level of customer satisfaction in the Sri Lankan plus size market. In view of this lacuna, this paper aims to probe customer preferences and identify the problems currently prevailing in the plus size women’s wear fashion market in Sri Lanka.

Data were gathered through both qualitative and quantitative methods. For this purpose, visits were made to several fashion outlets in the Colombo area offering plus size clothing to observe the available product categories, size ranges, fabrics, finishing methods and designs at each outlet. A closed-ended questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the perception of the customers on the current plus size fashion market. Semi-structured interviews with designers working at selected Sri Lankan fashion brands that catered to the plus size market were carried out to acquire an understanding of the current plus size fashion industry from the garment manufacturer’s perspective and to learn about the current construction techniques in the industry.

The results indicated that 55.6% of the plus size women who participated in the survey were either dissatisfied or only moderately satisfied with the current products available in the Sri Lankan market. The major cause for the dissatisfaction was the inability to find well-fitting clothes to suit their body proportions and the unavailability of trendy, fashionable clothes. Ideally, they preferred fashionable, comfortable, well-fitting and good quality garments. Unavailability of standardized sizing methods and lack of up-to-date information on the female body were identified as the main issues in the Sri Lankan plus size women’s wear market. Therefore, the necessity for a standardized size chart for plus size women based on Sri Lankan anthropometric data was emphasized by designers.

The findings will be useful for the Sri Lankan apparel producers as well as retailers as they will have a better understanding of not only the fit and aesthetic preferences but also the overall shopping preferences of plus size women. This will help them to develop marketing strategies to cater to this Sri Lankan niche market segment, as currently there is no documented information on plus size Sri Lankan women’s clothing preferences.

Since the concept of rental clothing business was new for Indian market and very few players were dealing in it, ‘Wright & Company’ consulting did an exploratory research to understand the model. Through two expert interviews and extensive survey of the business model of existing players across countries, they developed better understanding of kinds of business models, range of products offered, customer expectations and concerns regarding such service and business challenges. The research showed the purchase intention but further detailed primary research was required to validate the findings. To conduct the quantitative survey they designed a questionnaire but was not sure of the appropriateness of the questionnaire and thus wanted to pre-test it and construct a final detailed questionnaire. Vishal also wondered if he needed to do more extensive in-depth qualitative research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify types of service failures in a double deviation scenario within the contexts of online retailing.

Critical incident technique; customer complaints to online third parties; and four‐factor justice dimensionality.

Findings of this paper show distinctive sets of service failures in two separate service failure stages of double deviation (i.e. the initial service failure and recovery failure stages) within online retailing. Initial service failures mainly reflect cognitive issues generated from an online‐specific store atmosphere and threaten distributive or procedural justice perceptions. In comparison with distributive and procedural justice perceptions still being dominant, service failures in the recovery failure stage consist of interpersonal and emotional issues generated from customer‐company interactions, threatening interpersonal justice perceptions.

This paper contributes to broadening the current understanding of the dynamics of online customer dissatisfaction, by first identifying types of service failures that occur in both stages of online double deviation. This paper also introduces customer complaints to online third parties as a useful data resource for the study of service failure/recovery.

This paper presents a case study that explores the experiences and sensemaking of a new start entrepreneur in New Zealand. The primary aim of the case was to theorise new entrepreneurs' sensemaking about risk in order to provide a framework for further study.

Data for the case were gathered using a semi‐structured interview technique. These data were then coded and analysed using an approach inspired by grounded theory. As the purpose was to examine both what the subject said about her entrepreneurial experience and the conceptual frameworks she drew upon to do this, the analysis integrated techniques employed in discourse analysis and educational psychology.

The analysis produced a theoretical model that suggests the entrepreneur's perceptions of self shaped the perception of risk and then structured the way in which risks were addressed or avoided.

This case and the questions that the theoretical model raises have significant implications for entrepreneurs, policy makers and educators. We expect the lines of enquiry suggested by this case will provide a framework for further research on new start entrepreneurs' sensemaking and in so doing help address the dearth of knowledge about New Zealand's new start entrepreneurs' behaviour, particularly in relation to risk assessment.

The case draws attention to the interplay between identity and new start entrepreneurial behaviour and in so doing challenges us to look at new start behaviour in a new way. It raises questions about the centrality of the notion of risk in new start entrepreneurs' rationales for the enterprise development decisions they make.

Stretch fabrics are employed to create compression in garments for medical, sports, and fitness applications. Although potential correlations between wearing compression garments and physiological or performance metrics have been studied, such correlations require knowledge of the actual compression caused by garments. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, compare, and contrast different methods for measuring compression delivered by an exemplar compression garment.

The exemplar compression garment is a plain jersey knit maternity band. The compression delivered by this garment was determined via three different methods – Tekscan pressure mapping system, Hohenstein Measurement System (HOSY), and a fabric-based analytical model employing uniaxial fabric tensile data.

HOSY and the fabric-based model, assuming a circular cross section for the garment, provided comparable results for compression versus garment height. However, these methods did not capture the varying compression delivered at different transverse locations when the subject was noncircular in cross section. Assuming an elliptical cross section, the fabric-based model predicted results that were comparable to those measured by the Tekscan system: for example, compressions were approximately 130-160 percent greater at the hip, and approximately 60-100 percent lower at the posterior, than HOSY revealed. Further, the Tekscan system allows the effect of movement on compression to be captured.

This paper compares and contrasts three compression measurement methods and demonstrates the importance of angular position and height dependencies. Further, the fabric-based model is presented as a tool to assist design of compression garments.

As becoming a mother becomes increasingly embedded in the marketplace, this paper explores how a group of low-income pregnant and newly parenting young mothers engaged with expansive markets for the new mother and baby.

This paper draws on an extended period of fieldwork carried out at a Pupil Referral Unit and a Mother and Baby Unit in the city of Bristol, UK. The research took a staged and incremental approach, incorporating aspects of participant observation, activity-based focus groups and a photo elicitation exercise.

This paper highlights the anxiety the young women experienced around their ability (or lack thereof) to participate in practices of childrearing consumption and details how the young women strived to provide well for their children despite their limited incomes, developing a sophisticated knowledge of markets and adopting a range of budgeting and smart shopping strategies to ensure they could acquire the “stuff” their children “needed”.

Contrary to popular discourse, the young women emerge as careful and pragmatic consumers who plan and manage their finances carefully, and the paper acknowledges skills that are often missing from accounts of young mothers and working-class people more broadly.