The mature and competitive domestic retail environment has driven U.S. retailers to seek opportunities for expansion to new emerging economies such as The People’s Republic of China (China). The entrance of China into the World Trade Organization, combined with great market potential due to the large population and rapid economic growth, has made China one of the most attractive markets for U.S. companies. As young Chinese consumers are exposed to Western lifestyles, their demand for foreign apparel has increased. Although these young Chinese consumers offer favorable atmosphere to foreign apparel firms, an important question facing U.S. apparel firms is whether young Chinese consumers would be interested in buying U.S. apparel brands when China is already the world’s largest apparel manufacturer and is producing many domestic brands. Another important issue is that Chinese consumers are not a homogeneous group. Although young Chinese consumers crave for fashionable and famous brands, some Chinese traditional values and beliefs such as balancing quality, price, and utility may lower their desire to buy foreign brands products (Chen, 2009). This notion suggests that differences may exist among these young consumers in psychographic characteristics relevant to apparel consumption. To this end, this study was designed to identify distinct segments among Chinese consumers identified as a potential target market to U.S. retailers (i.e., younger, well-educated, urban-living Chinese consumers) based on psychographic variables and to examine each segment’s brand equity perceptions toward a U.S. apparel brand. A sample of college students (n=220) who were enrolled at two major universities in Tianjin, China, was used. The analyses involved a two-step cluster analysis based on the domain-specific psychographic factors that are relevant to young Chinese consumers’ foreign apparel consumption (i.e., need for uniqueness, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with appearance, and attitudes toward American products). Each consumer segment identified from the cluster analysis was profiled with four brand equity perceptions (i.e., brand loyalty, brand association with brand awareness, perceived quality, and emotional value) using a multivariate profile analysis. This study demonstrated that domain-specific psychographic characteristics (i.e., need for uniqueness, satisfaction with life, satisfaction with appearance, and attitudes toward American products) successfully segmented potential Chinese consumers for the U.S. apparel brand. The cluster analysis generated five distinct groups of Chinese consumers: self-satisfied, American product lover, uniqueness seeker, satisfied ethnocentric and apathetic consumer segments. Furthermore, consumer perceptions toward a US brand (the Polo Ralph Lauren brand) on four brand equity dimensions differed among consumer segments. The findings supported the argument that potential target Chinese consumers for U.S. apparel brands, who are younger, well-educated, urban-living consumers, are not homogeneous, and thus cannot be targeted with identical marketing strategies. Although identifying profitable consumers who are likely to buy U.S. apparel brands among young urban consumers may be a challenge to U.S. apparel retailers, an opportunity seems to exist because a great portion of respondents (i.e., Self-satisfied consumers and American product lovers) exhibited relatively positive attitudes toward American products and positive brand perceptions toward Polo Ralph Lauren brand. Among the four dimensions of consumer-based brand equity toward Polo Ralph Lauren brand, perceived quality received the highest ratings for all five consumer segments. However, consumers provided relatively lower mean scores on brand loyalty that contained more behavioral-oriented items than the other three brand equity dimensions. The result on young Chinese consumers’ relatively low brand loyalty is consistent with the arguments by Dickson, Lennon, Montalto, Shen, and Zhang (2004) that many Chinese consumers who can afford to buy prestige brands do not necessarily buy those apparel goods and that foreign apparel brands therefore may be able to secure only a very small part of the total market despite the rising average incomes of Chinese consumers. Consequently, carefully planned strategies are essential to effectively address “market within a market” targeting the young urban Chinese consumer segment (Krafft, Hesse, Höfling, Peters, & Rinas, 2007). Based on the findings, potential marketing strategies for each segment are suggested. Several limitations can be addressed from this study. The findings of the current study should be interpreted with caution due to non-random sampling method and limited number of psychographic variables used to segment consumers. Future studies could include a wide spectrum of consumers who are more representative of the entire young, well-educated, and urban-living Chinese consumer population. Other market-related variables (e.g., price-consciousness, brand-consciousness), ethnocentrism, and consumer globalization may be used as bases for segmenting the Chinese consumer market.

成熟和竞争的国内零售环境，带动美国零售商寻求扩展到新兴的，如人们对中国共和国（中国）经济的机会。而中国加入世界贸易组织与巨大的市场潜力，由于人口众多和经济快速增长相结合，高考取得了中国对美国企业最有吸引力的市场之一。作为年轻的中国消费者有机会接触到西方的生活方式，他们对外国服装的需求有所增加。虽然这些年轻的中国消费者提供良好的氛围，国外服装企业，面临着一个重要的问题是，是否美国服装公司年轻的中国消费者将有兴趣购买美国的服装品牌时，中国已经是世界上最大的服装生产厂家，是国内众多品牌。另一个重要问题是，中国消费者是不是同质的群体。虽然年轻的中国消费者对时尚和著名品牌，一些中国传统的价值观，如平衡质量，价格和公用事业信念渴望可能会降低他们的购买欲望的产品国外品牌（陈，2009）。这种观点认为，在这些差异可能存在于年轻消费者的消费心理因素有关的服装特色。为此，本研究的目的是确定各作为一个潜在的目标市场确定为美国零售商中国消费者的不同部分（即年轻，受过良好教育，城市生活的中国消费者）的基础上投其所好变量，并检查各分部的品牌资产观念对美国的服装品牌。一个大学生（N= 220）谁是两个在天津，中国重点大学录取，样品使用。涉及两步聚类分析在特定领域的相关的年轻中国消费者消费心态的因素国外服装消费为基础的分析（即需要的独特性，与生活满意度，满意度与外观，和对美国产品的态度）。每个消费群体的聚类分析确定了异形的看法有四个品牌资产使用多元剖面分析（即品牌的忠诚度，品牌联想与品牌知名度，感知质量和情感价值）。这项研究表明，特定领域的消费心理特征（即唯一性，满意度与生活，外观满意度，对美国产品的态度需要）成功分段潜力，美国服装品牌的中国消费者。聚类分析产生的五个中国消费者不同的群体：自我满足，美国产品的情人，独特性导引头，满足消费群体的种族中心主义和冷漠。此外，对美国品牌（Polo Ralph Lauren的品牌）消费者认知品牌资产的四个方面各不相同的消费群。这一发现支持论点的潜在目标为美国服装品牌，谁是年轻的，受过良好教育，城市生活的消费者，中国消费者并不均匀，因而不能用相同的营销战略目标。虽然确定谁都有可能在年轻的城市消费者购买美国的服装品牌赢利的消费者可能对美国的服装零售商面临的挑战，一个机会，似乎存在，因为很大一部分的受访者（即自我满足消费者和美国产品爱好者）表现比较对美国产品和Polo Ralph Lauren的品牌走向积极的品牌认知的积极态度。在以消费者为基础的品牌资产的四个对Polo Ralph Lauren的品牌方面，感知质量获得了全部五个消费段的最高收视率。然而，消费者对品牌的忠诚度提供含有比其他三个品牌资产方面更多的行为为导向的项目相对较低的平均分数。对年轻的中国消费者品牌的忠诚度相对较低的结果是由迪克森，列侬，蒙塔尔托，沉，张（2004）的论点一致，许多中国消费者谁买得起知名品牌不一定买的服装商品，而国外服装品牌因此可能能够争取到，尽管中国消费者的平均收入只增加了整个市场的很小一部分。因此，精心策划的战略是必要的，切实解决“在一个市场的市场”为目标的中国城市年轻人的消费群体（克拉夫，黑森州，Höfling，彼得斯和Rinas，2007）。根据调查的结果，每个段潜在的市场营销策略提出了建议。一些限制可以从这项研究加以解决。目前的研究结果的解释应该谨慎由于非随机抽样的方法，并用于部分消费者的消费心态的变量数量有限。未来的研究可以包括消费者谁更有整个年轻，受过良好教育，和城市生活的中国消费人群广泛代表性。其他市场相关的变量（如价格意识，品牌意识），种族中心主义和消费全球化可能被用来作为中国消费者细分市场基础