Consumers are growing dissatisfied with the clothing from major apparel companies they're seeing on store shelves, according to the latest surveys from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.
Click on the photo above to see how some of the most famous clothing brands rate in customer satisfaction.
The Index is an ongoing, comprehensive survey of thousands of consumers about the products and services provided by more than 225 companies. Its surveyors have been asking consumers to rate their satisfaction with companies, their products and services, on a scale of 0 to 100 since 1995.
Apparel in general rates an 81 on a scale of o100, which doesn't seem bad until you realize that the satisfaction score was 83 in 2010.
"After two years of steady improvement, customer satisfaction with apparel products such as jeans, hosiery and underwear is unraveling, down 3.6% to 80," said Claes Fornell, a business professor at the University of Michigan, which founded the index. "The substantial decline at the industry level comes from dampened satisfaction (-5% to 79) with smaller companies, the group that makes up the majority of the industry's market share.
"Adding to the problem is a lack of improvement among four of five major manufacturers," he continued.
"On one level, increasing costs — particularly cotton — have led to higher prices, which are at the root of the industry's problem with falling or stagnating customer satisfaction," Fornell explained. "Cotton prices, however, have plunged recently by more than 50%, while apparel prices have failed to follow suit. In order for customer satisfaction to return to previous levels, some adjustment in the industry's overall pricing structure is likely needed."
Americans are more satisfied with their athletic shoes, up 1 point to 81, according to Index surveys.
"But consumers see little difference among the brands, big or small," Fornell said. "The largest players in the category — Adidas and Nike — are deadlocked with scores of 80 after a 2% drop for Adidas this year."
Nike was unchanged, but its 2010 and 2011 score of 80 is the best in the 16-year history of the index.
"While customers perceive Nike as the winner when it comes to a high-quality product," Fornell said, the superior value delivered by Adidas makes the satisfaction matchup a draw for 2011. The aggregate of smaller athletic shoe brands such as New Balance and Skechers inches ahead with a 1% gain to 81, but the difference is negligible."
The index calls itself an economic indicator of consumer satisfaction, surveying on 225 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors. It takes its data from interviews with approximately 70,000 customers annually.
