Consumers’ Preferences for Wax Prints for Ceremonial Occasions in the New Juaben Municipality

Abstract

Wax prints play an important role in ceremonies and they have a significant communicative value, indicating status of an individual. Different fabric types of wax print fabrics, and different colours and designs are worn by consumers for different ceremonial programmes, including naming, marriage and funeral ceremonies. The study aimed at examining examine consumers’ preferences for wax prints for ceremonial programmes. It included the fabric type of wax prints preferred by consumers for ceremonial programmes, the design of wax prints preferred by consumers for ceremonial programmes, and the colour of wax prints preferred by consumers for ceremonial programmes. The study adopted a cross sectional and descriptive study designs. A total of 100 respondents were sampled for the study. Accidental sampling was used to sample respondents for the study. Interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were used to describe the data. The study found that the main factor for the preference of fabrics from particular wax prints for certain ceremonial programmes was the communicative function of fashion, and while consumers preferred wax prints of high social class and relatively more expensive to outdooring and wedding programmes, they preferred wax prints of low social class and less expensive wax prints for funeral programmes. Designs and colours in wax prints had influence on the selection of fabrics by all the respondents for ceremonial programmes. The study recommends that textile manufacturing companies should consider the function of fabrics in the selection of their colour and designs for particular fabrics.

Keywords: Wax prints, ceremonial occasions, fabric colour, fabric design