Question 01:

How do consumers culture, social, personal and psychological characteristics affect their cosmetics shopping behavior?

Answer:

The behavior that the cosmetic consumers display in searching, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing a product that they expect will satisfy their needs is very important to create a market. It mainly focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their time, money and effort on that cosmetic. That includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluations on future purchases, and how they dispose it.

1. Cultural Factors:

Culture has a profound influence on all aspects of human behavior. Culture is a pervasive influence which underlies all facets of social behavior and interaction. It is embodied in the objects used in everyday life and in modes of communication in society. Different cultures react differently to a new product, as the meanings, values, ideas and beliefs of a social group are articulated through various cultural artifacts.

One’s own personal culture guides the selection of cosmetics. The language and the symbols used on the package influences the selection of cosmetics and the ritual which we perform has an effect on the use of cosmetics too. While selecting cosmetics, culture influences their selection. For example, complexion of Asians is darker than Europeans and as a result most of the people here try to find the whitening elements in the cosmetics. On the other hand Europeans are more concern about the age reducing cosmetics. The subculture of the consumers also influences the cosmetics selection and they have derived subculture from the culture of the state and religion to which they belong. Consumers are also getting influenced from cross-culture of different countries. Today’s globalization has converged the global teenage category tastes and preferences, as a reason teenagers are influenced on other country’s teenagers. As a result of that consumers would like to buy cosmetics of most favored brand because they know that global brands fulfill the needs of their customers through quality products.

2. Personal Factors:
Personality describes a person’s disposition, helps show why people are different, and encompasses a person’s unique traits. The “Big Five” personality traits that psychologists discuss frequently include openness or how open a person is to new experiences, conscientiousness or how diligent, extraversion or how outgoing or shy, agreeableness or how easy to get along with, and neuroticism or how prone to negative mental states.
People, who exhibit extremely high levels of openness, are more likely to respond well to advertising that’s violent and graphic; such advertising for cosmetics can help them to get the market. For example, Adidas is a brand for sporty people and so they make some violet effects on advertises, as it affects the users of Adidas because the sporty people are tend to be open minded. The problem for firms is figuring out in terms of consumer’s personalities. Marketers have had better luck linking people’s self-concepts to their cosmetic purchase. In case of cosmetics, consumer’s ideal self is how they would like to see themselves—whether prettier, more popular, more brandy, or how she think others see her. Many beauty products and cosmetic procedures are advertised in a way that’s supposed to appeal to the ideal self people seek, as everyone want products that improve their lives. While demographic variables such as income, education, and marital status are important, we will look at gender, age, and stage of life and how they influence cosmetic purchase decisions. Men and women need and buy different cosmetics. They also shop differently and in general, have different attitudes about cosmetics. Many advertisements directed at one sex or the other. The shopping differences between men and women seem to be changing, though. The things we buy have changed as our age. For example, we used ordinary lotions in our childhood and then switched to moisturizer in teenage. Now we use cosmetics that can make a glow in our skin and depending on the stage of life someday wrinkle cream might be just around the corner. A single and working lady after graduation will probably spend her money differently for a cosmetic than a newly married couple. Our chronological age, or actual age in years, is one thing. Our cognitive age, or how old we perceive ourselves to be, is another. A person’s cognitive age affects his or her activities and sparks interests consistent with his or her perceived age. Companies have found that many consumers feel younger than their chronological age and don’t take kindly to products that feature “old folks” because they can’t identify with them.

3. Psychological Factors:
Motivation is the inward drive we have to get what we need. In the mid-1900s, Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, developed the hierarchy of needs. Maslow theorized that people have to fulfill their basic needs—food, water, and sleep—before they can begin fulfilling higher-level needs. While shopping if one is tired or hungry, shopping for something that would make the person envy of her friends new dress and she probably wanted to sleep or eat even more and forget the dress.
Branded cosmetics are higher level needs. Though it’s not a basic need but still these needs arise at different points in time in a person’s life. For example, during grade school and high school, our needs for cosmetics probably rose to the forefront. We wanted to have perfumes or body spray with a good smell. Perhaps this prompted us to buy certain types of body spray. After high school, we began thinking about how people would view us in our station in life, so we decided to pay more for a branded perfume, thereby fulfilling our need for esteem. At some point everyone will realize Maslow’s state of self-actualization and believe that we have become the person in life that we feel we were meant to be. Occupation also affects our cosmetic purchase. For example, people who work under sun are more concern about the UV rays of sun and so they use sun block creams. Economy has a huge impact of the cosmetic buying decision too. A person with not so high remuneration will prefer going for brand which does not cost him much but a person with high remuneration will always go for the best brand and will never be concern about how much he is paying to get the cosmetics. Life style affects cosmetic buying decision too. No matter how good a wrinkle cream is, a woman who maintains a life style will always choose a well known cream rather than going for anything else. Perception is how we interpret the world around us and make sense of it in our brain. We do so via stimuli that affect our different senses; such as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. How we combine these senses also makes a difference. For example, the packaging, smell and how our skin feels after using the cosmetics influence our cosmetics purchase decision. At the first sight we are never concern about the result of using the product. Consumers are bombarded with messages on television, radio, magazines and the Internet. Some, but not all information makes it into our brains. Many people are more perceptive to advertisements for products they need. Selective attention is the process of filtering out information based on how relevant it is to us. Often the information contradicts the person’s belief. An old lady who forgets much of the information communicated, it is to be sure that the message of advertize of wrinkle removing cream will get through her head and she will remember them. Learning refers to the process by which consumers change their behavior after they gain information or experience. It’s the reason we don’t buy a bad product twice. Learning doesn’t just affect what we buy; it affects how we shop. People with limited experience about a product or brand generally seek out more information than people who have used a product before. Companies try to get consumers to learn about their products in different ways. Cosmetic companies give consumers free samples to promote its new line of cosmetics. Attitudes are mental positions or emotional feelings, favorable or unfavorable evaluations, and action tendencies people have about products, services, companies, ideas, issues, or institutions. Attitudes tend to be enduring, and because they are based on people’s values and beliefs, they are hard to change. Companies want people to have positive feelings about their offerings. It is believed that vitamin C maintains our complexion and so while choosing a lightening cosmetic, a consumer will always look for the product which contain vitamin C.

4. Societal Factors:
Societal factors are more outward and have broad influences on our beliefs and the way we do things. They depend on the world around us and how it works. A social class is a group of people who have the same social, economic, or educational status in society. While income helps define social class, the primary variable determining social class is occupation. To some degree, consumers in the same social class exhibit similar purchasing behavior. While some products may appeal to people in a social class, you can’t assume a person is in a certain social class because they either have or don’t have certain products or brands.
In a recession when luxury buyers are harder to come by, the makers of upscale brands may want their customer bases to be as large as possible. However, companies don’t want to risk cheapening their brands. For example, an ordinary perfume which is made by Victoria’s Secret, don’t have the Victoria’s Secret label on them because the company is worried that its reputation was being tarnished by the line. A product’s price is to some extent determined by supply and demand. Luxury brands therefore try to keep the supply of their products in check so their prices remain high. Some perfume companies, such as Adidas, have managed to capture market share by introducing lower classed brands without damaging their luxury brands. The company’s perfumes come in different bottles with labels. The best perfumes are sold in a silk-lined box, accompanied by a certificate of the quality. Reference groups influence consumers’ attitudes and behavior. If we have ever dreamed of being a professional player of basketball or another sport, we will have an aspiration to the reference group. For example, Adidas hires celebrities such as Michael Jordan to pitch the company’s products. There may also be dissociative groups or groups where a consumer does not want to be associated. Opinion leaders are people with expertise in certain areas. Consumers respect these people and often ask their opinions before they buy goods and services. For example, Sunsilk is introducing different ranges of shampoos through the hair experts and so people are being more influenced to buy their products. A person’s family is one of the most important influences on their buying behavior. We are more like our parents than we think, at least in terms of our consumption patterns. Many of the things we buy and don’t buy are a result of what our parents bought when we were growing up. Products such as the brand of soap and toothpaste our parents bought and used are examples of the products we may favor as an adult.