Effect of Cosmetic Marketing on Consumers Individual Self Image - Dissertation Example

?The Effect of Cosmetic Marketing on Consumers’ Individual Self Image. Part One Literature Review 1 Introduction: Marketing Theories. Standard marketing theories based on product design, advertising and brand awareness- raising are being revised in the current media-obsessed generation. The advent of the internet and social media brings new possibilities into play, and even traditional ideas about body, self and image are being transformed by the multiple identities that can be represented online. In the cosmetic industry the real physical self is the target for the product usage, but very often these extended virtual identities can also be targeted in order to reach media-savvy consumers. A review of the recent literature shows that the cosmetics industry is at the forefront of marketing innovations and this study explores exactly what effects this marketing activity is having on the self-image of consumers. 1.2 Body, Self and Image. It has long been recognised that the way people use certain products helps them to build a concept of self (Grubb, 1967; Sirgy, 1982; Malhotra, 2002). Psychologists have noted that people seek to maintain more than one version themselves. (Adler, 1930) This is very evident in choice of clothing, for example, which people use to align themselves to peer groups, work contexts and so on, and when they adapt to different situations. There are also many products which people use in private and no one else knows that this product is being used. These two situations may connect with what psychologists call “ideal self” and “real self” (Dolich, 1969 ) or “public self” and “private self.” (Baumeister, 1986) Studies show that what people buy has symbolic as well as literal meanings for them, and by choosing some products over others, consumers are choosing to bolster one or other aspect of their own personality. (Dittmar, 1992) For women especially there are extra pressures to maintain a positive body image because the patriarchal culture that still exists in Western societies values youthful and healthy appearance in women much more than in men. (Woolf, 1991; Gimlin, 2002) As women at the start of the twentieth century increasingly took part in the public world of work, the cosmetic industry played its part in building expectations of increasing artifice in the construction of a public image for women. (Peiss, 1990) Now, at the start of the twenty first century, in a less overtly sexist society, the process appears to be extending still further into the domain of masculinity, and the marketing of cosmetics for men is growing exponentially. (Mintel, 2008) 1.3 The Cosmetics Industry and Self Image. The cosmetics industry is intimately connected with consumers’ idea of self. to modern approaches like “Guerrilla Marketing” (Levinson, 2007) which advocates low budget persistence before, during and after a sale. “Digital Marketing” or “emarketing” (Parkin, 2009) extols the advantages of new technologies. The concept of “sticky marketing” rejects old adages like the unique selling proposition or USP because of the proliferation of almost identical products in modern society, and requires instead that “the focus move from transactions to customer engagement.” (Leboff: . p. 92) All of these have relevance in the fashion-conscious area of cosmetics marketing. It is no coincidence that some of the most psychologically sophisticated campaigns in the history of marketing come from this branch. L’Oreal Group’s long running series of haircare advertisements, for example, which ran the slogan “Because you’re worth it” successfully bound their product to the consumer’s feeling of self-worth, creating a memorable message that has become part of the English language. The focus in these advertisements is on the effect which the product has on the consumer’s mind, more than the body, and this is a clever twist that flatters the consumer and seems to sell the product incidentally. This campaign which ran at the start of the new millennium latched on to the materialism of professionals in the dot.com generation, and its unashamed celebration of luxury reflects the selfishness of this generation. The message in this campaign is that the consumer has every right to pamper his or her body, and in so doing maintain a high level of self-esteem. It is now widely believed that who encourage consumers to think about their own self-image while evaluating a brand can magnify the effects of that brand image, especially if this image is congruent with the consumer’s own image. (Graeff, 1996) An earlier approach, in the late hippie era of the mid 1970s, tapped into a very different zeitgeist: Anita Roddick’s “Body Shop” chain of stores was one of the first to commit to a studiously ethical concept, emphasising the consumer’s solidarity with good causes and environmental protection ventures across the globe. While the products remained at the higher end of the cost range in the cosmetics market, the image of the company set it apart from competitors. Consumers of “Body Shop” products are able, in a sense to have their cake and eat it: they can enjoy luxury goods but they can keep a clear conscience. This approach was quite radical at the time because it runs counter to traditional marketing theory. Palmer attributes the success of the Body Shop to luck, and its slow demise to this very departure from marketing principles: “It seemed that heroes can change the rulebook when the tide is flowing with them; but adopting the disciplines of marketing allows companies to anticipate and react when the tide turns against them. (Palmer: 2009, p. 35) The contemporary global market for cosmetics is huge, and set to grow even further. In America alone cosmetics sales are worth some $40-$50 billion a year, and in 2005 it spent some $2.2 billion on advertising. (Chura, 2006) The reason for this is all to do with the prestige value of certain brands, and the need to differentiate products which are otherwise indistinguishable to a general public which is not equipped to understand fine chemical difference in the formula of cosmetic products. It is clear that consumers do have preferences when it comes to cosmetic brands, but the question is why and how do they develop and maintain these choices. Another interesting question is how cosmetics advertising affects people with low self esteem and whether this is different from the way it affects those with high self-esteem. It has been shown that some cosmetic marketing presents such a high level of body perfection that ordinary consumers react negatively to the product because the impossible standard causes them to experience low self-esteem.(Bower, 2001) If this is a widespread phenomenon then there are potentially ethical implications for the marketing profession, since they would then find themselves responsible for causing or worsening some kinds of human distress. (Larson, 2000) Recent research on Unilever’s “Dove” brand found that only 2 per cent of women internationally viewed themselves as beautiful and as a result of this finding they commenced a “Real Beauty” campaign which aimed encourage women of at all ages to appreciate their bodies more. (Kurtz et al, 2009, p. 287) This approach, somewhat like Roddick’s campaigning for natural products, has the potential to take responsibility for change consumer beliefs and also even consumer self-image to make people happier with a more realistic and less idealistic view of themselves. One of the interesting areas that has not been fully explored is the specific issues relating to the marketing of cosmetics to non-white people. A Mintel report of 2007 noted that black women, for example, general spend more than white women on cosmetics, but the implications of this for the marketing profession are not yet fully explored. 1.4 Aim, objectives and research question. The present study has one aim,namely : to explore how cosmetics marketing affects consumers’ self- image. It has a further 5 objectives namely to find out How much brand awareness student consumers have developed in four products: shampoo, shower gel, lip balm, and moisturiser. How much brand loyalty student consumers have developed for these four products. How consumers feel about the marketing of these three products. How consumers self-image is affected by buying and using each of these three products, or by not buying and not using each of these three products. Whether there are differences in the way that male consumers and female consumers are affected by cosmetic advertising. The research question which this paper asks is what effect does cosmetics marketing have on both male and female students’ self image. Part Two: Method, Sample and Potential Problems. 2.1 Method. The method for conducting this research is questionnaire and short structured interview. The questionnaire gathers facts about the consumers’ demographics, brand awareness and brand loyalty and this is then analysed quantitatively. The three products are chosen because they are applicable to men and women, and because they range from products that everyone uses (shampoo) to products which only some people in this age group use (moisturiser). The research on recent campaigns by “Dove” (Kurz et al. 2009) suggests that there may be differences in the way that male and female consumers react to cosmetics advertising and so this is built in specifically as an area for examination, but this study focussed only on women. The present study looks at both male and female responses in order to obtain a wider perspective, and considers a younger age group where changes in marketing using new media are more pronounced. Only two demographic data will be collected : gender and age. No names or other identifying data will be required, and the questionnaire is entirely voluntary. These questionnaires will be handed to students in a casual setting, such as cafeteria or common room. The researcher will ask respondents to take a questionnaire form, read the introductory text explaining anonymity and ethical handling of people and data, and then fill in the questions on three cosmetic products. When the questionnaire is complete the respondents are asked to return to the researcher and answer a few qualitative questions about cosmetics in general and how they feel about them, and about advertising of cosmetics in general. This mixed qualitative and quantitative method is chosen because a purely quantitative data would not reveal how consumers are affected emotionally by the marketing process. There are limitations caused by the fact that everything is self-reported, and there is no objective measurement of how people are affected, but in such a small study this is inevitable. The researcher is likely to achieve interesting comments in the interview section, which will illuminate the topic but there is not likely to be any finding that is able to be generalised. The data on brand awareness and brand usage will, however, be more firm, and there may be some correlation possible between the facts in the data section and the feelings in the interview section. 2.2 Sample. The sample is 50 students, ideally 25 female and 25 male, aged between 18 and 25. This sample is chosen in order to provide comparative data by gender and in order to make the study a manageable size. 3.3 Potential Problems. There may be some difficulty in obtaining serious results from male students, and so timing and location of the data gathering may need to be carefully considered, for example ensuring more privacy for men to respond, in order to avoid peer group interference. There is a danger that the involvement of the researcher in collecting the qualitative data could skew the results in a particular direction. This will be minimized through the use of structured open questions, with some freedom to add follow up questions, especially in the area of respondents’ feelings. For some people exploration of this topic might arouse sensitivities and so care will be taken to maintain a polite and distanced tone, and to immediately halt the investigation if any respondent is unhappy or shows signs of stress. The cost of the research is only photocopying of the questionnaire sheets. References Adler, A. 1930. Understanding Human Nature. New York: Greenberg. Baumeister, R.F. 1986. Public Self and Private Self. New York: Springer. Bearden, W.O. et al. 2001 Consumer Self-Confidence: Refinements in Conceptualization and Measurement. The Journal of Consumer Research 28 (1) pp. 121-134 Bower, A. 2001. 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