Consumer Buying Practices for Nail Care Products

INTRODUCTION

Brand, quality, and price are making consumers choose good cosmetic products. Consumers get satisfied with good brand products. Some uneducated consumers remember the product with the help of a logo or symbol and remember the product for a long time. Consumers tend to maintain brand loyalty after getting satisfaction with the continuous use of the same brand.

Compared to earlier times, the 21st century is witnessing rapid growth in cosmetic industries and also the rise in consumer awareness towards cosmetics, which is leading to the overall growth of cosmetic industries. The purchasing and spending power among women is increasing due to women’s empowerment as they are working outside to be financially independent, thus becoming capable of purchasing cosmetics products. The study’s main focus is to understand the purchasing pattern of women consumers with reference to cosmetic products and to know the spending pattern on cosmetic products.

A study entitled consumption pattern towards selected personal care products among teenagers in Pune city. The majority focused on brand and price while purchasing personal care products. There was a significant relationship between the gender and usage of personal care products [3].

A study on the analysis of determinants of brand preference for cosmetics in Abia State, Nigeria. Results indicated that age group was an attribute that had a direct impact on a person’s attitude toward a brand. In the cosmetics market, the age group was used to define the targeted market segment. Based on the maturity, the preference for cosmetics or any other product may vary. Consumers’ preference for cosmetics declined as their age advanced. People above the age of 65 used lesser cosmetics. The income level of a person had a direct impact on the purchasing of a product. When income levels rise, naturally people tend to buy more luxury/premium products. The income affected the type of goods that consumers were likely to buy. There was a significant positive relationship between consumers’ preference for cosmetics products with educational attainment, employment status, social status, perceived quality fragrance, brand name, packaging, and skin color [4].

The brand choice decisions of consumers with reference to cosmetics in Chennai city. Cosmetic items namely lipstick, nail polish, eyeliner, fragrance, and make-up have been selected for the study because they were frequently purchased by female consumers. For the purpose of the study, five leading brands of cosmetic products were taken; namely Lakme, Revlon, Elite, Avon, and Oriflame. Lakme was the most preferred brand for lipstick and makeup and Elite brand for nail polish. In the case of eyeliner, the preferred brand was Revlon and for fragrance the preferred brand was Avon. The consumers considered the quality and price of the product at the time of purchase. The promised result of the product was also one of the factors considered in the decision-making process. The consumers were quite satisfied with the existing brand of cosmetics that they were using. The awareness of the brand to the consumers was influenced by advertisements. It was found that proper advertising was necessary for promoting the brands for cosmetics [9].

A study entitled analyzing the relationship between consumption values and brand loyalty of young people: a study on personal care products. Found that the respondents mostly considered personal experiences as the major source of information for personal care product shopping. Apart from this, other sources include advice from family members or close friends and the least used information source was newspaper advertisements. According to the results, the consumption values of young people regarding personal care products appeared to be based on emotional, epistemic, conspicuous consumption, and reference. Department stores were preferred for purchasing perfumes and deodorants, followed by perfumery stores. In brand loyalty factor analysis young people show emotional, cognitive, and behavioral loyalty toward their personal care products. There was a significant relationship between consumption values and brand loyalty [1].

A study on the impact of brand loyalty on buying behavior of women consumers for beauty care products in the Delhi region. They found that brand loyalty could be anticipated from women consumers when they deemed quality and brand while purchasing beauty care products. It was found that women buyers purchased the same brands out of their habit. Price and brand image of products were the two majorly elected features that affected their preference for selecting a particular brand. Quality, brand, and price were the main considerations for which women might switch from one brand to another brand. Friends were found to be the most powerful reference group in choosing beauty care products. The price and quality of products made women consumers to be brand loyal [7].

The market potential of Lakme products with special reference to the Namakkal region and found that only 39 percent were aware of the Lakme products. The majority came to know about the product through advertisements, friends, and relatives. Most of the respondents were satisfied with the Lakme brand and some of them were neutral about it. The majority purchased the products whenever required, and most of them had a good perception of the products. Respondents considered the quality, availability, price, and production as the important factors for purchase. The literacy level of the respondents influenced the purchase of Lakme products. However, nail care was not given that much importance in India when compared to Western and European countries. Hence the present study was taken up to understand the purchase pattern of nail care products among women, to study the influence of the brand on nail care products’ purchase patterns and to analyze the factors affecting purchasing patterns and brand satisfaction for nail care products [8].

METHODOLOGY

An ex post facto research design was used for this study and a total of 120 women respondents who are using nail care products were randomly selected from Hyderabad city 60 respondents belonged to the age group of 20-40 and another 60 belonged to the age group of 40-60 years. A simple random sampling technique was adopted for selecting the sample. To elicit the information, a self-designed structured questionnaire was administrated. The data was analyzed by using frequencies and percentages and the chi-square test was used to test the association and comparison of proportions between independent and dependent variables.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the present study were presented and discussed in this section.

A pattern of nail care products usage by the respondents

Table 1 Distribution of respondents based on use of Nail care products

Sl. No	Cosmetic products	F (n=120)	%
1.	Nail paint	77	64.16
2.	Nail polish remover	48	40.00
3.	Nail decorator	25	20.83

Table 1 revealed that Nail paint, and nail polish remover are used modestly and nail decorator was least used. This might be due to their dependency, less awareness, and low affordability.

Purpose of using nail care products

Respondents were asked to mention the purposes of using various cosmetics and the results are discussed in Table 2. Nearly one-third of the sample had quoted the reasons for using nail care products as to improve self-image, being fashionable (29.16%) and feeling better (2.83%).

Table 2 Distribution of respondents based on the purpose of using nail care products.

Sl.No.	Purposes	Nail care(n=120)
F	%
1	Facial care/ glowingHair	–	–
2	Occupational requirement	7	5.83
3	To look Young	18	15.00
4	Improving self-image	36	30.00
5	Better feeling	31	25.83
6	Medical purpose	6	5.00
7	Suits the Hair type	20	16.66
8	Previous usage results	12	10.00
9	Being fashionable	35	29.16

  (*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 120)

Purchase pattern of the respondents with reference to nail care products

Figure 1showed that 45 percent of the respondents have preferred chemical based nail care products. It was surprising to note that a negligible percent has purchased homeopathic based cosmetic products. More respondents had preferred Ayurvedic and Chemical cosmeticproducts [2].

(*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 120)

Figure 1Type of Nail care productspurchased by the respondents

 

Table 3 Distribution of respondents based on the sources influencing them to purchase Nail care products

Sl.No.	Influencing Factors	Nail care(n=120)
F	%
1	Peer group	39	32.50
2	Family members	37	30.83
3	Work place	19	15.83
4	Brand name	32	26.66
	Advertisements Television	50	41.66
Magazines	12	10.00
News paper	6	5.00
5	Radio	10	8.33
Hoardings	15	12.50
Internet	13	10.83
Pamphlets	9	7.50
6	Brand ambassador	21	17.50
7	Quality	50	41.66
8	Packaging and  labeling	31	25.83
9	Special offers	24	20.00
10	Advice from sales  person	14	11.66
11	Personal experience	43	35.83

(*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 120)

Most of the nail care users were influenced by television advertisements and the quality (41.66%)of the product, as seen in Table 3. Other influential factors were personal experience, family members, and peer groups.

Table 4 Distribution of respondents based on money spent on Nail care products

Sl.No.	Money spent on Nail care products	F	%
1	Below Rs.500	72	60.00
2	Rs. 500 to 1000	6	5.00
3	Rs.1000-1500	–	–
4	Rs. 1500-2000	2	1.66

Table 4 depicts that 60 percent of nail care users had spent below 500 rupees. Only two respondents had spent in the range between Rs.1500-2000 on nail care products. A similar result was found by Sabharwal that the majority of the respondents spent below Rs.500 on cosmetics products per month [6].

It was observed that as the majority of the respondents were financially dependent they had spent below Rs.500 on cosmetic products. The respondents who were earning more than Rs.50,000 had used credit cards for the purchase of cosmetic products.

Table 5Place of purchase of Nail care products (n=120)

Sl.No.	Place of purchase	Nail care
F	%
1	Cosmetic store	53	44.16
2	Shopping malls	34	28.33
3	Medical stores	4	3.33
4	Co-operative stores	6	5.00
5	Online shopping	29	24.16
6	Departmental store	7	5.83
7	Beauty saloons	7	5.83
8	Door to door sale	2	1.66
9	Exhibition	9	7.50

(*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 120)

Forty-four percent of the respondents had purchased nail care products from cosmetic stores followed by shopping malls (28.33) and online shopping (24.16%) and the least purchased from the door to door sales (1.66%) and Parmar (2014) through their study revealed that majority of the respondents preferred nearby shop followed by a cosmetic store (Table 5).

 

Table 6Frequency of purchase of Nail care products

Sl. No.	Frequency of purchase	Nail care
F	%
1	Weekly	1	0.83
2	Fortnightly	–	–
3	Monthly	12	10.00
4	Seasonally	7	5.83
5	Yearly	3	2.50
6	During festival seasons	13	10.83
7	Whenever required	49	40.83

 

The majority of the respondents purchased nail care products whenever they required i.e. 40.83 percent. Few respondents purchased cosmetic products monthly i.e. nail care (10.0%). A very negligible number of respondents purchased cosmetic products during festival seasons, yearly, fortnightly, and weekly, as seen in Table 6. Similar results are seen in the study by Sabharwal it was found that the majority of the respondents (38.70%) purchased cosmetics once a month followed by once in every three months (18.70%) and once every six months(14%) [6].

Figure 2Time spent on purchase of nail care products per month

Nearly thirty-five percent of the respondents had spent nearly half an hour on nail care products purchase. A very negligible number of the respondents had spent two hours on the purchase of nail care products (Figure2).

 (*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 120)

Figure 3Mode of payment for purchase of Nail care products

About 61.66 percent of the respondents had used cash for the purchase of nail care products. More or less one-fourth (24.00%) of the respondents purchased nail care products from a debit card. Only eight percent of the nail care users used a credit card for buying (Figure 3).

Brand preference and Brand satisfaction of the respondents with reference to Nail care products

Table 7 Type of the brand preferred for Nail care products

Sl. No.	Cosmetic products	National brand	International brand	Both
F	%	F	%	F	%
1	Nail care	52	43.33	4	3.33	32	26.66

Table 7 revealed that about 43.33 percent of the nail care users preferred national cosmetic brands. More or less thirty percent of the nail care users had preferred both brands.Very few respondents preferred international cosmetic brand products but respondents were less aware of the international brands because the majority of the cosmetic products used were international brands only. A study revealed that youngsters preferred international brands over national brand [5].

Table 8 reveals that 32.46 percent of the respondents preferred Dazzler and Lakme among the nail paint brands.

Table 8 Distribution of respondents based on the most preferred and most satisfied brands in the past six months regarding Nail paint (n=77)

Sl. No.	Nail paint brands	Most preferred brands	Most satisfied brands
F	%	F	%
1	Dazzler	25	32.46	23	29.87
2	Elle 18	8	10.38	6	7.79
3	Revlon	11	14.28	11	14.28
4	Colour bar	7	9.09	6	7.79
5	Lakme	25	32.46	23	29.87
6	Maybelline	4	5.19	3	3.89
7	Eva green apple	1	1.29	1	1.29
8	Bmw	2	2.59	2	2.59
9	Street wear	2	2.59	2	2.59

      (*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 77)

Revlon was preferred by 14 percent of the respondents and Elle 18 was about 10.38 percent. Few other brands preferred were Colour bar (9.09%), Maybelline (5.19%), Bmw (2.59%), Street Wear (2.59%), and Eva Green Apple (1.29%). The most satisfied brands were Dazzler and Lakme (29.87%) and 14.28 percent of the respondents were satisfied with Revlon. Eight percent of the respondents were satisfied with Elle 18 and the Colour bar.

Table 9 Distribution of respondents based on the most preferred and most satisfied brands in the past six months regarding Nail polish remover (n=48)

Sl. No	Nail polish remover brands	Most preferred brands	Most satisfied brands
F	%	F	%
1	Colour bar	5	10.41	5	10.41
2	Lakme	20	41.66	20	41.66
3	Revlon	7	14.58	7	14.58
4	Dazzler	11	22.91	11	22.91
5	Health and glow	4	8.33	4	8.33
6	Elle 18	1	2.08	1	2.08

(*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 48)

From Table 9 it is confirmed that forty-seven percent of the respondents preferred Lakme and similar results were found in Parmar, 2014 study also. Other most preferred brands were Dazzler (22.91%), Revlon (14.58%), Colour bar(10.41%), Health and Glow (8.33%), and Elle 18(2.08%) was the least preferred nail polish remover. The most satisfied brands were Lakme (41.66%) followed by Dazzler (22.91%), Revlon (14.58%), Colour bar (10.41%), and Health and Glow (8.33%).

Table 10 Distribution of respondents based on the most preferred and most satisfied brands in the past six months regarding the decorator (n=25)

Sl.No.	Nail decorator brands	Most preferred brands	Most satisfied brands
F	%	F	%
1	Lakme	14	56.00	14	56.00
2	Dazzler	15	60.00	12	48.00

(*Due to multiple responses the total exceeds 25)

From Table 10 with respect to nail care decorators, Dazzler was preferred by 60 percent of the respondents and 56 percent preferred Lakme. The most satisfied brands were Lakme (56%) and Dazzler (48%).

Table 11 Distribution of respondents regarding brands satisfaction about Nail care cosmetic products (n=120)

Sl. No.	Cosmetic products	5	4	3	2	1	Total score	Rank
1	Nail paint	21	41	6	5	4	301	1
2	Nail paint remover	16	20	10	2	–	194	2
3	Nail decorator	7	6	2	5	5	80	3

Table 11, concluded that a maximum number of respondents gave first rank to the nail paint brands, nail paint remover (2nd rank), and least satisfied was nail decorator (3rd rank).

Table 12 Distribution of respondents regarding brands’ satisfaction for different factors related to Nail care cosmetics (n=120)

Sl. No.	Factors	5	4	3	2	1	Total score	Rank
1	Price	5	36	30	11	3	284	5
2	Quality	6	27	37	10	5	274	7
3	Look	8	36	29	10	2	293	4
4	Durability	15	31	24	13	1	298	2
5	Fragrance	10	32	21	19	3	282	6
6	Brand	8	40	25	10	2	297	3
7	Packaging	10	35	31	9	–	301	1

 

Regarding nail care packaging stood with 1st rank followed by durability (2nd rank), brand (3rd rank) and least was quality (7th rank) (Table 12).

Table 13 Association between age and consumer brand preference- Nail care

Age	brand preferences – Nail care	Total
National	International	Both	1.00
Below 40 years	41	3	16	60
Above 40 years	40	6	14	60
Total	81	9	30	120

PearsonChi-Square=.637                    P= .727 (Nosignificant)

The result showed that there is no significant association between age and brand preference for nail care cosmetic products.

Conclusion

This study found that while purchasing nail care cosmetics respondents were more conscious about packaging followed by durability, brand name and quality of the products by women, it was found that nail paint, and nail polish remover are used modestly and nail decorator was least used. The majority of nail care users have preferred chemical nail care products followed by Ayurvedic and organic nail care products. The most preferred and satisfied brands in the case of nail paint were Dazzler and Lakme. Regarding nail care decorators Dazzler was the most preferred brand followed by Lakme. The most satisfied brands were Lakme followed by Dazzler(48%).The majority of the nail care product users got influenced by television advertisements and quality factors and the least was newspaper and pamphlets.

Future scope of the study:

Conflicts of interest:

Acknowledgement:

Bibliography

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