Selection of Cosmetic Products According to Awareness of Girls Students of Ayodhya District of U.P.

Introduction

The word “Cosmetics” is derived from the Greek word Kosmetikos which means “skilled at decorating” Cosmetics colloquially known as make-up are care substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulations cosmetics, defines cosmetics as intended to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance without affecting the body structure or functions producing and marketing tends to motivate consumers intension to buy products through various promotional methods and marketing strategies. This fact hassled increasing to know about the factors which determine buying behavior. In recent years, with the advancement of women’s economic status and self-conscience, buying has increased (Dong et al, 2011). According to kollat and Willet (1967), women tend to engage in more impulse buying as compared men.

Hence, it is important to learn the factors which determine female consumers buying cosmetics products. The consumer buying behavior steps in the decision process model. There are mainly five stages of consumer buying behavior.

(1) Problem /need recognition.

(2) Information search.

(3) Evaluation of alternatives

                                                         (4) Purchase decision.

(5) Post purchase behavior.

Need of the Study:

The contribution that this research tends to make was to give a clear view to the cosmetic industry as to how college girls prefer to purchase cosmetics products of varied ranges. Also, it helps in knowing the customer base of various brands. Especially among young ladies the use of cosmetics is unavoidably one. The passion for cosmetics among college girls is growing day by day.

Statement of the Problem:

Through this study, the researcher aims at analyzing consumer preferences for cosmetics such as bathing soap, face powder, shampoo, hair oil, face cream, nail polish, and body cream. Hence, the researchers are interested in friendly out which brand, attract more the satisfaction level, availability, and the agreement as pride of the brands.

Objectives of the study

The following are the broad objectives of the study.

(1) To find out the popular brand of cosmetics used by the majority of the college girls with reference to the Ayodhya district.

(2) To find out whether the college girls are satisfied with the brands available at present.

(3) To find out the consumer’s preferences for cosmetics among college girls with reference to the Ayodhya district.

Literature Review:

Brands is the name associated with one of more items in the product line that is used to identify the source of characters of the items (kotler, 2002). Doyle (2002) also cited that a brand is defined as a specific name, symbol or design, or the combination of these that is employed to differentiate a product. The brand name has become an ordinary feature of revery product available and the market. The specialty of each brand its different value in the mind of the potential buyers. A strong brand image and reputation enhances differentiation and has a positive influence on buying behavior (Gorden et al, 1993; Me Enally and De chernatony, 1999as cited in Kuhn et al.2008) , marketers see the significance of powerful brands and this is shown in all effort to build up a strong brand. To customers, brands mean familiarity and credibility as they get to experience some contacts in their everyday life; therefore, they use the brands as an indicator to try or make a decision to buy new products (Ger et al,1993). Moreover, brands are regarded as casual signs of determinants of product quality depends on if the intrinsic attributes and processes that truly determine the quality (Stijn et al 2000) such as familiarity and credibility in the mind of consumer, which creates value to the firm, can be enforced by the use of brand equity: brand  awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and perceived quality (Aaker,2002).

Consumer Attitude:

According to Shah and Khan (2012), attitude is the conduct, nature, temperament thought, and wax of behaving. It can be positive or negative and performs a very essential function in purchasing a product. Lars Perner (2010), defines consumer attitude simply as a composite of a consumer’s beliefs, feelings and behavioral intentions toward some object within the context of marketing Noel (2009), defined attitude as a powerful and long-term assessment for which the consumers are having well- built way of thinking and it can be an individual, entity, announcement or a matter. Attitudes are formed through experience and learning and attitudes influence buying behavior (Kotler and Keller, (2000). Consumer attitudes toward a firm and its product, greatly influence the success or failure of the firm (Wselance.com) choo, Choung & pysachik, (2004), have  argued that there is a direct causal relationship between attitudes and behavior.

Consumer decision marking:

The consumer decision-making process consists of mainly five steps according to most researchers with in the field (Mccall et. 2002, cross 1999, Peter and Olser 2005, p.169, Hawkins et al, 2011). The steps included in the model are; need or problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process. However, not all purchased require every step (1999), Peter & Olsen 2005, p168). Consumers can skip the evaluation of alternatives when considering low-involvement products (Peter & Olson 2005). According to Hawkins et al. (2001), there are more aspects than only the decision-making process that affect consumer behavior which are external and internal influences. External influences are social class and reference groups while internal factors are motivation exposure, attention, perception and attitude.

Consumer Preference:

Dialogues (2008) and Mucuk (2001) According to the report, with the exception of cleaning products, consumer loyalty to private brand-products were found to have increased for products in all categories. Despite the growing demand for private brand products, consumers, have different reasons for their preferences that are sensitive to product type and price, and the socio-economic status of consumers (Jack and rose 2000). It would be difficult and almost impossible to create quantitative variable to describe the overall appearance of the main characters combining  varying views (e.g., price, taste, quality, hygiene etc.) as well as the dynamic design, colors, and sound of the machine in that vending solution, which may have a significant impact on consumer preference Monirul & Han J.tl;(2012), states the demand of coffee is more than tea and earring good amount  of profit. It is assumed that about 20 billion. Cups of hot drinks are solid every year.

Research Methodology:

This chapter will describe the method used in the research, explain the method conducting, procedure of data collection and sampling and finally describe the questionnaire design.

Research Method:

Selecting the right methodology is important for the researches as it will affect the relevant information extracted from the data. There are two type of method researcher use to collect data.

Qualitative and Quantitative method:

Quantities research methods are more intrusive and less structured than quantitative research techniques, and thus are appropriate when the research is exploring in nature, when the research is clinical (Jarratt, 1996). Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do any sax. Small no of  people is interviews in depth and /or  a relatively small  number of focus groups are conducted .The techniques   is administered by highly trained interviewer – analyst who also  analyzed the finding and tends to somewhat subjective  (Schiff man & Knuk, 2000,p.15) while quantitative research method is aimed to  classify features , count them  and contrast statistical models in an attempt  to explain what is observed and the data collected are in form of number and statistics (Neil,2007).It is  descriptive in nature and is used by researchers to understand the effect of various promotional input on consumers (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000.p.15).Quantitative research is invaliding the use of structured questions where the response options have been predetermined and a large number of respondents is involved. According to Mc Daniel and Roger (2002), to study the meaning of involving variables statistically, quantitative, research is considered useful. Quantitative research searches for references about a larger population, giving a result that portrays statistical analysis capability, high reliability and general is ability (Sae-jiks 2007) in addition, and most of that research in this area of the study utilized quantitative research with similar methodology. The use of quantitative research for this study will produce a comparison with prior study within same context.

Sources of Data:

The required information for the study has been collected both from primary and secondary sources. The primary data has been collected from the respondents by survey method through the issue of the questionnaire in addition interview techniques and informal talks were held for collecting first-hand information. The secondary data has been collected from books magazines, journals and from dealers.

Tools Used for Analysis and Imprecation:

Simple statistical tools such as averages, and percentage have been used for analysis and interpretation.

 Items of Cosmetics:

About seven items of cosmetics that are normally used by college girls have been selected for the study. They are;

1. Bathing soap

2. Talcum powder

3. Shampoo

4. Face powder

5. Hair oil

6. Perfume

7. Sun Screen

Sampling Design:

Samples of 270 college girls are selected as respondents on the basis of a stratified random sampling method. The details of the sampling are given below-

The preferences for different cosmetics by the respondents have been analyzed after another.

From the above table Patanjali soaps is preferred by most of the college girls (38%) followed by Dove soap (18%) of respondents and lavender and sandalwood soap is followed by same (05%) of respondents.

From the above table shows that the majority of college girls in Kumarganj are used ponds of -126 respondents in percentage of 46% of college girls are using talcum powders. The next preference is for others (18%) followed by Degas vanilla tale (14%). Organic aquarium (8%) followed by Mysore sandal wood. Secret temptation pink perfumed talc and white tone face powder 2% followed by Yardley lender gold and wild stone (1%).

Source:Calculated from primary data.

From the above table, it clearly shows that (33%) of college girls prefer Sunsilk shampoo and the second category of Pantene shampoo of (30%) and the third category of Garnier shampoo of (13%)

Findings of the study-

The following are the main findings of the study.

1. Majority of the respondents are spending less than Rs 500 per month on cosmetics.

2. Others is most preferred bathing soap by the majority of the respondents.

3. ponds is most preferred talcum powder by more than the average number of respondents.

4. Parachute hair oil are preferred more or less equally by average number of respondents.

5. Quality is most preferred factor for brand preference is the majority of the respondents.

Suggestions:

1. The satisfaction level of respondents is very low on the cosmetic products. Hence it is suggested that the manufacturers should identify the reasons behind this and then provide them with the requirements.

2. The respondents feel that the prices of cosmetics are comparatively higher.

3. Girls students may be influenced to use turmeric as face cream. The medical benefit of using turmeric must be brought to the notice of girls.

Conclusion:

Cosmetic is a preparation extremely applied to change or enhance the beauty of skin, hair, nail, lips, and eyes in today’s scenario the cosmeceutical market is considered to be a potential market for the cosmeceutical pharmaceutical companies. Due to the diversity in population and also having a large population. India is supposed to be are of the emerging markets in the field of cosmetical production and also having has a large population Indian’s supposed to be are of the emerging markets in the field of cosmetic production this globe cosmetic generation beauty, fragrance pleasant look and love as wealth findings of the study help cosmetic companies to make their strategies so as to capture this new emerging cosmeceutical market segment.

Reference:

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