Consumer Purchase Intention for Skin-care Products Hsin-Fan Chen Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, Chaoyang University of Technology
Yen-Hsi Lee Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Chaoyang University of Technology
Yu-Cheng Tu Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, Chaoyang University of Technology
Yi-Fang Chao Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Chaoyang University of Technology
Abstract Skin-care product was one of the major products in cosmetic markets, so the marketing opportunity is huge. However, most of previous researches generally discussed anything but skin-care products. In order to increase the sales volume and make marketing strategies to increase consumers’ purchase intention, manufacturers have to understand consumer’s buying decision-making process. Perceived value is considered to be a key point to influence consumers’ willingness to purchase; therefore, the study adopted the PERVAL scale, developed by Sweeney and Soutar (2001), to investigate the influences of perceived value on consumer’s purchase intention toward skin-care product. Six hundred thirty two undergraduate students were recruited to participate in and fill out the questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the effect of perceived value on purchase intention. The finding revealed that all four dimensions of perceived value have significant impacts on consumers’ purchase intentions. This study suggests that manufacturers can develop effective marketing strategies by emphasizing price, quality of product, fragrances, packages, and designs of product…etc. to enhance consumers’ perceived value to increase their purchase intentions. Keywords: Perceived value, Purchase intention, Skin-care product
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INTRODUCTION Most people use cosmetics every day. Cosmetics have become one of the necessities in daily life. Guthrie, Kim and Jung (2008) noted that people used cosmetic products to improve their appearance and tell their own style or artistic preferences to other people. People believed that after using cosmetics, they will become prettier and have more confidence when they contact with other people. As a result, the market will develop fast as soon as people want to purchase cosmetic products. Liang (2010) mentioned that the global sales value will increase from 75 billion US dollars in 2008 to 86 billion US dollars in 2013. In Taiwan the production value and sales value of cosmetic industry in 2010 increased separately more 18.31% and 10.95% than these in 2009 (Taiwan Industry Economics Services, 2010). It shows now in Taiwan cosmetics become one of the major products in the market of daily supplies. Kumar, Massis and Dumonceaux (2006) described “the cosmetic industry is a very lucrative, innovative fast paced industry (p.286)”; therefore, the potential of markets is huge in the future. In order to achieve consumers’ different needs, plenty of different functional products appear. Different categories in cosmetics industry include lotion, cosmetic of hair, cosmetic of eye, cream and so forth. These categories are based on their function to various kinds of product in each country. According to Liang’s (2010) report, among these various products, skin-care products were the most popular products and became the main stream in the global cosmetic industry. Additionally, the Asia Pacific Zone was also the biggest market (about 40% in the global skin-care product market). The skin-care product could be expected to be a huge and potential market in Taiwan. However, previous studies generally talked about cosmetics, but the skin-care product is one of the major parts in cosmetics markets. Skin-care product’s function is to clean, massage, and moisturize skin, the products in this study include lotion, moisturizer, cream, facial scrub, mask, and essence/serum. Skin-care products have been widely used, and consumer’s perceived value of the product directly affect their purchase intention. The perceived value contained different factors. Understanding which factors will affect purchase intention the most is necessary because it may provide skin-care product manufacturers with directions to adjust their products. However, only few studies examined the influences of perceived value on consumer’s purchase intention of skin-care products, so this study adopted Sweeney and Soutar’s (2001) four dimensions of perceived value: functional value (price/value for money), functional value (performance/quality), emotional value, and social value to investigate the impacts of perceived value on consumers’ purchase intention toward skin-care products. LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES Purchase intention and perceived value Consumers who have higher purchase motivation and desires of a product may increase their purchase intention. Purchase intention was also called the willingness to buy. It means 2
the possibility of a consumer who wants to purchase a product (Dodds, Monroe, & Grewal, 1991). It also plays an important role in consumer’s buying decision-making process. In a shopping situation, people who desire a product or have some special motivation could increase their intentions to choose a product and make a purchasing decision. Consumers consider some aspects when they are choosing a skin-care product, such as price, quality, performance, or their preferences. These aspects will affect their perceptions of the product and then they decide whether to buy it. Consumer’s overall perception of a product is called perceived value. Scholars have defined perceived value. Dodds and Monroe (1985) defined that perceived value is a tradeoff between the quality perception of the product and the time and money consumer needed to spend. The combination of consumer’s perception of product quality and the time and money she/he need to spend to get the product is perceived value. Zeithaml (1988) stated that “perceived value is the consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given (p.3).” when a consumer is purchasing a product, he/she will evaluate what they will obtain and sacrifice. So the perceived value could influence consumers’ perceptions of a skin-care product and their purchase intentions. Chen and Dubinsky (2003) claimed that perceived value was considered to be a strong predictor of consumers’ willingness to buy. It means consumer’s perceived value truly influences purchase intention and perceived value can also help manufacturers adjust their product to increase consumer’s purchase intention. Several approaches investigated the effects of consumer’s perceived value on tangible/ intangible product or service quality. For instance, Babin and Attaway (2000) investigated the effects of store atmosphere on customer purchase behavior and Sanchez, Callarisa, Rodriguez, and Moliner (2006) explored the impacts of perceived value on purchasing tourism product. Skin-care product is a kind of tangible product. One of those approaches which is used to investigate consumer’s perceived value of tangible product is the PERVAL scale, developed by Sweeney and Soutar (2001). The scale divided perceived value into four dimensions: functional value (price/value for money), functional value (performance/quality), emotional value, and social value. The scale included the factors which may affect consumer’s intention when they are purchasing a product. This study therefore applies the PERVAL scale to investigate the impacts of consumer’s perceived value on purchase intention toward skin-care products. Functional value (price/value for money) Most of people think that price is the top priority when they are choosing a product. The price of product is considered to be one of the major factors which will affect consumer purchase intention. Some consumers focus on whether the product is worth paying its price or not. If they think the price is reasonable or the product is good and worth purchasing, it would increase their purchase intention and they would like to purchase the same product next time. Thus, the study proposed the hypothesis: 3
Hypothesis 1. Skin-care products perceived functional value (price/value for money) influences purchase intention. Functional value (performance/quality) It reflected the performance of skin-care products after consumers use it, good and consistent quality of skin-care product. The product is used on human skins so the quality must be good and consistent. Consumers use the product in order to get some effects from the product; therefore a skin-care product with consistent quality and good performance will increase consumer’s purchasing desires and intentions. Accordingly, the study made the hypothesis that: Hypothesis 2. Skin-care products perceived functional value (performance/ quality) influences purchase intention. Emotional value People, after using skin-care product, may feel enjoyment, relaxation and pleasure. If consumers like the scent of the product, it may make them feel happy or pleasant and the massage on their skin could help them relax. Nowadays, people are under pressure and anxious, if using the skin-care product can help them feel relaxed, enjoyable and pleasant, they would like to purchase more skin-care products. Therefore, the study made the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 3. Skin-care products perceived emotional value influences purchase intention. Social value People believed that the skin-care product can improve their appearances and they will become prettier and have more confidence. Consequently, they may leave good impression on other people. The skin-care product is a kind of necessity in daily life, so people may discuss their skin-care product in social situation. While a person is talking about opinion or evaluation of his/her skin-care product, other people agree with him/her, he/she may feel acceptable and enhance his/her self-concept by using the product and sharing the opinion after usage. It also can make people feel that they belong to a specific social class. Hence, the study formed the hypothesis: Hypothesis 4. Skin-care products perceived social value influences purchase intention. METHODOLOGY The study investigated the impacts of perceived value on consumers’ purchase intention toward skin-care products. The influences of two functional values (both price/value for money and performance/ quality), emotional value, and social value on consumers’ decision-making processes were also explored. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the effect of perceived value on purchase intention. According to the purpose above, the study presents research structure as following: 4
Functional value (price/value for money)
H1 Functional value
H2
(performance/quality) Purchase Intention
H3 Emotional value
H4 Social value
Figure 1. Research Frame Purposive sampling was used in this study and participants were six hundred thirty two (214 male and 418 female) undergraduate students in different colleges. The participants have to fill out the questionnaires according to their experiences of purchasing and using skin-care products. Those question items were originally written in English, and they were translated into Chinese. The questionnaire was made up of two sections. The first section was about items of perceived value. The items were measured on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from “1” (extremely disagree) to “7” (extremely agree). The second section collected information of the respondents’ basic demographics. Participants needed approximately five to ten minutes to finish the survey. The surveyor provides necessary assistance to explain the questions but not to affect participants’ opinion about the questions. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS The statistical analysis procedures employed in this study was descriptive statistics, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and Cronbach’s (α) Alpha coefficient. Table 1 presented the information of participants. In total, 632 undergraduate students participated (66% female: 33.9% male) in the study. Participant without a job are more than participants with a job. Most participants’ income are under NT$10,000 dollars. Approximately 90% participants will spend at least NT$1,000 dollars to buy skin-care products every year, so it also can tell that skin-care product is one of the necessities in daily life.
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Table 1 Demographics profile of the sample
Gender Job
Income (allowance+ salary)
Money of spending skin-care products
Characteristic
Number of participants
Percentage (%)
Male
214
33.9
Female
418
66.1
Yes
203
32.1
No
429
67.9
Under NT 5,000
236
37.3
NT 5,001~10,000
307
48.6
NT 10,001~15,000
56
8.9
NT 15,001~20,000
15
2.4
Over NT 20,001
17
2.7
Under NT 1,000
233
36.9
NT 1,001~2,000
176
27.8
NT 2,001~3,000
97
15.3
NT 3,001~4,000
50
7.9
NT 4,001~5,000
24
3.8
NT 5,001~6,000
17
2.7
NT 6,001~7,000
7
1.1
NT 7,001~8,000
7
1.1
NT 8,001~9,000
8
1.3
NT 9,001~10,000
5
0.8
Over NT 10,001
7
1.1
Model Specification Amos.20 was used to analyze the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) of the model in this study. Figure 2 showed the Standardized Estimates. The results revealed the RMSEA =.075. Doll, Xia, and Torkzadeh (1994) mentioned that AGFI and GFI scores ranging from .80 to .89 is in a good fit, so the AGFI=.854 and GFI=.885 scores in this study is acceptable. Schumacker and Lomax (2004) thought that X2/df score under 5 is in a good fit, so the X2/df= 4.527 in this study is acceptable. Hence, the model was acceptable in this study (Table 2). The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the five dimensions ranged between 0.73 and 0.89 (see the Table 3) and for the overall dimensions was 0.91 which shows the scale was reliable.
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Figure 2. Standardized Estimates of AMOS Table 2 Recommended values of model goodness fitting Recommended values 2
2
X /df
1< X /df0.8 (acceptable)
AGFI
>0.90
>0.8 (acceptable)
RMSEA