A pilot study of awareness and consumer behaviour towards organic cosmetics

Flow of presentation▪ Introduction▪ Problem statement▪ Objectives▪ Research methodology▪ Results and discussions (ONLINE DATA)▪ Results and discussions (OFFLINE DATA)▪ Major findings and recommendations▪ Conclusion▪ Limitations of research▪ References

Introduction

What is Organic cosmetics ? Manufactured from natural ingredients of plant extracted under eco-friendly conditions.Products include under body care, facialcare and sun care conditioners, shampoos, hair colours, mouthwashes, toothpastes, mascaras, lipsticks, foundations, feminine hygiene products and

deodorants among others. These products do not contain synthetic chemicals such as parabens,

phthalates, petrochemical and aluminium salts.

Organic cosmetics – why? Ordinary commercial cosmetic products,

often contain toxic and chemically-potentsubstances capable of causing long term adverse impacts on human skin.

Organic cosmetics replace all harmful or carcinogenic ingredients.

Some ingredients can seriously damages ! a family of preservatives called “Parabens” – added up to 75%-90%

in cosmetics causes,• Damages protein molecules on skin• Breast tumours and endocrine disruptor

Propylene Glycol, added in many cosmetics, • Speeds up the aging of the skin • Cause irritation and contact dermatitis.

Artificial fragrances, mostly obtained from petroleum by products, causesheadaches, lung problems, skin irritation and dizziness.

Situation in IndiaOne third of all cosmetic and hair care products in India contain carcinogenic ingredients that have proven to be extremely harmful to the human skin.

Penetration levels of international brands are still quite low at only 20 percent. Remaining 80 percent of the consumers use low-cost cosmetic products.

The size of the organic and natural cosmetic products is less than 5 percent (of the total cosmetic market of India than normally used cosmetic products.)

The best part about Organic Cosmetics is that unlike chemical based cosmetics

• These do not interfere with the body's absorption of vitamin D. • Causes a healthy skin, lustrous hair and glowing complexion in a

completely natural way. • Naturally-made cosmetics also help in skin tissues and cell repair.• Organic cosmetics contain organic vegetable oils and organic essential

oils. Vegetable oil is rich in active substances, essential fatty acids, vitamins which have a natural feel and texture and thus have a moisturizing effect on the skin.

• Organic cosmetics do not contaminate the environment or cause pollution.

• There is little chance of harsh reactions on regular bases. • It does away with experiments on animals and promotes fair trade.

Problem statement

Despite of being so human friendly, why people are not aware?

1.Shorter shelf life of organic personal care products is a factor limiting consumer

demand. Organic personal care product manufacturers have a hard time sourcing organic ingredients as an alternative to synthetic preservatives, causes lesser options available to consumers

2.Lack of information on consumers' side regarding the difference between the beneficial effects of organic and conventional skin care

Ultimately causes lack of awareness towards such health concern products, which should be highly promoted

Objectives

To study of general awareness towards organic among people.

• Evaluate which factors are more essential to enhance such awareness among mass.

• To study of consumer buying behaviour on organic cosmetics consumers.

Research Methodology

Mixed – method analysisIn qualitative study, exploratory research by taking in-depth interview of owners of organic product retailers.

In quantitative method, an online and offline surveys has been conducted in that primary data has been collected via convenience sampling to check awareness among general people.

Approximate total number of people surveyed online was around 300-320, in that only 100 responded. Questionnaire included 11 questions, both closed ended and scaled questions.

An offline survey , consisted 7 questions, conducted to see consumer buying behaviour of organic

cosmetics using point to purchase sampling technique, total 25 participants responded.

Results and discussions (ONLINE DATA)

N= 100

Chi-square technique (relationship between gender and awareness of organic cosmetics)

HO: There is no relationship between gender and awareness towards organiccosmetics.H1: There is a significance relationship between gender and awareness towardsorganic cosmetics.

Gender yes noMale 1 48 49Female 9 42 51total 10 90 100

Awareness of organic cosmetics

Observed value

Expected value

(O-E)2 (O-E)2/E

1 4.9 15.21 3.10408248 44.1 15.21 0.344898

9 5.1 15.21 2.98235342 45.9 15.21 0.331373

Observed value

6.763Degree of freedom: (2-1)*(2-1)= 1

Critical value at alpha (5% level of significance): 3.841

H0 hypotheses is rejected which means awareness of organic cosmetics is gender biased (more towards

female).Female tend to know more about cosmetic

Chi-square technique (relationship between age group and awareness of organic cosmetics)

HO: There is no relationship between age group and awareness towards organic cosmetics.H1: There is a significance relationship between age group and awareness towards organic cosmetics.

Age groupsyes no

18 - 25 2 36 3826 - 35 5 33 3836 - 45 2 15 1746 - 55 1 6 7total 10 90 100

Awareness of organic cosmetics

Observed

Value(O)

Expected

Value (E)

(O-E)2 (O-E)2/E

2 3.8 3.24 0.85263236 34.2 3.24 0.0947375 3.8 1.44 0.378947

33 34.2 1.44 0.0421052 1.7 0.09 0.052941

15 15.3 0.09 0.0058821 0.7 0.09 0.1285716 6.3 0.09 0.014286

Observed value

1.570102

Degree of freedom: (4-1)*(2-1) = 3Critical value at alpha (5% level of significance): 7.815

H0 hypotheses is accepted, Age group does not have effect on awareness of organic cosmetics.

Do you use cosmetics? Yes 79

No 21

Total 100

79

21Yes No

Are you aware of organic cosmetics products?

Yes 10

No 90

Total 100

10%

90%

Yes No

General awareness

Which media that you mostly use to get information about cosmetics products?

Television Magazines Radio Internet Friends/ Family/Doctors Others:

64

4 0 0

32

0

Television is more preferred media for cosmetics may be because of advertisements. Friends, family or doctors are also an another medium for information.

5. Whether you presently buy organic cosmetics or not, please indicate how

important each of the following factors would be to make you more likely to

buy organic: This question comprises responses from people who rates factors from extremely important (5) to

not so important (1).Then rank to each factors have been given. This will give the idea about what

factor should one consider in order to enhance awareness of organic cosmetics.

More knowledge about organic cosmetics.

12 63 25 0 0 3.87 3

Greater availability of organic cosmetics.

2 20 35 29 14 2.67 8

More advertisements for organic cosmetics.

60 36 4 0 0 4.56 1

Wider product selection for organic

cosmetics.0 33 14 53 0 2.8 7

Strong influence from friends/family/doctors

13 52 18 16 1 3.6 5

Scientific evidence organic cosmetics

are healthier.60 27 13 0 0 4.47 2

Usage of hazardous ingredients used in

chemical cosmetics.0 54 13 33 0 3.21 6

Organic cosmetics are considered safer

for my health.28 24 48 0 0 3.80 4

Strongly disagree

Factors RankMeanStrongly

agreeAgree Neutral Disgree

Next section considers consumer behaviour on buying conventional cosmetics which

ultimately provide a useful information about what care should one take to promote organic

cosmetics and what steps should retailers of organic cosmetics should do in order to

compete their products with conventional chemical cosmetics.

Here Likert scale questions have been asked to respondents where they have to give feedback

from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1) depending upon their perceptions.

If there are two products that are exactly the same, I would purchase the one that has more attractive packaging

If there are two products that are exactly the same, I would purchase the one that is less expensive

I always compare prices in different cosmetic stores when I intend to buy cosmetic

If there are two stores with exactly the same products, I would choose the one has better decoration and more beautiful interior design

I would prefer a store that offers better promotion when I intend to buy cosmetic

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

3.58

3.71

2.97

3.13

3.12

Mean

Yes No18-25 0 15 (30.61%)26-35 0 21 (42.85%)36-45 0 8 (16.32%)46-55 1 (2.04%) 4 (8.16%)18-25 2 (3.92%) 21 (41.17%)26-35 5 (9.8%) 13 (25.49%)36-45 2 (3.92%) 6 (11.76%)46-55 0 2 (3.92%)

Awareness on organic cosmetics

Male

Female

49

51

Age groupGender Total

3 way table for measure of awareness

Awareness doesn’t relate with age group but there is relationship between gender and awareness of organic products

Only 2 % of male (1 out of 49 total male respondents) has some idea about organic cosmetics.

Women from age group of 26-35 are more aware of these products (10%).

Still only 10 out of 100 respondents aware about organic cosmetics which clearly shows there is a significance lack of awareness among people about organic products.

Results and discussions (OFFLINE DATA)

N= 25

1. Gender Male 2Female 23total 25

2. How often do you buy organic cosmetics?

Male8%

Female92%

3. Why do you choose organic products?

10

5

10

15

20

25

Health con-

cerns; 20

Ethical rea-

sons; 0

Qual-ity and effect-

ive-ness; 3

Pro-tect the en-vir-on-

ment; 2

4. Do you believe that organic products are ‘healthier’?

Yes 25No 0

total 25

5. If the price of organic products continued to rise, would you continue to purchase organic products?

Yes

No

Not sure

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

132

10

6. Do you believe whatever organic cosmetics you purchased is 100% organic (no chemicals used)?

YesNo

Not sure

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

120

13

7. Which media that you mostly use to get information about organic cosmetics?

Major Findings and recommendations

Relatively lower awareness about organic cosmetics. Health concern and lifestyle related ailments is the most accepted reason

to buy organic products. Even though shorter shelf life and lesser varieties are available, organic cosmetics have big market due to their safety concern.

Some of the organic products are expensive. But increased awareness can cause higher demand which could give these companies to take advantages of economies of scale and cost reduction.

People’s inclinations towards lesser price products, attractive packaging, and promotional offers.

Awareness towards organic cosmetics in mass found less, so there could be so many factors one can consider while creating awareness through marketing.

Awareness of such products are found gender biased mainly towards female. Female should focus more during marketing

Television is the most preferred medium to take out information of cosmetics, so to enhance awareness of safer cosmetics television medium should be used.

Doctors can become helping hands to promote these products.

Factors which can influence more on promotion of organic products are Advertisements (Television advertisement can become a good option

as people prefer television more. ) Scientific evidences of safety of organic cosmetics, and more knowledge spread regarding their health concerns,

protection to environment.(Seminars, events, leaflets, hoardings, etc. can become weapons to spread information of their benefits.)

Digital Marketing is another good way for Organic Brands to create visibility and likeability among consumers

Conclusion

Overall organic cosmetics requires as vigorous marketing and promotions as conventional cosmetics to increase awareness, attract more customers and make them buy more safer cosmetics.

For that organic cosmetic company must expense more on marketing and promotions in small cities like Vadodara and help retain people to promote their products as per their intentions to make, train them for same and reward system can be implemented.

Limitation of researchConvenience sampling techniques which can provide biased results.

There is only one shop in Vadodara which claims they are the only retailer of organic cosmetics so it could have been more source of information regarding organic cosmetics market and consumers’ preferences for referring of such products.

The area was wide since it is confined only to Vadodara city so results cannot be universally accepted.

Online survey has some limitations too. .Limited sampling and respondent availability. Certain populations are less likely to have internet access and to respond to online questionnaires.

These has tremendous scope for further study as it has proposed many hypotheses untouched. Many new factors can also be considered.

References1. Sameer A. Virani (2014) “Herbal (Organic) Cosmetics the way ahead in Modern India” Int. J. of Trade and Commerce-IIARTC, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 182-194 2. Consumer behaviour towards organic, natural and conventional skin care products: a pilot study ^Alina-Aida Dragan, ^Dacinia-Crina Petrescu 3. Cornelissen G., Pandelaere M., Warlop L., Dewitte S., 2008 Positive cueing: Promoting sustainable consumer behavior by cueing common environmental behaviors as environmental. International Journal of Research in Marketing 25(l):46-55. 4. Chain Store Age (2010), "Forty Under 40: Small Chains Flourish," 85(1), 22-27 5. Leonard A., 2010 The story of stuff. Free Press, New York. 6. http://bioorgcosmetics.com/home.html 7. http://www.thehealthsite.com/beauty/making-the-big-switch-chemical-to-organic-make-up/

8. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome 9. http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5068442 10. http://math.hws.edu/javamath/ryan/ChiSquare.html 11. http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/organic-personal-care-products.html 12. http://www.paulaschoice.com/expert-advice/natural-skin-care/_/organic-cosmetics-is-natural-better 13.http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/cosmetics 14. http://zeenews.india.com/exclusive/go-organic-on-your-skin_6648.html

THANK YOU !!Any questions ?