Keeping it all natural – A research into the underlying factors influencing the intention to purchase and the intention to continue purchasing organic cosmetics among German consumers Master Thesis Inga Adels s1351591 Master of Science April 2018 Examination Committee Dr. Tempelman University of Twente Faculty of Behavioural, Management & Social Sciences Master Communication Studies- Marketing Communication Abstract In previous studies, organic cosmetics seemed to be an overlooked category in the field of organic consumption. Since they offer some serious benefits for both one’s own health and the environment additional research is needed. To close this research gap, research on factors influencing the intention to purchase organic cosmetic and the intention to continue purchasing organic cosmetics was done.
The research model was based upon the social identity theory and the theory of planned behaviour. It suggested that intention to purchase or to continue purchasing is influenced by consumers health- and environmental related self-identity as well the variables of the theory of planned behaviour. Additionally, it was proposed that subjective knowledge towards organic cosmetics as well as attitude towards brand communication positively influence consumer’s attitude towards organic cosmetic consumption. To test these hypotheses, participants were approached using an online questionnaire.
In total, data from n= 256 people was used for further analysis, which were divided into organic cosmetic purchaser (n=120) and non-purchaser (n=136). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that attitude towards organic cosmetics and perceived behavioural control positively influence the intention to continue purchasing organic cosmetics. For the non-purchaser, environmental self-identity, attitude towards organic cosmetics and subjective norm were significant predictors. Attitude towards brand communication had no influence on attitude towards organic cosmetics for both purchaser groups.
In contrast, subjective knowledge was significantly and positively related with attitude towards organic cosmetics for both purchaser groups. The results of the research study at hand provide some new interesting insights that can help marketers to establish new, effective marketing strategies to target new consumers and to keep current customers. Especially the distinction between current purchasers and non-purchasers is new in the field of organic cosmetic consumption and indicates that indeed, both groups should be approached with different marketing strategies. Keywords: green consumerism; organic cosmetics; purchase intention; social identity theory; theory of planned behaviour; 2 Table of Contents Abstract 1.1 The current situation of organic cosmetics .2 Factors related to organic consumption.1 Health- and environmental self-identity .4 Theory of planned Behaviour .1 Attitude towards organic cosmetics .3 Perceived behavioural control.5 Antecedents of attitude .1 Subjective knowledge about benefits of organic cosmetic .2 Attitude towards brand communication on benefits of organic cosmetic .6 Conceptual research model.1 Regression predicting the intention to (continue) purchasing organic cosmetics .2 Regression predicting the attitude towards organic cosmetics .4 Overview hypotheses tested.
Introduction Sustainable consumption increasingly gained popularity among consumers in the 21st century. Consumers got concerned about issues like global warming, pollution and animal abuse, which caused them to consume environmental friendly products (Chen, Lin, & Chang, 2014). Therefore, this rise in green consumerism is no longer a surprising shift in today’s society. Next to the spectacular trend of organic food, which quickly developed from a niche market to a mainstream segment in the food sector, the demand for organic non-food products is increasing as well (Annis, 2011; Cervellon, Rinaldi, & Wernerfelt, 2011).
Nowadays, consumers do not only want to eat green, but also drive green cars, use green electricity, wear green clothes, use green detergents and turn to green cosmetics (Marangon, Temptesta, Troiango, & Vecchiato, 2015; Cervellon & Carey, 2011). This highlights the rise of ethical consumerism in all kinds of markets, showing a general ethical sensitivity in purchase decisions among consumers (Maggioni, Montagnini, & Sebastiani, 2013). Consumers turn towards natural and organic products because they believe it is better for their own health and beneficial for the environment, showing an increased pattern of responsible consumption (Maragon et al. An interesting field on the rise within green consumers is the organic cosmetic market.
Today, the organic cosmetic market is the second largest organic industry after organic foods in several countries such as the United States, which are also leading the global organic cosmetic market (Transparency market research, 2016). Statistics show that the international growth rate for organic cosmetics is higher than the rate for conventional cosmetics, which is more or less oscillating (Fonseca-Santos, Corrêa, and Chorilli, 2015). According to Cervellon et al. (2011), the European market for organic cosmetics is continuously growing by approximately 20% per year.
In Germany, which is Europe’s leading organic cosmetic market, the organic and natural cosmetic market exceeded the billion mark with a turnover of 1.01 billion and a total growth of 10% for the first time in 2015. Therefore, organic and natural cosmetics hold 7.8% market share of the whole cosmetic market in Germany (Heinze, 2015). Especially the trend in organic cosmetics seems to be pushed by the consumption of organic food and its market share is increasing worldwide (Dimitrova, Kaneva & 4 Gallucci, 2009). When consumers become more aware of what they are taking into their bodies by means of the increased consumption of organic food, they may also become more interested in what they are applying topically to their body such as organic cosmetics (Lee, 2007).
Organic food is after all considered to be healthier and of better quality, which could be conferred to organic cosmetics as well (Cervellon et al. Kim and Chung (2011) also stated that similarities between the purchase of organic food and organic cosmetics exist, since both promote a healthy lifestyle. However, buying organic food and organic cosmetics purchase refer to two distinct behavioural patterns (Kim & Chung, 2011). As mentioned above, organic food is something you take into your body whether organic cosmetics are applied topically and directly affect consumer’s appearance.
By means, the motivation behind buying food and buying cosmetics may differ, which makes distinct research in both segments necessary. However, even though consumer’s demand for ecological products in general is nowadays widely recognized by marketers and organizations, scientific research is limited and if available, mostly focused on the food sector (Cervellon et al., 2011; Testa, Iraldo, Vaccari, & Ferrari, 2013). This lack of scientific research results in little evidence on consumers underlying motivations to buy organic cosmetic and what factors might be crucial for consumers to actually choose organic cosmetic over conventional cosmetic. Organic cosmetic can offer some serious benefits compared to conventional cosmetics, which makes research in this sector as important as research on the food sector.
For example, research showed that several ingredients found in conventional cosmetics disrupt the hormonal system and increase the risk of cancer (Annis, 2011; Csorba & Boglea, 2011). Organic cosmetics alternatives are proven to have better safety measures than conventional cosmetics, meaning that they often produced with fewer synthetic or genetically modified ingredients (Annis, 2011; Kim & Chung, 2011). Meaning that organic cosmetics lower the risk to be exposed to harmful ingredients (Annis, 2011). For example, chemicals and synthetics in conventional cosmetic products that are put on the skin can trigger the asphyxiation of the skin, and can accelerate dehydration and photosensitivity (Brown, 2016).
This means that conventional cosmetic products can cut of the oxygen exchange to the skin, cause 5 premature skin aging, and increase the risk of sunspots. To sum-up, synthetic chemicals in skincare can trigger the skin or exacerbate sensitivity (Stacy, 2014). With these means, the problems that consumers initially want to counteract like wrinkles by buying anti-wrinkle cream can actually get worse while using those products (Brown, 2016). In addition, organic cosmetics are less harmful for the environment as they do not contain chemicals like petroleum, aluminium or micro plastic.
For instance, to extract petroleum and aluminium mining is needed which is done within the Amazon rainforest. Furthermore, ingredients such as micro plastic pollute our drinking water when we wash cosmetics off our body (Csorba & Boglea, 2011). To conclude, organic cosmetics have the same characteristics and functions as conventional cosmetics, however cause less damage to the environment and are friendlier to our body (Fonseca-Santos et al. Interestingly, a lot of organic cosmetic brands are rather reluctant in communicating these health and environmental benefits.
They mention that their products are free from PEG’s and Parabens for example, however, they do not specifically explain why PEG’s and Parabens are bad. Instead, many brands chose to communicate rather vague messages, that for instance their products do not lead to any negative side effects because of the use of all natural ingredients (cf. The German organic cosmetics brand ‘Lovely Day Botanicals’ is one brand that specifically mentions on their website, that their products do not contain any ingredients that are found to be hormonally active or are suspected to be carcinogenic (Lovely Day Botanicals, n. This is one example showing an attempt of organic cosmetic brands to directly communicate the changes that organic cosmetics can bring to the consumer.
Looking into the findings above, research into the field of factors influencing the purchase behaviour of organic cosmetic is relevant in order to find out more about consumers behavioural pattern, which then can help marketers to improve the right product segmentation and to target more consumers. Research cannot only help to increase sales, but also give information on how to interact with the consumer, to improve the relationship between producer / seller and customer. Even though its 6 market share is increasing, the total market share of organic cosmetics is still quite small compared to conventional cosmetics (Maggioni et al. Besides, past research that actually focused on consumer behaviour in the organic cosmetics sector found contradictory results about what factors play a role in the decision making process of purchasing organic cosmetics: Tsakiridou, Tsakiridou, Mattes and Arvaniti (2010) highlighted that consumers become more and more conscious about environmental friendly production methods, which influences their purchase decision towards organic cosmetics.
Kim and Chung (2011) support the influence of environmental consciousness. On the contrary, Cervellon and Carvey (2011) as well as Ong (2012) found out that the protection of the environment is not a motivation when buying organic cosmetics, but rather is a positive side effect. This highlights the fact that additional research is necessary in order to get a better understanding of the organic cosmetics consumer. In general, different studies found out that different factors might influence the purchase intention and the actual purchase behaviour of organic cosmetics such as the variables of the theory of planned behaviour (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control), past behaviour, health- and environmental consciousness and product related knowledge (Kim & Chung, 20211;Cervellon et al., 2011; Kim & Seok, 2009; Gracia & de Magistris, 2007; Recker & Saleem, 2014).
However, until now, no study combined all potential factors mentioned above in order to provide a complete picture of the ‘organic cosmetic consumer’. To do so, this study uses both the social identity theory and the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework to examine the influence of health- and environmental self- identity, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control as predictors of purchase intention. In addition, the study considers subjective knowledge and attitude towards brand communication as antecedents of consumers attitude towards organic cosmetics. Therefore, this study aims to find out what factors impede or enhance the consumers purchase intention of organic cosmetics in order to fill-in the existing literature gap, by answering the following research question: What factors positively influence consumers intention to purchase or to continue purchasing organic cosmetics among German consumers? 7 2.
Theoretical framework This chapter will provide the theoretical foundation for factors that are related to organic consumption. Therefore it intends to give insight into variables that might influence the intention to purchase organic cosmetics and the intention to continue purchasing organic cosmetics. The chapter will finish with a conceptual research model in order to provide an overview about how the different factors are expected to influence each other.1 The current situation of organic cosmetics The concept of cosmetic products that contain natural, plant-based ingredients is not new.