Male Skincare Buyer Behaviour

A MODEL OF MALE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN BUYINGSKIN CARE PRODUCTS IN THAILAND

ByDr. Nuntasaree Sukato* and Dr. Barry Elsey**

ABSTRACT

The chief purpose of the research is to examine in some depth the phenomenaof male consumer behaviour in buying skin care products in Thailand. In order tocope with the research purpose, Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action modelis employed as a theoretical framework and modified by adding the self-image con-struct. The research question is “To what extent do beliefs in product attributes, self-image, normative influences, and attitudes toward applying skin care products, af-fect Thai male consumers’ purchase intention and purchase behaviour in buying skincare products?” A questionnaire was developed and distributed to Thai male con-sumers aged 21 to 50 years in Bangkok metropolitan by using shopping mall-inter-cept and cluster sampling. 422 completed questionnaires were returned and thenwere analysed by using factor analysis, correlation, regression analysis, and pathanalysis in SPSS version 15.0. The results of the study confirm that beliefs, self-image, normative influences, and attitudes have impacts on purchase intention andpurchase behaviour in buying skin care products among Bangkok male consumers,and therefore, the modified theory of reasoned action is appropriate to explain maleconsumer behaviour in the purchase of specific cosmetic product in the Thai setting.

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*Dr. Nuntasaree Sukato holds Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from the Uni-versity of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Dr. Barry supervised her research study in thedoctoral degree. Previously, she was Brand Manager in Schwarzkopf Profession, Thailand.She is currently working as a lecturer of Marketing in Dhurakij-pundit University, Thailand.

** Dr. Barry Elsey (International Graduate School of Management, University of SouthAustralia) is currently engaged in the supervision of Ph. D research in a specially designedprogramme for corporate executives in the Asia Pacific region. His field of interest is in work-place change management. Previously, he specialized in adult and continuing education andhas published extensively in both knowledge disciplines.

ABAC Journal Vol. 29, No. 1 (January-April 2009, pp.39-52) 39

1. Introduction

In recent years, men have becomemore conscious about their image thanever before, resulting in sales on malegrooming products are expected to increaseby 18 per cent globally between 2006 and2011, when the market is forecast to bevalued at $25 billion (Mermelstein & Field-ing 2007). This change in male grooming isbecoming a new trend and is expected toblossom in regions where consumers are in-creasingly adapting to Western lifestyles.

Within countries in Asia-Pacific regionwhere people are likely to be westernized,Thailand is recognized as one of the fastgrowing cosmetics industry, particularlymale grooming market; perhaps due to aThai government campaign to promote thecountry as the future beauty capital of Asia(‘Unilever-P&G skincare war’ 2006).Among male grooming products, skin caremarket in Thailand shows the fastest expan-sion since it achieved a 30 per cent volumegrowth of 3,800 million Baht in 2006(102.70 million US dollars) (‘Men’s groom-ing products-Thailand’ 2007).

As a result, it is significant to identifywhat variables are affected in the purchaseof male skin care products and it found thatamong consumer behaviour theories,Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasonedaction model (TRA) is the most prevailingand well-accepted in terms of predictingconsumer behaviour caused by attitude con-structs (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein& Ajzen 1975; Choo, Chung & Pysarchik2004; Nysveen, Pedersen & Thoebjornsen2005; Wan, Luk & Chow 2005; Xu &Paulins 2005). To better explain male pur-chasing skin care products in the Thai con-

text, an addition construct, self-image, hasbeen added to TRA.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to testthe validity of the modified reasoned actiontheory in explaining male consumer purchas-ing behaviour regarding skin care productsin the Thai market.

2. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

To explain male consumer purchas-ing behaviour regarding skin care prod-ucts in Thailand, the theory of reasonedaction (TRA) developed by MartinFishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1975 and1980 is employed as a theoretical frame-work.

The core structure of TRA can be pre-sented as the relationships among beliefs(Bi), normative structures (NBjMCj), at-titudes toward behaviour (Aact), subjec-tive norms (SN), behavioural intentions(BI), and actual behaviour (B) as de-scribed in the formula below.

B ~ BI = (Aact) w1 + (SN) w2

= and SN =

Based on this formula, behavioural in-tention (BI) leads to behaviour (B), and thatbehavioural intention (BI) is determined bythe consumer’s attitudes towards behaviour(Aact) and by subjective norm (SN). Atti-tudes toward the behaviour (Aact) refer towhether the person is in favour or againstthe specific behaviour, whereas subjectivenorm (SN) refers the other people or groupswho would approve or disapprove of therespondents performing specific behaviour.Attitudes towards behaviour (Aact) area function of a cognitive structure (BiEi),

Dr. Nuntasaree Sukato and Dr. Barry Elsey

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which is a belief-evaluation composite,where Bi is the belief that performanceof the behaviour will lead to a specificoutcome i, Ei is the evaluation of each con-sequence, and n is the number of salientoutcomes. The subjective norm (SN) is rep-resented as a function of a normative struc-ture (NBjMCj), where NBj is the perceivedexpectation that referent j thinks the indi-vidual should perform the behaviour. MCjis the consumer’s motivation to comply withreferent j, and k is the number of salient ref-erents.

To put TRA into simple terms, aperson’s behaviour is predicted by his/her attitudes toward that behaviour andhow that person thinks other peoplewould view them if he/she performed thebehaviour. A person’s attitude, combinedwith subjective norms, forms his/herbehavioural intention. If a person intendsto behave in a particular way then it islikely that the person will do it.

TRA is appropriate for this study be-cause of its performance in predictingconsumer behaviour and providing an ex-planation of that behaviour (Manstead2004). Furthermore, it is one of the mostpredominant attitudinal models broadlyapplied in various investigations (e.g.online travel shopping behaviour (Lee,Qu & Kim 2007); mobile chat services(Nysveen, Pederson & Thorbjornsen2005); adopting banking channel (Wan,Luk & Chow 2005); the purchase of foodproducts (Choo, Chung & Pysarchik2004)) and in a number of cultural settingssuch as U.S.A (Lee & Littrel 2005; Ulaga& Eggert 2006), Norway (Nysveen,Pederson & Thorbjornsen 2005), Austra-lia (Patterson 2004), Hong Kong (Wan, Luk

& Chow 2005), and Taiwan (Shih & Fang2004).

Self-image has been added to TRAin order to enhance the predictability ofmale consumer behaviour toward buyingskin care products in Thailand. Self-im-age is significant because men have pur-chased skin care products for the cre-ation, development, and maintenance oftheir “self-imag” (Sturrock & Pioch1998; Thompson & Hirschman 1995),which portrays the image of a well-groomed working person, a sophisticatedurban guy who has good taste and a fash-ionable lifestyle in this context.

3. Hypotheses

In order to examine Thai male con-sumers in buying skin care products, hy-potheses in the present study are formu-lated based on relationship among re-search variables in TRA as follows.. The relationship between self-

image and normative influences. The relationship between beliefs inproduct attributes and attitudes. The relationship between self-imageand attitudes. The association among attitudes andnormative influences uponbehaviour intention. The relationship between behaviourintention and purchase

A Model Of Male Consumer Behaviour In Buying Skin Care Products In Thailand

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Figure 1: The conceptual model of male consumer behaviour in buyingskin care products

H2a+

H1+

H2b+ H3+ H4+

Beliefs in product attributes ‐Quality ‐ Price ‐ Brand ‐ Packaging ‐ Advertising ‐ Promotion ‐ Salesperson ‐ Distribution

Attitudes toward applying skin care

products

Purchase intention Purchase

Normative Influences

Self‐image

The Relationship between Self-Imageand Normative Influences

Self-image and normative influences arelikely to demonstrate a linkage. Self-imagerefers to the perceptions individuals have ofwhat they are like (Goldsmith, Moore &Beaudoin 1999), whereas normative influ-ence is defined as the other people or groupswho would approve or disapprove of therespondents’ performing behaviour (Ajzen& Fishbein 1980). Hu and Jasper (2006)revealed that an individual adopts abehaviour, which complies with others (nor-mative influences), resulting from the beliefthat the adoption will enhance theindividual’s self-concept or self-image.Therefore, the first hypothesis is expectedas follows:

H1: Among Bangkok male consum-ers, there is a positive relationship be-tween the self-image and normative in-fluences.

The Relationship between Beliefs inProduct Attributes and Attitudes

The study of Siu and Wong (2002) in-vestigated price, packaging, promotion,salesperson, and store distribution for cos-metic product attributes in Hong Kong.Anderson and He (1998) found quality,price, brand, packaging, advertising, andsalesperson as influential attributes whenChinese consumers considered using cos-metics in China. Additionally, Johri andSahasakmontri (1998) revealed that con-sumers’ attitudes toward “green” (environ-mentally-friendly) cosmetic products evalu-ate a product based on its fragrance, colour,performance, brand name, price, whetherit is safe for skin, opportunity to pre-test,outlet atmosphere, packaging, ingredients,and whether it was tested on animals. There-fore, attributes affecting buying skin careproducts are expected to include price,quality, packaging, promotion, salesperson,


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advertising, brand, and type of distribution.Consequently, there is a need to investigatehow those attributes influence the attitudesof Thai male consumer toward buying skincare products. Thus, the following hypoth-esis is suggested as follows:

H2a: Beliefs in product attributes posi-tively affect Bangkok male consumers’ at-titudes toward applying skin care products.

The Relationship between Self-Imageand Attitudes

Beaudoin, Moore and Goldsmith(1998) implied that attitudes toward buyingapparel were associated with self-imagebecause purchasing apparel satisfies vari-ous needs, such as self-image and self-iden-tity. Like apparel, skin care cosmetics havesymbolic or communicative value (Coulter,Feick & Price 2002). Cosmetics have beenfound to influence person perception sincethese products affect personal appearance(Belk 1978). Accordingly, Coulter, Feick,and Price found that self-image had an in-fluence toward applying and buying cos-metic products for women in Hungary. Thisstudy proposes to examine self-image in adifferent gender and therefore it is expectedthat self-image influences the attitudes ofmale consumers in the purchase of skin careproduct in this study. Hence, the next hy-pothesis is as follows:

H2b: Self-image positively affectsBangkok male consumers’ attitudes to-ward applying skin care products.

The Association among Attitudes andNormative Influences upon BehaviourIntention

Shih and Fang (2004) found that nor-

mative influences such as friends, col-leagues, and family and attitudes had in-fluences on behavioural intention inadopting Internet banking for customersin Taiwan. Buttle and Bok (1996) alsofound two predictor constructs, whichwere attitudes and normative factors, af-fecting business travellers’ intention to-ward staying in the hotel on the next busi-ness trip in Seoul, South Korea. There isa need to examine the influence of atti-tudes toward using skin care products andnormative influences upon the intentionto buy skin care products. In this study,normative influences include spouse/partners, friends, family, and colleagues.The hypothesis is described as follows.

H3: Among Bangkok male consum-ers, attitudes toward applying skin careproducts and normative influences posi-tively affect the purchase intention of skincare products.

The Relationship between BehaviourIntention and Purchase

The major benefit of the reasoned ac-tion model is that it explains and predictspurchasing behaviour utilising purchase in-tentions as a mediator (Ryan & Bonfield1975). On the other hand, Albrecht andCarpenter (Choo, Chung & Pysarchik2004) have questioned the mediating roleof behavioural intention in purchasebehaviour and have argued that there is adirect causal relationship between attitudesand behaviour. However, most researchershave demonstrated the validity ofbehavioural intention as a moderating vari-able of behaviour in various research set-tings (Bock & Kim 2002; Chung &


43

Pysarchik 2000). In the present study, it isexpected that the effect of intention to buywill significantly mediate the purchase ofcosmetic products. Therefore, the follow-ing hypothesis is proposed as follows:

H4: Purchase intention positively af-fects Bangkok male consumers’ purchasebehaviour regarding skin care products.

4. Research Design and Data Collection

This study used a quantitative re-search method. A convenience samplewith a shopping mall-intercept techniquewas employed for the sampling method.The closed-ended questionnaire devel-oped from standard questions of relevantliterature was chosen as a research instru-ment. Once the questionnaire was fin-ished off, face validity, content validity,and the pre-test of 30 respondents wasconducted in order to test the reliabilityand validity of the research measures.

Data collection was undertaken as ananonymous survey during the weekendof July to September 2007. Research as-sistants were assigned to recruit respondentsfrom leading department stores located inthe metropolitan area of Bangkok. Fourdepartment stores including Central,Robinson, Tang Hua Seng, and The Mallwere chosen because they exhibit the high-est amount of registered capital, as reportedby Business Registration Statistics (2006).In addition, they are recognised as leadingdepartment stores, with a dedicated maledivision and regularly promote numerouscampaigns related to men’s products. Clus-ter sampling was then used to selectbranches of four department stores. As a

result, three branches of each departmentstore were chosen at random. For collect-ing data, Thai male consumers who wereshopping in four leading department storesin Bangkok metropolitan, were approachedand asked whether they would be willing toparticipate in this research study. After theyaccepted to participate, the screening ques-tions were asked to ensure they were withinthe target population. These questions are:(1) Are you 21 to 50 years of age? and (2)Have you regularly purchased skin careproducts? The participants were given in-centives (e.g. a pen or a bookmark) in or-der to reduce the rejection rate.

The data collection ended when 900subjects had been approached. 467 sub-jects refused to participate in this surveywhile 433 respondents accepted to fill outquestionnaires. Next, the research assis-tants gathered a total of 433 question-naires and gave them to the researcher.Eleven of the returned questionnaireswere incomplete and unusable. There-fore, the final usable questionnaires setcontained 422 cases, yielding a responserate of 46.8 percent.

5. Sample

In the study, the target group was Thaimale consumers aged 21 to 50 years whoregularly purchased skin care cosmeticsfor their own consumption in Thailand.The reason for this selection was thatduring this age span men are in theirworking period, earning their own income(Cosmeticsdesign 2005), and therefore theyhave sufficient purchasing power to buy skincare product. Further, it is stated that men


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with healthy and young-looking skin havebetter opportunities in occupational achieve-ments in this competitive era (Manager2004). Therefore, skin care products arenecessary for male consumers during theirworking period.

Bangkok has been targeted for thecollection sample of this study for threereasons. Firstly, it is the capital of Thai-land, where many department stores andlarge shopping malls are located andpeople with high incomes reside (Shop-ping in and around Bangkok Thailand2006). Secondly, the target market forskin care products lives mainly inBangkok since this city is an urban me-tropolis where residents are highly com-petitive and involved in career develop-ment. As mentioned earlier, men nowthink that maintaining a youthful appear-ance can help enhance career achieve-ments. Thirdly, unlike Bangkok maleresidents, rural men are not as likely togroom themselves, and are not as con-cerned about young-looking skin becausethe lifestyles there are less competitiveand relatively relaxed.

6. Instrument

The research instrument has been de-veloped from a comprehensive review ofrelevant literature focusing on male con-sumer behaviour in purchasing decisions.Some questions are modified to apply tothe research site, Thailand. The questionshave been initially written in English, and thentranslated into Thai. Corrections have beenmade on the basis of changes in the transla-tion. All the measures used in TRA (beliefs,

attitudes, normative influences, behaviouralintention, and purchase) (Fishbein & Ajzen1975) and the measure of self-image (Dodd,Linaker, and Grigg 2005) were previouslyestablished. A five-point Likert-type scale(1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree)was employed to measure variable items forthe research questionnaire. The value ofCronbach’s coefficient alpha ranges from0.821 to 0.864 greater than a criterion of0.7 recommended by Nunnally (1978).

Beliefs in Product Attributes - therespondents were asked to indicate theiropinion on 39 items relating to quality, price,brand name, packaging, advertising, pro-motion, salesperson, and distribution. Forexample, “Quality is an important factor inpurchasing skin care products” and “I amlikely to buy skin care products if I recogniseits brand name”. The reliability score of thisconstruct was 0.864.

Self-Image - subjects were asked torate their opinion toward applying skin careproducts reflecting their self-image such as“Applying skin care products give me con-fidence” and “I do not feel it is important tokeep up with the latest trends in skin careproducts”. The value of Cronbach’s coeffi-cient alpha was 0.827.

Attitudes toward applying SkinCare Products - to measure this construct,respondents were asked to rate their atti-tudes toward applying skin care productswith two items. One item was: “Applyingskin care products is a good idea.” The otherwas: “I like to apply skin care products.”The reliability of scales was 0.825.


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Normative Influences - normative in-fluences were measured with eight items re-lating to spouse, friends, family, and col-leagues. The respondents were asked to ratetheir opinion. The value of Cronbach’s co-efficient alpha was 0.841.

Purchase intention - for these mea-sures, subjects were asked to rate theiropinions about skin care purchase intentionsuch as “When I shop for grooming prod-ucts, I look for skin care products.” (1 =strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Thescore of Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was0.821.

Purchase behaviour - to measure thepurchase behaviour of skin care products,respondents were asked to report the num-ber of times they bought skin care productswithin the last six months. The question wasas follows: “How many times have youbought skin care products within the last sixmonths?” The respondents were asked tofill in the number.

7. Data Analysis

The Statistical Package for the So-cial Sciences program (SPSS) version15.0 was used in this study with a 0.05level of significance for all of the statis-tical assessments. The data set wasscreened and examined for incorrect dataentry, missing values, normality and out-liers. In this study, descriptive statistics arefirst employed and then inferential statisticsincluding factor analysis, Pearson’s corre-lation, regression analysis, and path analy-sis were applied to test the hypotheses.

8. Sample Characteristics

Considering the profile of respon-dents, the largest age groups were 21-25(31.3%), followed by age group of 26-30 (30.1%). Over half of the respondentshad obtained a Bachelor Degree (53.8%).Most of the respondents were single(63.7%). About 30% of respondents weremarried. Of all respondents, nearly 40 %earned a monthly income of between10,001 and 20,000 Baht. The majorityworked in the private sectors (61.4%) andthe remaining had other types of employ-ment.

9. Research Findings

For beliefs in product attributes, prin-cipal component factor analysis withvarimax rotation was performed to re-duce the data into surrogate variables andto represent the variable groups beforetesting hypotheses. Initially, 39 items ofbeliefs in product attributes were dividedand grouped into 8 subsets according tosimilar characteristics. After conductingfactor analysis, 10 factors dimensionwere derived and 6 items were droppeddue to low factor loadings. Two addi-tional factors were extracted from origi-nal 8 factors which named “The countryof origin” and “Label” based on the com-mon characteristics of the variables. Next,Internal reliability was calculated for eachfactor dimension and that all values wereacceptable with scores ranging from 0.623to 0.870 as suggested by Hair et al. (1988).Hence, the remaining 33 items (factor 1-


46

10) with factor loading greater than + 0.5and eigenvalues greater than 1.0 were fur-ther used for testing hypothesis.

The relationships between each variablein conceptual model were tested and willbe discussed separately according to eachhypothesis. Pearson’s correlation was firstlyemployed in order to examine hypothesis 1(H1). showed that there were a statisticallysignificant relationship between self-imageand normative; therefore, the finding con-firmed a positive relationship between self-image and normative influences for Bangkokmale consumers. Multiple regression wasthen performed to investigate hypothesis 2a.H2a states that beliefs in product attributespositively affect Thai male consumers’ atti-tudes toward applying skin care products.The result revealed that some parts of be-liefs in product attributes such as salesper-son, promotion, and packaging positivelyaffected Bangkok male consumers’ attitudestoward applying skin care products. There-fore, H2a was partially supported. Simpleregression was used to examine hypothesis2b. It was found that self-image was asso-ciated with attitudes toward applying skincare and was a significant explanatory vari-able for male consumers’ attitudes towardapplying skin care products. Hence, H2bwas supported. Multiple regression was uti-lized to investigate hypothesis 3. The find-ings revealed that attitudes toward applyingskin care and normative influences positivelyaffected the purchase intention of skin careproducts for Bangkok male consumers.Thus, H3 was supported. Simple regres-sion was used to examine hypothesis 4. Theresult revealed that purchase intention wasassociated with actual purchase and was asignificant explanatory variable for male

consumers’ purchase behaviour regardingskin care products. Therefore, H4 was sup-ported. Finally, path analysis was employedto answer the research question, which isthe degree of extent beliefs in product at-tributes, self-image, normative influences,and attitudes toward applying skin careproducts, affect Bangkok male consumers’purchase intention and purchase behaviourin buying skin care products. The result ofpath analysis confirmed that all four researchvariables (beliefs in product attributes, self-image, normative influences, and attitudestoward applying skin care products) hadimpacts on purchase intention and purchasebehaviour in buying skin care productsamong Bangkok male consumers.

10. Conclusions and Discussion

This study implies that TRA can besuccessfully applied to Thai male con-sumers, particularly in Bangkok. Further,this modified theory of reasoned actionwith additional construct “Self-image”appears to fit in a Thai context in termsof explaining or predicting male con-sumer behaviour in buying specific cosmeticproducts. In the aspect of normative influ-ences, family and friends were related toself-image. This confirmed the findings ofYoh et al. (2003) that friends or family pos-sibly convinced consumers into purchasinga particular product. Additionally, this re-sult agreed with the findings of Webster(2000) which revealed that a female spousehad decision-making power over her hus-band. However, this finding disagreed withHu and Japer’s (2006) report that norma-tive influences did not affect the selection


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process.In the aspect of salesperson, this result

evidently showed its positive impact towardmale consumers’ attitudes toward applyingskin care products. This was concurrent withthe findings of Songpradit (2005) andMallaliau (2006). On the other hand, thisresult contradicted Leek and Chansawatkit’s(2006) case study of mobile phone in Thai-land in which salespeople were a less im-portant source for consumer purchasing de-cision on this specific product. For pack-aging, this was consistent with Silayoi andSpeech (2007)’s notion that the influenceof the packaging element on brand choiceamong Thai consumers was fairly strong.In terms of promotion, this was congru-ent with Songpradit’s (2005) findings,which revealed that promotional mes-sages were positively related to Thaiconsumer’s purchase decisions. Besides,this finding has broadened Coutler, Feickand Price’s (2002) research that claimedonly women involved their self-imagewhen applying cosmetic products. Thisfinding showed that not only women butalso men perceived the influence of self-im-age when using product categories in cos-metics.

Further, the results indicated that con-sumers who had a more positive attitudetoward a specific product had greater in-tention to purchase it than did consum-ers who had a less positive attitude. Simi-lar to expectations, normative influenceswere found to be the significant compo-nents so as to determine consumers’ pur-chasing intentions, according to the stud-ies of Choo, Chung and Pysarchik (2004)and McNelly (2002). Further, this find-ing showed that attitudes toward apply-

ing skin care products (beta = 0.543, 0.520)demonstrate a greater indicator than nor-mative components (beta = 0.196, 0.282)toward behavioural intention, which wasconcurrent with the result of Shih and Fan(2004) about the adoption of Internet bank-ing. In addition, this result agreed withChoo, Chung and Pysarchik’s (2004) find-ings in which purchase intention possiblypredicted the actual purchase.

11. Limitations

This study has aimed to investigatevariables in explaining male consumerpurchasing behaviour regarding skin careproducts in the Thai market, based onTRA (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975). As a re-sult, the modified TRA has shown powerof explanatory in this study. However,there are some limitations as follows.Firstly, there is a national limitation. Thefindings of the study were confined toBangkok metropolitan in Thailand. As aresult, generalizing the results reported in thisresearch to other countries should be donecarefully. Secondly, the sampling frame wasThai male consumers aged 21 to 50 yearsold. With the sample, it is limited to the scopeof this study with regard to reflection of othermale age groups such as teenagers. Thirdly,one limitation is related to a statistical tech-nique. Though Structural Equation Model-ing (SEM) is a well-known advanced sta-tistical technique used to test model-fit, it isnot suitable for the data analysis of this studydue to questionnaire design. Alternatively,path analysis has been applied to test setsof relationships among variables which arelinear in this study.


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12. Implications and Recommendations

Although this study is exploratory,the findings may reveal new trend in Thaimale behaviour, which is consistent withthe changing era of consumerism frommodernism to postmodernism. Hence,the allocation of men’s position in soci-ety would shift from production-bounddefinitions of modernism to consump-tion-based definitions of postmodernism.In a postmodern perspective, men aremoving from identifying with occupa-tional value and social status to perceiv-ing the importance of their self-portrayalor how they present themselves.

Practically, this study can provideuseful implications for marketers to un-dertake the research findings to imple-ment their marketing strategies regard-ing skin care products so as to better sat-isfy male consumers as target group inAsian economies such as South Korea,China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, In-donesia, the Philippines, Singapore, andVietnam. The results suggest that, formale consumers like those in Bangkok,well-trained salespersons, who under-stand customers’ needs and are able tosolve their problem, promotional mate-rials such as free samples and incentives,and attractive packaging may encourageconsumers to try skin care products.Therefore, it reflects that marketersshould employ these attributes to attractconsumers in this segment. The motiva-tion for using skin care products appearsto be caused by individuals’ self percep-tion and influences from others who areimportant to them such as spouse, friends,family, and work colleagues. Once market-

ing tools are developed, it is important totake social influences groups into accountin order to approach this target group ef-fectively.

However, recommendations maygenerate as follows. Firstly, future re-search may survey other career groupssince these results may provide a moreuseful insight into buying cosmetic orskin care products. Secondly, other prod-ucts in similar categories are of interestfor future investigations such as groom-ing products, toiletries, and health cares.Thirdly, future research should investi-gate other variables which may correlateto dependent variables in order to en-hance the scope of the present study suchas face saving and group conformity. Fi-nally, future study should be undertakenusing qualitative methods such as inter-views, observations, or focus groups inorder to provide a better explanation ofmale consumer behaviour.

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Documents

Male Skincare Buyer Behaviour