Prevalence of 'Face Concept' among South Asian Consumers: A comparative study of unfolding the facets in decision making process of buying beauty products

The focus of this paper is to explore the level of importance of the term ‘face concept’, consumers transfer in their purchase decision of beauty products. The author intends to study differences in the consumption behaviour of highly collectivists Bangladeshi consumers’ compare to the highly individualistic UK consumers. Concept of face is acknowledged in every culture. However, the term ‘face’ is characterised differently according to one’s cultural setting; for example, ‘face’ represents the interpersonal relationship between the individual and groups in Asian society. On the other hand, from a European perspective face may represent stronger personal self and assertion. In this paper the author tends to identify the contributing factors to ‘face concept’ of Bangladeshi female consumers in their pre, actual and post-purchase behaviour of cosmetics products compared to the British female consumers. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among female Bengali consumers in the capital city of Dhaka in Bangladesh and female British consumers in Southwest London in the United Kingdom. The research has compared the degree of face concept and its impact on decision making process of female consumers in the UK and the Bangladesh by using factor analysis. Five factors were extracted from factor analysis: ‘thoughts in cosmetics’, ‘brand link to social recognition and prestige’, ‘skin colour link to authority in society’, ‘group conformity’ and ‘personal-self’. It was noticed in the labelling process of the five factors that the extracted components were not exactly the same for both Bangladesh and the United Kingdom

An Investigation on Whether the Awareness of Animal Testing Improves Consumer Behavioral Patterns Vis-Á-Vis, Brand Loyalty and Ethical Consumerism Towards Animal Testing.

Today’s generation level of awareness has extended far beyond technology to the welfare of animal rights, especially those animals that are being tested on for cosmetics brands worldwide. Now consumers have ready information at the tip of their fingers to track and even locate brands not complying with these rights and call them out on their practices. Thus, the research was inspired to investigate how the awareness of animal testing improves consumer behavioural patterns vis-á-vis, brand loyalty and ethical consumerism towards animal testing. In order to examine this topic, data was collected using qualitative approach (telephone interview) as the primary aim was to discover the in-depth behaviour and attitude of these cosmetic consumers. These comprises of 10 participants that agreed to both the telephone interview and audio-recording. This led to the key findings that the attitude of these consumers remained unchanged regardless of whether their chosen cosmetic brand(s) testing were good on animals or not. Some of the participants also view animal testing as a necessary sacrifice for the wellbeing of humanity. They would rather focus on value, convenience and trends when purchasing or remaining loyal to a cosmetic brand(s). Though there were a few participants who admitted to the possible change of their polarised attitudes into being supportive against the use of cosmetics that will be tested on animals in the future. Besides, the consumers believe that the price to pay for changing cosmetics was far too expensive in comparison to the animal testing claims. It was therefore recommended that in order for the cosmetic industry to compete favourably in the global market, they must endeavour to follow standard procedure in the testing of their cosmetics. On the other hand, the consumer must show concern for how their cosmetic are being tested in accordance with the standard to be able to enjoy continuity of their chosen cosmetic products