Impact of Brand Marketing on Consumer Decision Making: With Special Reference to Cosmetic Industry

Abstract

Product based companies must come up with strategies to market their product and brand marketing is one of them. If we are talking about brand marketing, then cosmetics industry is a huge platform where brand marketing can influence consumer decision making. The purpose of this study is to crystallize the effect of brand marketing on consumer decision making. This study specially targets those who are into cosmetic or beauty world. This report shall point out the brand marketing, brand image, brand loyalty, and brand recall with respect to changes if anything influence them. Using the data gathered from the questionnaires and given data on the internet we shall answer how branding can be related to consumer decision making in beauty world. The survey conducted was limited to specifics to attain the true and fair view or facts. Overall, the report shall present a new approach to the consumer and their decision making while brand marketing will play an important part in cosmetic industry.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Marketing mix is defined as the use of multi-component marketing tool to strengthen a product brand and to assist in the marketing of product and service.

Not only the product but also good branding attracts people and eventually makes them buy.

Branding is defined as the process of giving meaning to a particular organization, company, product or service by creating and shaping the mindset of consumers. It is what gives you fame, and finally, the future. By identifying yourself as a brand, you can communicate more deeply with customers, employees and the general public.

Brand marketing is a procedure to assist any product or service by advertising the brand as a complete one. It works great when the goal is to generate loyal customers or to attach with customer for long term as in customer retention.

When we talk about brand marketing then influence or impact of brand marketing on consumer decision making also plays an important role.

Consumer decision making is the process of which consumers are well informed about their needs and then solving their needs by collecting information and assessing the best alternative options available to them. They can make decisions on the purchase and can evaluate their purchase too.

There are five stages of consumer decision making process. The breakdown steps are:

1. Need recognition: Consumer should be aware of the product or service and that’s the starting process.
2. Search for information: Consumer needs information to find out the options they are looking for.
3. Evaluation of alternatives: Finding the best alternatives by comparing the products to make the best choice.
4. Purchasing decision: After all this now it’s time to buy
5. Post-purchase evaluation: Lastly, it’s feedback time. Consumer gives feedback or recommend others their experience.

Consumer Behavior is the analysis and the procedure they use to select, consume and scrap of goods and services, considering the customer’s psychological and behavioral replies or answers.

Analyzing consumer behavior is a key factor because it helps advertisers understand what impacts consumers’ purchasing decisions. Comprehending consumer purchasing behavior is the prime clandestine to reach and catch our consumers and change their mind to buy from you. So, consumer behavior is frequently impacted by many different circumstances like

a. What consumers think and how they feel about several replacements or alternatives.

b. What impacts customers to select between several options.

c. Consumers’ behavior while buying and studying or inspecting.

d. How customers’ surrounding impacts their behavior.

There are three factors that affects the consumer buying behavior:

• Personal factors: A personal’s advantages and viewpoint can be determined by demographics (age, culture, gender, etc.).
• Psychological factors: A personal’s reply to a marketing message will depend on their perspective and insight.
• Social factors: Friends, family, education level, social media, income, and may more can impact on customers’ buying behavior.

Each customer may have special purchasing habits. Still there are typical susceptibility that permits differentiating the given below buyer behavior patterns:

• Place of Purchase: Where customer can access many stores and they are not always constant to one place rather they may divide their purchases among many stores.
• Items Purchased: Luxury items are very rare to be purchased while necessity items are bought in vast or bulk amount. So, product’s longevity, attainability, cost, buying power, and the number of consumers for whom the products are planned are some of the factors that impacts the amount of purchase.
• Time and Frequency of Purchase: Product’s type and necessity and customer’s lifestyle, tradition and custom are the purchasing frequency of customers. So, marketers should always understand the time and how often people are buying.
• Method of Purchase: There are different types of people, some visits stores while others choose online sites. Some go for cash while others use cards. Some pay after buying from online store while others pay before the product has been reached them from online store. So, the way customer is buying the product also influence the consumer buying behavior.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Brand has been referred as the total of all emotions, attitudes, affiliation and awareness that humans have to the tangible and intangible characteristics of a product, company or service (Brandeo, 2014).
2. Okonkwo (2010, p.9) reasons that the start of brands comes from the times when early cattle-rearing men stamped their possession on their animals by making or giving a mark of their name or identity on the cattle, to help them to differentiate one cattle-farmer’s stock from another one cattle-farmer’s stock.
3. The description of a brand image is suggested as the total, world perception of the information that amass in the remembrance of client in relation to a streak (Franzen and Moriarty, 2008, p. 241). 
4. In particular, the terms of branding have been defined as the process of steady strive between course of action and consumer to define the guarantee and meaning (Healey, 2008, p.6).
5. The subject of growing importance of brand and branding in modern global marketplace have been engraved by a board spectrum of authors and the most notable contribution to the issue assembled by authors such as Hill et al (2006), Franzen and Moriarty (2008), Clifton and Ahmed (2009), and Kotler and Pfoertsch (2010).
6. According to Tom Goodwin, brandings are important patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness, and reassurance that exist in the minds of people.
7. One of the very frequent views is that the understanding of customer behavior has become the main thing that has a direct influence on the overall presentation of the businesses. (Kotler and Keller, 2012).
8. Another point of view is that understanding consumer behavior has become a very important part especially due to brutal challenges in the retail industry in the UK and the worldwide. (Lancaster et al, 2002).
9. Backhaus et. Al. (2007) encouraged that buying decision is one of the crucial stages as this stage refers to episode or event of business. 
10. Wiedermann et al (2007) assorted them into internal and external factors while, Winer (2009) separated them into social, personal, and psychological factors.
11. In spite of the certainty that they have been assorted into different groups by different authors they are alike in scope and purpose (Rao, 2007).
12. These factors are further divided by Hoyer et al. (2012) into four main categories: Situational, personal, social and cultural factors.

III. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The crux of this study is to know branding and how branding in cosmetic industry can influence or impact people to buy or have loyalty with the brand. To attain the main objective this study highlights some objectives that are to be known:

1. To show the importance of brand market in cosmetic industry.
2. To show the how changes in brand marketing specially in cosmetic industry can go a long way in putting the product into the hands of customers. 

A. Scope of the Study

This study shows the importance of brand marketing specially in cosmetic industry and also the researchers tried to see how environment can affect customers to change their decision. It also shows the consumer decision making which can be influenced by others or the environment.

B. Limitation of the Study

Some difficulties were faced in doing this study. An ardent effort was used to do this study to bring out the fruitful result. Despite of that, there are some restrictions, which hinders the conduct of the study.

1. Time period was very short for this study
2. Due to limited time period, detailed analysis of text could not be performed.

C. Methodology of the Study

For even, definite and fair study, this was made by using primary sources to keep up the originality of this study as well as to reflect the prospective of the consumers in this paper. Posting and circulating the questionnaires and organizing the responses from the consumers from different sector shows the different point of view about brand and its impact on their decision making. The research data of this study is taken from the 58 randomly chosen respondents of the questionnaire prepared for this purpose and need, which was named “Impact of Brand marketing on Consumer Decision Making: With Special Reference to Cosmetic Industry.”

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA INTERPRETATION

The fifty-eight respondents were asked many questions concerning to the sections or factors mentioned above. Given below are the data understood from analysing the data organised after getting the responses.

Among the fifty-eight respondents, there were 52% (which is 30) people who were in their 20s while about 21% (which is 12) people were under 20. There were 10% (which is 6 in each) in both 30s and 40s while 7% (which is 4) in 50s and more participated in this questionnaire.

Now that the age of the respondents has been defined, we move on to the gender. As shown in the graph 2 there were 60% (which is 34) female respondents while there were 40% (which is 24) male respondents.

As we have seen in the graph given below, from 58 respondents about 23 people which is 40%, do not buy cosmetic products or are rare to buy. There are about 17 people (29 in percentage) who are often to cosmetic industry and about 14 people (24 in percentage) who are very often to buy products from the cosmetic industry. Lastly 7% which is about 4; do not shop cosmetic products.

Both the gender and frequency of purchase of cosmetics were stated. This is the cross table between the frequency of purchases of cosmetics and gender.

Table 1

After the basic questions were asked by the respondents, here comes the important one about caring of brands while using cosmetic products. About 62% of the total have selected very much as in they care very much while they buy any cosmetic products and about 28% care little about brands when they buy any. Rest is 5% each from not at all and never thought of to buy any cosmetics.

From the chart shown above we typically found out or got to know that maximum customers had used social media to know about cosmetic industry; it is about 65.5% which is 38 in total. Next, we have about 46.6% people who got to know about cosmetic from both at stores and TV Commercial. There are about 51.7% who got to know about cosmetic from online commercial sectors while about 32.8% got to know about it by searching from internet and very few like 29.3% got information from person to person. Next, we have people who are interested in Print Medias like magazine, newspaper, etc. which is about 24.1% that is of 14 people in total. Lastly, we have the people who are not interested which is about 1.7%.

A. Relationship Between Brand Recall and Celebrity Endorsement

Next, we tested the relationship between celebrity endorsement and brand recall i.e., if there is any connection between brand recall and celebrity endorsement. To put it to test we made a hypothesis that:

H0: There is no significance relationship between brand recall and celebrity endorsement.

To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1. Table 2 shows the observed table that was gathered through the responses from the question:

Observed Data Table

Table 2

From table 2 and its data we could find the expected value of each data. To calculate the excepted value, we have to multiply row’s grand total with column’s grand total and divide it with the total number of responses received. Table 3 shows the expected values calculated and found.

Expected Table

Table 3

We found the p-value for chi-square to determine if there is any significant relationship between celebrity endorsement and brand recall. Though the p-value is equal to 0.089900271. The calculated p-value is less than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand recall and how celebrity endorsement can affect it.

B. Relationship Between Brand Loyalty and Celebrity Endorsement

Next, we tested the relationship between celebrity endorsement and brand loyalty i.e., if there is any connection between brand loyalty and celebrity endorsement. To put it to test we made a hypothesis that:

H1: There is no significant relationship between brand loyalty and celebrity endorsement.

To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 5% or 0.05. Table 4 shows the observed table that was gathered through the responses from the question:

Observed Data Table

Table 4

From table 4 and its data we could find the expected value of each data. To calculate the excepted value, we have to multiply row’s grand total with column’s grand total and divide it with the total number of responses received. Table 5 shows the expected values calculated and found.

Expected Data Table

Table 5

We found the p-value for chi-square to determine if there is any significance between celebrity endorsement and brand loyalty. Though the p-value is equal to 0.02730750079. The calculated p-value is less than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand loyalty and how celebrity endorsement can influence customer to buy products.

C. Relationship Between Brand Image and Celebrity Endorsement

Next, we tested the relationship between celebrity endorsement and brand image i.e., if there is any connection between brand image and celebrity endorsement. To put it to test we made a hypothesis that:

H2: There is no significant relationship between brand image and celebrity endorsement.

To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1. Table 6 shows the observed table that was gathered through the responses from the question:

Observed Data Table

Table 6

From table 6 and its data we could find the expected value of each data. To calculate the excepted value, we have to multiply row’s grand total with column’s grand total and divide it with the total number of responses received. Table 7 shows the expected values calculated and found.

Expected Data Table

Table 7

We found the p-value for chi-square to determine if there is any significance between celebrity endorsement and brand image. Though the p-value is equal to 0.06033863773. The calculated p-value is less than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand image and how celebrity endorsement can influence customer to buy products.

D. To find whether the Mean Ratings Provided by the Respondents to Different factors of brand Marketing are Same

After the various Chi-square test, we tested whether the mean ratings provided by the respondents to different factors of brand marketing such as brand image, brand loyalty and brand recall are same.

H3: The mean rating provided by respondents for all the factors of brand marketing are same.

That means on consumer decision making brand image, brand loyalty and brand recall have equal impact.

To put this hypothesis to test an anova test was conducted. The significance level was set as 5% or 0.05. Table 8 shows the observed table that was gathered through the responses from the question:

Summary

Table 8

From the table 9 and its data we could find the anova data between groups and within the groups.

Anova Data Table

Table 9

The p-value is equal to 0.5926667899 and is more than the significance level of 0.05 or 5%. Hence, the hypothesis is accepted. It means the mean rating provided by respondents of all factors of brand marketing are same. Hence it is concluded that brand image, brand loyalty and brand recall have equal impact on consumer decision making while buying something.

V. FINDINGS

The study found that maximum people who were in 20s and were female are interested in buying cosmetics.

1. H0: There is no significance relationship between brand recall and celebrity endorsement. To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1. Though the p-value is equal to 0.089900271. The calculated p-value is more than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand recall and how celebrity endorsement can affect it.
2. H1: There is no significant relationship between brand loyalty and influence of celebrity endorsement. To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1.  Though the p-value is equal to 0.02730750079. The calculated p-value is more than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand loyalty and how celebrity endorsement can influence customer to buy products.
3. H2: There is no significant relationship between brand image and influence of celebrity endorsement. To put this hypothesis to test a chi-square test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1. Though the p-value is equal to 0.06033863773. The calculated p-value is more than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. Hence, the hypothesis is rejected. It means there is relationship between brand image and how celebrity endorsement can influence customer to buy products.
4. H3:  The mean ratings provided by respondents of all factors of brand marketing are same. To put this hypothesis to test an anova test was conducted. The significance level was set as 10% or 0.1. Though the p-value is equal to 0.5926667899. The calculated p-value is more than the significance level of 0.1 or 10%. The hypothesis is accepted and hence it is concluded that brand image, brand loyalty and brand recall have equal impact on consumer decision making while buying something.

Conclusion

Survey named “Impact of Brand marketing on Consumer decision making: With special reference to Cosmetic Industry” was spread among people while being constricted to only cosmetic industry. 58 responses were collected via the survey questionnaire spread which helped in the formulation of this paper. There were three major elements that we found out from the study i.e., Influence of Brand Image, Brand Loyalty, and Brand Recall on Consumer Decision Making. Each segment had asked several questions to ascertain the factors that affected brand image, loyalty, and recall on consumer decision making with special reference to cosmetics industry. We found out that we can know or identify the marketing challenges and opportunities by understanding the consumer decision making. Its more likely to know what the customer is undergoing before deciding on the purchase of cosmetic products.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Dr. Ashamayee Mishra, Prof. Sujata Rath, Ms. Simran Jena. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.