“Assessing the Consumer Attitudes towards Inclusiveness in Makeup Products in Russia”
|
ABSTRACT 4
INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER 1. INCLUSIVENESS AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: GLOBAL AND
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 10
1.1. Historical and cultural context of beauty standards in Russia 10
1.2. Examining Consumer Attitudes towards Inclusiveness through the Prism of
Brand Positioning Frameworks 14
1.3. Comparative Analysis of Consumer Behaviour Approaches : Exploring
Different Perspectives 17
1.4. Global Perspectives: Inclusive Marketing Practices in the Beauty Industry
21
1.5. Summary 25
CHAPTER 2. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26
2.1. Methodology and research design 26
2.2. Qualitative data gathering and processing 35
2.2.1. Data gathering. 36
2.2.2. Data processing 38
Summary 40
2.3. Quantitative data gathering and processing 40
2.3.1. Rejected groups of variables 43
2.3.2. Behavioural block of variables 44
2.3.3. Ajfective block of variables 48
Summary 51
CHAPTER 3. MODEL AND CLUSTER ANALYSIS 53
3.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis 55
3.3. Structural Model and Hypotheses testing 57
3.4. Cluster analysis 62
Summary 66
CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 68
4.1. Research results 68
4.2. Practical implications of research findings 69
4.3. Limitations and further research 71
CONCLUSION 72
REFERENCE LIST 74
APPENDIX 1 81
APPENDIX II 82
APPENDIX III 83
APPENDIX IV 84
APPENDIX V 85
APPENDIX VI 86
APPENDIX VII 87
INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER 1. INCLUSIVENESS AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: GLOBAL AND
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 10
1.1. Historical and cultural context of beauty standards in Russia 10
1.2. Examining Consumer Attitudes towards Inclusiveness through the Prism of
Brand Positioning Frameworks 14
1.3. Comparative Analysis of Consumer Behaviour Approaches : Exploring
Different Perspectives 17
1.4. Global Perspectives: Inclusive Marketing Practices in the Beauty Industry
21
1.5. Summary 25
CHAPTER 2. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26
2.1. Methodology and research design 26
2.2. Qualitative data gathering and processing 35
2.2.1. Data gathering. 36
2.2.2. Data processing 38
Summary 40
2.3. Quantitative data gathering and processing 40
2.3.1. Rejected groups of variables 43
2.3.2. Behavioural block of variables 44
2.3.3. Ajfective block of variables 48
Summary 51
CHAPTER 3. MODEL AND CLUSTER ANALYSIS 53
3.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis 55
3.3. Structural Model and Hypotheses testing 57
3.4. Cluster analysis 62
Summary 66
CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 68
4.1. Research results 68
4.2. Practical implications of research findings 69
4.3. Limitations and further research 71
CONCLUSION 72
REFERENCE LIST 74
APPENDIX 1 81
APPENDIX II 82
APPENDIX III 83
APPENDIX IV 84
APPENDIX V 85
APPENDIX VI 86
APPENDIX VII 87
Consumers are making a lot of purchasing decisions on a daily basis and the process of them making a choice have become a matter of interest both for academics and practitioners.
Inclusiveness - together with digitalisation and personalisation - is one of the biggest trends in the beauty industry (Marchessou and Spagnuolo, 2021) and has been attracting attention of researchers from many different fields of study for the last few decades. According to a survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, two out of three Americans reported that their social values now shape their shopping choices, and 45 percent believe retailers should actively support Black- owned businesses and brands (Brown, Lucas, Zizaoui, Burns, & Harris, 2023). This group of consumers, referred to as the 'inclusive consumer', is not limited to a specific demographic but includes men and women across ethnic backgrounds, income levels, and age groups. In this research we would like to address inclusiveness in decorative cosmetics, interpreting inclusiveness in accordance with its definition as given by the Cambridge Dictionary: “the quality of including many different types of people and treating them allfairly and equally” (Inclusiveness, Cambridge Dictionary). In the beauty industry inclusiveness can be addressed from many different perspectives, but in this particular study we would like to investigate it from the ethnic side, exploring issues related to the representation of people of colour both in product lines and marketing campaigns. To be more specific, we will be focusing on how consumers perceive inclusiveness - or the lack of it - in cosmetic brands’ product lines and marketing activities both in Russia and globally - whether it affects their behaviour and influences their decisions and, if yes, in what way.
Such choice of a country can be supported by the multinational nature of the Russian Federation, which is home to around 190 ethnic groups (Wikipedia, 2020), including the ones which can be considered as Asian, meaning that their skin tones are different from those of European ethnic groups. Another reason why we chose Russia for this analysis is related to the current political crisis which led to the key beauty brands - including Chanel, Coty, Estde Lauder, L'Oreal, LVMH, Lush, and L'Occitane (Statista, 2022) - leaving Russian cosmetics market, which was largely dependent on import. The perception of inclusivity in cosmetic brands in Russia is also influenced by the country's historical and cultural context. Russia has a long history of valuing pale skin (Ziemer, 2011; Kuznetsova and Round, 2019), which has led to a lack of diversity in the cosmetic industry. However, there is evidence that younger generations in Russia are more accepting of diversity and inclusivity (Krawatzek and Sasse, 2022), which may lead to a shift in attitudes towards cosmetic brands. Hence, I find it interesting to study how it affected customers’ behaviour and purchasing habits in this sphere, and what could be the possible implications for Russian entrepreneurs capable of filling this gap.
Inclusiveness in the beauty industry means making beauty products accessible by embracing the diversity of one’s consumers. According to Elle Canada (How Lancome Is Making Inclusivity — From People To Products — A Priority, 2022), developing products that are able to meet consumers’ needs irrespective of their race, gender, age, and skin tone is one of the loudest most recent trends in the industry. According to Rebecca Feasey, millennial consumers, clients and customers are keen to see a "broad cross-section of families, couples and individuals" as a sign of "authenticity" in advertising (Feasey, 2022). Moreover, according to the latest research from Mintel (Hennigan, 2022), almost a quarter of US Gen Z consumers feel left out of beauty advertisements, meaning that beauty products for people of colour - which will be sometimes addressed as inclusive products in this paper - lack awareness among consumers. To add more, US market research by McKinsey (Baboolall et al., 2022) shows that addressing racial inequity in beauty industry is a $2.6bln opportunity and that 75% of nonwhite consumers can be persuaded to purchase beauty products by ads that feature various skin tones across all races.
Apart from conveying brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness through its product offers, there is another way to broadcast brand’s position - advertising. Inclusive advertising can significantly enhance a brand's reputation by demonstrating its commitment to diversity and equality. By representing a broad range of individuals in advertising campaigns, brands can show that they value all customers, regardless of their race, gender, age, or physical ability. This approach can resonate with a diverse consumer base, fostering a sense of belonging and respect. Moreover, inclusive advertising can align with consumers' growing demand for brands to take a stand on social issues, further bolstering a brand's reputation. Successful inclusive marketing campaigns, such as Dove's "Real Beauty" and Always' "Like a Girl," have shown that this approach can not only enhance brand reputation but also contribute to financial success (Whelan, Moon and Grant, 2013). One of the examples of a brand that managed to successfully improve its image through an implementation of more inclusive marketing activities is Dove.
Thus, the most basic criteria of inclusiveness a beauty brand should answer to are a wide range of the foundation tones and products which will close the needs of the customers of all skin tones, and a more inclusive advertisement of beauty products which are able to create awareness about inclusive product lines among consumers.
...
Inclusiveness - together with digitalisation and personalisation - is one of the biggest trends in the beauty industry (Marchessou and Spagnuolo, 2021) and has been attracting attention of researchers from many different fields of study for the last few decades. According to a survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, two out of three Americans reported that their social values now shape their shopping choices, and 45 percent believe retailers should actively support Black- owned businesses and brands (Brown, Lucas, Zizaoui, Burns, & Harris, 2023). This group of consumers, referred to as the 'inclusive consumer', is not limited to a specific demographic but includes men and women across ethnic backgrounds, income levels, and age groups. In this research we would like to address inclusiveness in decorative cosmetics, interpreting inclusiveness in accordance with its definition as given by the Cambridge Dictionary: “the quality of including many different types of people and treating them allfairly and equally” (Inclusiveness, Cambridge Dictionary). In the beauty industry inclusiveness can be addressed from many different perspectives, but in this particular study we would like to investigate it from the ethnic side, exploring issues related to the representation of people of colour both in product lines and marketing campaigns. To be more specific, we will be focusing on how consumers perceive inclusiveness - or the lack of it - in cosmetic brands’ product lines and marketing activities both in Russia and globally - whether it affects their behaviour and influences their decisions and, if yes, in what way.
Such choice of a country can be supported by the multinational nature of the Russian Federation, which is home to around 190 ethnic groups (Wikipedia, 2020), including the ones which can be considered as Asian, meaning that their skin tones are different from those of European ethnic groups. Another reason why we chose Russia for this analysis is related to the current political crisis which led to the key beauty brands - including Chanel, Coty, Estde Lauder, L'Oreal, LVMH, Lush, and L'Occitane (Statista, 2022) - leaving Russian cosmetics market, which was largely dependent on import. The perception of inclusivity in cosmetic brands in Russia is also influenced by the country's historical and cultural context. Russia has a long history of valuing pale skin (Ziemer, 2011; Kuznetsova and Round, 2019), which has led to a lack of diversity in the cosmetic industry. However, there is evidence that younger generations in Russia are more accepting of diversity and inclusivity (Krawatzek and Sasse, 2022), which may lead to a shift in attitudes towards cosmetic brands. Hence, I find it interesting to study how it affected customers’ behaviour and purchasing habits in this sphere, and what could be the possible implications for Russian entrepreneurs capable of filling this gap.
Inclusiveness in the beauty industry means making beauty products accessible by embracing the diversity of one’s consumers. According to Elle Canada (How Lancome Is Making Inclusivity — From People To Products — A Priority, 2022), developing products that are able to meet consumers’ needs irrespective of their race, gender, age, and skin tone is one of the loudest most recent trends in the industry. According to Rebecca Feasey, millennial consumers, clients and customers are keen to see a "broad cross-section of families, couples and individuals" as a sign of "authenticity" in advertising (Feasey, 2022). Moreover, according to the latest research from Mintel (Hennigan, 2022), almost a quarter of US Gen Z consumers feel left out of beauty advertisements, meaning that beauty products for people of colour - which will be sometimes addressed as inclusive products in this paper - lack awareness among consumers. To add more, US market research by McKinsey (Baboolall et al., 2022) shows that addressing racial inequity in beauty industry is a $2.6bln opportunity and that 75% of nonwhite consumers can be persuaded to purchase beauty products by ads that feature various skin tones across all races.
Apart from conveying brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness through its product offers, there is another way to broadcast brand’s position - advertising. Inclusive advertising can significantly enhance a brand's reputation by demonstrating its commitment to diversity and equality. By representing a broad range of individuals in advertising campaigns, brands can show that they value all customers, regardless of their race, gender, age, or physical ability. This approach can resonate with a diverse consumer base, fostering a sense of belonging and respect. Moreover, inclusive advertising can align with consumers' growing demand for brands to take a stand on social issues, further bolstering a brand's reputation. Successful inclusive marketing campaigns, such as Dove's "Real Beauty" and Always' "Like a Girl," have shown that this approach can not only enhance brand reputation but also contribute to financial success (Whelan, Moon and Grant, 2013). One of the examples of a brand that managed to successfully improve its image through an implementation of more inclusive marketing activities is Dove.
Thus, the most basic criteria of inclusiveness a beauty brand should answer to are a wide range of the foundation tones and products which will close the needs of the customers of all skin tones, and a more inclusive advertisement of beauty products which are able to create awareness about inclusive product lines among consumers.
...
However, this research is limited by a humble sample size (200 < N < 250) and unreliable Subjective Norms factor which cannot be used for factor analysis while considered to be important from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Therefore, this study limitations create a room for future researches in order for marketers to be able to use the results of this research for the development of new products and/or marketing campaigns.
To be more particular, future research can be conducted in order to reveal the reasons behind a negative influence age has on the consumers’ willingness to buy inclusive products. As it was mentioned above, a rather humble sample size and a small representation of age groups 3 and 5 - from 35 to 44 and from 55 to 64 respectively - may put significant limitations on the way we interpret these findings, hence, shall be thoroughly examined in order to be appropriate for potential business application.
Furthermore, particular inclusive qualities of the products that are important for people whose purchasing decisions are affected by their skin type are yet to be explored, together with the beneficial characteristics which affect consumers willingness to buy inclusive products regardless their age, skin type and phototype, since our research failed to provide this information.
Moreover, the impact of inclusive advertisement and consumers’ attitudes towards it remains significantly underexplored. Therefore, future research could explore the impact of inclusivity in cosmetic brands marketing activities on consumer behaviour, maybe using multigroup analysis for people of different ages and skin tones, since this two criteria turned out to be the less explained by our research. To add more, such future research could investigate the differences in perceptions of inclusivity between different demographic groups, such as age and gender.
Another niche for potential research lies in the realm of including people of different genders - not only women - to such research, since we observe that age and skin type are very significant in terms of decorative cosmetics, leading us to a suggestion that men with problematic skin and various skin imperfections - such as acne and pigmentation - might be interested in the development and promotion of gender-neutral makeup products for men on the Russian market.
CONCLUSION
Our research was set out with the objective of identifying the role of inclusiveness in influencing the purchasing behaviour of Russian consumers concerning makeup products, and we can confidently state that this goal was achieved successfully. The significant tasks assigned at the onset of the study were completed and the research questions answered using a mixed research method approach. This approach included semi-structured interviews providing qualitative data and structural equation modelling performed in SPSS AMOS, bolstered by follow-up cluster analysis in SPSS for quantitative insights. The research, in its entirety, is principally based on the model provided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour.
In examining the role of inclusiveness, the data showed that the phototype of consumers holds the most significant influence on the differentiation of items across clusters. Additionally, it emerged as the only characteristic where attitudes towards inclusiveness in advertising displayed substantial importance, suggesting consumers prioritise diversity of colours over diversity in ages and skin types. However, a clear necessity for further research was revealed, specifically involving larger sample sizes, to better comprehend attitudes of different age groups towards inclusiveness as our current dataset underrepresented older age groups.
Moreover, the willingness to pay a premium for inclusive products which are matching an individual's skin type was a noteworthy finding, particularly from the perspective of different phototypes. This differs from clusters labelled by age and skin type, offering valuable insights for brands considering their pricing and product development strategies. However, the readiness to pay a premium for inclusive products was lower among the largest represented phototype group, Fair White (Phototype II), suggesting specific considerations for brands targeting this demographic. The groups that demonstrated the most appreciation for product diversity were Phototype I (Pale White) and Phototype V (Brown/Dark-Olive), albeit these groups formed less than 15% of respondents.
The choice of the Russian market for this study was validated by its unique socio-historical context, presenting a rich setting for studying the dynamics of inclusiveness in the cosmetics industry. The findings of this research have potential to influence both academic discourse and industry practice, contributing to the ongoing effort of promoting inclusiveness in the beauty industry.
From a theoretical standpoint, the research filled a significant gap in the exploration of inclusiveness within the cosmetics industry, particularly in the Russian market. It offered a novel perspective on studying inclusiveness within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, focusing on the socio-historical context behind it. The application of postcolonial studies provided valuable insights into the dynamics of inclusiveness, enriching our understanding of consumer behaviour and the roots of discrimination that still persist in the cosmetics industry.
...
To be more particular, future research can be conducted in order to reveal the reasons behind a negative influence age has on the consumers’ willingness to buy inclusive products. As it was mentioned above, a rather humble sample size and a small representation of age groups 3 and 5 - from 35 to 44 and from 55 to 64 respectively - may put significant limitations on the way we interpret these findings, hence, shall be thoroughly examined in order to be appropriate for potential business application.
Furthermore, particular inclusive qualities of the products that are important for people whose purchasing decisions are affected by their skin type are yet to be explored, together with the beneficial characteristics which affect consumers willingness to buy inclusive products regardless their age, skin type and phototype, since our research failed to provide this information.
Moreover, the impact of inclusive advertisement and consumers’ attitudes towards it remains significantly underexplored. Therefore, future research could explore the impact of inclusivity in cosmetic brands marketing activities on consumer behaviour, maybe using multigroup analysis for people of different ages and skin tones, since this two criteria turned out to be the less explained by our research. To add more, such future research could investigate the differences in perceptions of inclusivity between different demographic groups, such as age and gender.
Another niche for potential research lies in the realm of including people of different genders - not only women - to such research, since we observe that age and skin type are very significant in terms of decorative cosmetics, leading us to a suggestion that men with problematic skin and various skin imperfections - such as acne and pigmentation - might be interested in the development and promotion of gender-neutral makeup products for men on the Russian market.
CONCLUSION
Our research was set out with the objective of identifying the role of inclusiveness in influencing the purchasing behaviour of Russian consumers concerning makeup products, and we can confidently state that this goal was achieved successfully. The significant tasks assigned at the onset of the study were completed and the research questions answered using a mixed research method approach. This approach included semi-structured interviews providing qualitative data and structural equation modelling performed in SPSS AMOS, bolstered by follow-up cluster analysis in SPSS for quantitative insights. The research, in its entirety, is principally based on the model provided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour.
In examining the role of inclusiveness, the data showed that the phototype of consumers holds the most significant influence on the differentiation of items across clusters. Additionally, it emerged as the only characteristic where attitudes towards inclusiveness in advertising displayed substantial importance, suggesting consumers prioritise diversity of colours over diversity in ages and skin types. However, a clear necessity for further research was revealed, specifically involving larger sample sizes, to better comprehend attitudes of different age groups towards inclusiveness as our current dataset underrepresented older age groups.
Moreover, the willingness to pay a premium for inclusive products which are matching an individual's skin type was a noteworthy finding, particularly from the perspective of different phototypes. This differs from clusters labelled by age and skin type, offering valuable insights for brands considering their pricing and product development strategies. However, the readiness to pay a premium for inclusive products was lower among the largest represented phototype group, Fair White (Phototype II), suggesting specific considerations for brands targeting this demographic. The groups that demonstrated the most appreciation for product diversity were Phototype I (Pale White) and Phototype V (Brown/Dark-Olive), albeit these groups formed less than 15% of respondents.
The choice of the Russian market for this study was validated by its unique socio-historical context, presenting a rich setting for studying the dynamics of inclusiveness in the cosmetics industry. The findings of this research have potential to influence both academic discourse and industry practice, contributing to the ongoing effort of promoting inclusiveness in the beauty industry.
From a theoretical standpoint, the research filled a significant gap in the exploration of inclusiveness within the cosmetics industry, particularly in the Russian market. It offered a novel perspective on studying inclusiveness within the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, focusing on the socio-historical context behind it. The application of postcolonial studies provided valuable insights into the dynamics of inclusiveness, enriching our understanding of consumer behaviour and the roots of discrimination that still persist in the cosmetics industry.
...
