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Abstract:
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The study is significant from both an application perspective of
marketing management as well as from an academic angle.
The market for personal care products is a highly fragmented one,
with intense competition for specific niche segments. It is well known in
marketing literature that the bulk of the volume of sale is accounted for by
the minority who are the heavy users. This study will help the marketers to
identify the personality profile of such a group and understand how the
interaction of personality factors at least partially explains differences in
consumption. This knowledge might be useful for better segmentation using
psychographic variables as well as for designing specific advertisement
campaigns to target the vulnerable groups of customers.
From a theoretical perspective, the research may contribute to
understanding how specific personality variables and their interaction lead to
differences in consumption. The knowledge corresponding to self theory,
social comparison theory, persuasibility, evidence from psychology of eating
disorders: these all may be integrated into a common frame work for
explaining consumption of products having a social function. |