INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT (IJM)

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT (IJM) ISSN 0976-6502 (Print) ISSN 0976-6510 (Online) Volume 7, Issue 2, February (2016), pp. 76-85 http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp Journal Impact Factor (2016): 8.1920 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com IJM I A E M E A STUDY ON CONSUMERS PREFERENCE TOWARDS BEAUTY SERVICES IN TIRUCHIRAPALLI Dr. G. Rabia Jahani Farzana Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Government Arts College, Thuvakudimalai, Tiruchirapalli 620 022 R. Banu Priya Research Scholar Department of Business Administration, Government Arts College, Thuvakudimalai, Tiruchirapalli 620 022 ABSTRACT Earlier days women have been very conscious of their appearance since their existence of youth. Most of them give much importance to their external appearance. They can change their look in various numbers of ways. But today it has changed. Men parlors have overcome women s parlors. Because of booming beauty conscious among men has increased. However both men and women are always concentrated on their external beauty. In conventional times people used orthodox ways to beautify themselves. Even now the wish is the same, but with different and better tools. Thus, a beauty parlor or salon is a business that deals with the beauty treatment for women and men. This study have accentuated that there are many beauty parlors are available in Trichy but why people prefer particular brand. The existence of some studies investigating how brand preference is built and changed, most of them focus on examine factors from consumer behavior perspective or advertising perspective. This research aims to build a conceptual framework of brand preferences from a new perspective, the consumer s experiential view. Key words: Beauty Parlors, Beauty conscious, Consumer preference, Customer satisfaction. Cite this Article: Dr. G. Rabia Jahani Farzana and R. Banu Priya. A Study on Consumers Preference towards Beauty Services in Tiruchirapalli. International Journal of Management, 7(2), 2016, pp. 76-85. http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp 1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays in India beauty parlors and salons have become the stress-buster hubs of the 21st century Indians. The need to look better and better every day is not restricted to home remedies. People fulfill their wish of good-looking by frequently visiting the mind and body renewing spa and salons. Be it a working people or homemakers, grooming have always been an important factor in every one s life. 76

Good look is an essential part of a person. Beauty salons help people in enhancing their beauty and good looking, hence making them better-looking. With the era of growing health awareness, the awareness towards self-beauty consciousness has ever since been increasing. Increase in the knowledge of grooming made increase in technology, and sanitation levels, the contribution of salons and beauty parlors in People s life has also increased. Increasing number of beauty parlors makes the marketers work as tough and consumes more time and expenses for research especially consumer research. 1. Consumer preferences represent a fundamental step in understanding consumer choices. A deeper understanding of such preference dynamics can help marketing manger s better design marketing program and build a long term relationship with consumers. 2. There has been a long standing interest from marketers to understand how consumers form their preferences toward a specific brand. Brand preference is closely related to brand choice that can facilitate consumer decision making and activate brand purchase. Knowing the pattern of consumer preferences across the population is a critical input for designing and developing innovative marketing strategies. It also uncovers the heterogeneity of consumer choices developing to efficient market segmentation strategies. However, forecasting consumer s preferences between brands is not an easy task. 2. BEAUTY INDUSTRY SCENARIO INDIA The overall Beauty Business in India is growing outstandingly with the cosmetics market growing at 15-20% annually. The retail beauty and cosmetics market in India currently estimated at USD 950 million is pegged at USD 2.68 billion by the year 2020. In India, the beauty care market consists of salons, skin care treatment centers and skin care products and is likely to become the main contributor to the growth of Indian wellness industry. Women s contribution is over 85% to the Salon industry revenue, while men s hair is the next wave set to hit the Indian Salon Industry. The rising beauty concerns among both men and women are propelling the Indian cosmetics industry, which has witnessed a strong growth in the last few years. 3. OVER THE LAST FIVE YEARS THE GROWTH FIGURES ARE Cosmetic Products - 60% Salons - 35%; Cosmetic Treatments - 5% The country s cosmetic sector has, in fact, emerged as one of the markets holding enormous growth potential. New product promotions catering to consumers growing requirements will fuel growth in the industry, for which the future outlook seems exceptionally bright. According to a latest research report, the Indian cosmetics market registered impressive sales, and with rising purchasing power and growing fashion consciousness, the industry is estimated to expand at a an annual growth rate of around 17% during 2013-2015. 4. OBJECTIVES To study the Consumer preference towards beauty service in Trichirappalli. To analyses the behavior & perception levels of various consumers towards beauty service. To study the sales promotion strategies implemented by the beauty parlor. To identify the effectiveness of the beauty parlors media to promote the brand in present market. To find out various factors that influences the consumers on various brand of beauty parlor To enumerate the findings and to offer suggestions for further improvement of beauty parlor. To study whether socio-economic condition influence the brand preference. To find out overall satisfaction level and expectations of consumer. 77

5. HYPOTHESIS Null Hypothesis H01: There is no association between age and necessity beauty salons. Null Hypothesis H01: There is no association between age and reason for visit beauty salons. Null Hypothesis H01: There is no association between gender and brand preferences. 6. LITERATURE REVIEW: THE CONCEPT OF BRAND PREFERENCE The notion of preference has been considered in different disciplines such as economists, psychologists, sociology. However there is no commonly agreed definition of preference among these disciplines. For example, economists believe that preferences are exogenous, stable, and known with adequate precision and are revealed through choice behavior. The economic view of preference had been criticized for assuming that preferences are stable and endogenous. An individual s preferences are not stable and can be endogenous or exogenous. In marketing literature, the word preference means the desirability or choice of an alternative. Preferences are above all behavior a tendencies (Zajonc and Markus, 1982). Brand preference is defined variously as the consumers as the consumer s predispositions toward a brand that varies. 7. PREVIOUS STUDIES ON BRAND PREFERENCE Prior studies on brand preference can be divided into two groups. The first group is for studies examined the impact of consumer-related factors. They focused on the impact of cultural, social, psychological and personal factors of consumers. The main findings of this group studies revealed that exchanges in consumers life style can cause changes in their brand preferences. The consumer s personality traits and values are also considered to be important predicators of brand preference. The second group addressed the impact of brand-related factors such as the brand price and other marketing communications tools with particular concern on advertising and promotion. One of the major findings of these studies is that the brand attributes, plus other brand factors such as perceived value have a significant impact on brand preference. In addition, the interaction between the selfimage and brand-image the self-image congruence has shown to be important in brand preference building. Customer satisfaction is one of the important outcomes of marketing activity, satisfaction is the consumer fulfillment response. It s just a judgment that a product or service feature or the product or service itself, provides a pleasure able level of consumption related fulfillment 2. Kumar, Kee and Manshor high quality of service can result in high customer satisfaction and increases customer loyalty. Guthrie, M. & Jung J. in their study women s perceptions about brand personality with respect to women s facial image and cosmetic usage, had found that the brand personality of competence was most important across all the brands, consumer perceptions pertaining to brand personality traits differed. In findings they conducted an electronic survey which was administered to a sample of 225 female participants in the USA. The survey included items measuring facial mage, cosmetic usage, brand personality, and brand attitude. Where they had examine how facial image and cosmetic usage both of them determined that companies can improve their marketing strategies to enhance customer satisfaction and increase their customer base. However, by identifying the brand personalities that attract consumer, companies can pinpoint the characteristics that customers look for in a product, which in turn can be used to enhance brand image. To Study the Perception of Women as Customers towards Beauty Service in Western Mumbai Savla Swati Jayesh, and ManjrekarPradip, Salva Swati Jayesh et al., IJSRR Special Issue 2014, 3(4) Suppl., 52-64Women have been very conscious of their appearance since ages. The external appearance is very important for many. You can change your look in various numbers of ways now days. In olden times people used conventional ways to beautify themselves. Even now the desire is the same, but with newer and better tools. The desire to beautify one is the reason for the setting up of beauty services. A beauty parlor or salon is a business that deals with the beauty treatment for women. Since ancient times, women have been experimenting with their look in a number of ways. The methods and equipment s being conventional in the olden times have now been modified and modernized in the developing times. 78

8. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY To study the consumer preference towards beauty services a structured questionnaire was framed. People of Trichy are considered as customers of beauty salons for the study and are referred to as respondents. The number of respondents of the questionnaire is 350. Information collected through the structured questionnaire is processed and presented using suitable tables. For the testing of hypothesis, the Chi-Square Test is applied. 9. DATA ANALYSIS Gender: Information collected about gender is separated as Male and Female. GENDER FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Male 140 40 Female 210 60 The above table indicates that out of total 350 respondents,60% of the respondents belong are female,40% of the respondents are men. The maximum respondents are female and minimum respondents are male. Age Group: Information collected about age of respondents is classified in to four different groups. The classified information is presented in the following table. AGE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Below 25 years 170 48.57 26-35 years 110 31.42 36-45 years 55 15.71 Above 45 years 15 4.28 The above table indicates that out of total 350 respondents, 48.57% of the respondents belong to below 25 years.31.42% of the respondents belong to 26-35 years of age group, 15.71% of the respondents belong to 36-45 years of age group and remaining 4.28% of the respondents belong to above 45 years of age group. Marital status: Information collected about marital status is separated as Unmarried, Married, and Widow/Divorced. MARITAL STATUS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Un married 210 60 Married 105 30 Widow/divorced 35 10 The above table indicates that 60% of the respondents are unmarried, 30% of the respondents are married and 10% of the respondents are widow/divorced out of 350 respondents. Most respondents are unmarried and least is widow/divorced. 4. Qualification: Qualification is classified into four categories as SSLC, Higher Secondary Certificate (H.S.C.), Under Graduate, and Post Graduate. QUALIFICATION FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE SSLC 23 6.57 HSC 61 17.42 UG 61 17.42 PG 205 58.57 79

The above table indicates that 58.57% of the respondents are qualified as post graduate, 17.42% of the respondents are qualified as HSC, and 17.42% of the respondents are qualified as under graduate, 6.57% of the respondents are qualified as SSLC out of 350 respondents. OCCUPATION: Qualification is classified into six categories as students, self-employed, salaried, professional, housewife and Retired. OCCUPATION FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Students 105 30 Self-employed 35 10 Salaried 70 20 Professional 88 25 Housewife 35 10 Retired 17 5 The above table indicates that 30% of the respondents are students, 25% of the respondents are Professionals, 20% of the respondents are salaried, 10% of the respondents are self-employed, 10% of the respondents are housewife and 5% of the respondents are retired people out of 350 respondents. INCOME STATUS: Income status is classified into three categories as Below 25000, 25000-50000, Above 50000. SALARY(MONTH) FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Below 25000 15 4.41 25000-50000 93 26.47 Above 50000 242 69.11 The above table indicates that 69.11% of the respondents are getting above Rs.50000 as salary, 26.47% of the respondents earn monthly income from Rs.25000 to 50000, and 4.41% of the respondents are getting salary of below Rs.25000. FACTORS OF STUDY FREQUENCY OF VISITING BEAUTY SALONS: Information collected about frequency of Respondents visiting beauty salons is classified into four different groups that is once in 15 days, once in 30 days, once in 45 days, and once in 60 days. DURATION FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Once in 15 days 21 5.88 Once in 30 days 72 20.58 Once in 45 days 51 14.7 Once in 60 days 206 58.82 The above table indicates that 58.82% of the respondents visit beauty salons once in 60days, 20.58% of the respondents visit beauty salons once in 30days, and 14.7% of the respondents visit beauty salons once in 45days and 5.88% of the respondents visit once in 15 days. TYPE OF BEAUTY SERVICES: To know the type of beauty services the respondents would like to get service from is classified into five categories Threading/upperlip, Facial, Pedicure, Manicure and Haircut. 80

BEAUTY SERVICES FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Threading/ upperlip 21 5.88 Facial 136 38.82 Pedicure 51 14.7 Manicure 72 20.58 Haircut 70 20 The above table indicates that 38.82% of the respondents that make use of facial services, 20.58% of the respondents are used manicure service,20% of the respondents are used haircut service, pedicure service are used by14.7% of the respondents, 5.88% of the respondents are used threading/upper lip service. NECESSITY OF BEAUTY SALONS: To know the views of people who think using beauty services are a necessity the categories are classified in a simpler way as Yes or No. NECESSITY OF BEAUTY PARLORS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Yes 302 86.4 No 48 13.6 Majority of consumer think that now a day s using beauty services is a necessity as out of 350 respondent 86.4% of the respondents said yes and 13.6% of the respondents said no. ATTRACTION OF BEAUTY SERVICE: To know what attracts towards using beauty services is classified into four categories like discounts (services at a lesser cost), brand name (services from well-known professional salons), and personal attention (the wish to pamper oneself) and customized package (services that only the client desires to have). ATTRACTION OF BEAUTY SERVICE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Discounts 59 16.8 Brand Name 89 25.5 Personal Attention 162 46.4 Customized Package 40 11.4 The above table indicates that Out of 350 respondents 46.4% of the respondents would get attracted towards personal attention, 25.5% of the respondents get attract towards brand name, and 16.8% of the respondents get attracted towards discounts, 11.4% of the respondents get attracted towards customized package. PARAMETERS OF SELECTION OF BEAUTY SALON: Information collected about different parameters important for selection of beauty salon is classified into various ways like location, experience of beautician, atmosphere, quality and the need of professional salons. PARAMETERS STRONGLY STRONGLY AGREE UNDECIDED DISAGREE AGREE DISAGREE Location 100 76 8 41 12 Experience 100 53-99 98 Price 30 100 20 100 100 Atmosphere 69 200 10 41 30 Quality 106 199 - - 45 Professional 81 19 250-19 The above table indicates that location, experience of beauticians, atmosphere, quality and Professional salons are of extreme importance to consumer whereas price is of moderate importance. REASON FOR VISITING BEAUTY SALONS: The important reasons for visiting beauty salons are classified into grooming ones looks thus enhancing their personality, personal hygiene, and status symbol so as to show off in the society. 81

REASON FOR VISIT FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Grooming 123 35.0 Personal Hygiene 154 44.1 Status Symbol 73 20.9 The above table shows that majority of respondents visit beauty salon for their personal hygiene and least visit for status symbol. Out of 350, 44.1% of the respondents visit for personal hygiene, 35% of the respondents visit for grooming, and 20.9% of the respondents visit for status symbol. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE BRAND SELECTION: The factors that influence the consumer to know about the brand. BRAND INTRODUCER FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Media 113 32.35 Relative 21 5.88 Friends 41 11.76 Neighbor 175 50 The above table shows that 32.35% of the respondents coming to know beauty salon by their neighbors, 11.76% of the respondents coming to know beauty salon by their friends and 5.88% of the respondents coming to know by their relatives. BRAND PREFERENCES Information collected about brand preference is classified in to three. The classified information is presented in the following table. BRAND PREFERENCES FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE NATRURALS 192 55 GREEN TRENDS 123 35 RESHMI 35 10 TOTAL 350 100 From the above table shows that 55% of the respondents are preferred Naturals brand, 35% of the respondents are preferred green trends and 10% of the respondents are preferred Reshmi beauty parlor. SATISFACTORY LEVEL OF VARIOUS BEAUTY SERVICE: Information collected about overall satisfaction level is measured. The classified information is presented in the following table. SATISFACTION FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE Highly satisfied 192 55 Satisfied 105 30 Moderate 18 5 Dissatisfied 25 7 Highly dissatisfied 10 3 From the above table shows that 55% of the respondents are highly satisfied about beauty services at Trichy, 30% of the respondents are satisfied about beauty services at Trichy, 7% of the respondents are dissatisfied with beauty services at Trichy, 5% of the respondents are satisfied moderately and 3% of the respondents are highly dissatisfied with beauty service at Trichy. 82

RESULTS Association between age group and necessity of beauty salon is tested using chi-square test. AGE&Necessity of Beauty Parlors YES NO TOTAL Below 25 years 90 80 170 26-35 years 60 50 110 36-45 years 25 30 55 Above 45 years 2 13 15 TOTAL 177 173 350 The above table indicates that 90from below 25years of age group, 60 from 26-35years of age group, 25from 36-45years of age group and 2 from above 45years of age group feel that there is necessity of beauty salon. 173respondents are of opinion that there is no necessity of Beauty salon. RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS Degree of freedom Level of significance Table value Calculated value 3 5% 7.815 9.58 RESULT Above results indicate that calculated value (9.58) is greater than table value (7.815). Therefore test is rejected. Hence null hypothesis is rejected. Alternate hypothesis is accepted. Conclusion is that there is association between age group and necessity of beauty salon. Findings of test states that the age group of below 25 years and 26-36 age groups of respondents are of opinion that there is necessity of beauty salon. Above 45 years of age group is of opinion that there is no necessity of Beauty salon. ASSOCIATION BETWEEN AGE GROUP AND REASON FOR VISIT BEAUTY SALON IS TESTED USING CHI-SQUARE TEST AGE/ REASON FOR Below 25 26-35 36-45 Above 45 VISIT years years years years Total Grooming 60 40 18 5 123 Personal Hygiene 77 40 28 9 154 Status Symbol 33 30 09 01 73 Total 170 110 55 15 350 The above table indicates that 60from below 25years of age group, 40 from 26-35years of age group, 18 from 36-45years of age group and 5 from above 45years of age group are going to visit beauty parlor for grooming purpose. 77from below 25years of age group, 40 from 26-35years of age group, 28from 36-45years of age group and 9from above 45years of age group are going to visit beauty parlor for Personal Hygiene purpose. 33from below 25years of age group, 30 from 26-35years of age group, 09from 36-45years of age group and 1from above 45years of age group are going to visit beauty parlor for Status symbol purpose. RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS Degree of freedom Level of significance Table value Calculated value 6 5% 12.592 7.466716 RESULT Above results indicate that calculated value (7.46) is lesser than table value (12.592). Therefore test is accepted. Hence null hypothesis is accepted. Alternate hypothesis is rejected. Conclusion is that there is no association between age group and necessity of beauty salon. 83

FOR TESTING OF HYPOTHESIS CHI-SQUARE TEST IS APPLIED GENDER/BRAND PREFERENCE NATURALS GREEN TRENDS RESHMI TOTAL Male 87 48 5 140 Female 105 75 30 210 Total 192 123 35 350 The above table indicates that 87 male respondents and 105 female respondents are preferred Naturals brand, 48 males and 75 females are preferred Green trends and 5 from male and 30 from females are preferred Reshmi beauty parlor. RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS Degree of freedom Level of significance Table value Calculated value 2 5% 5.991 11.94945 RESULT Above results indicate that calculated value (11.94) is greater than table value (5.991).Therefore test is rejected. Hence null hypothesis is rejected. Alternate hypothesis is accepted. Conclusion is that there is association between gender and brand preference. Findings of test state that majority of male and female respondents prefer Naturals parlor in Trichy. 10. FINDINGS This study is based on the response of the women consumers of below 25 years and unmarried, especially the women from high income family think that using beauty services is necessary once in 60 days. Personal attention from specific beauticians makes the consumers feel comfortable and satisfied. Location, experience of beauticians, atmosphere, quality and Professional salons are of extreme importance to consumer. Majority of respondents comes to know about the beauty salon from their neighbors. In Trichy branded salon and spa such as Naturals and green trends are preferred by the people. There is association between age and necessity of Beauty Salon. There is no association between age and reason for visit beauty salons. There is association between gender and brand preference. 11. SUGGESTIONS This report is all about consumer preference about beauty parlors in Trichy. Some of the suggestion based on the findings of the study is given in addition to some general suggestion relating to beauty parlors. The following suggestions are. Since men too have become beauty conscious, the owner of beauty parlors have to concentrate on advertisement and promotional activities which attract men. In spite of people being more beauty conscious and health conscious the beauticians might include stress control treatments, such as acupressure, acupuncture it will help to attract middle and old age people. Location, experience of beauticians, atmosphere, quality and professional salons are of extreme importance to consumer therefore the owners have to maintain good products, place which is easily accessed, performance appraisal and motivating employee by cash or non-cash rewards and often have to modernize the parlor by fixing Television or music systems. Magazines can also be provided. 84

12. CONCLUSION On the basis of this research, it can conclude that one of the main reasons for the popularity of beauty salons in Trichy is the rising disposal income along with the beauty conscious of people. The perception of below 25years and 26-36 years of people are of opinion that there is necessity of beauty salon and they want topamper their self. At below 25 years of age group of people have started using beauty services for personal hygiene. In an age where looking and feeling beautiful is given prime importance, beauty service industry is growing steadily in Trichy, although at a slow stride. REFERENCES [1] MuñizJrAM, O'Guinn TC. Brand community. Journal of Consumer Research 2001; 27 (4):412 32. [2] Bloemer, J., and Schroder, G. (2002): Store satisfaction and store loyalty explained bycustomer and store related factors. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 15, pp. 68-80. [3] Zeithmal, V.A.., and Bitner,M.J. Service marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm. New York: McGraw Hill. 2003. [4] Kumar,M., Kee, F.T.,&Manshor,A.T Determining the relative importance of critical factors in delivering service quality of banks : An application of domainance analysis in SERVQUAL model. Managing service quality, 2009; 19 (2): 211-228. [5] Menon, Balakrishnan, Feb 2012, Parameters and Framework Development to study Consumer Behaviour Patterns of Passenger Cars, Drishtikon: A Management Journal, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Pune, ISSN: 0975-7422(Print), 0975-7848(Online)), Volume 3, Issue No. 1, pp. 27-75 [6] (http://www.beautymart.co.in/industry-scenario-india.php) [7] (http://www.rncos.com/report) 85