INDIAN FEMALE CONSUMERS' BRAND AWARENESS TOWARD COLOUR COSMETICS BRANDS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Samira Shakeri Fakher 1 and Dr. S.J.Manjunath 2 . 1. Research Scholar, MBA Department, B.N. Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences (BIMS), University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. 2. Associate Professor and Chairman, MBA Department, B.N. Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences (BIMS), University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

The study determines Indian female consumers' awareness of colour cosmetic brands issues and whether it impacted on their purchase decisions.146 respondents were interviewed from Bangalore city. The findings indicate that female Indian consumers have a high level (90%) of awareness of colour cosmetic marketing issues and it influenced the purchase decision of 92%. Price was ranked ahead of cosmetic brands concerns as influencing purchase decisions. It ascertained that younger consumers are more likely to be motivated by colour cosmetic issues. Indian female consumers' awareness of colour cosmetic issues can be enhanced if cosmetic brands producers and campaigners develop strategic promotional activities.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
Of the five senses of human, there is no doubt a sight the strongest effect on consumer perception. Linstorm (2005) also explained that 83% of human beings use sight as the receiver to obtain messages among the five senses. Gob'e (2001) estimated sight the most outstanding sensing tool in people. Cosmetics brand products have played many various and significant parts in social archives. The beginning cosmetic designed for facial decoration was the beauty patch. During the 1600s facial patches became popular in Europe. It covered permanent facial scars on smallpox epidemic survivors (Draelos, Z. D., 2000). The total global cosmetics market was measured to be 180 billion Euros, and it has been regularly growing at a rate of every year around 4% in 2012. Many marketers in this field are competing aggressively to capture more and more markets Coloured cosmetics have been utilized to provide for entrance into a fight, to strengthen the emotion surrounding courtship, and also to beautify the dead before interment. Cosmetics products have affected everything from ethical practices to the well-being of the overall population. A short look at the history of these products is important in recognizing their current use and the enormous advances made in the formulation. This article discusses a few cosmetics brand products that have had the fascinating histories (Draelos, Z. D., 2000).
The history of cosmetics and all beauty care products equals many serious technologic developments in chemistry, materials, and packaging innovations. In the case of ancient civilizations, cosmetics discovered in archaeological excavations are enormous. It can also be said that modern-day health and adornment practices based existing products in the current market (Draelos, Z. D., 2000).

ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(9), 353-358 354 Marketing research has concentrated upon more elaborate knowledge structures than awareness, such as attitude and brand image (Macdonald & Sharp, 2000). In a competitive environment today, organizations are looking all the time for new ways to maximize their sale in consumers, and there are some factors due to which purchase toward brand can be increased. Brand awareness is one of those. The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of colour cosmetic brand awareness on female consumer purchase decisions in India. The principal reason for choosing this subject is that there is no previous research on brand Awareness in India. Wherever there are a huge number of consumers of different cosmetic products studied. We can guess that youngster will place a high value on brand Awareness in colour cosmetics brands. Awareness of the brand is an important way to product advertising. It is because of some reasons and factors differentiate a product from another competitor's product. As a result, a product with the highest awareness, as compared with its competitors, gains the most sales.
Little research has done on the impact of brand awareness on choice. Studies on colour cosmetic issues in India are confined. Therefore, It is necessary that these studies be done in India to determine the special situation of the Indian consumer. As a result, it examines the value of awareness and its impact on customer purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is anticipated that this initial research will enable companies and activists to grasp the level of cosmetics support. Using these knowledge companies can improve appropriate marketing strategies to promote their cosmetics brands and cosmetics marketing campaigners. Hence the objectives of the study are: 1. To assess the level of consumer awareness of colour cosmetic brands in India 2. To determine whether colour cosmetic brand awareness impacts on customer buying decision 3. To ascertain whether demographic characteristics affected on colour cosmetic brand purchasing Literature Review:-Given the conceptual and ethical complexities of the consumer behaviour of ecological accountability and the discomfort of environmental information, different customers have different ideas about ecologically oriented consumer behaviour. The consumers act out their primary motivation for being cosmetic users. It can assume that firms marketing goods with environmental features will have a competitive advantage over companies marketing non-environmentally responsible alternatives (Anti, 1984).
Demographic characteristics have explored to determine their impact on colour cosmetic brand issues. Roberts and Bacon (1997) confirmed that many researchers had investigated the influence of age and levels of education amongst others. In Generally, it is affirmed that younger people are likely to be more sensitive to colour cosmetic issues. The conclusions have however been somewhat equivocal. Some of the researchers who searched age as a correlate to cosmetic attitudes and behaviour have found non-significant relationships. Still, others found the relationship to be significant, but the correlation is positively (Roberts, 1996). The hypothesized relationship between education and cosmetic products attitudes has been relatively consistent. Education is expected to correlate with cosmetic concerns and behaviour positively. However the outcomes of studies analyzing education and colour cosmetic issues are somewhat, a definitive relationship between the two variables has not established. Roberts (1996), records that majority of studies have found the predicted positive relationship.

Brand awareness:-Colours influence customer judgment for corporate brand awareness:-
The symbol is the visual identification of brand recognition, identity, and association. The colour base of power can trigger consumer brand awareness and appearance brand image. A base of authority is challenging to follow and connects trust and evaluation of a brand. Various colours elicit several feelings and the meanings on brands may be very different (Chang & Lin, 2010).
Brand awareness means the ability of the consumer to identify a brand (Keller, 2003). Brand awareness takes the form of recognition and recall of a brand. The full explanation of the brand is Recognition and gives complete knowledge about the brand to consumer, customers can plainly distinguish the brand from other competing brand and can classify formerly observed or listened (Ergin et al. 2005; Papista, Dimitriadis 2012).
Brand awareness is one of the consumer-based brand equity dimensions and an important element which assigns to the power of a brand's presence in consumers' memories (Aaker, 1991;Keller, 1993). Aaker specified different faces of brand awareness; it refers to the simple recognition of the brand to domination, provided that the brand involved with it is the only brand that is remembered by the customer. Brand awareness is the ability of consumers to identify a brand (Rossiter and Percy, 1987). Also, Keller imagined that as consisting of both brand recognition 355 and recall. Confirming to Keller, brand recall point to the ability of consumers to recover the brand again from the mind, when the product category or requirements are classified as listed. Keller, 1993, p. 3 disputed that Brand identification might be more important as product choices are produced in the store. Therefore, in the study, brand awareness is imagined as consisting of both brand recognition and brand recall.
The consumer can recognize many brands, but they only recall a few, and sometimes only one of them is remembered. Brand recognition is considered as the smallest level of brand awareness and provides for recalling the brand (Holden, 1993;Laurent et al., 1995;Mariotti, 1999).
Recognition the brand is important for the consumer while choosing or selecting a brand at the point of buying the brand. Loyalty starts when the customer knows about the product and has full information about the product (Aaker, 1991, Jamal et al. 2012. The chance of a product purchase will increase if the customer has information and he is aware of the product.

Research Methodology:-
The present research is part of a larger study that investigated the links between consumer-based brand awareness and country effects. This research has been conducted to find out the brand awareness in colour cosmetic brands of India and to gain out the awareness of customers for these cosmetics brands. The study carried out in three product categories: makeup, skincare, and hair care. We selected the product classes in such a way that most respondents were able to judge them. Many respondents had used products from these three categories, as our results showed. The product categories selected were also different regarding consumer involvement, price, and easy availability. The research designed as a single cross-sectional study. The researchers believed that this would provide them to study over a relatively short period from the target population. The study was conducted in Bangalore city in India. The target population for the study was patrons of colour cosmetic brands consumer. A total sample size of 148 female was investigated. A survey was conducted, and the data was collected using questionnaires designed on the Likert scale of 5 strongly agree to 1 for strongly disagree. Respondents were selected based on a convenient sampling technique. A total of 150 women were approached, and 146 respondents agreed to participate in the study. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution, ranking, and cross-tabulation procedures. Frequency distribution was used to determine the level of awareness of respondents in respect of colour cosmetic brands issues and the level of impact of awareness on consumer purchase decision. Cross-tabulation procedures were used to determine the associations between age and educational level with customer purchase decisions. The raw data of customers were coded and analyzed.

Analysis of Findings:-Level of Consumer Awareness of Colour Cosmetic Brands in India:-
Respondents were requested to be aware of color cosmetics by answering "Yes" or "No." A response of "Yes" meant respondent was aware of colour cosmetic issues, while a response of "No" said respondents were not familiar with colour cosmetic issues. Out of a total of 146 respondents, 131 people representing 89.7% of the sample indicated they were aware of colour cosmetic issues. See Table 1 below. The low level of awareness of Cosmetic Marketing issues has the implications of buying cosmetic brands. Consumers are usually claimed to buy the brands that are in the stimulated set (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2009). According to them, "The stimulant set includes a few brands that the consumer is familiar with, is a recall and acceptable." It's important to know a brand in determining whether a brand is for sale by any particular consumer. As a result, as many (89%) of respondents were familiar with Colour Cosmetic brands, potential support for Colour Cosmetic brands is high. 92.5% of respondents that is 135 female respondents indicated that cosmetic marketing issues affect their purchase decisions. The findings of this study re-emphasize this position just 7.5% (11) of the respondents showed that cosmetic issues did not impact their purchasing decision. From Table 1 above, 88% of the respondents indicated that they were familiar with cosmetic issues. It means that almost cosmetic issues impacted the purchase decisions of every respondent who were familiar with cosmetic marketing.

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The researcher has examined how respondents put some of the selected variables concerning the effect of these variables in their purchasing decisions. These variables were concern for the price, quality, easy availability, advertisement and Product Design. Respondents were asked to show the level of influence each variable had on their purchase decision by indicating whether the variable played a strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or a strongly agree role in their purchase decision. Table 3 below captures the relevant data obtained from the study.  Table 3 above indicates that around 91% of respondents considered the price to be either agree or a strongly agree in their purchase decisions. Product Design was the second most important variable that influenced consumers' purchase decisions. 82% of respondents indicated that quality was either agree, or a strongly agree in their purchase decisions. 62% of respondents reported that concern for the easy availability was either important and agree with their purchase decisions. For product advertisement, only 39% of respondents respectively said they agreed with their purchase decisions. However, as high as 54% of respondents indicated that advertisement concerns were disagreeing or a strongly disagreeing in their purchase decisions. Though 39% of respondents admitted that advertisement issues were either important in purchase decisions, it would not necessarily translate into the actual purchase decision.

Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Consumer Colour Cosmetic Purchasing Decisions:-
In this study, only the effects of age and education on the color of the brand have been considered.  Table 4, out of total respondents, who agreed awareness of colour cosmetic brands issues affected their purchase decisions, those between the first three groups of the ages less than 20 to 40, constituting more than 80% of respondents, showed greater concern for the awareness. Those between the ages of 41 to 50, constituting more than 70% of those surveyed, noted that second highest level of concern for the awareness. Those who were more than 51 years of age showed no more than other ages concern for the awareness. The general belief is that young people are likely to be more sensitive to awareness issues. There are some theories offered in support of this view, But the most 357 common argument is that those who have grown in a period where conscious concerns have become an important issue are possible to be sensitive to these matters. 100% Out of a total of respondents whose purchase decisions are affected by colour cosmetic issues, respondents with primary education and diploma education were not more than high-level educational influenced by colour cosmetic issues at all, while those with bachelor, master, Ph.D. and professional education had their decisions influenced by colour cosmetic issues.

Education:-
The conclusions confirm this declaration though it is important to note that respondents with high education level shown to interested in awareness of colour cosmetic issues. It might explain the rather interesting situation where high education consumers were interested in awareness issues as depicted by the data presented.

Conclusions and Implications:-
Cosmetic marketing is a significant trend in modern business. There is enormous interest in cosmetic brands marketing by campaigners and researchers same. Notwithstanding this high level of interest, the market for all colour cosmetic brands around the world has not been as expected. Colour cosmetic brand awareness is high in India, and the impact of cosmetic brand awareness on purchase decisions is even greater. Indian women put a higher premium on price and product design and quality than on concerns about the availability and advertisement. It recommends that future research consider managing a larger sample size covering a broader area establish the level and impact of cosmetic brand awareness of the all Indian consumer. This survey is concerned only with female behaviour; it is may be interesting to investigate men reaction to colour cosmetic brands. The use of a universityintercept sample, albeit less cross-sectional than other kinds of sample, limits our ability to generalize the findings to other samples fully. Future researchers endeavor to use probability samples in any further study of brand awareness. Cosmetic brands marketing campaigners and producers should explain strategies that can convey their messages to a greater number of purchasers more efficiently. Besides this, cosmetic companies are challenged to understand the buying behaviour thoroughly before implementing any marketing strategy.
Finally, further research might compare price points of well-known cosmetic brands across diverse countries. An inquiry of the prices of various cosmetic brands in the different countries will be valuable for cross-cultural comparisons such as this study because the price of well-known Indian cosmetic brands is often lower in other countries