Consumer Behaviour

CIA-3
Observational research at
Health and Glow, Forum Mall, Bangalore
Submitted to
Prof. Vedha Balaji

Submitted by Group 1
Davis Daniel-1728009
Shardul Pawar-1728024
Simran Ichhponani-1727856
Suhena Mukherjee-1728059
Uday Yadav-1727831
Introduction:

The time is 7:30 PM on a Thursday evening. The location is the Health and
Glow, Forum Mall, Bangalore. The following episode takes place:

A school age girl and her mother enter the aisle. The mother hurries down the
aisle, looking straight ahead and not even glancing at the stores. "Can't I have a
lip gloss?" asks the girl very winningly. "No," answers the mother very sternly
and quickly continues up the aisle. "You only love Sneha Didi (girl’s elder sister
which is our assumption)," is the girl's reply as she walks up the aisle with her
head lowered.

This episode is one of the observations of shopping behaviour made by

customers while shopping beauty products from Health and glow, Forum Mall,
Bangalore. The observations were collected to conduct a research on buying
behaviour and attitude of customers when it comes to buying beauty products.
Health and Glow Retailing Private Limited, is a beauty and cosmetics retail
company for the last more than 15 years in India. Health and Glow is a pioneer
company bringing national and international beauty and cosmetic products
under one roof at affordable prices to the consumers.

The supermarket managers agreed to cooperate as soon as they were sure that
the observers were not going to interfere with normal business, were not trying
to discover something that would discredit the store. The observations were
noted down in the following journal.
Sl. Gender Age- Purchase Product Observed behavior of Customers Segment
No. Group Decision
1 Female 18-25 Purchase Revlon The customer knew she wanted Highly
Foundation foundation as she entered the Interested
store.
She seemed to be a beginner at
make-up since she didn’t have a
brand she was loyal to, but tried
on many of the brands available
there. She took a lot of time to
decide and then went for Revlon.
2 Female 35-45 Purchase Shower This particular female customer Highly loyal
Gel, seemed to be a regular customer
Pumice of Health&Glow. She came in
Stone and strolled in the showroom for
a while, then went on to the
shower gel section to check the
‘Skin Cottage’ shower gel stock
and checked out every flavor to
finally pick out the orange flavor.
She roamed around for some
more time in the personal hygiene
section and picked out a pumice
stone and proceeded to the billing
section.
3 Male 20-30 Purchase Deodorant, This male customer was Moderately
Face wash, accompanied by a girl who was Interested
Fair n helping in his purchase decisions.
Handsome He spent quite some time in
deciding the deodorant fragrance,
then his friend helped him to get
the face wash and then the
customer picked out a ‘Fair n
Handsome’ which he was sure
about.
4 Female 18-25 No Lipstick This particular customer was Highly
Purchase strolling and suddenly entered the Disinterested
shop just like that. She directly
went to the loreal section and
tried on some of their lipsticks,
then went on to try Maybelline
and Colorbar lipsticks and then
went out without buying
anything.
5 Male 20-30 No Deodorant This person had accompanied a Highly
Purchase friend of his and while his friend Disinterested
shopped, he checked out the
deodorant range, which seemed
more like a way to pass time.
\
6 Female 18-25 Purchase Roll-On This customer directly Extremely
approached the billing section Interested
and asked them where the
product was, she then was guided
to the roll-on section where she
picked out her product and
directly proceeded for the billing.
7 Female 18-25 Purchase Lipstick This particular customer came in Moderately
and directly went for the Loreal Interested
section. She directly asked for a
Lipstick Shade. Though she was
pretty sure about buying it, she
still tried a few more shades and
then ended buying the one she
had selected initially
8 Female 25-35 No- Face Cream This customer was helped by one of Slightly
Purchase the store assistants and shown a Interested
range of face cream which she tried
on and took a while to decide, but
ended up being unconvinced and
buying anything.
9 Female 20-30 Purchase Shampoo This customer came and took help Moderately
and from shop assistant regarding the Interested
Conditioner product she wanted. She was shown
the options available and she
selected the ‘Biotique’ shampoo and
conditioner.
10 Female 18-30 Purchase Candy This customer had actually Highly
accompanied the previous Disinterested
customer, saw a few products and
then picked up a candy while billing

11 female 20-24 Two women in their 20’s walked into the store. They
straight away went to the section where lipsticks were kept.
They took out a slip from their pocket and matched it with
the products in the shelf. They bought 2 lipsticks of lakme
and proceeded towards the billing counter. They didn’t seem
to buy the product for their own use and they didn’t seem
interested in other products offered at the store.
12 female 25 A girl walked into the store and went straight to the eyeliner
section and bought a colorbar eyeliner and a kajal and
then loitered around the foundation and primer section but
did not buy anything.
13 Male 35-40 The man walked into the store and went to the sales
executive and asked for a good combo of products to gift his
wife and bought a combo of bodywash, body lotion,
lipstick, eyeliner.
14 Female 30 The women walked into the store, she looked like a typical
working woman. She was in a hurry and went straight to the
 shower gel section picked up shower gel, roll on, a deo
and a Maybelline lip balm and went straight to the
billing section.
15 Female 22 She walked into the store along with two of her friends.
They did not look like they had plans of shopping; they just
roamed around the store and had a look at the cosmetics
while being assisted by the sales lady.
16 Male 24 A couple walked into the store and took a stroll of the store
and and went to the lipstick section and tried a few shades of
female colorbar and loreal and then went on to the eyeliner section
and tried different shades of eyeliners and glitter kajals.
They seemed highly disinterested.
17 Female 33 Middle aged women entered the store with the child
approximately 6-year-old. She went straight to the daily
personal care bought deodorant, face wash, shower gel, hand
cream, pumice stone. The total bill was approximately Rs.
2500 and she did the shopping pretty quickly.
18 Female 31 When I spotted the women, she had already done her
shopping and was moving towards the billing counter. In the
middle a sales lady approached her and asked her to try
some more products but she politely denied at first and then
on insisting tried some foundation but went on to get the
billing done for the products she choose and didn’t seem like
she was keen on knowing about the new products.
19 Male 27 A fit man entered the store and moved towards the face wash
section for men’s and just bought a fair and handsome and
went for the billing.
20 Female Late 40s I saw an old lady entered the store. She straight away went
to the foundation section and picked up some foundations
and primers and they were in moderately large quantities. It
seemed like she was a makeup artist and headed towards
the billing counter.
21 female 20 3 college going students walked into the store they seemed
to be in a rush as they quickly divided themselves and went
into 3 different sections, 1 of them bought 2 lipsticks of
maybelline and the other one bought face packs and the last
one bought a shampoo and conditioner and did the billing
together. The approximate value was Rs.2000 and the
finished the shopping in 20 mins.
22 Female 40 The women walked into the store with her family-husband
and two kids who were approximately less than 10 years. It
looked like the women was randomly looking at products
and purchasing whatever suits her. Husband just waited till
the wife looked through the products and purchased a BB
cream and went with her wife to billing counter.
Robert Baratheon: Known for his extravagance and lavish lifestyle, Robert Baratheon
perfectly resemble a heavy (no pun intended) shopper and impulsive buyer.

Cersie Lannister: Cersie is the queen of the Seven kingdoms and always seems to have a
plot in her mind but unlike her husband takes calculated risks and is cautious about the price
she pays, hence can be categorized as heavy shopper but price sensitive.

Tyrion Lannister: Unlike his half-sister Cersie, Tyrion is a medium shopper but is known
for his impulsive actions (Ex: Killing his Father)

Khaleesi: Queen Daenerys Targaryen, mother of Dragons is a medium shopper with great
ambitions but just like her rival she also is price sensitive.
Rob Stark: Rob Stark the Wolf in the North, known for his courage was a light shopper with
ambitions of just ruling the north but took impulsive decisions (Ex: The Red Wedding) which
got him and his mother killed.

Arya Stark: Arya Stark is one of the smartest characters in the show who takes every step
with caution and calculated risks, with no great ambition and the desire to be “no one” she
fits perfectly in the segment of Light Shopper and Price Sensitive.

Conclusion:

The purpose of this research was to figure out the attributes that affect the consumer’s consumption
for cosmetic products. Through this study, it was identified that the five factors, quality product,
product price, brand name, product packaging and advertising have greater impact on customer
buying decision. Consumers go through the rigorous thought processing making their buying
decisions, since there are alternative products which compete in the areas close proximity, relatively
cheaper price, quality, etc. Brand, Quality and price are one among the strong competing factors in
the decision making process. When it comes to beauty products, it is even more intense that all the
five factors play a major role in consumer buying decision. Manufacturers and retailers of beauty
products must have this thought at the back of their mind as they embark on the marketing of their
products.