International Journal of Innovative Research & Studies ISSN NO : 2319-9725

A review of consumer awareness towards organic personal care

products
Manveer Kaur* Dr. Ambika Bhatia**
*Research scholar, Punjabi University, Patiala
** Associate Professor, Punjabi University Regional Centre for IT & Management

Abstract:
The present review used a framework of two basic concepts awareness and understanding of the term
organic, to summarise consumer evidence related to the use of the personal care products. It has been
noted that at least 20% of the personal care products contains chemicals which are linked to cancer.
Whereas there is no regulation on such products, FDA is the only regulatory body, yet it does not
regulate the ingredients found in all these products. Market leaders like Johnson& Johnson were
slammed charges of quite a handful million dollarsfor negligence as the women using their talcum
powder and shower gel was dead due to ovarian cancer.These non-organicproducts are toxic for body
and equally hazardous for the environment, as once we use them these chemicals get washed away
into lakes, streams and also in the water system. Further we can stop deforestation by stopping the use
of petroleum based oils which are further non organic in nature. As green products have shown
popularity since last decade, US consumer demand has shown impulsive increase in the green laundry
detergents, personal care products (todd, 2004). The studies revealed (Hughner et al., 2007:101;
Yiridoe et al., 2005: 198) that among the large number of motivational factors that bend consumers
towards buying and using organic products , health is the core factor that lures the organic buying of
the products. Hencein this research paper certain articles and papers were studied, to find out how
aware are the consumers towards the concept and use of organic personal care products.

Keywords: consumer preference, personal hygiene, awareness, organic demand.

Introduction
Over the last decade environmentalism has been of outmost importance, because of alarming issues
related toacidrains,depletionoftheozone layer, degradation of the land and many more pressing
environmentalissues. Thus there existed the need to restore ecological balance, by presenting demands for organic
and eco-friendly products throughout the world; apparently which raised the consumer concern.
Consumers are conscious of all the environmental problems and thus are actively moving towards
greener lifestyle and purchasing greener products to reduce the environmental impact. Many brands
have started indulging green segment in their products to catch eyes of media as well as the masses.
Further, various Companies have started marketing themselves as green companies.

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Personal care is the industry that manufactures products used in personal hygiene and for
beautification. These includes large number of products as diverse as wet wipes, toothpaste, toilet
paper, talcum powder , moisturizer, shaving cream, shampoo, hair dye, razors, cleansing pads,
deodorant, cotton swabs etc. Healthy growth is continuing in the world for natural and organic
personal care products. Studies show that market revenues will be double for natural products in the
near future as consumer demand for natural product strengthens day by day. However, natural skin
care is the largest product category with more than half of revenues.Customers these days are more
aware about the benefits of organic and natural products. People in emerging economics like India too
have high concern for greener and socially responsible environment and have a complete positive
attitude towards green marketing. It is also evident that in the near future more and more consumers
will prefer eco-friendly products as they don’t mind paying additional breads for organic and green
products. Researchers explained that only exhaustive research on Indian consumers with regard to
green marketing will help us to know their awareness, attitude and perception towards green
marketing and green products.

Objective:
Objective of this review paper is to identify how aware are the customers towards organic products,
what are the sources through which they link towards these eco-friendly products.
And also to examine the problems they undergo during the purchase of organic personal care
products. Number of research papers, articles and websites were studied for this purpose.

Review Work:
A study done by Business wire on the Indian natural and organic personal care products displayed in
their graph that there will be a robust growth in the CAGR % (17.27)during the year 2017-2022, as
there is an alarming increase in the purchase decisions of masses. People are aware due to rapidly
growing globalisation; health consciousness is also one of the key factors that fuel the growth of
organic and natural personal care products. Moreover growing awareness regarding the harmful
effects of the synthetic chemicals that deteriorate the system of the human being as well as pollute the
environment. Sulphates, parabens, fragrances have an alarming effect and thus one should refrain
using non-organic personal care products. Skin care has been the more discussed sector

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Fig I

Personal care products include skin care, oral care and hair care. There are number of benefits if we
use natural and organic products as these do not harm the body instead, relax, rejuvenate and
enhances the beauty. Further these products are green or eco-friendly and keep our planet healthy.
Consumers across the globe have been thinking about the organic products as they are conscious
about the harm that synthetic chemicals lead to , and hence there has been a considerate amount of
shift of consumers towards organic products. Moreover, manufacturers of such products add to the
environment by reducing the pollution and the dependence of the synthetic or petroleum based
products. Chemical free skin and hair care is said to experience a sharp rise in coming seven years. As
USDA and FDA are the regulatory bodies, their approval brings trust within the consumers and this
also becomes a reason why people choose and are aware of these products. Certain companies like
body shop, Burtsbees, Amway, Estée lauder are improving their product lines, with the rise in the
disposable income industry is growing at a very fast rate.
The largest category in the beauty business is the personal care category. The global market demand
for general the natural and organic personal care products is growing rapidly than overall market
growth and further it is expected to reach $13.2 billion in 2018. Hence this shows that consumers are
aware of thebenefits of the organic personal care products. It was also noted that white females are
more aware and conscious towards green or eco-friendly products than males. Moreover working
females were the major respondents and green consumers.

According to a research agency in North America, organic personal care products, represented about
35% of the global market and is expected an huge amount of increase in the near future. There is a
noticeable increase in the countries like India and china. To safeguard the present and the future it is

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the need if the hour that everyone should start consuming natural products and health benefits should
be spread via word of mouth or advertisement, so that awareness is created.
Availability was the main issue, to a large number of consumers, as even they are aware of the
organic and natural personal care products, yet it is the critical factor. Due to less availability
consumer do gets shifted. Hence this should be kept in mind by the marketing team that more and
more no of places should be made feasible to purchase such stuff. Departmental stores, super
speciality stores, drug stores, super markets, malls should be equipped with the personal care products
(Lennard, 2011)
A rapid growth over the sales has been found on internet (in-cosmetics2010).some people prefer
buying online as it is convenient and time saving. While you can check all the specifications, if not
found worthy you can even return the same, hence this method of buying personal care products was
said to more reliable. According to a study different section of organic products should be made
available online so that it is clear for people that the product line is made of natural and organic
products and is free from chemicals. Consumers are aware but such small initiatives will prove
wonders.
A research done by Allied Market Research shows that there are number of factors that influence
natural and organic personal care and cosmetics market. Both men and women are working and thus
use of cosmetics and other personal care items is inevitable. Most of the working women are
interested in colour cosmetics. Skin care has dominated the market in few years whereas feminine
hygiene is of great concern. Females are more tilted towards the use of natual and organic personal
care products like sanitary napkins , because they are well aware of the harm that non-organic or
synthetic products will play on their body .

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Fig-II Factors that influence natural and organic Personal care market

New research from Mintel reveals that in the category of natural and organic personal care products,
parents are leading the way. Mintel investigated that over 1/3rd of consumers that is around 37%
agreed that they are buying natural and organic products out of which 34% were the parents having
kids which are major in age that is18 or more. Parents act as information seekers when it comes for
risking children, therefore understanding all the ingredients and all the impacts they can have,
rationally the purchase decision is made. Hence the study shows that parents are more aware about
organic personal care products than non- parents. Further this acts as a key area for the eco-friendly or
organic brands to target parents altogether with the strong marketing and firm quality standards.

Growth in organic and natural consumers in India is due to many reasons. They may be due to change
in the lifestyle that is moving to healthier and greener lifestyle. Another reason can be the awareness
of consumers regarding products and its good quality. Furthermore the consumer awareness regarding
protection of the environment has led to the shift of the mind-set towards organic and natural
products. It has been seen that people have been separated more and more from their origins
(Vithayarungruangsri, and Posayanonda 2005), that is the reason they are worried about their health
and further seek a regulatory and duly certified products to protect themselves from carcinogens and
toxins.
Education has also been one of the major factors in creating awareness, the study done by (Gracia and
Magistracy 2007) researchers showed that people with higher education are more aware and have
positive attitude towards organic and natural products, they are more alarmed and concerned about the
ill-effects produced by the synthetic and non-organic products.

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Urban population as compared to the rural population was more aware towards the natural and
organic products. Around 200 responses were taken by the researcher in the north Indian region and
while analysing it was inferred that Urban population are more inclined towards the raising issues in
the environment whereas rural population does not know about the deteriorating environment and
other impacts of using non-organic products. Some of the working heads do know about the organic
products but do not buy the same due to insufficient knowledge of their benefits .large number of
rural population says television advertisements impact their decision to buy therefore, it was
concluded that government should take initiatives to promote organic products. We should market the
positive impacts these products make on us as well as the environment.

A study done by (Esna, Seval and Nuri 2016) in city of Ankara,cankara district, turkey taking 500
respondents claimed that married, graduated and consumers without children of age group 18 to 49
were the potential organic consumers, and they are ready to premium amount on these products as
they know the health benefits. Hence this shows that awareness towards the organic and natural
products is more in financially secured and salaried persons.

Satish Kumar and Dr. E. Muthukumar (2016) explained that consumers in Nilgiri district gave more
importance to factors like environmental safety, heath, knowledge and culture where organic food was
concerned. However, he stated that people were indifferent towards attributes of organic food.

(MdTareq Bin Hossain and Pei Xian Lim 2016) 105 respondents were randomly selected in Penag
(Malaysia) and the collected data was analysed using SPSS software to evaluate the current status of
consumers buying organic products in the emerging markets. The study further found that
perceived beliefs , attitudes, knowledge andavailability have a vital and positive relationship with
consumer behaviour towards organic foods. As availability is the main concern, most of the places
and superstores do not keep organic product, whereas there are certain strata of people who have the
availability but do not have the awareness, beliefs and attitude towards the health is also one of the
major step that leans a person towards going green or organic or stay healthy. Sometimes peer
influence also takes an individual to go ahead and buy organic. Hence it was stated that there was a
positive relationship of these variables with the consumer intention to buy the organic and natural
products .
It was identified ( Paul et al.,2015) that the concept of Organic products was initiated in the
developed countries like USA, European Countries and UK, whereas Asian consumers are also
accepting the idea of go organic which is the result of consumer awareness of masses about the
deteriorating environment and hazardous effects on the health and immunity of people. India is
blessed with favourable climatic conditions and thus large area of the country is used for the purpose

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of organic farming, due to the higher ratios of adulterations in the products, focus of the masses is to
buy and produce organic. Indian consumers are not only seeking organic food products but also
organic cosmetics, fabrics etc. this is due to the growth of the health consciousness among the
consumers since last decade.
The studies revealed (Hughner et al., 2007:101; Yiridoe et al., 2005: 198) that among the large
number of motivational factors that bend consumers towards buying and using organic products ,
health is the core factor that lures the organic buying of the products. Various promotional activities
should be increased so that perception of people is inclined towards the benefits of the products. Since
these are natural therefore there are no toxic substances involved and hence is healthy for everyone.
Also these products do not harm the environment and hence are non-pollutants.
The major barrier which intrudes is lack of information (Ndungu 2006; Batte, Beaverson, and Hooker
2003) between organic,hygienic and safety products. It was also found that consumers do not
understand the organic labels. However it was expressed that there should be workshops or seminars
to inform people about various organic labels and brands which will stimulate the purchase of organic
products as compared to conventional products irrespective of the cost of the product. When
consumers are aware of the labels as well as the health benefits of organic and natural products. Many
people said price was not the issue as conventional products were much cheaper, still people are ready
to pay premium price for organic products.
The consumers of organic products (Engel 2008; Radman 2005; Tsakiridou et al. 2008)tend to be
older having average age of organic consumer about 37 years old and embrace academic degrees than
those not purchasing natural or organic products. Secondly, Older consumers that is over 35 years of
age seem to be more willing to purchase organic and natural or eco-friendly, green products despite
their premium price. While Young consumers which are less than 25 years of age are not willing to
pay for organic products as result of their lower-financial status. This profile is almost similar to
results in various other counties.
Generally, the intention to purchase green or organic products decreases with less awareness and
knowledge towards these products, further with various factors affecting the attitude and perceptions
of the consumers.. It is a worldwide phenomenon that people have become more and more
disconnected from the roots of the basis of the products. Worried about their life and health,
consumers seek out labelled and certified products to protect themselves from toxins and carcinogens.
In the theory of consumerbehaviour, consumers make their own decisions built on aperson’s intention
to perform manners, which is influenced by attitudes (Ajzen 1991). In the research done by ( Aryal et
al 2009) the simple framework was developed and used to examine consumers perceptions and
attitudes towards organic foods. It was stated that people decide whether to buy or not based on three
main characteristics: knowledge, attitude, and intention. Basically the knowledge of consumers is a
construct that answers the question of how and what consumers decide to buy. Consumers knowledge
is affected by the quality and type of information that is made available to people. Advertisements,

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positioning, awareness of certifications and labels, branding all play a crucial role in knowledge
enrichment.

Conclusion
Globalisation has impacted positively, consumers are aware of the natural and organic personal care
products and their numerous benefits. This study enlightens the fact that consumers bank on the
organic products, thus government should make such arrangements that more marketing is provided
and producers too should try to grab the markets that these are available in plenty.This should be kept
in mind by the marketing team that more and more no of places should be made feasible to purchase
such stuff. Departmental stores, super speciality stores, drug stores, super markets, malls should be
equipped with the personal care productsFurther, it was found that people rely more on natural
products if they are duly certified and regulated, as this boosts their confidence to invest in sincerely.
Positioning and branding of products also play a major role in the awareness; hence more and more
marketing is necessary.This study also explains that consumers will buy organic stuff for sure if they
are provided with more information, timely available, more product choices and affordable prices.

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