Lit Review Outline

Week 6 (09/12-09/18)

Lit Review Outline

Opening Paragraph Significance

The cosmetic industry makes up a huge global market and is rapidly expanding as standard of living improves in countries around the world. Specifically within the cosmetic industry, consumer demand for natural makeup has increased. (Source: Rajput discusses general makeup market trends from 2014 to 2016, and predicts trends through 2022 in a market research report).

Overall Summary → The increase in consumption of natural makeup has occurred in tandem with both misleading health studies publicized by various cancer/health organizations and producer marketing strategies that potentially overstate the quality/benefits of natural makeup. Since consumers have been shown to buy natural/organic products primarily because they perceive them to have certain health benefits and higher quality/effectiveness, consumers may be tending toward natural makeup products not based on their actual quality, but a false perception of superiority due to misleading information. One of the primary ways through which consumers identify and differentiate products is brand names. Consumers develop brand perceptions and loyalty based on either emotional distinctions or actual sensual distinctions between brands. Emotional distinctions involve choosing brands because of what consumers believe about the product, which would align with consumers choosing makeup because of perceived, but false, health and quality superiority. Sensual distinctions involve choosing brands based off of quality differences actually felt during consumption, which would be the case if consumers were choosing natural makeup because of actual noticed quality superiority. If consumers have difficulty distinguishing between brands during blind consumption, or favor a different brand than their identified favorite brand, it is likely that they have made emotional distinctions between brands, as opposed to actual sensual ones. Therefore, through blind testing, one can answer questions about the makeup industry by determining whether consumers actually detect superior quality in natural makeups.

Premise 1: Consumers are influenced by a variety of factors when buying a product, primarily by societal influences and their own personal beliefs regarding how the product will affect them.

• Sources: Crane explains that consumers buy organic/natural products primarily because they believe that they are beneficial for their health or perceive them as higher quality. Vietoris et al. also reviewed the motivations for consumers buying more organic food products and found that consumption reasoning was mostly based on perceived health benefits.

Premise 2: Misleading health studies concerning chemical additives have permeated throughout the makeup market.

• Sources: Ross and Juhasz & Marmur both cite a multitude CDC, FDA, and CIR studies that have shown chemical additives in makeup to have negative health effects. They explain that various cancer and health organizations have cautioned consumers on the use of unnatural cosmetics on the basis of animal studies that test the chemical additives in much larger concentrations than are actually found in cosmetics. Palliser provides an example of a less academic source (a elementary school science teacher journal) that uses hypothetical language and misrepresentative studies to caution consumers away from unnatural additives in cosmetics.

Premise 1 + Premise 2 → Conclusion 1: Consumers may be turning towards natural makeup products due to fears about how unnatural makeup affects their health.

Premise 3: The rise in green consumerism in the late 1990s and early 2000s influenced companies to use natural/organic ingredients and to emphasize the quality/effectiveness of these ingredients to expand their consumer base.

• Sources: Todd explains the process above in an academic journal entry. Geraghty, in a magazine article, provides quotes from CEO's of current natural makeup companies preaching the greater effectiveness of makeup products in terms of color, texture, and reaction with the skin.

Premise 4: Use of synthetic chemical ingredients in cosmetics allows for flexibility in the creation of different textures and effects suitable to different consumer demands. The ability to manipulate chemical compounds may actually give unnatural makeup an advantage over natural makeup. 

• Source: van Reeth discusses how different types of silicone (a chemical additive) makeups can be made to create different textures and cater to different aspects of consumer demand.

Premise 1 + Premise 3 + Premise 4 → Conclusion 2: Consumers may be tending towards natural products based on marketing techniques exaggerating the effectiveness/quality of natural ingredients over unnatural ingredients.

Conclusion 2 + Conclusion 2 = Conclusion 3: Considering the misleading health information and the potentially exaggerated quality benefits of natural makeup, consumers that prefer to buy natural makeup may do so based on a false perceptions of natural makeup superiority. 

Premise 5: One of the primary ways through which consumers identify and differentiate products is brand names.

• Sources: Thomas et al. found that consumers responded faster to brand-name items than no-name products when products were paired with positive and negative words, suggesting that consumers tend to associate certain product qualities with brand name items. Pettek & Ruzzier explain how business marketing strategies help build up their brand identity and influence how consumers perceive the brand. 

Premise 6: Consumers develop brand perceptions and loyalty based on either emotional distinctions or actual sensual distinctions between brands (each distinction defined in summary section above). If consumers have difficulty distinguishing between brands during blind consumption, or favor a different brand than their identified favorite brand, it is likely that they have made emotional distinctions between brands, as opposed to actual sensual ones.

• Source: Maison, Greenwald, and Bruin conducted blind testing on different brand-name products. 

Premise 5 + Premise 6 + Conclusion 3 = Conclusion 4: Through blind testing, one can answer questions about the makeup industry by determining whether consumers actually detect superior quality in natural makeups.

Research Question: “In the absence of marketing and branding during blind consumption, do consumers tend to prefer natural makeup products over unnatural ones?”

What I am missing/need advice on: At the end when I describe my method, I think I will need to explain and justify what types/brands of makeup I will be using in my study. I still need to find what type/brands of makeup I am going to use, but I don't know the basis upon which I should choose them. For the type of makeup (e.g. foundation, mascara, eyeshadow), I will probably be able to justify the choice based on practicality (e.g. different skin tones require different foundations while mascara is a more universal product, so I will test mascara in my study). For choosing brands, I think it will be more challenging. I could go based off of popularity, but just based on market share, most of the top brands are just drugstore (probably because the stats account for all socioeconomic statuses), which all contain chemical additives for the most part. The only other ideas I had were to choose a natural brand like BareEscentuals/bareMinerals because the brand name indicates that it is a natural product, and then choose an unnatural makeup brand in similar price or perceived quality range (perhaps something like MAC or Clinique). There are also a few natural drugstore makeup brands that I could put up against unnatural drugstore makeups. Any advice would be appreciated!! 

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