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The paper aims to examine changes concerning spending on personal care products and services, and socio‐demographic variations between households.

The data were derived from the Finnish Household Budget Survey from 1998 (n=4,359), 2001 (n=5,495) and 2006 (n=4,007) provided by Statistics Finland. The main analysis of personal care consumption was conducted by examining the purchasing costs of personal care products and appliances, and the amount of spending on personal care services. The differences in expenditure patterns are analysed according to the respondents' gender and age, level of education and income, and type of household.

The results indicate that household spending on personal care products and services has generally increased. However, the share of total consumption has not changed dramatically. The gender of the highest earner of the household along with household income is the key predictor of this type of consumption expenditure across all household types. The effects of these two variables have become stronger.

The data do not make it possible to differentiate between individual level and household level spending decisions across all household types.

Contrary to common belief, gender differences concerning personal care consumption have not diminished.

This study examines actual changes in personal care consumption according to socio‐demographic variables.

Earlier, the consumption of products was based mainly on their utilitarian benefits, but at present, the love for nature has driven consumers towards products not harming the environment and society. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the influence of consumers' attitudes towards organic personal care products on brand love, brand trust, altruism and sustainable consumption behaviour. Furthermore, the study further examines the impact of sustainable consumption behaviour on continuous purchase intention using health consciousness as a moderator. Finally, the study validates Behavioural Reasoning Theory and the emotional affinity towards nature to understand the proposed claims.

The data were collected from 364 respondents from India. Only those respondents were included in the survey who had prior experience of using organic personal care products. This study used the structural equation modelling approach to test the conceptual model.

Results of the study confirmed the positive influence of consumer attitude on brand love, brand trust and altruism. Brand love and altruism had a significant impact on sustainable consumption behaviour. Health consciousness also emerged as a moderating variable between sustainable consumption behaviour and continuous intention. Interestingly, the brand trust had no impact on sustainable consumption behaviour. Furthermore, sustainable consumption behaviour had a significant impact on continuous intention.

The study is helpful to organic product companies, practitioners, academicians, environment protection agencies and market regulatory authorities as it gives fresh insight into the new collective relationship of consumer attitude with brand love, brand trust, altruism and sustainable consumption behaviour in case of organic personal care products.

Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine the effects of consumer values and past experiences on consumer purchase intention of organic personal care products, this study aims to consider further the moderating effect of perceived behavioral control on the attitude‐intention relationship.

An online survey was conducted with 207 online panel members, and multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationships among the variables.

The results indicate that environmental consciousness and appearance consciousness positively influence attitude toward buying organic personal care products. The addition of past experiences as a predictor of purchase intention and perceived behavioral control as a moderator of the attitude‐purchase intention relationship yielded an improvement on the TPB model.

This study suggests that retailers can develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty, product safety, and affordable prices to increase consumers' intentions to buy organic personal care products.

This study provides valuable insight into US consumer behavior regarding organic personal care products by examining the factors that influence consumers' attitudes toward buying organic personal care products and consumers' purchase intentions for the products. Furthermore, this study extends an application of the TPB by examining the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the attitude‐intention relationship.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupts the supply chain of products around the world. The supply chains of beauty and personal care products in Bangladesh are also heavily interrupted during this pandemic. While these products are perceived as essential by mass people, retailers are struggling to get the supply of the products and maintain a smooth delivery to the people. Considering such facts, the purposes of the study are to identify how the supply of retailers of these products is interrupted and how they can overcome the interruptions to ensure supply resilience.

A case study method has been used in this study. The data has been collected through interviews from 16 retailers of beauty and personal care products.

The results show that the supply of retailers of beauty and personal care products is interrupted in several ways. These include product shortage, limited delivery service, interruption of supplier payment, limited credit facility and irregularity in product delivery. To minimize the impacts of the interruptions and enhance supply resilience, retailers can undertake several strategies including intensive interactions and developing cooperation with the distributors and manufacturers, ordering bulk quantity, formulating an adjusted credit ratio and focusing on product availability over brand preference.

The context of this study is limited to the beauty and personal care products of Bangladesh. Further study can be conducted in other countries and also supply chains of other products to enhance the generalizability of the findings of this study.

Supply interruptions are identified, and strategies are suggested to ensure the supply resilience of retailers of beauty and personal care products. If proposed strategies are implemented by retailers of these products, supply interruptions can be minimized.

The study contributes to the knowledge of the retail supply chain during a pandemic. It also contributes to the supply management and resilience of retailers. As the context is a developing country, the study also contributes to the literature on developing countries.

By working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to conduct a marketing environmental analysis to aid strategic decisions; analyse the first-mover advantages of a retail firm and how these can be sustained; comprehend online retail business models and the challenges therein; understand the trade-offs of online/offline retail experiences specific to an emerging market’s beauty and personal care sector; conceptualize and formulate actionable growth strategies that balance the individual and collective requirements of brick and mortar and retail e-commerce environments.

The case is set in 2022, right after Nykaa – the pioneer of beauty and wellness e-commerce platforms in India makes a blockbuster stock market debut in 2021. Starting in 2012 with a disruptive online model for selling beauty and wellness products online in India, Nykaa had come a long way with expansions in physical retail and other segments such as fashion. The firm, which initially aimed to be a virtual store, is now thinking of aggressively expanding in the brick-and-mortar retail space as it opens its 85th retail outlet.

Falguni S. Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, wanted to roll out 300 physical stores targeting 100 cities in India in the next couple of years. She aspired to establish Nykaa as a category leader as the “Indian Sephora” in the beauty and personal care market. Nykaa’s first-mover advantage in the online beauty and personal care marketplace worked well to establish it as a brand with positive endorsements by digital shoppers that enhanced the investment potential with potential financiers. However, the pandemic had brought every physical retailer to the online platform. Most e-commerce platforms dealing in grocery to lifestyle had added personal care products to their existing merchandise.

Additionally, several start-ups had ventured into the online marketplace. Online was a cluttered marketplace with little to no differentiation. In this bloodbath, would the first-mover advantage for Nykaa in the online space still count as a competitive advantage? Nayar was all set to expand Nykaa’s physical presence aggressively. The concern was that the beauty and personal care segment had also moved online as a function of long stay-at-home periods. In the post-pandemic times, would the customer indeed revert to brick and mortar once again? Nykaa was also into product formulations, but so was every big and small player in the space. What was the differentiated winning formula for the consumer’s heart and mind?

The case can be effectively used in foundation courses in marketing and a wide range of specialized courses on marketing management (core/foundation course), retail marketing and e-commerce/digital marketing and e-commerce for B-school learners. The complex decision points faced by an innovative e-commerce start-up firm on its road to market expansion make the case suitable for niche courses such as Marketing for Start-ups. Moreover, learners in executive MBA programs with considerable experience can benefit from the case analysis that balances a growing retail company’s long- and short-run objectives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

With a fast-growing Muslim population and consumer income, the demand for halal products by Chinese Muslims has expanded strongly. However, literature addressing Chinese Muslims’ consumption is limited, and their demand for halal products is little understood. This study aims to investigate what affects Chinese Muslims’ demand for halal products, with a focus on halal personal care products.

A survey of 500 respondents was conducted to collect cross-sectional data in northwest China. Data were processed and analysed with a logit model.

Apart from faithfulness, reliability of recommendations, product price, product availability and halal authenticity are most important determinants influencing the purchase of halal products by Chinese Muslims.

In this study, the focus is only on Muslims from China’s Northwest. Due to various constraints, the cluster and convenience sampling methods are used.

The findings are invaluable for governments and industry bodies to form policies to better meet the burgeoning demand for halal products by Chinese Muslims. They are also very invaluable for producers and exporters who intend to penetrate the halal market in non-Muslim-dominant countries like China.

Studies on understanding the needs of Muslims in non-Muslim countries are limited. Given the sheer size of the Muslim population in China, understanding their demand for halal products and influential determinants concerning such demand adds to the literature and helps the industry to better serve and capitalise on the growing market.

Animal welfare is increasingly favoured by consumers in their choice of food and cosmetic products, proposed by manufacturers and retailers. This study aims to investigate the impact of the “not tested on animals” claim on consumers' attitude and behavioural intention towards a cosmetic product through an enriched version of Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour.

A between-subjects design has been used. 450 participants were recruited through the social network of a cosmetics and personal hygiene brand in Quebec, Canada, and answered a questionnaire. They were randomly assigned to either a manipulation group (n = 226) or a control group (n = 224). Data were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This study shows that external (credibility and attitude towards marketing claims) and internal psychological variables (subjective norms and altruistic concerns with animal welfare) influence attitude towards and purchase intention of “not tested on animals” personal care products. More egotistic concerns, such as personal appearance, also explain the formation of attitude towards cruelty-free cosmetics.

This research supplements Ajzen's original model with internal psychological (individuals' concerns with animal welfare and personal appearance) and external (general credibility of cosmetic products claims, credibility of the “not tested on animals” claim and attitude towards this claim) variables. These variables, as suggested by previous research on cosmetics and their claims, improve the understanding of consumer attitude and purchase behaviour patterns.

The study's findings point out the role of companies to increase consumers' knowledge on the significance and transparency of their messages, notably the “not tested on animals” claim. They also stress that policymakers in regions where regulation is unclear should at least punish untruthful communication pertaining to animal testing in cosmetic and personal care products.

Prior studies on cosmetic products did not investigate the difference of consumer attitude formation towards cruelty-free products compared to conventional cosmetic products. Consequently, this research shows that the construction of attitude towards cruelty-free products highly differs from conventional personal care.

Cloon Keen Atelier develops candle and skin care products. The challenge for this small operator is to develop a strategy, which reinforces its chosen position as it develops new products and expands into other markets. Cloon Keen is known for its premium scented candles, but it is seeking to expand into the personal care market by creating their own line of skin care products and complementary accessories. Cloon Keen believes their handcrafted candles could provide a platform for developing a lifestyle brand. This paper aims to address these issues.

In‐depth interviews and secondary sources are used to collate the information from which the case study is developed.

Achieving the status of a lifestyle brand means the products embody the values and aspirations of particular group(s) or culture; it speaks powerfully to the core identity of its consumers. Typically, lifestyle brands are accompanied by a powerful promotional campaign to communicate the lifestyle brand values to audiences. To date, Cloon Keen's promotional efforts have been limited. The question is whether it can develop sufficient market presence to one day make the claim of being a lifestyle brand. The challenge for Cloon Keen is to find the optimum market position that provides a strategic advantage in a climate of robust competition.

The case study provides the opportunity to examine how an small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises may build its brand presence within a highly competitive market.

Faced with declining market share and sales, Natura, Brazil’s second-largest brand in the cosmetics, fragrances, and toiletries market, expanded its customer reach by moving from a direct-sales company to a multichannel company. In 2014, Natura added online catalogs, physical stores, and drugstores to its well-established direct-selling model, but the results were disappointing. Between 2014 and 2016, three different Natura CEOs attempted to lead the company in the strategic transition to focus less on the direct sales consultants and more on reaching the end consumers directly with multiple channels and touchpoints. In October 2016, the company’s board appointed its former commercial vice president, João Paulo Ferreira, as the most recent CEO. Ferreira’s challenge was to find the right balance between the direct-selling and other channel formats to market Natura, thus enabling it to thrive in the face of intense competition in the beauty and personal care market in Brazil.

Research conducted in the early 1990s in Hungary indicated a lack of knowledgeable and influential personal sources in the cosmetics product category. The purpose of this article is to examine women cosmetics opinion leaders in Hungary approximately ten years into the country’s transition to a market economy. Because of the evolution of the cosmetics market over the past decade and Hungarian women’s increased involvement with cosmetics, we expected to see the emergence of opinion leadership in the product category. Survey data from 340 Hungarian women indicate that the incidence of cosmetics opinion leadership and self‐reported product knowledge is lower than what we might expect in more established market economies. Nonetheless, we found the relationships between cosmetics opinion leadership in Hungary and antecedent and consequent variables are similar to what we would expect in more established market economies. We discuss the implications of these results for marketing managers.