An Exploratory Study of Consumer Attitudes toward Green Cosmetics in the UK Market

Abstract

People’s health awareness has extended from the food industry to the personal beauty industry. Consumers have increased their interest in natural ingredients, sustainable packaging, and other green elements of cosmetics. This research explores consumer attitudes toward green cosmetics. Data were collected through qualitative research instruments (focus groups) since the research aimed to discover in-depth consumer attitudes and feelings. There were 30 British females who agreed to be respondents in five focus groups. They were divided into five focus groups. The key findings of this research were the prevailing neutral attitudes toward green cosmetics due to the lack of knowledge and confusing market standards. The majority of respondents viewed price and performance as the most important factors when choosing cosmetics instead of green elements. However, given the growing awareness of natural and organic ingredients and green production, most respondents admitted the potential change of present neutral attitudes to be more supportive in the future. Green cosmetics is a new trend in the personal beauty industry. This study ascertains the consumer attitudes toward green cosmetics and calls for clearer green standards and regulations in the industry as well as advanced biotechnology to extract natural ingredients.

Price Competition and Product Differentiation Based on the Subjective and Social Effect of Consumers’ Environmental Awareness

“…In this case, by substituting (24) into (10) and (11), we can obtain the equilibrium prices of the two firms as…”

“…The second item is the difference in the two firms' product in terms of the environmental friendliness, which is adjusted by the subjective and social effect of CEA. Then, by substituting (10) and (11) into (6) and 7, we can obtain the firms' sales volume at equilibrium prices:…”

“…However, when the subjective and social norms of CEA are taken into consideration, the market share will deviate from the middle point at the degree presented by the second part in Equations (12) and (13). Then, by substituting (10) and (11) into (8) and 9, we can obtain the firms' profits at equilibrium prices:…”

“…[8], it was concluded that a large number of customers are willing to buy environmentally friendly products and pay more for products/services to show their increased environmental awareness and preference for green products. Empirical studies have also confirmed that consumers are willing to pay a premium for green products, owing to the additional utility they achieve from purchasing such products [7,[9][10][11][12].…”

Green Consumer Behavior in the Cosmetics Market

“…The cosmetics industry's chemists wage a difficult war against the idea that natural ingredients are safer than their synthetic counterparts. Ingredients need to be selected based on their safety and efficiency, regardless of them being natural or synthetic makeup materials [15]. Cosmetics companies across the globe modified their strategy to handle new challenges better, and incorporate the different aspects of sustainability into their activities.…”