Consumer Attitudes Associated to Consumption of Cosmetic Brands

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to verify the predictive validity of implicit and explicit attitudes to explain the relationship between attitude and consumer behavior towards two brands of cosmetics (Mary Kay TimeWise and Natura Ekos).

Method: Two tests are designed to measure attitudes (implicit and explicit) of the participants. Finally, each of them performs a simulation task of buying by computer. A multiple linear regression is used to identify whether the results of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the explicit attitude measurement scale are statistically effective in predicting the simulated consumption behaviors.

Relevance/Originality: Relevant research to improve the measurement of consumer attitudes, since this study also makes use of the implicit measures, considering the attitudes of consumers without them being aware of their answers, since these attitudes will also guide their intentions of consumption.

Results: The two measures of attitude indicate more preference for the environmentally friendly brand, also revealing that the two scales were statistically useful in predicting consumer behavior, with IAT being the variable with the greatest predictive capacity.

Contributions: The study of implicit attitudes brings practical and methodological contributions to the study of consumer behavior, since it considers not only verbal discourse, but also automatic processes, underlying the consciousness, as the implicit states reducing the bias of social acceptance in the responses explicit.