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Shiseido (1872) Japans largest cosmetics manufacturer company desires to be number

one brand, not in terms of sales but in quality, service and corporate image. For that reason they

have to increase their sales outside Japan. Therefore, it has targeted the American market and the

first and foremost task will be to understand the American market. Though it has a well-

developed image and reputation in Japan, its challenge is to create that level of reputation an

image in the American market. For accomplishing this, Shiseido is focusing on scientific

approach which is readily evident in the companys packing, promotional inserts and sales pitch.

It is also focusing on customers approaches. It believes that customers will look beautiful when

they feel beautiful. It will rely on personal selling instead of giving samples to capture the

market. It also emphasizes on customer responsiveness. It is now introducing new products to

increase the market share. Though their corporate name Shiseido is difficult for the Americans

to pronounce, it will not change its name but it will set different brand names to their cosmetics.

Consumer buying behavior is influenced by four key set of buyer characteristics: cultural,

social, personal, and psychological. Although many of these factors cannot be influenced by the

marketers, they can be useful in identifying interested buyers and in shaping product and appeals

to serve consumer needs better.

Culture: is the most basic determinant of a persons wants and behavior. It includes the

basic values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors that a person learns from family.

Subculture is culture within cultures that has distinct values and lifestyle and can be based on

anything from age of ethnicity. Many beauty rituals that women practice daily illustrate the value

placed by their culture on personal beauty and looking youthful. Many western cultures, among

these also the Finnish culture, tend to place high value on looking good and groomed.

Social factors: Family, social roles and statuses as well as different reference groups are

some of the social factors that, in addition to culture, affect consumer behavior. a reference

group is a group that has a direct or indirect influence on a persons attitudes or behavior. When

someone gives information about cosmetics to a consumer, the consumer considers that

information when making a buying decision.

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Personal factors: Personal characteristics also influence a consumers behavior. Examples

of personal characteristics include the consumers age and stage in the life cycle, occupation,

economic circumstances, personality, self-concept, lifestyle and values. People select their

Cosmetics based on their age. For example, a teen girl may try to be fair but a woman will try to

stop signs of aging by using different cosmetics.

Psychological factors: consumer buying behavior is influences by motivation,

perceptions, learning and beliefs and attitudes. Each of these factors provides a different

perspective for understanding the working of the buyer

In consumers buying decision process, different groups of people are directly or

indirectly involved. Participants and their role in the consumer buying process are:

Users: Users are those people who ultimately use or consume the product. In that case

women are the users of Shiseido cosmetics. According to users need and want cosmetics

manufacturer produce cosmetics. For example Shiseido collects feedback from the consumers

and provide Lipstick according to their choice.

Influencers: Influencers are those people who influence consumer to purchase that

product. In case of cosmetics influencer can be parents, family members, friends and Models.

For example if your favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo & he is the brand ambassador of

Head & Shoulders Shampoo. Then you are influenced by Cristiano Ronaldo to use this

shampoo.

Buyers: Buyers are those who purchase the products. Users can be buyer also. If the

cosmetics can full your expectation, surely next time you will go for that product.

Deciders: Deciders are those people who have the formal authority to take decisions. In

case of cosmetics for a teen age girl, her cosmetics will decide by her mother. Therefore mother

can be the decider of cosmetics for her daughter.

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Buying decision behavior differs greatly from product to product. More complex

decisions usually involve more buying participants and more buyer deliberation. For cosmetic

products dissonance reducing buying behavior and habitual buying behavior are most

appropriate and consumers undertake mostly these two behaviors. We know that dissonance

reducing buying behavior refers to high involvement by contrast few differences between brands.

Here, products are expensive. It is obvious that people are more involved in expensive products.

For example- Bloom and Becca are two cosmetics brands that are high in price but

there is no significant brand difference. In addition, some regular using cosmetic products like

soap, body spray, hair gel etc. which are low at price and brand differences are not significant.

For these products consumers undertake habitual buying behavior. Consumers undertake variety

seeking buying behavior on a rare occasion. For example, when buying lotion, a consumer may

hold some beliefs; choose a branded lotion without much evaluation, and then evaluate that

brand during consumption. The next time, the consumer might pick another brand out of

boredom or simply to try something different. Brand switching occurs for sake of variety rather

than dissatisfaction. For complex buying behavior, consumers can hardly undertake it as

cosmetics brand difference is not significant!!!

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The buying decision process for any product consists of five stages; Need recognition,

Information search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase decision & Post purchase behavior.

Clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual purchase and continues long after. For

that reason marketers of cosmetics need to be focus on the entire buying process rather than on

just the purchase decision.

Need recognition: it occurs when the buyer recognizes a problem by internal stimuli &

external stimuli. For cosmetics internal stimuli can be signs of aging, dark spots and also those

buyers who have dark and want to be fair. It means all about beautification as well as self-

satisfaction. External stimulation can also be triggered, for example an advertisement or

recommendation by friend might force consumers to think about buying a new cosmetics.

Information search: Information can be search from many sources. These include

personal sources (family members, friends, neighbor and colleagues), Commercial sources (TV

Advertisement, newspaper, online, Billboard), Public sources (BSTI test reports) and

Experiential sources (trial before final purchase).

Evaluation of Alternatives: After searching all the information consumer is going to

evaluate all the alternatives. Customers never buy product, they buy their needs. Therefore they

are going to evaluate the brand name of the product, Is there any side effect or not, will it

available in the nearer shop or not etc.

Purchase decision: After the evaluation of alternatives the consumer set to purchase the

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product. Two factors can affect purchase decision. They are attitude of others (elder sister or

husbands opinion) and unexpected factors (sudden increase of price or discount)

Post-Purchase behavior: after purchase the cosmetics, if the product can fulfill all the

expectation then the consumer is satisfied else he\she may switch to another brand next time.

Our Recommendations towards Shiseido Company are given below:

Provide free samples or home delivery service to consumers

Provide all the information regarding the product to the consumers

Advertisement plays a vital role to increase the sale of the product, so select an American

public figure as your brand ambassador.

Promote new products & beauty tips in social networks (Facebook, Twitter)

Introduce quality products according to local customers needs and wants

Introduce quality perfume to create an image in America

No need the Change the corporate name, but set product name which can be easily

pronounced by the local people.

Start live online customer care, as Americans like to lead stress less life.