Young Chinese Customers Attitude Towards Fashion Bloggers-Chapters 4-5

Read Dissertation from Chapter 1-3 here

Exploring Young Chinese Customer’s Attitude Towards Fashion Bloggers’ Evaluation of Cosmetic Fashion Retailers-Chapter 4-5

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion

The preceding chapter has shown how the online survey was employed for the gathering of data and how the online survey was developed to find the relevant data on the Chinese young consumer’s attitudes towards the Chinese cosmetic blogs evaluations regarding their trustworthiness, authenticity, and usefulness. As discussed in the earlier chapter the online survey is divided into four sections. We are going to discuss the results of each of the sections, and questions individually.

Section 1 | General Information:

The first section holds the information on the gender of the participants. As shown in the frequency distribution derived from the analysis, 78% of the participants who responded to the online survey were females. 22% of the total 100 participants were male respondents. It can be because of the nature of our survey. As we had limited our research to the cosmetic fashion blogs, the nature of the survey affected the gender bias towards female. It is the reason majority of respondents are female as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Gender of Online Survey Respondents

Gender
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Male	22	22%	22%	22%
	Female	78	78%	78%	100%
	Total	100	100	100

 

We have used the program Microsoft Excel for graphing out the details as shown in Chart 1. Only 22 of the 100 participants were male.

Chart 1: Gender of Participants of Online Survey

The next information that has been asked of the respondents of the online survey is about their marital status. It has been found that about 89 of the participants were single or non-married and 11 participants were married. It is shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Marital Status of Participants of Survey

Marital
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Single	89	89%	89%	89%
	Married	11	11%	11%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The chart 2 also shows the huge number of single participants as compared to the married ones.

Chart 2: Marital Status of the Respondents of the Survey

The next question is of particular importance, which was relevant to the research as well. The monthly expenditure of the participants was found to be variant between $400 to $1300. The frequency distribution for each of the range of monthly expenditure is shown in Table 3.

Table 3: Monthly Expenditure of Respondents of Online Survey

Expenditure
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1000	7	7%	7%	7%
	1100	4	4%	4%	11%
	1200	4	4%	4%	15%
	1300	1	1%	1%	16%
	400	1	1%	1%	17%
	500	14	14%	14%	31%
	600	27	27%	27%	58%
	700	7	7%	7%	65%
	800	29	29%	29%	94%
	900	6	6%	6%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

Chart 3 shows that the highly used range of monthly expenditure was $ 800.  Looking at Table 2 it can be seen that 29 of the 100 participants had monthly expenditure as high as $800. Another majority of the 27 participants of the 100 respondents have the monthly expense of around $600. The third majority is of 14 respondents who have a monthly expenditure of around $500. Seven of the participants have around $1000 in monthly expenditure while 6 of the participants have $900 in monthly expenditure. Four individuals have reported having a monthly expense of $1100, and four another has reported it to be around $1200. The only individual had a monthly expense as high as $1300 and as low as $400.

Chart 3: Monthly Expenditure of the Respondents of Online Survey

It shows that most of the university students at Peking University have monthly expenses around $500 to $800. It is the average monthly expense of an average income student in the Chinese university.

Section 2 | Q1-Q3:

This section of the online survey has also been discussed in the earlier chapter. This section will be discussed regarding whether the participants of the survey are followers of blogs or not. This section holds three questions which ask directly about their following of the blogs.

The first question that has been asked is.

Do you follow fashion/cosmetic bloggers?

This question has been asked to infer upon the later information provided by each of the participants. A person who is not following any blog or does not know about any blog may have a different opinion on our later questions as compared to the one who follows or knows about it. It is to be made clear here as well that a person who does not follow a blog necessarily does not mean that the person does not read the blog. It only asks if a person has subscribed to the blog and get its periodical published frequently. A person may not be following a blog but would be reading it frequently while it frequently appears on its Facebook Newsfeed or any other medium.

Table 4: Question 1

Q1
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Yes	78	78%	78%	78%
	No	22	22%	22%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The answer to question 1 is answered as yes or no. 22 of the participants answered No and 78 of the participants answered as yes as shown in Table 4.

It also depicted on Chart 4. The majority of the participants answered in agreement. It shows that the individuals who agree are the ones who think that they follow cosmetic blogs. It may be unsure of them that the following on the blog does not necessarily imply that they have subscribed to the blog. If they know and like particular bloggers, it can be the case that they recheck their posts now and then. Hence, the agreeing individuals have one thing in common. They had all read the blogs often. It was the answer which was meant to be yielded from this question.

Chart 4: Question 1

The disagreeing participants, on the other hand, are maybe given misleading information. There is a chance that some of these would be thinking that they are not subscribed to blogs, and thus they are not following these. However, they may have frequently checked on or came through their blogs and read it. Whatever their reason, they chose to mark No in this question which will be considered as they not following any blogs religiously.

The second question asks.

To which degree you follow these bloggers post constantly?

This question was asked to the participants to infer upon their following and rank it as strongly following, frequently following, not frequently following, nor following nor un-following, and never following. The scale might seem confusing to someone, but it gives plenty of opportunities and choices to everyone and the liberty to rank themselves as one of these based on their own opinion and judgment.

Table 5: Question 2

Q2
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Follow	20	20%	20%	20%
	Frequently follow	28	28%	28%	48%
	Not Frequently	17	17%	17%	65%
	Nor Follow nor Un-follow	13	13%	13%	78%
	Never Follow	22	22%	22%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

Looking at the results of Question 2, most of the 100 participants agreed on frequently following the blogs. 28 participants frequently follow the blog while 20 of these strongly follow any recommendations and suggestions. 22 of these participants have never followed any blog while 13 remained neutral by nor following or un-following the blogs.

Chart 5: Question 2

The next and last question of this section asks for the pattern of buying from the participants to know if any blog searching is involved in it. The question is;

You are more likely to search for blog reviews when you are unsure of buying a cosmetic product

The options of the Likert scale starting from strongly agree to the strongly disagree, provided to the respondents to choose from. The answers which were received were majorly in agreement with 45 participants agreeing on searching for blog reviews before buying a cosmetic product which they are unsure of. 20 participants as shown in table 6 are strongly agreed While 22 strongly disagree and 33 neither agree nor disagree.

Table 6: Question 3

Q3
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	20	20%	20%	20%
	Agree	45	45%	45%	65%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	13	13%	13%	78%
	Strongly Disagree	22	22%	22%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The answers are therefore more in the majority for the agreement for using blogs for a recommendation on buying a cosmetic product.

Chart 6: Question 3

Section 3| Q4-Q6:

This section holds three questions as well. It is the section which looks for the type of influence that blogs have on readers. The first question which has been asked in this section is.

The Cosmetic bloggers have enabled you to have inspirations for your look from their blogs

This question is very handy as it shows how the participants get affected by the evaluations of the blogs. Looking at the results for this question, the answers are in the majority for “agree” choice.

Table 7: Question 4

Q4
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Agree	65	65%	65%	65%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	13	13%	13%	78%
	Strongly Disagree	22	22%	22%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

Out of the 100 participants, 65 have ticked the agree box for this question. It shows that the blogs evaluations of the cosmetic products for these participants inspire them in their daily lives for, the looks they want or not want to carry. Notice that each cosmetic blogger has its personality and style description. Not everyone likes every blogger. Every individual associate with the blogger it finds comfort with. Therefore, with each evaluation of the easy blogger varying, it still influences the readers. It is to be noted that 22 individuals strongly disagreed as well that they were inspired by the blogs of cosmetic bloggers.

Chart 7: Question 4

The next question number is Q5 which is

The cosmetic blogs influence you in buying a product they recommended

It is also a very straight question which asks directly about the influence and its level on the readers. The readers who agree with this show that they are influenced by the recommendation of the blog and hence are more probable to buy it as compared to the ones which are not recommended by the blog.

Table 8: Question 5

Q5
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	23	23%	23%	23%
	Agree	37	37%	37%	60%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	9	9%	9%	69%
	Disagree	31	31%	31%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The results of this question show that 37 of the participants agree that cosmetic blogs influence them in buying the products which are recommended by these blogs. 23 participants have strongly agreed on this as well, showing the higher majority in agreement with this statement. While on the other hand 31 disagree as well. It might be because the readers would not buy every product recommended by the blogs.  There are also nine others who do not agree or disagree.

Chart 8: Question 5

The next question in this section is Question 6.

You would not buy a product if it has a negative comment by your followed blog

This question asks for the level of influence of the blogger and blog evaluation on the attitude of the blog readers of the fashion cosmetic blogs. The answers to this question are shown in Table 6 and Chart 6.

Table 9: Question 6

Q6
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	51	51%	51%	51%
	Agree	49	49%	49%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The results of the analysis show that the frequency is totally in favor of this statement. It is true to the extent the blogger makes a negative comment. It shows that any reader on finding negative comments for any of the cosmetic products would be very cautious about finding a better product. This while taken into consideration together with question 5 which shows that the finding of the positive comment or recommendation of a product would not always necessarily lead to a buy of the product, the vice versa is more relevant. The negative comment has more influence as compared to the positive recommendation.

51% of the participants have agreed, whereas 49% of the participants have strongly agreed with this statement.

Chart 9: Question 6

Section 4 | Q7-Q11:

This section shows questions from 7 to 11. The five questions which are included in this section involve information gathering on specific research questions interests. Question seven is.

You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as trustworthy

This question asks if the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs are considered trustworthy by the participants of the survey. The results of the question are shown in Table 10 and Chart 10.

Table 10: Question 7

Q7
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	35	35%	35%	35%
	Agree	39	39%	39%	74%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	3	3%	3%	77%
	Disagree	23	23%	23%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The findings of this question show that the majority agrees with this situation. 39 of the participants agree that they consider the evaluations of the blog trustworthy. 35 of the participants strongly agree with this, and the other 3 participants neither agree nor disagree. 23 of the remaining participants disagree with this statement. It might be because not all bloggers are trustworthy for blog readers. Therefore, this might have inclined them to disagree with this statement.

Chart 10: Question 7

The next question is

You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as authentic

This question also asks directly about the research question interest topic. It looks for the authenticity of the blogger being important for the blogger looking for evaluations of cosmetic product evaluations by these bloggers. The findings of the question are shown in Question 8 Table 8 and Chart 8.

Table 11: Question 8

Q8
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	35	35%	35%	35%
	Agree	39	39%	39%	74%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	3	3%	3%	77%
	Disagree	23	23%	23%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The results of this question are shown in the chart below. The results show that 35 participants strongly agree with this statement. 39 of the participants agreed with this statement. 23 of the participants disagreed with this as some might be of the view that not all the blogs are authentic.

Chart 11: Question 8

The next question in this section looks for the information on the usefulness of the blog for young Chinese consumers. The question is.

You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as useful

This question’s finding is also presented in question 9 Table 12 and Chart 12.

Table 12: Question 9

Q9
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	47	47%	47%	47%
	Agree	29	29%	29%	76%
	Disagree	24	24%	24%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

The findings have shown that about 47 of the 100 participants strongly agreed with this statement. Other than this, 29 participants have agreed to this statement as well. It shows that most participants agree to have found the usefulness of the blog and its evaluations.

Chart 12: Question 9

The next question is related to the evaluation of the blog and the feeling of the blog reader for the blogger after this evaluation. The question is;

After evaluation of a blog, you are most likely to have positive or negative feeling for the blogger.

The findings of this question show that most of the respondents have agreed with this statement. It means that like the prior questions, the most Chinese university students have agreed with the fact that the evaluation of the blog about cosmetic products leads to positive or negative feeling for the blogger.

Table 13: Question 10

Q10
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	37	37%	37%	37%
	Agree	46	46%	46%	83%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	11	11%	11%	94%
	Disagree	6	6%	6%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

 

37 of the participants have strongly agreed with the statement, and 46 have chosen to be agreed as well. 11 of the participants have neither agreed nor disagreed, and 6 disagreed with this statement.

Chart 13: Question 10

The last question asks for the evaluation of the blogs as trustworthy who are personally evaluated by the blogger as authentic, trustworthy, useful and credible. The question is;

You only trust the blogs which have been evaluated by you personally as credible, authentic and trustworthy

For this question Table, 14 is shown for details of answers.

Table 14: Question 11

Q11
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly Agree	40	40%	40%	40%
	Agree	42	42%	42%	82%
	Neither Agree nor disagree	12	12%	12%	94%
	Disagree	6	6%	6%	100%
	Total	100	100%	100%

The answers to this question show that 40% strongly agree with the statement and 42% agree to it. It means more than 80% of the participants agree with this statement. While on the other hand 6% disagree and 12% nor agree nor disagree.

Chart 14: Question 11

The overall analysis of the survey findings can be deduced as positive as the majority of the participants have agreed with the influence of the evaluations of the Chinese cosmetic blogs on the attitude of the young Chinese consumers.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the research was successful in its considerations. By using online web survey, the study conducted to look for the attitudes of the Chinese consumers. The findings of this study have shown positive results in favor of the influence of the Chinese cosmetic blogs evaluations on the attitudes of Chinese young consumers. This has shown the impact of the blogs evaluations in terms of their perceived usefulness, perceived trustworthiness, authenticity, and feelings of the bloggers. The results have found that bloggers have the ability to influence the product’s reputation and goodwill to a very high extent. Bloggers have an important part in the marketing of cosmetic products, whether it is negative or positive. The reviews and recommendation of the bloggers and their evaluations of cosmetic products have an important part in the marketing of cosmetic products. The more a product gets the attention of bloggers the more is the chance of its popularity whether it is positive or negative sense. The potential influence of the blogs and bloggers evaluations on the attitude of the Chinese consumers were assessed through asking them to close ended questions through online surveys in terms of their usefulness, trustworthiness, and influence on the purchase decision. The higher the usefulness, trustworthiness, authenticity, and credibility of the blog and blogger, the higher influence it has on the consumer’s choice and purchase decision. A bad review will create suspicions in the mind of the potential consumer and a positive review by the blogger would provide authenticity for the purchase decision. The research has shown that the high or low usefulness, trustworthiness, and negative or positive feelings about the cosmetic blogs and the bloggers will influence the marketing strategy of the firms as well by affecting the buying behavior of its potential consumers.

Recommendations

This research has been potentially important as its implications would have rather important consequences for the companies as the companies would yield information on the buying pattern of the potential Chinese consumers. The cosmetic industry can gain an advantage by using this information to their advantage and building their e-reputation. The results of this study have shown positive results in favor of the influence of the Chinese cosmetic blogs evaluations on the attitudes of young Chinese consumers regarding their perceived usefulness, perceived trustworthiness, authenticity, and feelings of the bloggers. The results found that bloggers play an important part in the marketing of cosmetic products whether it is negative or positive. The reviews and recommendation of the bloggers and their evaluations of cosmetic products have an important part in the marketing of cosmetic products. A product being marked as bad would influence the potential buyers of this product and would moreover lead them to another alternative product.

The research has shown that the high or low usefulness, trustworthiness, and negative or positive feelings about the cosmetic blogs and the bloggers will influence the marketing strategy of the firms as well by affecting the buying behavior of its potential consumers.

Limitations and Future Considerations:

It is to be noted that the participants of the study belonged to the one university in China, whereas the study is inferring judgments on all young Chinese consumers between the ages of 15-40 years. It shows that the survey might not be a true representative of the whole survey population. Furthermore, there might be more biased results as the university students are more technologically literate as compared to the overall young Chinese population. Moreover, caution should be employed while using this research study for other studies as this cannot necessarily translate into a similar context. Only the studies with similar context can use this study for reference and further consideration in their studies. The small sample size and larger population size of the survey limit the use of this study for any dissimilar context.

Any further consideration in this field can lead to an analysis of the consumer’s attitude regarding their purchase intention. The influence of the blogs evaluations on the attitude of the Chinese consumers has been found to be positive in this study. However, the influence leading to affect the purchase intention is yet to be studied. Therefore, the purchase intention analysis in the context of the blog evaluations influence can be an interesting field for future study and considerations.

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Read Dissertation from Chapter 1-3 here

Appendix:

Questionnaire:

GENERAL INFORMATION:

NAME: _________________________

GENDER: _________________________

AGE: _________________________

MARITAL STATUS: _________________________

MONTHLY EXPENDITURE: _________________________

QUESTIONS:

1. Do you follow fashion/cosmetic bloggers?
2. Yes
3. No
4. To which degree you follow these bloggers post constantly?
   1. Strongly Follow
   2. Frequently Follow
   3. Not Frequently
   4. Nor Follow nor un-follow
   5. Never
5. You are more likely to search for blog reviews when you are unsure of buying a cosmetic product
   1. Strongly Agree
   2. Agree
   3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
   4. Disagree
   5. Strongly Disagree
6. The Cosmetic bloggers have enabled you to have inspirations for your look from their blogs
   1. Strongly Agree
   2. Agree
   3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
   4. Disagree
   5. Strongly Disagree
7. The cosmetic blogs influence you in buying a product they recommended
   1. Strongly Agree
   2. Agree
   3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
   4. Disagree
   5. Strongly Disagree
8. You would not buy a product if it has a negative comment by your followed blog
   1. Strongly Agree
   2. Agree
   3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
   4. Disagree
   5. Strongly Disagree
9. You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as trustworthy
   1. Strongly Agree
   2. Agree
   3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
   4. Disagree
   5. Strongly Disagree
10. You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as authentic
    1. Strongly Agree
    2. Agree
    3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
    4. Disagree
    5. Strongly Disagree
11. You consider the evaluations of the cosmetic blogs as useful
    1. Strongly Agree
    2. Agree
    3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
    4. Disagree
    5. Strongly Disagree
12. After evaluation of a blog, you are most likely to have positive or negative feeling for the blogger.
    1. Strongly Agree
    2. Agree
    3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
    4. Disagree
    5. Strongly Disagree
13. You only trust the blogs which have been evaluated by you personally as credible, authentic and trustworthy
    1. Strongly Agree
    2. Agree
    3. Neither Agree Nor Disagree
    4. Disagree
    5. Strongly Disagree

Read Dissertation from Chapter 1-3 here