Read Dissertation from Chapter 4-5 here
Exploring Young Chinese Customers’ Attitude Towards Fashion Bloggers’ Evaluation of Cosmetic Fashion Retailers
Abstract
With the rise of technology and globalization, the effects on industries have changed the way consumers purchase products and companies market it. This change is attributed to the advancement in technology and its immediate adaptation by the people. This dissertation is focused on analyzing the impact of the internet word of mouth on the attitudes of the consumers. The thesis is researched in the context of the Chinese cosmetic industry and the dispersion of internet word of mouth through blogs. The Chinese bloggers importance has risen amazingly in the last decade, increasing their influence and impact on not only their readers but also on the companies as well. Their evaluations of the products matter. This was the main focus of this study. It is dedicated to studying the attitude of the Chinese young consumers in terms of the Chinese cosmetic blogs evaluations. This has been studied in terms of the usefulness, authenticity, and trustworthiness of blogs and bloggers for the consumers. The feeling of the Chinese consumers towards the bloggers has also been evaluated. This is done by using online survey, which gathered primary data from university students at Chinese university. The data are analyzed for high frequency for inferring upon the research question.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction:
In the last ten years, the fashion industry has developed into a worldwide industry, which is fulfilling the religions, cultures, and lifestyles of transnational and complex customers making the identification and recognition of the specific customers more complex. The change in communication trends has made the customers follow, participate, and discuss the fashion trends and news with more ease about any new collection and consequently purchase these online (Sedeke & Arora, 2013).
Traditionally the consumers have been using fashion-related information via televisions, magazines and by attending fashion weeks in the fashion capitals of the world. The media forums provided by print mediums such as Vogue and Harper’s were the source of information and product placement for brands and consumers. However, this has changed over time. Now with a click, the latest trends in fashion can be accessed through Smartphone or computer. While living in the technological era, the new digital platforms like social media and blogs have arisen at the forefront of consumer communication (Cuevas, 2016). With the emergence of this new platform, word-of-mouth has become increasingly more influential for the consumers. The digital influence is found to affect the purchase choice of the customers (Solis & Webber, 2012). This report is dedicated to researching the influence that bloggers may have on the consumers of the cosmetic industry. The investigation and analysis of the impact that bloggers may have on the young Chinese consumers will yield information on the better understanding of the purchase behavior of this market segment.
Research Context:
The context of this study is towards the attitude of cosmetic fashion blog readers. It is known that blogging has become increasingly important and popular in the electronic media as a channel for the marketing of brands and the recording of opinions, ideas, and views. Customers usually tend to seek advice for making a purchase decision. As presented in the Yearbook 80% of the customers prefer to seek the advice from a social site before making a purchase (Wegert, 2010). From these, 70% of the customers have confirmed to find these reviews as influencing (Wegert, 2010).
The selected market is that of China, and the selected industry is that of the cosmetic industry. Naturally, the females, young Chinese consumers become the prime target market. The research is destined for investigating the attitude of Young Chinese consumers for the assessment of the cosmetic bloggers and their reviews on the bogs. It is vital to understand to know what influence these might have on young Chinese consumers. Being one of the largest markets of the cosmetic and personal care products, the Chinese market is potentially considered to become the largest in coming few years. However, with this large market size, only 10% of its population consumes the cosmetics on a regular basis (International Trade Administration, 2016). The age group which consumes these products is from 20 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years of age and hence shows the scope of this research (International Trade Administration, 2016).
An online survey will be carried out to investigate for the responses for exploration of the attitude of young Chinese consumers regarding the usefulness, trust, and authenticity of blogs and any feelings for the bloggers.
Research Problem:
The research problem is.
Do bloggers have any influence on the attitude of blog readers regarding their purchase decision in the cosmetic industry?
Research Objectives
- To assess the reader’s perceived usefulness of cosmetic blogs for their purchase decision
- To assess the reader’s perceived trust in cosmetic blogs.
- To assess the authenticity requirement of the blog
- To evaluate if the readers have certain positive or negative emotions towards the blogger
Research Questions
- Do the readers of the blog trust the blogger?
- Do the readers of the blog perceive the assessment as useful?
- Do the readers of the blog consider blogs as authentic?
- Do the readers of the blog have any positive or negative emotions for bloggers?
The significance of the Study
About more than 900,000 blogs are written on average on a daily basis (Singer, 2009). It is one point of view to look at its importance. With the rising share of the cosmetic industry in China, the changes in the behavior of the consumer are important to be analyzed. The significance of this study cannot be understated. The outcome of this study will provide insightful information about the changing patterns of buying behavior. Fashion blogger’s role is quickly becoming an influential role in the fashion industry. Their word-of-mouth has importance in the eyes of its readers as it counts regarding their purchase decision (marketing.conference-services.net, 2012). Furthermore, the companies whose products or services are being reviewed are also sensitive to these reviews as their sales depend to some extent on it. We have witnessed some surprisingly enlarged impact of these blog recommendations. Any negative comment can tarnish a company’s reputation and subsequently its sales. Hence, the significance of this study will offer facts on a specific area which had not gathered much attention until recently.
Limitations
There are numerous limitations of this research as well. As we are investigating the Chinese market for the analysis of the attitudes of the young Chinese consumers regarding the evaluation of the Chinese cosmetic bloggers; the results might be only reflective of the young Chinese consumers or the cosmetic industry. Moreover, it may not be reflective of the Chinese market as our results are dependent on the survey conducted online. Thus, the results would have to be limited to the scope of these respondents. Furthermore, the cosmetic industry of China is huge. The report only discusses some of the most followed bloggers and cannot be deduced to represent the whole cosmetic industry.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Fashion Industry:
Consumption is considered as the process through which different situations and stages of the consumers’ lives are developed. The consumption of a specific product or service depends on many factors, including the need, motivation of consumers, the emotional process, values, and situations of the consumers (Hagelberg, 2017). It is the reason why the person’s consumption pattern is difficult to predict. Moreover, the needs, values, and motivations of the consumers have also changed with time. Now the needs of the consumers are also viewed differently. Griskevicius and Kenrick (2013) have shown that the environment of the consumers has to turn out to be more difficult. However, the motivation for decision making has not changed.
Fashion does not have a mutually agreed definition. As per the authors Crane and Bovone, academics and consumers view it quite differently. Even though the term fashion can be implied in the fields of art, literature, music, business, etc., the general meaning is considered to be clothing. It has become more of a social phenomenon and has changed radically over the last decades (Crane & Bovone, 2006).
Digitalization of Fashion Industry:
One of the most critical factors which have changed the fashion industry is that of digitalization. The base of the internet provided by telecommunication and information technology in the 1970s (Perez, 2004) became a vital part of the culture, and people now don’t recognize how to exist without it. This digitalization has provided the platform for online shopping experience. It has changed the attitudes of the consumers towards the retail industry (Chiang & Dholakia, 2003). Chiang and Dolakia study show the change in attitudes of consumers due to digitalization which is important for our study as we are conducting the study to evaluate the attitude of the consumers in China towards one of these digital forums’ evaluations i.e. blogs. This new change has enabled the consumers to change the way they used to shop, access information, and make their purchase decisions.
With the rise of these digital social platforms, word-of-mouth has taken a tangible form in regard to consumer influence. What people speak on social arrangements has become increasingly important. Blogging is now considered the digital word of mouth. The blog does not have a definite definition, but as recognized in a paper (Kolari et al., 2006) a blog is the web-based publication which primarily consists of articles published periodically. These are also known as blog posts.
A blogger is also known as an influencer. The definition of an influencer is shown as someone who is of notable focus and status within a community possessing the qualities of causing an effect on the behavior of those with whom they are connected (Solis & Webber, 2012). Digital Influence is defined as the skill of the influencer to cause a transformation in the behavior or drive measurable online outcomes (Solis & Webber, 2012).
As per the authors, the integrity of the bloggers is considered to have an insightful effect on the choice of purchase of the reader. But not all the influencers have similar reliability (Cheung et al., 2009). This study is also relatable to our study as it studied the influence of integrity of bloggers on the purchase decision of the blog readers. This credibility is long earned through genuine reviews and recommendations. As per the authors Brown and Reingen (1987), the recommendations had long been considered as a crucial element of the decision-making procedure. This is another study which is higly important for our study as it also proved that suggestions and reccomendations are considered an important element for the decision-making process. However, it needs to be analyzed if the blog readers believe the blogs as advice or not. It would be done by understanding the approach of the readers towards the valuation of the bloggers.
One would ask why these bloggers have more impact than the marketing campaigns targeted at the consumers. The answer is simple. As compared to the marketing practices and formal advertisements, the bloggers are considered to have a neutral opinion. It is the reason their opinion is taken positively. Because of the non-commercialized nature of the bloggers, the readers consider it more genuine (Hsu et al., 2013). This is relevant and important to our study as it shows that bloggers and their evaluations are considered genuine, which is to be found to have a positive or negative influence on the readers in our study. The researcher Wu had described in 2011 that another major cause for the reputation of the blogs is that it provides two-way communication channel (Wu, 2011). It tends to facilitate the readers regarding not only better understanding of the reviews but also to raise concerns about these. This feedback mechanism is not provided in the advertisements. Wu’s study relates with ours as it also studies the reputation of the blogs and their influence on readers.
One could argue that these digital influencers do not have such a huge influence on the consumer’s decision-making procedure. The answer could be given by looking at the examples of those companies who ignored the impact that digital influencers had on their brands, their market and on their sales. One such example is that of United Airlines who learned this lesson the hard way. The baggage handlers of the airline had mishandled the guitar of a famous musician Dave Carroll. Carroll claimed for the reimbursement of the damaged expensive guitar, which was denied by the airline. Carroll sought resolution on YouTube by publishing three funny, yet important ideas named “United breaks guitars.” These were watched by over 3.6 million until 2011 December. As per the UK Times Online, the video caused negative publicity for the company in lost value of $180 million market capitalization (Gulliver, 2009). It certainly is a huge impact. The bloggers that we are discussing might not have this level of impact, but the pattern cannot be understated (Solis & Webber, 2012).
Another such example is that of New Gap who attempted to have a new logo in 2010 on its website. However, the plan backfired. Numerous fake pages with the same logo appeared quickly earning the followers while its logo generators were going viral. The company paced back to its original logo after this incidence and recognized their lack of pace with the digital community and the opportunity that it presented (Solis & Webber, 2012).
Consider this situation. A person who is looking to buy a cosmetic product needs some suggestions on which brand to try. He or she looks up the product on the search engine, and some pages pop up. He or she might be interested in looking at the reviews of the blogs as well. There are certain blogs which people follow religiously and ask their writers with recommendations on the product they want to use in future. Assuming the recommendation is not good enough, what would the reader of this blog do? Will he or she not purchase the product, or will they look up for more reviews? Even if they look up for further reviews and the answer persists to be a bad review, then there are more chances that the potential buyer of this product would be not to buy it. How drastic can this become for a product whose target market is the teens and above 20 age groups and who frequently use technology for their assistance and who has bad reviews on mainly followed the beauty blogs? Even if the measurement of the impact is not possible, the idea of its consequences is clear enough. One thus cannot infer that the blogger’s evaluation does not have any influence on the attitude of its readers.
According to the author Gremmler, the electronic word-of-mouth is explained as the negative or positive comment which is made by the former, actual, or potential user of a company or product and published to be accessed by numerous peoples through the internet (Gremmler et al., 2004). Furthermore, the customers are also able to connect with thousands of individuals rather than going to a small group of individuals in earlier times for recommendations (Owen & Humphery, 2009). The blogs are arranged as the newest blogs on top of the previous ones. The blogs are considered to be an encouragement for the expression of feelings, thoughts, and personal commentary.
Bloggers as Opinion Leaders:
Fashion blogs have become increasingly important because of the power of word of mouth for spreading opinions on companies and their brands for the readers which can be in huge numbers. As per Owen and Humphery, (2009) this newfound influence has given the customers and the bloggers to break or build a brand because of the related word of mouth. This is relative for our study as we are also evaluating the attitude of consumers towards electronic word of mouth. The market advertisements, on the other hand, are perceived as having little biases. The blogs have been identified to have three types of abilities and strengths. As described by Kent in (2008), the first ability blogs have is that it connects with people with similar interests on the internet. Second Strength of these blogs is that the readers of the blogs can also communicate their concerns and feedback with the blog writers. The blogs do demonstrate their interactive nature. The third strength that these blogs exhibit is that these blogs have the influence to reach the choral group, meaning they can reach the people with similar interests (Kent, 2008).
A study also revealed that the bloggers are perceived as the opinion leaders of the group, and the content that was posted on the blogs was considered as instrumental in the decision-making procedure of the followers (Cheong & Morrison, 2008). This shows how it is relevant for our study as we are evaluating the impact of the opinion leaders as well. The opinion leaders are considered to stand for an influential group in the market as these are capable of persuading the customers through their word of mouth (Stockburger-Sauer & Hoyer, 2009). This opinion of the opinion leader is considered to be one of the most important assets of the opinion leader as it also affects the opinion of the consumer during its purchase decision (Goldsmith & Bertrandias, 2006). Furthermore, it should be prominent that these opinion leaders are considered to be well-informed on the subject of their blog and are considered experts in their fields. They are considered the expert on a specific product category and not on a specific product only (Ruvio & Shoham, 2008). These blog writers are also found to be more explorative and inventive in their opinion for the product categories. They have an elevated level of enduring and interest in their product category.
A literature review of these opinion leaders has found that significant studies have been conducted on the trend that has been set by these opinion leaders (Valck & Wierenga, 2009). However, the part of the opinion leaders in the decision-making procedure has not been much discussed. Fashion bloggers and more specifically beauty bloggers have become increasingly influential in the fashion industry. It is the reason it is important to analyze their influence on the followers. As stated by Fournier (2009) the opinion leaders show a crucial role in the social platforms as they are the ones who spread information, help the new ideas in gaining of attraction, and influence the decisions of their followers. Moreover, the spread of the information in the digital format is quicker, which makes the influencers more influencing.
A study (Vilopponen et al., 2006) has revealed that the early adopters were more likely to follow the recommendations of the online blogs as they were the ones who usually used these external sources of information as compared to the internal sources of information like friends and the family. These fashion facilitators are found to have tried the new trends first and then spread it in the community as the latest trend in the market. This study also shows that these fashion innovators have been the source of convincing the non-innovators as well through the use of their word of mouth. This makes it relevant for our study for the evaluation of the influence of their word of mouth. Another study (Lo & Phau, 2004) has shown that these opinion leaders are considered to be the role models as they enable the spreading of the trend for the later customers.
The findings of research (marketing.conference-services.net, 2012) have found that the fashion blogs are read by its followers for finding out what other people are wearing and that these blog readers read multiple reviews to uphold their social uniqueness. It means that they use the blogs for confirmation on using the right choices of fashion. The findings also showed that the participants of the research were easily more confident using a product when it was seen to be worn by others as well. It shows that fashion blogs are even considered as a forum for finding out the social acceptance of individual choices. It also implies that fashion blogs are considered to have authenticity, trust, usefulness, and a positive feeling to have such status. As the fashion and cosmetic industry are essentially visual, it makes it quite simple for the followers to evaluate themselves in comparison with others. The followers of the blog may read the blogs to determine the styles and trends which they would most likely are going to be avoiding for protecting their self-image. The reading of several blogs would enable them to distinguish which groups they do not want to be linked to. The adoption or rejection of a certain cosmetic product on the reviewing of a blog shows the perceived usefulness, trust, authenticity, and feeling of the reader towards these blogs.
Usefulness, Trust, Authenticity:
The technology acceptance model (Lee & Chang, 2011) is a model which has empirically put forward the framework which shows the acceptance of the IT. This model is also known as the adaptation of the TRA (Lin & Lu, 2000). This theory has shown that the “belief” of a person is the reason which shapes the attitude of an individual which subsequently affects the behavior of the individual (Bigne´-Alcaniz et al., 2008).
Usefulness:
Another research (Davis, 1989) has shown the “belief” equally as the “perceived usefulness” to predict the recognition of the IT by the user. The usefulness is defined by Bernoff & Li (2008) as the degree of the improvement which an individual believes has come after the adoption of the suggestion, recommendation, or guidance on a certain product or service. In another study, the usefulness is explained as the degree of improvement of the shopping routine perceived by a person on adoption of the blog suggestion (Youn & Lee, 2009). Lin & Hsu showed in 2008 that the value of a certain recommendation regarding its usefulness has a significant effect on the customer’s attitude (Lin & Hsu, 2008).
Trust:
Trust (Doney & Connon, 1997) is one of the aspects that is explained by the researchers as the perceived credibility and benevolence of the trusted target. Trust is defined in the online perspective and is highly applicable as well. The consumers when facing any transactional risk turn over to the bloggers whom they trust to seek good advice (Deng et al., 2010). The consumers, while making a purchase decision, try to reduce their risk of uncertainty by turning to reference groups and discussion boards. Bogs have become so far, the most credible source for seeking advice on the social platforms (Hsu & Hsu, 2004). Another study has shown that readers of the blog frequently go through their blogs to form a perception of their posts and develop trust for them. It enables these bloggers to be further trusted for their evaluations (Kaye & Johnson, 2009).
It acts in reciprocal terms as well. A blog or blogger after frequent and periodic evaluation of its reader may be considered as untrustworthy and lacking credibility.
Authenticity:
The authenticity and credibility of the bloggers in person also affect the behavior and expectation of the reader significantly. The blogger can gain a reputation by building a relationship on social platforms and asking for recommendations from their readers. The convincing of the followers of having appropriate knowledge on the subject is needed to be authentic and build a positive reputation (Casalo et al., 2008). Another study has shown that the blogging has been playing an active part in the world of luxury brands (Seo & Buchanan-Oliver, 2015) in which the preference by consumer given to specific brands is affected by these blogs (Keh & Xie, 2009).
It is the reason the behavior and consideration of the blog readers towards these blogs have become increasingly important. It can also enable the companies to appreciate the impact of word of mouth better and use it for their marketing purpose as well (Youn & Lee, 2009).
Chinese Cosmetic Market & Chinese Blogs:
There have been studies on the Chinese consumer market and more specifically on the Chinese luxury fashion market. The study conducted by Wanhsiu, Qinghua & Liu (Tsai et al., 2013) showed the preferences of the young cosmopolitan Chinese consumers regarding luxury brands. Another study (Wang et al., 2011) was designated on examining the motives and attitudes of the Chinese consumers towards the luxury brands and its impact on the behavior. Angella and other researcher followed on to find the impact of the luxury brands, marketing on social media on the purchase intention and customer relationship (Kim, 2010).
Similarly, there is very less academic research on the effect of blogs on the purchase decision. A study conducted recently in Florida (Wang, 2015) investigated the impact of the content on YouTube on the purchase intentions. Another research conducted to explore fashion bloggers regarding their brand personalities (Cuevas, 2016). Recent research investigated the association between fashion blogs and the word of mouth and intention of purchase (Vineyard, 2014). However, all these studies were not done in the Chinese context.
Chinese Blogs:
The boom in the Chinese fashion influencer industry came after 2014. The pioneers of these blogs included gogoboi who started doing promotional posts on Weibo in 2011. The influencers including Chrison, Dipsy, and Mr. Kia is considered to be the original Weibo influencers. After these, the WeChat influencers entered the market including Becky Li and shiliuop who were more focused on the products. The most recent group which has emerged in this industry includes Anny Fan and Mr. Bags who are the 1990s generation; these become popular by sharing their everyday shopping experiences and recommendations on products. One of the qualities of these bloggers is that they continually reinvented themselves (Jing Daily, 2018).
Given the reason for the lack of study in this field in the Chinese context, this report will lead forward to examine the attitudes of the Chinese consumers towards the evaluations and assessments of the Chinese bloggers and how much importance these young millennial gives to the bloggers for their purchase decision. This will be analyzed in terms of, the perceived usefulness of the blog in the eyes of the Chinese young consumers of cosmetic products, the perceived trust of the blog in the eyes of the Chinese young consumers of cosmetic products, the perceived authenticity of the blog in the eyes of the Chinese young consumers of cosmetic products, and the feeling of the Chinese cosmetic consumers towards these blogs.
Figure 1: Theoretical Model
Chapter 3: Methodology
Research Approach
One of the second richest countries of the world in consideration of the Gross Domestic Product, China has posted around 7% of growth, which is supported by stronger demand thanks to the large Chinese population with 1.3 billion of inhabitant (Verot & Zhu, 2014). Even when the country ranks as the biggest GDP growth rate, not all of its sector’s account for such growth, the country is still considered a developing country. Looking at the top five industries of the Chinese economy, the cosmetic industry stands between these. It is one of the most thriving markets of China and is predominated by western brands by as much as 80% (Verot & Zhu, 2014).
E-commerce is one of the most prominent parts of this cosmetic industry. The Chinese consumers are numerous and are increasing day by for consumption of online products. Females are more specifically an important and major part of this online cosmetic industry. It has been found that the Chinese women have more tendencies to spend online as compared to the Chinese men. The internet purchases of the Chinese cosmetic market represent about 25% of the total cosmetic market of China (Verot & Zhu, 2014).
China is one the largest marketplace presents around the world for the web users with over 632 million web users registered online as of June 2014. It is about 14 million growths as of January 2014 (Verot & Zhu, 2014). In this type of situation, the Internet, word of mouth gains more importance in China and consequently more influential as well. The Chinese consumers are now willing to take time out to read appreciations, critics, and opinions of the web users and also take it into account while making their purchase decision for various products (Jargalsaikhan & Korotina, 2016). It is more relevant in the cosmetics industry as many tutorials, and reviews for cosmetic products are provided on the website which is useful for cosmetic consumers. There are numerous websites with the option of interaction for the users which is dedicated to the cosmetic universe targeting the female young and middle-aged women (Weng, 2015).
It also builds the e-reputation for a cosmetic company. Sina Weibo is one of the most famous Chinese blogging websites in which microblogging is done. It has gained popularity among the Chinese and has become one of the most famous platforms in Chins. People in China use this platform anywhere and anytime. China has more than 300 million registered microblogging users (China Trade Research, 2017). The Sina Weibo has provided a platform for bloggers to review cosmetic products and provide this information for potential users. It, in itself, acts as marketing. It can also tend to be negative marketing for a company whose customer experience with the product has not been satisfactory enough (Verot & Zhu, 2014).
It shows that in Chinese cosmetic industry context, blogging and microblogging is very influential and that it has an important part of the consumers and the companies as well. It is the reason Chinese cosmetic industry has been targeted in this dissertation for the analysis of the consumer’s attitudes towards the Chinese fashion blogs and bloggers.
Qualitative Research:
It is evident that for research any studies which are to be conducted are to be done with the exactly replicated environment in which it exists. It is necessary to utilize the actions which are needed for the better understanding of qualitative research. The qualitative research is dependent on the process through which the interpretation of the structure of the social community can be found by putting the focus on the relationship among the researcher and the research topic (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007).
The qualitative type of research is more focused on the evaluation of the interest questions and asks with the aim of exploring comparisons, in-depth analysis, and prescriptions. It is evident that the qualitative method of research is more concerned with the generation of the data, whereas, on the other hand, quantitative analysis is more concerned with the measurement of the data for its analysis. On the other hand, the qualitative gathered data can be used for the testing of the theories as compared to the creation of the theories (Saunders et al., 2016).
Through the use of the induction method, the qualitative method of research can be utilized for the collection of data from the survey individuals on a specific topic for the aim of the development of theories (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
The use of the qualitative research method will be to the extent of the literature review. The literature in the context of the attitude of the Chinese customers and the consumers in general regarding the blogger’s evaluation of the cosmetic products is done to look if the consumers look for trust, usefulness, authenticity, and feeling for bloggers predicts their attitude.
Quantitative Method:
While looking at the quantitative method of research, it is known that this method uses the data which is analyzed through empirical research (Saunders et al., 2016). It is known that this method of research is more concerned with the studies in which the data is collected in numeral form. This data is then used for the interpretation, forecasting, and control of the interesting topic. The data collected through the quantitative method through empirical analysis are in raw form and does not mean much for people. It is needed to be analyzed by use of various analytical and statistical tools for better understanding and interpretation (Partington, 2002).
The frequency, occurrence and the use of statistics for the aim of comparisons and relationships among the data figures through the support of the charts, diagrams, and indices. As this study is dependent on the examination of the attitudes of the Chinese consumers aims to use more of the quantitative research method by utilizing the data gathered from the Chinese universities. An online survey will be developed that will be used to collect the primary data.
Research Strategy:
As shown above, the online survey method will be employed in the exploration of the Chinese young consumer’s attitudes towards the cosmetic fashion bloggers and their blogs evaluations to infer upon the perceived trust, feelings for blogger, perceived authenticity, and its usefulness (Wang et al., 2011). The online survey will provide the data which will be used to realize if younger Chinese consumers trust and feel positive towards the Chinese cosmetic blogger’s evaluations and consider these as useful and authentic as well.
The main benefit of this method is that it gives a wider platform for the evaluation of the Chinese young consumers’ attitudes regarding their evaluation of the internet blogs. It also provides us the freedom for the evaluation of the attitudes of the Chinese consumers towards the Chinese cosmetic blogs evaluations regarding its driving factors as well.
We do not depend solely on qualitative research as the drawback of qualitative research is that it relies completely on the human assumption and the quality of judgment can be different for each person. This disadvantage of qualitative research method is covered through the utilization of the quantitative method through the utilization of the statistical method (Patton, 2002).
Research Type of Methods
Technique for Data Collection
Web surveys have often been utilized by analysts to gather data on survey respondents for the aim of studies and research. Our study is dependent on the online web survey to collect the required data from the young Chinese consumers, in this case, from the Chinese universities. The famous bloggers were first thought to be identified and asked for from the survey respondents. However, this idea was discarded after consideration as the use of some famous bloggers might not provide the relevant data on the attitude of the consumers towards bloggers as it is possible that some still might know these bloggers. For this reason, the survey, which has been structured is using general blogger terms. The University of China, which has been reached is the Peking University based in Beijing. However, our contacts were based in the Shenzhen campus. The project approached their Student Advisors for the Shenzhen Campus of the Peking University of China for the filling out of the online survey by the Chinese university students. The University students were selected to gain the leverage of reaching out to the denser young population in less time and get the data in a limited time. The Student Advisors were given details on the project and were provided the detail of the more likely students this project would need for the survey.
The possibility of positioning the online survey on the blogs directly was also considered. However, it was also disregarded as it would not surely gather data on Chinese consumers.
Therefore, it would be more relevant to target the universities where the young Chinese consumers are abundant and ask them for their opinion on the blogs, and its evaluations (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
Sampling Strategy
For sampling, our target population is that of the country China. As of the year 2018, the Chinese population stands at 1.42 billion, which accounts for about 18.54% of the world population. About 99.5 million of this population is between the ages of 15-64 years. The country has around 72.28 million female populations, which accounts for 48% of the total population (World Bank, 2017). Due to the large size of this population, the market for the luxury consumer market (Tsai et al., 2013) is found to be of 160 million which accounts for the 13% of the total population (Guo, 2015).
The sampling method which has been employed is the snowball sampling method for quantitative research method that is essential for the containment of the sample of the individuals which belong to the specific experience. This sampling is initiated by the identification of the individuals who qualify the standard. As our sample is targeted at young Chinese consumers who are adaptive of the Internet and the application on the internet, we are targeting the university students (Bryman & Bell, 2007).
A huge sample size cannot be controlled and analyzed a smaller sample for this huge sample is used. From this 13% of the total population (Guo, 2015), the university students are targeted for their chances for familiarity with the internet, technology and its uses and its age group similar to our needed sample. About 100 individuals from Peking University have been approached for the online survey that filled this form online. Therefore, it can be said that the sample size is 100 individuals for the quantitative research method.
Research Ethics
It has been assured that each of the participants is allowed full liberty to express their opinions and views in the online survey and is free to select any of the given choices. All other relevant ethics of research have also been taken into consideration.
Research Model:
This chapter aims to examine the sample for research, and also to summarize the procedure of data collection and describe the methodology used in quantitative analysis. An online survey has been used for this purpose to evaluate the approach of the young Chinese regarding the evaluation of the Chinese bloggers on cosmetic products. For this purpose, the analysis of the perceived trust, authenticity, perceived usefulness and feelings for the blog and the blogger or influencer is done.
Figure 1 shows the model of research which has been used for this study. As the figure shows, it has been put forward that the Chinese young consumers’ attitude regarding the analysis of the cosmetic fashion blogs can be predicted by the perceived usefulness, perceived trust, and perceived authenticity of the blog. Moreover, it is hypothesized that the feelings of the young Chinese consumers can also be vital to explain the attitude of the young Chinese consumers towards these cosmetic bloggers. As shown in the figure, the attitude of the young Chinese consumers is expected to be driven by the perceived trust on the blog and its blogger. This perceived trust is on the other hand dependent on the perceived trust, perceived usefulness and feel of the blog and the blogger.
Online Survey:
The survey, which is to be posted online to gather data from the young Chinese consumers in the context of internet blogging, has been structured into four parts. As depicted in Figure 2 below, the survey extends from gathering general information to more specific research information.
Figure 2: Online Survey Structure
The first section is developed for the gathering of the general information regarding the participants of the online survey. It includes information on their gender, marital status, and monthly expenditure. The information asked is mentioned in the form of filled to blank, which will be filled by the participants with their personal information. The second part of the online survey holds the information on the participants following the blogs. This part will justify the later part. This part would yield information about whether the participants follow the blogs and if they do, whether they follow it more frequently, or not frequently. This section includes a total of three questions only. The next section, i.e. the third section of the online survey is developed to gather information on the fact that whether these blogs influence the participants in any way. The three questions asked in this section will provide information on whether the participants get impressed, inspired, or influenced by the evaluations of the blog. The last part of the online survey, i.e. The fourth part holds the information on the area of our hypothesis and research questions. The participants are asked directly in this section whether they think of the evaluations of the blog as trustworthy, useful, and authentic. IT also asks whether the readers have developed a negative or positive feeling towards the blog or blogger after reading its evaluations. Another question is asked which would yield information on whether the participants trust their evaluations of the blog or others as well. This section is the largest section of the online survey and holds five questions.
The method that is being employed for the analysis of these answers has included statistical analysis and frequency distribution. As the gathered data do not provide much liberty for complex statistical analysis, the dependence would be more on the frequency distribution for each of the questions. As we have structured the close-ended questions with Likert scale, its scale being representative of the same direction in each question, the answers with majority agreement or disagreement were easy to find. The dissertation will thus depend on the majority voting by the participants and look for the highest percentage going either way. Microsoft Excel has been utilized for the study of raw data. The examination is conducted to derive the frequency distribution for all the questions and their answers. The analysis of the results is shown in the next chapter.
