Accomplishments
A study on consumer perspectives for adoption and diffusion of innovations in fairness creams for males in India
- Abstract
Until the last decade, it was unthinkable that skincare would be a category where consumers would be likely to spend the most. India has a strong economic performance and a youthful demographic structure, ensuring a great future for the cosmetic industry. All that marketers and retailers need to do to be successful is to be innovative and to price their products efficiently and intelligently. New product adoption is described as the degree to which individuals adopt innovations relatively earlier than other members of their social system. Diffusion refers to the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system (Rogers, 1995). Celebrities becoming more vocal about their grooming habits, and sharing self-grooming details on television and other advertising media, have led to a surge in the sale of fairness creams. Fairness creams or skin-lightening cosmetic products are also known as bleaching creams, whiteners, skin brighteners, or skin lighteners and work by reducing a pigment called melanin in the skin. The changing consumer landscape in India has made male customers conscious of their well-being. This has prompted the leading cosmetic manufacturers to introduce skin care lines specifically tailored to the segment of male customers. This present study attempts to build possible associations, based on previous research, between socio-demographics, perceived innovation characteristics, consumer innovativeness, and new product adoption behavior arising from product innovations in the skincare range with special reference to fairness creams for males.