First impression is extremely vital on human relationship. First impression is the silent signal notifying one’s self to another person, and it is formed by clothing, make-up, facial expressions, postures, and body language. Normally people tend to ...
First impression is extremely vital on human relationship. First impression is the silent signal notifying one’s self to another person, and it is formed by clothing, make-up, facial expressions, postures, and body language. Normally people tend to judge the subject’s inner face and personal quality through the outside appearance, and this tendency is even more pronounced in modern society, making the outward appearance a very important way to express one’s self. It has been pointed that the newly appearing discrimination element, following race, gender, religion, and ideology, is the subject of outward appearance thus, now outward appearance no only affects human relationships, but also social successes and promotions. So the age of "Lookism", where appearance is the most important factor of all, has arrived.
The general concept on outward appearance has differed over the ages, but the standards sought by the society upon beautiful appearance in the age one is living influences appearance maintenance. People who have beautiful appearance live a self-satisfied and positive life and shows self-confidence in social life, but people who recognize that they do not have a beautiful appearance tend to have a contractive social life, little self-confidence in social life and are not treated well by others. Like this, outward appearance plays a very important role in social interaction, and the social rule on appearance affects individual psychology, thereby acts as a factor managing outward appearance or causing to consume producted related to that. So, this study, using social comparison theory, will find out how the psychological emotion caused by social comparison, namely similar comparison dissatisfaction, upper comparison dissatisfaction, and self respect affect media appearance information and appearance management, and how these variable causes influences media information and appearance management, to ultimately find out how these factors influence the intention to purchase fashion products.
And the intention is to show the basic source material on appearance-management product planning or the brand marketing exclusive strategy aiming to put exclusive product images in the consumers’ heart. To evidently analyze the designed study model , the analysis subjects were determined as working people of both sexes, between the age of 20 and 40, working in companies, using the survey method. The measuring tools were evaluated, based upon the collected data. The reliability test, the factor analysis, the multiple regression analysis, the ANOVA analysis,the Duncan test, etc, were conducted over the collected source data.
The chief results of this study are as follows.
First, on the influence of the working people’s similar comparison dissatisfaction, upper comparison dissatisfaction and the feeling of self-respect, only upper comparison dissatisfaction was found to influence media infor- mation. Looking at the difference between the genders, male workers showed a negative influence relationship of the feeling of self-respect over the media information content on personal appearance. So it was found out that male workers with low self respect were not interested upon the information about appearances coming out from mass media. But, for female workers, the feeling of self respect showed a meaningful influence over the media advertisement and information content on personal appearance. Contrary to males, female workers who had high feeling of self respect tended to pay more attention to information about personal appearance in the mass media..
Second, on the influence of the workers’ similar comparative dissatisfaction, upper comparative dissatisfaction and the feeling of self-respect over appearance management, the upper comparative dissatisfaction was founded to influence appearance management. Seeing the difference between the genders, for the male workers the feeling of self-respect showed a negative influence relationship over the interest on appearance management, and for the famile workers the feeling of self-respect showed influence both on the interest on appearance management and the production on appearance management. Like media information on appearance, males with a negative self-respect did not manage one’s appearance, and females with more feeling of self-respect tended to care for appearance management and had positive attitudes.
Third, the media information on outward appearance showed correlation over management of appearance, and vice versa., showing that both influenced each other. Results of social comparison made it known that when nowadays standard of goodness or badness of outward appearances influenced by media information or the idealized models shown in the media, the advertisements or information shown in mass media such as internet, TV or magazines had the biggest influence of people’s outward appearance management. Also, it could be found out that most workers collect media information on appearance management, such as the outward appearance management methods or weight-loss methods of celebrities, or fashion trends, provided in internet, TV or magazines, and recognized their bodyand appearance compared to the idealized standard of beauty in the society, and tried to fit into the standard.
Fourth, the media information on outward appearance and appearance management was found to influence the intention to purchase fashion products. The working people came to have discriminative standard of beauty through the information coming out from the media, and to have that standard they became interested on the clothing, cosmetics and hair style used by the models in the advertisements, and came into contact with the various appearance management information easily obtainedfrom the internet, TV and magazine; and all of these were naturally connected to the intention to purchase fashion products. So, the information on personal appearance in the media had a great influence over the working people’s fashion product consumption behavior.
Fifth, upon the difference of media information, appearance management and fashion product purchase intention based on population statistic variables, showed meaningful differences on the gender, age and marital status. Women tended to pay more attention on appearance management than men, and among the age groups the people in their 20s tended to care more about their appearance and preferred to be complimented over their appearance, than the people in their 30s and 40s. The intention to purchase fashion products related to personal appearance, such as clothing, accessories, cosmetics and hair care products, for the unmarried women of the 20s, was founded out to be triggered by contacting new products or advertisement.
Resulting from these , in the modern world where appearance is a competitive factor, it is necessary to develop a marketing strategic method through mass media, making the workers to recognize positive ideas on changes of appearance currently thought as negative, such as plastic surgery, weight loss and cosmetic use by the men. So, this study shows that the marketers must have a grasp of the psychological factors, in addition to the population statistical factors of the consumers, to help to develop a successful marketing strategy.