FASHION AND BEAUTY ADVERTISING MODELS’ AGE AND ITS IMPACT ON OVER 50 FEMALE CONSUMERS’ PURCHASE INTENTION Maria Joana Magalhães de Pinho Dissertation Master Science in Marketing Supervisor: Prof. Doutora Hélia Pereira, Departamento de Marketing, Operações e Gestão Geral, ISCTE Business School Co-Supervisor: Prof. Doutora Maria de Fátima Salgueiro, Professora Associada com Agregação, Departamento de Métodos Quantitativos para Gestão e Economia, ISCTE Business School April 2013 Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 DEDICATION To my grandparents, to whom the academic and professional victories of the generations they have created, have always been their own. To my grandfather and grandmother who were always, far beyond their time and condition, masters of their own wisdom and life. ii Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Working on this thesis has made me learn a lot more than the concepts and studies I’ve learnt or developed. This work demanded my total dedication and beyond all the efforts I had to do, I had the precious support of many people to whom I want here to express my gratitude. To those people who continuously supported me during this research I would like to express my gratitude. First, I would like to acknowledge my dissertation supervisor, Prof. Hélia Pereira. Her guidance, strategic thinking and experience were very important to help me in every single step of the way. All of her patience and assistance throughout this process, all her advice, the motivation and the confidence in my work enabled me to build my research ideas and develop the whole investigation. It was really a pleasure to have the opportunity to work under her direction. I also wish to express my gratitude to Prof. Maria de Fátima Salgueiro, my co-supervisor, who gave me greater inputs with her incredible researcher vision and practical thinking that were crucial for several issues of this research, and with whom I had the chance to learn a lot. I am grateful to my family, best friends and boyfriend for their never ending support and infinite friendship. They have been the most patient people during these last months and always helped me to work to achieve my goals. They have been my source of encouragement and were always there, even when I was unmotivated and exhausted. All of their inputs and ideas were of an immeasurable importance. iii Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 INTRODUTORY NOTE “April, 2013 I always thought being a middle aged woman would be a happier time in my life, without all the insecurities of the younger version of me. I would be 50 without having to worry about being the prettiest one, having the best body, flawless skin… I hoped I could reach this part of my life with the acceptance and maturity you always read about in Nora Ephron novels or see in movies where Richard Gere can fall in love with a widow with grown children and still find her attractive (of course every 50 year old movie star looks like a perfect 30 year old freak of nature). But nobody tells you the real story. Nobody tells you the truth about being fifty in 2013. Yes, being 50 should have its perks. One of them should definitely be that you no longer need to look like you are 20 and people would accept you, love you, even find you beautiful and attractive in a way that is suited to your age. My husband should be able to look at the wrinkles around my eyes and love that I have them because of all the times he has made me smile. He should love my bodacious figure because this body bore his children (and, hey, it’s not that bad…). But no… What happens is that a woman in her fifties today is just an old hag with nothing attractive or sexy to offer. And why is that? Because everything around us keeps saying that the prototype of a beautiful, sexy woman is a 15 year old model that has not even had her period yet (and is probably as dumb as a lamp). Why should I feel like every day I have to compete with a child with the curves and femininity of an adolescent boy?! Even when I shut down the stupid voice in my head that tells me I’m not good enough, I open my favorite magazine at lunch and there she is, making fun of me with an ad for a fat reducing cream. How can someone tell if the cream works when the model showing off the results has never had an ounce of fat on her body? You have got to be making fun of me and every other normal, healthy woman in the world…! Plus, I have to deal with my children. My seventeen-year old daughter starves herself sick, she is always complaining about how fat she is, how she wants to join a gym and be skinny like that girl from that H&M ad. I try to calm her down, I try to tell her that she is beautiful, skinny, healthy and just perfect. But she ignores me every time I try to reason with her (have iv Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 you ever tried to reason with a teenage girl?! It is probably the most difficult task I have had to do). All I feel like doing is shaking that little entitled, perfect Barbie and making her understand how wonderful she is, how she should be really happy about her beauty now because her looks won’t last forever - her skin won’t be flawless and everything will not be so perky and glowing in 20 years because time is a horrible horrible beast that takes away all of your prettiness and leaves you with hot flashes that take you to your kitchen at three AM to eat ice-cream. Now tell me – with a life like this, how can one wake up every day with glowing sun kissed skin and rock hard abs? Maybe I should join a gym and work out every day. Maybe I should live on a diet of nothing but lettuce and apples for three months before our summer holiday. Maybe then I could be as skinny and perfect as we all dream of being when we see that huge billboard of Kate Moss (it’s right outside my office) where she is wearing nothing but a bathing suit… But then again – why bother? I’m not young anymore. And I don’t have the time or life for that. (Besides, it’s almost dinner time, so I have to put down my issue of Vogue, stop complaining and produce a healthy family meal in 20 minutes). Am I the only one feeling like this and not even allowed to have time to be depressed...?” v Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 ABSTRACT The dissertation that is now presented, aims to study a social phenomenon that has gained increasing importance and study it under a commercial perspective, concluding about the impacts that it can bring for some markets. The purpose is to study the impact of the Fashion and Beauty advertisements models’ age on the purchase intention of female consumers over 50. This is a segment that has been gaining weight, expression and importance, and it is crucial to understand if it is been addressed with an effective communication strategy. This research, after identifying some gaps in the literature on this such contemporaneous topic, extracted those that seem to be the most important variables to develop a study and draw conclusions through statistical analysis and validation, about how women over 50 have been seeing the markets communication, and how it impacts on the purchase intention. In the first part of the study a deep review of the literature is made, providing a structured knowledge of what has already been studied by other authors on this topic, and on other matters related to or involved with this issue. In the second stage, the approach is quantitative. In the presented study 259 people were involved and asked to answer to a series of questions on the topics described above and according to their opinions and feelings towards some advertising images exhibited throughout the questionnaire. The results revealed that although some values are low to be considered significant almost all the relationships between the variables, suggested by the literature, have occurred. The results are very interesting and highly applicable outputs to the markets concerned. All findings related to this study are adequately summarized in Section 6. Key-Words: models’ age; purchase intention JEL: M31 – Marketing, M37 - Advertising vi Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 RESUMO A dissertação aqui apresentada pretende estudar um fenómeno social que tem ganho cada vez mais importância e estudá-lo sob a perspectiva comercial, concluindo que impactos podem acarretar para alguns mercados. No caso, o propósito é, então, estudar o impacto que a idade das modelos dos anúncios de Moda e Beleza tem nas intenções de compra das consumidoras com mais de 50 anos. Este é um segmento que tem ganho expressão, volume e importância e importa perceber se está a ser endereçado com estratégia de comunicação mais eficaz. Tendo identificado alguns gaps na literatura existente sobre este tópico tão contemporâneo, o presente estudo expõe aquelas que parecem ser as variáveis mais importantes para desenvolver esta investigação e tirar conclusões, com recurso à análise e validação estatística, sobre como as mulheres acima dos 50 anos vêm a comunicação, a forma como ela impacta na intenção de compra. Na primeira parte do estudo é feita uma profunda revisão da literatura, que proporciona um conhecimento estruturado do que já foi estudado por outros autores neste tópico, ou outros estão relacionados ou envolvidos com esta problemática. Na segunda fase, a abordagem é quantitativa. No estudo que agora se apresenta participaram 259 pessoas, às quais foi solicitado que respondessem a uma série de questões sobre os temas acima descritos e, em alguns casos, segundo as suas opiniões e sentimentos face às imagens a que foram expostas ao longo do questionário. Os resultados revelaram que, apesar de alguns valores se terem mostrado algo baixos para serem considerados significativos, quase todas as relações entre as variáveis sugeridas pela literatura se verificaram, resultando em outputs interessantes e com elevada aplicabilidade para os mercados em causa. Todas as conclusões relacionadas com este estudo se encontram devidamente resumidas na Secção 6. vii Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The concern with the right communication of a brand message to the target audience is something that is very present in the reality of almost all companies, especially in the Fashion and Beauty market, and the choice of the right models is becoming increasingly important. Over the years it has been visible the efforts to adapt the communication to an audience and some topics have earned their place in the discussion: racial diversity, models’ thinness, children image exploitation, women’s role representation, among others. With populations aging and incomes tending to be concentrated in the older age, is important to understand whether the market have redirect their efforts to adapt themselves to this reality. This is a trend that necessarily changes the market dynamics that have been concentrating much of its focus into a younger audience. And despite the gradual release of prejudice about the aging process, the truth is that not all the brands seem to communicate with this audience in the best way. More than ever, it is critical to understand the needs, motivations and barriers in the purchase of Fashion and Beauty from the older consumers. The dissertation that is now presented, aims to study this social phenomenon, that has been increasing gaining such importance, and study it under a commercial and marketing perspective. The purpose is to study the impact of the Fashion and Beauty advertisements models’ age on the purchase intention of female consumers over 50. This is a segment that has been gaining weight, expression and importance, and it is crucial to understand if it is been addressed with an effective communication strategy. Despite being a complex problem that deals with deep dimensions, this study tries to simplify the problematic and make it as practical as possible to study the relationships between some variables identified as most critical: (1) Self Perception ((a) Self Recognition in Fashion and Beauty Advertisements, (b) Self Beauty Perception (c) Overall Self Perception), (2) Identification with the Advertisement Piece, (3) Perceptions about the Advertisement Piece(4) Perceptions of the promoted Promotion (5) Purchase Intentions. All the analysis, tests and measurements of the variables listed before were made in duplicate and parallel using two counterpointing images; one with a younger model and another with an older model. The purpose was to draw some comparative conclusions. The entire analysis is based on the European consumers over 50 years and the Fashion and Beauty market, trying to address the lack of European studies on this matter. viii Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 In the first part of this study there is a deep review of the existing literature that provides a structured knowledge of what has already been studied by other authors on this topic, and others are related to, or involved with this issue. Many are the authors who have studied the aging process and the changes that it brings, particularly for women. There are also already some available literature that focuses on the importance of the targeted consumers to feel identified with the brands and the communication pieces that are addressed to them. Topics such the models’ race or body shape aroused particular interest by some authors in the past years. Although is still not much the literature that focuses on the theme being developed here, there are some theories and studies which greatly contribute to better understand the variables and phenomena involved in this process. In the second stage, the approach is quantitative. Seeking to complement all the findings and insights that the literature review could give, there is a field study collecting current and direct data to measure and study the variables and relations previously establish. In the study presented herein involved 259 people, to which they were asked to answer a series of questions on the topics described above and, in some cases, according to their opinions and feelings in relation to the images that have been exhibited throughout the questionnaire. The results revealed that although some values are low to be considered significant, almost all the relationships between the variables, suggested by the literature, have occurred. The results are very interesting and highly applicable outputs to the markets concerned. All findings related to this study are adequately summarized in Section 6. This study provides a contribute to the existing literature along several dimensions: namely by being still the only study that is measuring relationships between the defined variables, and once that are still few the studies concerned with the models’ age and the impacts for the more mature consumers, this investigation adds to the existing literature important conclusions about the impact on the purchase behavior and about some important drivers in the decision process of this segment. The revalidation in some cases, of the scales used can be an important contribution to future studies, as well as the new issues raised after the conclusions drawn. From a marketing perspective, a deep study on this issue may be what a lot of brands need to adapt their strategies and approaches and succeed in a marketplace that every day proves different. Brands’ audiences and targets are more and more comprised by older women that are looking for product and messages, differently than the younger ones and have a more complete and complex understanding of all brands expression. ix Fashion and Beauty Advertising Models’ Age and its Impact On Over 50 Female Consumers’ Purchase Intentions 2013 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Context and Investigation Problematic 1 1.1.1. Europe is getting old 1 1.1.2. Why should markets be aware of these trends? 2 1.1.3. Investigation Problematic 3 1.2. Main investigation objectives and questions 5 1.3. Structure of thesis 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.1. Understanding Aging Process 8 2.1.1. Concepts and definitions 8 2.1.2. Gender differences in ageing 10 2.1.3. Female consumers over 50 12 2.2. Self-Perception and Brands 15 2.2.1. The effect of self-congruity on relating to brands 16 2.3. Youth-centric Marketing 18 2.4. The Role of Advertising in Conceptualizing Age 20 2.4.1. Social, Moral and Ethical Implications 20 2.4.2. Gender differences 22 2.4.3. Management Implications 23 2.5. How to approach age? 24 2.5.1. Understanding the transformations 24 2.6. Older Models in Advertising: Yes or No? 26 2.6.1. Previous research 26 2.6.2. Marketers Passivity towards an Ageing European Population 29 3. CONTEXTUALIZATION 31 3.1. Market under analysis 31 3.1.1. Global Overview 31 3.1.2. Beauty and Cosmetics 31 3.1.3. Fashion and Apparel 33 3.1.4. The context in Portugal 34 3.2. Older Consumers and Brands 35 x