Consumer behavior regarding UV-protecting body products of working women in Bangkok

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to survey consumer behavior on the use of UVprotecting body products of working women in Bangkok by analysing information from questionnaires answered by 400 participants. The result of the research indicated that most of the respondents make 15,000 to 25,000 Baht per month, are business employees and have graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. The sources of UV that most respondents are exposed to are sunlight and light bulbs. Most of the participants are aware of the skin-damaging effects of UVA and UVB and consider skin darkening, freckles, skin discoloration and signs of premature ageing to be the most unwanted effects, respectively. However, only slightly more than 50% of the respondents were found to use UV-protecting products and product selections were found to be influenced mainly by the product characteristics and the quality of protection it offers. This research also focuses on consumer behavior regarding the reasons for not using UV products at all as well as on the irregular and inconsistent consumers’ reasons for the irregularity and inconsistency of product usage. Those consumers reasoned that the sticky feel on their palms, oily skin and having dust particles stick onto their skin after the application caused them to disregard the use of the UV-protecting body products despite their awareness of the harmful effects of UV exposure. The results signified that those consumers perceive application of the products with their palms as the most undesirable but unavoidable method. This gives way to a creation of product package designed in favour of application-aid which is discussed in Chapter5 of this paper. However, this research not only discusses consumer behaviour on the use of UVprotecting body products but also includes the varieties of the product forms available in the market, description of some of the products from popular brands, the FDA and EU allowed ingredients in UV-protecting products and reasons why the use of such products should be given importance to.