Marketing Management

Lipsticks The Market Entry Strategy

Submitted to: Prof. Srinivas Prakhya

Submitted by: Group 5 - Section: D

Amit Kumar Raman Ankita Negi Jefferson Kaduvinal Abraham Nitin Dhawan Vishnu P 1011225 1011229 1011244 1011259 1011293

Table of Contents
Brief on the Current Market ....................................................................................................................1 Business Analysis for Lipsticks .................................................................................................................1 Customers ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Market size and growth ......................................................................................................................1 Benefits that consumer is seeking ......................................................................................................1 Decision maker ....................................................................................................................................2 Retail channel ......................................................................................................................................2 Consumer Information Sources ..........................................................................................................2 Buying Process.....................................................................................................................................2 Frequency of purchase & seasonal factors .........................................................................................2 Quantity purchased at a time..............................................................................................................2 Companies ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Competition............................................................................................................................................. 4 Lakmes strategy..................................................................................................................................5 Collaborators ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Environment ............................................................................................................................................ 6 FDA Regulation/Self Regulation: .........................................................................................................6 Regulation in Indian Context: ..............................................................................................................7 Social/Cultural environment: ..............................................................................................................7 Finding & Positioning for the Target Market ..........................................................................................8 Market Segmentation .........................................................................................................................8 On the basis of Geography ..............................................................................................................8 Population Demographics ...............................................................................................................9 Psychographic Characteristics .......................................................................................................10 Behavioural Characteristics ...........................................................................................................10 Target Market....................................................................................................................................10 Positioning .........................................................................................................................................10 Consumer Behavior Analysis .................................................................................................................11 The A-C-V Analysis .............................................................................................................................11 The Onion Peel Framework ...............................................................................................................12 Our Product Offering: ............................................................................................................................16 Product ..............................................................................................................................................17 Pricing ................................................................................................................................................ 18

Promotion..........................................................................................................................................18 Sales promotion can be-................................................................................................................18 Advertising in media......................................................................................................................19 Public Relation (Spin) ....................................................................................................................20 Placement..........................................................................................................................................20 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................................21 Transcript of Interview Priya ..........................................................................................................21 Transcript of Interview Hina ...........................................................................................................26 Transcript of Interview Vinita .........................................................................................................30 Transcript of Interview Neha ..........................................................................................................34 Transcript of Interview Kusha ........................................................................................................38 Transcript of Interview Richa .........................................................................................................42 Transcript of Interview Deepika .....................................................................................................46 Transcript of Interview Bhairavi .....................................................................................................50 Appendix B ............................................................................................................................................55 Appendix C: Vote for Popular Lipstick ...................................................................................................60

Brief on the Current Market

Lipstick remained the most important make-up product in India, accounting for nearly 47% of colour cosmetics sales in 2009. It is used by most rural and urban middle-class women in India but majority of Indian women are irregular and unsophisticated users of make-up. Some brands have launched premium packaging and products with added benefits such as long-wearing products and rich shades or colour with glitter or shimmer targeting festive occasions like marriages. Products which claim to have natural or herbal ingredients find greater patronage among Indian consumers although benefits of mineral make-up remains low and consumers associate mineral make-up with being good for skin and natural. Several domestic brands are positioning themselves as herbal and natural to exploit the market. The global retail value of premium cosmetics usage is $40 per household while that of India is Rs 2.8 ($0.0625) per household. This huge gap is an indicator of the growth potential in premium cosmetics sector. One important statistic that has been observed in the rural-urban lipstick market is that close to 11% of the rural female population uses lipstick compared to the 22% among the urban population. This gives us a 3:1 ratio of rural-urban users. Raja Lipstick owns 79% of the rural market. Another differentiating factor between the rural and urban markets is the application factor how many layers a woman applies on an average. While this factor stands at 1.1 for the urban woman, it is at a 2.5 high for rural women. This translates into higher lipstick usage among the rural population. The rural market therefore presents a lot of opportunities for growth. But due to the lack of time we could not go into the details of the rural market and confined ourselves to the urban market only.

Business Analysis for Lipsticks

Let us look at the factors for analyzing our market and the current business trends to draw some conclusions.

Customers
Market size and growth
The market size of lip products in 2009 was 7,970.9 million. Since the gap between the average retail value of Indian household consumption and world average consumption is very large $ 39.9375 per household, hence the potential for growth is very large. The increase in the number of working women, higher disposable income and social expectation [at work] is expected to drive the growth in this segment.

Benefits that consumer is seeking

A consumer looks for many facets when choosing a lipstick. They are both tangible and intangible benefits. When a person applies a lipstick they believe it makes them look prettier and improves their facial features. Different colours are marked as different symbols of social status. Typically ladies would use a lipstick to boost their self confidence and look attractive. A gloss gives a

shimmering appearance to the lips, whereas other lipsticks with matte effect would provide only colour. There are added benefits such as a moisturising effect and smoothening of lips.

Decision maker
The decision of buying a lipstick could be ones own or with certain inputs from others. The others here may be characterised as mother, friends, relatives, spouse or simply the saleswoman displaying the colours to you.

Retail channel
Women usually buy lipsticks and other cosmetics from Retail chains and outlets in malls where they get varied brands under one roof. Branded boutiques cater to customers who are very certain about the lipstick which they need to buy and are brand loyal. Small towns have departmental stores where lipsticks can be purchased.

Consumer Information Sources

Consumers come across information about existing and new products of different brands through a variety of channels. Print media (newspapers and magazines), visual media (TV commercials) and electronic media (emails and advertisements) are major sources of information for women. A friends review may also help in introducing new brands of lipsticks. Women are conscious of the changing trends and fashion statements made and get inspired from celebrities wearing new colours and their endorsements.

Buying Process
The buying process for a lipstick is mostly need-driven and is occasional. A careful selection from a wide variety of shades available within budget is done where the customer would look out for options that meet the need of the hour. Purchase usually happens if a close alternative is met in terms of shade, brand, quality and budget. Impulse buying is likely but it is always reasoned out by the lady through some quality of the lipstick or the unforeseen need. The discounts also add to the impulsive buying routine.

Frequency of purchase & seasonal factors

Certain repurchases happen when a woman runs out of her favourite lipstick colour or finds lesser options to choose from. Purchases of lipstick shades are made to match with traditional dresses for weddings or other significant occasions like interviews. Multiple lipsticks are bought for soon to-be-brides who would need lipsticks for every dress as a newlywed. Close female relatives of the brides and groom will also buy lipsticks to match with their dresses if they need. If lipstick goes bad or has reached its expiry date, then they are thrown and new ones are bought. There is an opportunity for introducing smaller packs, similar to that of nail polish, which smoothens demand and more units will be purchased due to lesser price point which will be affordable to larger section of people.

Quantity purchased at a time

Generally one or very few lipsticks are bought at a time. 2

Companies
The Indian color cosmetics sector was worth over Rs. 13.8 billion in 2009, representing a growth rate of over 26% compared to the previous year. The color cosmetics segment is extremely competitive and has a very high penetration level of over 80%. Out of this, lipstick sales account for nearly 47%, making it the most important make-up product in India. Lipstick is used by most women from the urban and rural areas in India. Color cosmetics in India are dominated by multinationals and the top three players in this field are Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Modi Revlon Pvt. Ltd. And LOreal India Pvt. Ltd. Together these three accounted for over 64% of the total sales in 2009. Hindustan Unilever leads with a 25% value share. Lakme, also owned by HUL, owns 18% of the market by value. This makes it the largest cosmetics brand in India. Revlon holds a market share of 19% while LOreal holds 14% of the market by value. Lakme is the first introduction to make-up for many young girls and is the mainstay of the makeup used by mature middle-aged women in small cities and towns as well. The presence of international brands however is still restricted with penetration levels of only 20%. The primary reason for this dismal level is high pricing. After gaining initial sales on their brand names, they were unable to bring in repeat purchases. In order to retain their sales growth most of them have had re-formulate pricing strategies to tap the large Indian middle class. Foreign brands tend to target women in the upper income range from the 25-30 age categories as this group prefers better products and is willing to pay a premium for international quality products. Estimates put the number of this segment at close to 10 million. Some of the major international players include Avon, Burberrys, Calvin Klein, Cartier, Christian Dior, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Lancome, Chambor, Yardley, Wella, Schwarzkopf, Escada, Nina Ricci and Yves St.Laurent. Two new brands, BeYu and Faces were launched in India in 2009. Premium, standard and economy brands are mainly differentiated by their pricing and distribution strategies. While premium brands like M.A.C are available exclusively only at department stores and with beauty specialists, standard brands in the medium range like Lakme and economy brands such as Eyetex by Aravind Laboratories are available at most grocery and health and beauty outlets. Premium brands are not widely available outside of metros and get most of their sales from Mumbai and Delhi. These premium brands accounted for only 4% of the sales by value in 2009. M.A.C was the leading premium brand in 2009 and raked in 54% of the premium color cosmetics sales. Other leading brands include Clarins and Clinique. Most of these brands are sold through beauty specialists and department stores. They are also characterized by significantly higher price points, limited distribution and targeted clientele. Artistry was one of the few premium brands that engaged in direct selling. Lipstick is used by most urban and rural women in India. Economy brands like Eyetex Dazller are available for prices as low as Rs.60/-. Lakme and Revlons Street Wear, which normally cater to the mass market, upgraded their portfolio in 2009 introducing new features like long-wearing products and rich shades or colors with glitter and shimmer for festive occasions. Avon and Oriflame have also positioned themselves as mass brands. Revlon Colorstay and LOreal Paris define themselves as masstige brands. They differentiate themselves from mass brands through slightly higher prices, more premium packaging and the use of international celebrities for endorsements. Lakme and StreatWear both launched products with premium packaging in 2009. They employ elements like higher quality plastics and metallic trimmings and colors in their packaging to portray a more refined 3

image. In yet another smart method at marketing, Colorbar Cosmetics Pvt Ltd launched Hollywood Lights Lip gloss which was packaged in a tube with self-illuminating LED light in the applicator. Packaging design was a key factor in attracting consumers and triggering impulse purchases in 2009. The top lipstick brands in India today arei: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Lakme Revlon Oriflame LOreal Chambor Maybelline Avon MAC ColorBar Street wear

The top 10 lipsticks in India as of today are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. M.A.C Lip Conditioner Almost Lipstick by Clinique Lancome Aqua Fusion Levers Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipstick Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Plump Perfect Lip Moisture Cream Max Factor Color Perfection Lipstick in Berry Bourjois Night Lip Balm Shiseido The Makeup Perfecting Lipstick Chanel Super Hydrabase Lipstick Cashmere LOreal Colour Riche Lipcolour in Raspberries

The market share of the major Lipstick brands in the US, which is the single largest consumer of lip care products, is given in Appendix B.

Competition
In terms of competition while the Indian lipstick market has been dominated by a few major Indian players like Lakme, there has been intense entry by foreign firms. Since India represents an extremely price sensitive market, foreign players need to work out innovative pricing and product strategies to suit the Indian preference and establish a hold in the market space. Given that Indians do not prefer to fork out large amounts at one go, many companies have launched their lipsticks in smaller sizes to make it more affordable to the consumers while at the same time giving them the opportunity to try out newer products. HUL and Revlon were the first to introduce the small pack sizes. Revlon introduced its small range of lipsticks. This strategy was soon picked up by other major players in the market. The consumers have also benefitted from the intense competition among the different players. There has been a tremendous increase in the range of new products being introduced for newer 4

application concepts. New products include smudge-proof lipstick, liquid lip colour and long-stay lipsticks. In addition to providing consumers with a larger choice, the introduction of specialised products has also led to a growth in volumes and has allowed companies to price products at a premium thereby driving value growth.

Lakmes strategy
Lakmes strategy in promoting its brand of lipsticks is to portray lipsticks as a product of everyday usage. It focuses on the theme of Lakme woman - confidence at work, naturally. The idea projected by Lakme in its commercials is You never know whos watching our lips today. As market leader Lakme understands that it needs to grow the category by increasing usage. The campaign therefore seeks to de-niche lipsticks from being an occasion specific wear to that of everyday wear. The major battle that most players in the Indian market have to contend with is the perception in the customers mind If I wear lipstick everyday then how will I look special on special occasions? The idea then is to make lips the focal point. While in India the hair and the face have always been the focal point, the lips have never been in much prominence. Lakme seeks to change which it has done in the recent scenario by coming out with different ranges of products to suit different requirements.

Lakme: Bridal make up Competition is also driven intensely by innovative marketing strategies like point-of-sale advice and beauty counselling. These methods have been very successful at gaining attention, creating product awareness and overcoming consumers lack of familiarity and fear of using lipstick. Strong brand promotions, good distribution network and continuous product and quality innovation have helped drive growth for many of the major players.

Collaborators
India has a wide market base for lipsticks, be it the rural India, suburban cities or the metropolitans. We have distributors at all levels, small, medium and large. Mass manufacturers such as Modi for 5

Revlon have been large scale distributors in India. At the same time a whole lot of small scale manufacturers are also present in the market.ii Today, finding a small cosmetics shop in every nook and corner is easy. The malls also have a large variety of dedicated cosmetics stall lined up to give the customer more choices at one go. Recently, dedicated retail stores like Health & Glow concentrating on beauty and well being have started. For a long time, cosmetics and drugs have been somewhat associated and thus they found place in the pharmacy as over-the-counter drugs according to FDA guidelines. Products like sunscreens, antiperspirants and hair care products easily identified as OTC drugs but manufacturers of lipsticks were then required to demonstrate product safety and efficacy to gain FDA approval. Certain collaborations are needed to showcase products as safe and get safety approvals. Among these products such as lipsticks need FDA approval for meeting the safety benchmarks. Environmental issues such as animal testing, products that are responsible for depletion of the ozone layer (traces of chlorofluorocarbons), products having Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC) blamed for ground level ozone depletion and non degradable had to be dealt with urgency. Hence, companies marketed and collaborated to make sure their products are termed as bio-degradable, ozone-friendly, animal-friendly and recyclable. A concern for healthy products also came about after the environmental concerns were met. Thus, increased use of natural products containing ingredients such as proteins, vitamins, botanical ingredients like aloe, coca, berry extracts were introduced.iii Healthy collaboration between the traditional departmental stores and the distributors was seen at early stages. Brands such as Revlons Street Wear and Loreals Maybelline were targeted at the mass market and could thrive well through the collaborations made with departmental stores and malls. India allows the entry of imported cosmetics with a high import tariff. Most foreign cosmetics companies selling premium brands have had a difficult time developing the low volume premium market in India. Many had to re-work price strategies towards the mass segment. Sometimes, poor assessment of the size of the upper middle and high-income groups, and price sensitivity even within these groups, had added to their problems beside price. There is a big market for not just lipsticks but also products closely related to it, such as the lipstick case, holders, pouches etc meant specially to keep lipsticks. China has tapped to this market in an innovative manner; they have produced not just products that are needed for lipsticks but erasers and candy in the shape of a lipstick for childreniv. Lip balms for kids also have been shaped as lipsticks to catch the fancy of children at young age. Glosses have a huge teenage market of its own. Lipsticks from Oriflame, Amway and Avon follow a different strategy of direct selling through a group of people who typically socialise and influence. They do not sell from shops in the traditional manner. Their collaborations are entirely with the people.

Environment
FDA Regulation/Self Regulation: The primary incentives for industry self-regulation are
twofold: 1) industry image, and 2) industry independence. Protecting industry image entails the maintenance of favorable consumer perceptions of safety levels in order to achieve steady retail 6

sales. Protecting industry independence entails ensuring adequate industry safety levels in order to avoid the need for increased federal regulation which would externally impose more stringent requirements upon the industry. FDA pays less attention to cosmetics than drugs. However, FDA does prohibit or restrict a number of ingredients from use, like: Bithionol, Chlorofluorocarbon propellants, Chloroform, Halogenated salicylanilides (di-, tri-, metabromsalan and tetrachlorosalicylanilide), Methylene chloride, Vinyl chloride, Vinyl chloride, Vinyl chloride, Hexachlorophene, Mercury compounds. All other ingredients (raw materials) are allowed.

Regulation in Indian Context: Indian regulations are based on the provisions of Indian Drug
and Cosmetic Act (1940) and the rules made there get amended from time to time. Manufacturing license for sale is granted by the FDA of the specific State wherein the manufacturing unit is located and no separate license is required for sale of cosmetics. Manufacturer is required to submit the relevant information pertaining to the formulation, raw materials used and their specifications, product quality specifications and safety data in support of the formulation. The information is reviewed by local (State) FDA and a cosmetic license is granted or otherwise. There is considerable variation in the norms followed by each State for reviewing the license applications in absence of specific guidelines on the drug/cosmetic domains and nature of cosmetic claims that could be allowed.

Technological Environment: Traditional lipstick formulations were designed to impart only

colour. Today's consumers however seek more benefits. The challenge for today's product formulators is to maintain a product that applies colour while at the same time incorporating benefits such as moisture-retention, gloss, long-lasting wear and transfer resistance. Applicators that allow a product to be brushed on, sponged on, or rolled on and ingredients that add gloss have generated products with the colour transference of a lipstick but the shine and wet look of a gloss. Also, formulators are faced with increasingly complex compositions in order to meet the escalating requirements of the lip care market. Today's more robust formulations that allow for the incorporation of sunscreens and moisturisers in colour lip products have made a cross over product one that functions both as a colour cosmetic and a lip protection.

Economic environment: In addition to the social and political concerns surrounding animal
testing, environmentalism, and product safety, the industry gets also affected by the economic situation. The lipstick products industry had established a recession proof image when people started spending more on relatively cheaper cosmetics product. Recent downturn in global economy has influenced consumer attitudes towards the kind of products people buy. Instead of going to the spa, they are spending more time at home indulging in skin treatments with unique textures or hightech functions, making them feel special and luxurious.

Social/Cultural environment: According to Li Edelkoort, one of the worlds best known

trend forecasters, there is an interesting connection between body, lips, and timeframe, influenced by focus and proportion. Many factors come into play when analyzing lipstick trends: emphasis on particular body parts, celebrities of the time, and most importantly, the economic and financial status of society in general. Consumers in the baby-boom generation, eager to reduce wrinkles and smooth out other skin defects, but at the same time they want to opt for natural and nutrients rich alternatives, e.g. Nutricosmetics. The rise of ethical consumerism, pressure for the beauty industry to clean up from the media and NGOs, is gaining importance along with the issue of biodiversity and sustainable packaging.

Finding & Positioning for the Target Market

Market Segmentation
After studying the secondary literature available on the lip colour market we decided to segment the population on the following lines before we made a choice of whom t target. While our decision is to primarily focus on India parallels are often drawn with the global scenario. Our first understanding from the study was that preferences were often clustered. The need that a woman seeks from the use of a lip colour is never the same between two people. However it is quite possible to create very fluid segments for populations that look for almost the same benefit. On the basis of Geography 1. Global and National regions: One characteristic that sets the American and European female population apart from the general South Asian females is the skin tone. Caucasian skin tones are extremely light and the preference in these markets is heavily on the pink colour as it accentuates and complements their facial complexion. The population in India can further be segregated into two major parts North India and South India. The women in the North generally tend to have wheatish complexion and hence their preferences are toward natural pink colours. The women in the South being of darker skin tones generally prefer to use brown shades as they go best with their facial complexion. It must therefore be kept in mind to customise the range of shades and to ensure product availability such as to be more biased to either the darker tones or the lighter tones depending on either of the two regions. It must however be noted that this is no hard barrier between the north and the south but rather a gradual change. Hence we can safely conclude that offering an entire range of shades will be sufficient to cater to the entire market. The preferences must however be kept in mind in stock keeping. 2. Cities with different population levels: Larger metropolitan cities would have well developed metro transport systems that will carry a significant volume of the female population daily. Such channels then become ideal for promotional campaigns in the larger cities like Delhi, Bombay and Chennai. For smaller cities promotions would need to be skewed to shopping outlets and magazines. 3. Rural vs. Urban: These are two very distinct segments that have emerged from our secondary study. Women in these two regions differ in their preferences of colour, price, packaging, awareness and use of makeup. Rural women prefer more vibrant and gaudy colours. They are extremely price conscious and would prefer lowest cost items. They are heavily influenced by colourful packaging and therefore packaging serves as one means to attract a significant customer base. Their awareness of brands is minimal. The rural market is a high growth potential market. The urban market on the other hand has women who are more interested in value for money rather than low cost. They want good quality products and natural looks. Muted and nude colours are more preferred and brand awareness is quite high. The promotional themes would also differ starkly between the two regions the rural women should be targeted on the theme of beauty. For the urban women the key benefit that should be conveyed is that of confidence.

Population Demographics 1. Age: We divided the Indian female population in 6 categories on the basis of age teenage, early twenties, late twenties, early thirties, late thirties and forties and beyond. a. Teenage: want shine, shimmer, and cute pink colours. They are willing to experiment. They have a limited budget b. Early twenties: tend to focus still on pink, but no longer baby colours but rather more natural shades. Quality starts becoming a consideration. Shine and Gloss are still important. c. Late twenties: They prefer muted shades and lip gloss. Mostly use matte colours for the office. They tend to try more nude shades. Moisturising effects are now important. d. Early and Late thirties: More matte, mature look and brown shades e. Forties and beyond: The use of lip products in this category is more for lip care. There is a small minority that uses heavy makeup in this category 2. Occupation: We segmented the Indian market into the following three categories on the basis of occupation. a. Students: Our focus here was on college undergraduates. They tend to try bubbly pink colours, with shine and shimmer. They use low priced products and are willing to experiment more. However they appear to be quite aware of fashion and brands. They might display hesitance to use lip colours. They tend to prefer more of lip gloss. b. Working Professionals: These women prefer muted colours, more matte and value moisturising benefits. They avoid shine and the made up look. They key requirement is to appear good and presentable without being overt in their use of makeup. c. Housewives: These women have very little usage at home. However they tend to use prominent colours and shine when they attend parties and traditional family gatherings like marriages. 3. Marital Status: One segment that interested us during our study was the newly married woman. This lady tends to use more of the lip colour. This is necessitated by her recent change in social status and the need to continuously meet and host relatives and friends. While they tend to use prominent colours, anything that is garish and gaudy is avoided. However this segment is extremely transient since the population tends to quickly move out of this phase. 4. Education: We tried to focus on two categories in this case which made sense to us a. Graduates and Post Graduates in urban centres: They have better brand awareness. For them the natural look is important. They tend to associate quality with price and brands. They follow magazines and are aware of the latest fashion practices. This segment relates to elegance as an important theme. b. Uneducated females in towns and rural areas: They tend to be swayed more by the packaging, colour and price. They tend to see it as just another commodity and hence want the lowest prices. They like gaudy colours and buff packaging. Their brand awareness is minimal. This classification is very similar to the rural-urban classification by geography.

Psychographic Characteristics 1. Socio-Economic Classification: There are two categories that caught our attention when we used this classification. a. High-society: Actors, business women and the red-carpet regulars. Being flawless is the theme that runs through this segment. They do not need the lipstick for confidence but rather for perfection. They are extremely brand conscious. b. Working Professionals: For these women confidence is the key theme. They want to be identified as being good looking in their natural state and hence would not want a made up look. These women are brand aware and price conscious. 2. Lifestyle: Two key lifestyles were identified. Socialites and party goers want brighter and more prominent colours. More responsible and mature women prefer a natural look. 3. Personality: Highly confident and Intellectual women prefer more natural colours. Brighter colours are preferred by the more expressive and assertive women. Outgoing women prefer more cheerful colours and the reserved and modest categories like muted mattes. Behavioural Characteristics 1. Occasions: For parties and traditional events like family gatherings and marriages women tend to prefer brighter and prominent colours. For regular daily use they would prefer light nude colours and moisturising benefits. For office and evening wear mattes are preferred in muted tones with no or little shine. 2. Benefits: There are several key benefits that in varying degrees drive the choice of the lipstick like style statement, confidence, fashion, emotive expression, beauty, and health 3. Usage rate: We identified two categories here. The frequent user who is in minority sees the lipstick usage as a mechanistic process. The other category which uses lipstick for specific occasions constitutes a customer base for which we can increase the frequency and amount of usage.

Target Market
After analysing the different product offerings that are available in the market place and the segments that they target we decided to follow a single segment concentration strategy. We identified our target audience as the urban educated working professional in her early/late twenties. The product offering that we are planning is a muted matte colour with an adjustable degree of shine that will be promoted as an office wear and a product for formal occasions

Positioning
The value proposition that we are planning to offer is confidence for woman on the go. Our product which is offered in a wide variety of shades mostly concentrates on the pinks and the browns which match most natural skin tones. The objective is to provide the consumer with the most natural look possible. The packaging is designed to be used in a hassle-free manner and can be conveniently carried around. The product also offers an application of gloss to allow varying degrees of shine and shimmer as the consumer thinks fit for the occasion. The liquid colour that is also provided gives a matte finish but is smoother and easier to apply with moisturising benefits. The colour has enhanced staying power and does not leave any stains and is easy to remove. We are planning on introducing it in the Rs.400-500/- range. We plan to focus on magazines and malls as our primary advertising medium. We also plan to harness the youtube as an open source medium of 10

spreading the word. Another significant strategy we have planned is the use of Haul videos to ignite a social media revolution in the field of cosmetics. We plan to offer our product mostly in the retail outlets and malls. The image we wish to portray is that of a high quality product that is appropriate for regular use.

Consumer Behavior Analysis

The A-C-V Analysis

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The Onion Peel Framework

The primary interviews that we conducted offered several insights into how women think, feel and reason with regards to their decision making process for all questions involving their choice of lip colour. The following are few of the observations that we have made: 1. Mental Segmentation by the Consumer Almost all the respondents that we interviewed had segmented the users of lipcolor on t the basis of age. The respondents observed that the older women tended to use more of lipstick and more toned down or deeper shades than their younger counterparts. The younger women on the other hand seem to have an overwhelming liking for lip gloss. They want lighter and more energetic shades with shine and glimmer. This sort of segmentation is self selffulfilling in the sense that all women seem to have this distinction in their mind and their buying choice gets modified accordingly. 2. The most primal need bei satisfied confidence being All the women we interviewed focussed on this one feeling. The use of the lipcolor makes them feel more confident. The top level emotions that were discussed in our conversations centred around the objective of looking good. Putting these two together we would like to Putting infer that women link their confidence with their looks. It is as though the use of the lipstick improves their concept of how they look and this in turn helps to boost their confidence. 3. The idea of exclusivity

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One thing that continually seemed to bother us was how women obtain the exclusivity feeling. Most of the luxury fashion snob goods derive their value from being able to display or flaunt the product. But this cant be done with a lip product. The answers that we got in this regard reinforce the confidence equation mentioned previously. The self-knowledge that they are using a premium product is more than sufficient for them to feel exclusive. They dont seem to want or dont seem to bother if others know or not that they are using a premium product. The self-satisfaction that they get from the use of a premium product gives them the feeling of exclusivity. The occasion influences the choice of look This aspect was uniformly observed across all women. They seem to associate a look with the specific occasion. For formal events like office wear, they would prefer toned down and deeper shades. For parties and traditional gatherings they would prefer more prominent colors and shine. The distinct impression we got was for the former events they want to look good without looking made up. On the other hand for the latter case they definitely want to show that they are dressed up and presentable. We believe this has great significance in the promotional ad campaigns we use. The choice of the setting in the ads should match the product offering we make in this regard. They want to look good but dont want anyone to know how Most of the women we interviewed are from the upper middle income segment. The prominent feeling here is they seem to want to show that they look good but they want it to be as natural as possible. The association that seems to have formed in the consumers mind is people use it when they dont look perfect. Hence they dont want to consider the fact that they are not perfect. They dont want others either to consider that fact and hence would like the product to look as natural as possible. Again we can relate to the confidence factor. Somehow they want to look good but appear so without using the product. Hence using the product actually seems to enhance their self-worth provided they appear as natural as possible Feelings that consumers associate with their looks Most of the people we interviewed spoke of how the use of lip color made them feel. The adjectives used were pretty, beautiful, elegant, feminine, sensual and sexy. The feelings were affected by the color and shade. For example pink was often described as a cute, happy happy, nice, fresh color. It seems to indicate that pink was associated with naturalness and youth. Red on the other hand was variously described as hot, sexy or in your face colour. Brown was mostly associated with being aged. The choice of what the person wants to feel depends on the occasion. When they are in a formal setting most of them wanted to look elegant and ladylike. On the other hand for events like parties they wanted to look sensual and sexy. Hence again the background setting that we might portray in our ad campaign must match the product offering as mentioned before. Skin Tone All women we interviewed had their facial tone as the base criterion for the choice of the color. The lip colour chosen must augment their natural facial tone. Here again we can see the feeling of looking good while being as natural as possible being manifested. Dress Associations All of them also had the dress colour as a criterion while choosing their lip colour. They seem to associate lighter colours with light colored dresses. For example white, yellow, blue and 13

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pink dresses overwhelmingly voted for pink colours while darker dresses like green and black were paired with darker colours like brown and coffee. Fixation with the lip colour The natural look comes into play here too. All of our respondents had an overwhelming preference for pink and brown. The distribution was also very specific. Fair skinned folks seemed to want exclusively different shades of pink. It was always the search for the perfect pink colour that matched my skin. Darker toned people on the other hand were invariably drawn to the brown shades as they appeared most natural on their lips. We again have something to consider in our choice of props while we prepare our promotions strategy. Buying from malls The segment we are trying to target seems to buy mostly from retail chains and outlets rather than from branded boutiques. There was a uniform feeling of discomfort that was hinted at when they tried shopping from branded boutiques. They felt that the atmosphere was snobby and suffocating and they found it harder to leave the place without buying something even if they didnt want it. On the other hand most people said that malls offered them a wider choice in terms of brands. However some of them did indicate that if they are decided on a brand then they would prefer boutiques as it helps them narrow down. For our target audience this gives us a fairly good picture on the distribution channels that we will need to target. Feeling Lost Most of the women we interviewed admitted to often feeling lost when they were confronted with so many varieties of cosmetic products. The feelings often ranged from frustration to helplessness. These women have choose different ways to get out of such sort of situations. One woman described a limitation process of first limiting the color, then the brand and finally the price to help her narrow down the choices. Most of the others however indicated that they rely on their shopping companions for advice. This gives us some insight on how we should possibly arrange and display the products in the stores to avoid this effect. The presence of shopping companions 90% of the women we interviewed said they shop for their cosmetics with their friends or relatives. Its interesting to analyse this scenario because of several reasons. One of the functions that a companion serves was explained in the previous point. These companions often provide advice and suggestions to the consumer on the product choice. However how these opinions were received were very fascinating. When the opinions reinforced the consumers own opinions they were taken into consideration. However when they were in contrast, more often than not they were rejected. Most women said I listen to my friends suggestions but the decision is finally mine. Somehow these companions serve the purpose of helping the consumer solidify a choice that she has already made. Product Positioning preferences We gave the respondents two choices keep the same colours of all brands together OR keep all colours of one brand together. Most respondents chose the second one. The first case added to their confusion and the second case gave them the opportunity to look at other colours as well. This could potentially affect how we place our products in the display. Word of Mouth advertising and online/print recommendations

14

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

All women that we interviewed said that they dont provide any online reviews. They dont visit the cosmetics websites. They might casually browse through fashion magazines. The most interesting observation however was the fact that they dont give feedback to their immediate circle unless specifically asked for or unless the topic comes up for discussion. But when they do give feedback in such a scenario they carry a lot of weight. This shows that the choice of the communication channels to the consumer needs to be properly evaluated Packaging The packaging of the lipstick affects the consumers buying decision. Most women agreed that they would like a luxurious packaging however they were insistent that they would not be willing to shell out a larger amount unless the product was top-notch quality. Another observation that we made is that most of the women in our target segment carry the lipstick along with them. Hence packaging with respect to convenience in handling is important. Hence our package design is a potential means to attract the consumer. Fluid Colour Preferences All respondents said that when they go for purchasing a lipstick they go with a set colour in mind. However once they reach the store they are willing to change the choice of their colour or shade if they like something else. This gives us a trade-off situation offering greater variety so that the consumer could potentially like and hence buy more varieties. But on the other hand we could end up confusing the consumer if we offer too many. Price Sensitivity and Quality associations The women we interview had price ranges from around Rs.200/- to Rs.1000/-. While most women said that they would try and stick to their budget, on being asked if they say a lip colour that they loved and the price was beyond their budget if they would still buy it, most of them said yes. Hence most of the mental price limits are not hardstops. However the degree to which they were willing to stretch varied widely. While some people were not concerned about price at all others were willing to go beyond their limit by only Rs.100/-. Another important observation we made was most women associate quality with price. Something that is priced low is considered to be a cheap and bad-quality product. Hence we must be careful in pricing our product so that we dont convey a negative image about our product while at the same time managing to capture maximum audience. Choosing Time This was one of the areas that we saw huge variation in responses. Some people made their choice in 15mins while others stretched it out as long as 1.5hours. Some of them tried on 4-5 shades before deciding while other had to try on 10-15 shades. This wide variation shows us that our store planning must be such that we facilitate maximum comfortable setting for our customers. Attention All the women said that the use of the lipstick drew attention to them. Some of them hinted that people attention was often focussed on their lips. Most of them see this as natural and even seem to enjoy it. The point to note here is we do not know if they are actually able to draw attention but rather that they perceive so. We feel that this should therefore be a prominent theme in our ads. Application Process Another aspect on which there was a huge difference among the population was on the way they applied their lipcolour. It ranged from very simple to very complex. While some women 15

21.

22.

23.

24.

choose to simply dab it on their lips others would prefer a single application. Others follow the traditional style of blotting out and reapplying a second time to give greater colour. Some of them even have two to three of their own ways of applying the lipstick based on the effect they want Value for texture A common need that most women wanted was the smoothness in product formulation so that application was easy. They considered the texture that it imparted to their lips quite important. Some of the words used to describe the texture were amplified, lustre and satin. While most women prefer matte for office applications they feel that its hard to apply. Hence this is something that we can consider as a product improvement in our offering. Product Usage and awareness The normal time duration for which a lipstick lasts is around 2-3 months. This was the case with the women we interviewed. However some of them seem to not keep track of the usage and when it gets over or when they should replenish. One of the respondents said This survey is making me realise that I havent bought one in a very long time so I need to go and buy one. Another important fact is that while in the western world most women associate the usage of lipstick as a mechanistic process, it is not yet so in India. Women have to remember to wear it. Hence this gives us a chance to utilize our efforts to increase the usage among the urban women and also to probably pull in more consumers. Awareness of contents and consciousness of environmental impact Animal testing and the presence of lead content in lipsticks are two issues that have rocked the industry very often. We wanted to know how our audience reacted or reconciled to this issue. It was surprising to find that most of them displayed either ignorance or indifference. Some said Its not an issue at all or I dont care or I have never thought of it until now. Others were of the view that bigger brands would take care not to do things like that. While this shows that the population is not too sensitive to such issues we must try and brand ourselves as producing responsible products. This gives us another chance at creating a different segment. Negative Experiences and Associations When we asked them why people dont use lipstick if it gives them confidence, some of them felt that people often associate lipstick with dry lips. That could potentially be one reason why people are moving from lipsticks to lipgloss. Others have had bad experiences like flaky lipsticks or smudging or peeling, or coarse or sticky. While these give us chances to improve our products it also shows us that a lot of the issues can be resolved by properly educating the consumers.

Our Product Offering:

After analyzing the market and narrowing down our research to find our target audience, we have now come to a stage where we can offer a product and strategize the possible ways of marketing it. We have also tried to understand our consumers behavior through in-depth interviews and have taken the popular choice for choosing our product by conducting a vote between two products

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amongst our target audience. The results showed a remarkable popularity (80%) for the product we will be offering and is attached as appendix B as Table 11.

Product
Many a times it speaks the attitude of women in a particular make-up. Our target audience is the modern Indian women who go to offices and want to be taken seriously for their work. They do have a fun side to them when they want to break free from shackles of society. Mabellines new range of lipsticks called Gorgeous Me is our new product.

Gorgeous Me lipstick Thus, our motivation of making Gorgeous Me lipsticks was that it could give 3 completely different looks came about. It has two separate compartments, one filled with a basic liquid colour to suit the office look and other with a gloss to give lips the moisture or shine just enough for any day. A combination of these two gives you a perfect finish of smooth and gorgeous lips which are ready for a party. The transparent bottle gives the owners a sense of the quantity left and hence they can plan their next purchase without any guess work. This also makes our customers more clear about the colour inside the bottle thus saving them time everyday when getting ready to apply a lipstick.

The smooth applicator technology

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Our "no more messy" strategy comes to play since it uses a unique twist to open pen body. All one needs to do is twist body of pen until the lip colour is seen at the tip of the nib; as the colour goes out at the tip of the nib, you can easily control the amount of the liquid lipstick which is very rich plus you can adjust it if you want your lips to have a lighter or a darker shade. Glide colour onto your lips like velvet. The super soft applicator gives your lips a consistent colour and shape like never before. The gloss has a firm nylon brush for smooth application. This is the other end of the product which would be used as often as the colour alone for a natural look. Lips Go hi-tech with this unique 2-in-1 lip colour. It combines rich pigment with ultra-moisturizing gloss. The unique long-lasting colour fix formula goes on smooth for rich, smudge-proof colour. The moisture-drenched gloss lavishes your lips with high-shine. So your lips stay perfect all day long. Leaving you with the perfect smile. Its a lipstick, Lip Balm and a Lip Gloss all in one. What is even better is that this lipstick comes in variety of 30 sheer shades to match your skin tone at a price which is unmatched for its quality.

Shade Card for lipstick

Pricing
Since it is a new technology packaging which offers a lipcolour and a lip gloss into one lipstick; thus it needs to be priced in accordance to the benefits that we get from it. The package has 3ml of colour and gloss each and will cost Rs. 450. The price sounds perfect for a woman who believes and wants to treat herself to high quality products only. Since women associate quality with price, pricing the lipstick at Rs. 450 would make it apt as it is not cheap and neither to costly for its market entry.

Promotion
It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. Sales promotion can be Pull strategy which encouraging purchase We would run advertising campaign, PR activity, a free-sample campaign and emphasis on personal selling. Most consumers also feel that sales girls are pushy while some tried out new colour and brands only if sales personal offered them. Some specifically said they dont like sales personal airing

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opinion. Hence the sales personals ought to be taught to identify these consumer segme and deal segments with them appropriately. From the interview we inferred that consumers have a negative association with methods like offering free gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, temporary price reductions with quality and exclusivity. Hence these channels would not be adopted. clusivity. Push strategy which encourages the distribution channels to stock the product. We would stock our products in Malls and Modern retail stores. We would explore partnership with beauty parlours to promote our product. Further beauticians tend to influence the buying behaviour. ote Advertising in media We would concentrate our advertising campaign in the following Print: Fashion and Women Magazine Broadcasting: Television Outdoors : o o Vertical Banners in Mall Metros trains in Delhi, Chennai (these are used by working women). Mumbai metros are ruled out because they are too crowded and people are too busy to notice ads on trains.

Advertising insights:
Target Group 20-30 years Working women

Insight Lipsticks make women feel confident, but don't like made up look

Benefits Subtle lipstick

Personality Confident beautiful young lady

Differentiation Dab On Lipstick + lip gloss

Essence Lipstick bring out inner beauty

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Public Relation (Spin) Reviews in newspaper Newspapers carry reviews of cosmetic products. Our product needs to have favourable reviews. Haul Videos: Online Word of mouth publicity A haul video is a video recording, posted to the Internet, which displays items recently purchased, including product details or even the price. The posting of haul videos (or hauls) has been a growing trend, during 2007-2010. By May 2010, You Tube had tracked nearly 150,000 haul videos. Some of the individual videos have received tens of millions of views. Many young adults (mostly women) have displayed their shopping hauls, while including their beauty and design commentary in the narration. The videos are often grouped by store name or by type of product (cosmetics, accessories, shoes, postage stamps, etc.). We should host haul videos and trigger word of mouth publicity. We believe if the haul videos rank our product in the top it would influence the positioning of our product in the subsequent haul videos. This would turn into snow bowl effect. Its a social campaign which brings about brand consciousness and awareness about the consumers. The consumers also try new brands because the reviews in hauls are considered more personal and truthful. Once the consumers see a haul video they are likely to host a video of their own reviewing the lipstick and rating her top 5 lipsticks. Social networking sites Encourage discussion on Tweeter, forming groups in Facebook and monitoring these to judge the consumer perception and direct their attention towards more favourable ones.

Placement
Our product would be positioned in Rs450 range which we believe would aid in projecting an image of quality to our consumer. Our consumers toocan afford to spend this amount on cosmetics. We would place our product line in malls and modern retail stores like Shoppers Stop where all the cosmetics are placed together. Its been observed that consumers like to buys all cosmetics in a single and this is impulse buying. Further consumers do not go for shopping with the idea of buying lipstick, the need seems to be in their back of mind and when the come across a product that meets their criteria and liking they buy one. Hence the products will have to put up in places frequented by the target group which are Malls and Modern retail store. Ambience in the stores such as near natural light or soft light that would help in judging colour better, clustering of products of same brand, placing the product in places of prominence like entrance of Malls or Stores would be appreciated by consumers. Exhibition specialist need to be hired to arrange the products in an attractive as well as ergonomic fashion.

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Appendix A
Transcript of Interview Priya
Name: Priya Single, 23, Student All questions use lipstick are the product. However if you use lip gloss instead of lipstick kindly answer all questions with lip gloss as the relevant product

1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I use lip gloss normally. However I use lipstick for formal occasions. I feel that the usage various across age groups. Youngsters prefer to use lip gloss more often. While married women more often use lipstick. The basic difference is in the amount of shine that is present. 2. How often do you use lipstick? Do you use it on a daily basis Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event? I use it on a daily basis. I tend to co-ordinate with my attire for events such as parties. I normally use one or two very light neutral shades or mattes for everyday usage. I tend to use more prominent colours for events such as parties. 3. Why do you use it? I use it because it makes me look good. It gives me more self confidence. It is also a style statement and I feel it makes me look more attractive. I feel conscious if I dont use it. The need for moisturising my lips is only secondary. 4. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? More beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? I think the use of lipstick gives me all the above qualities but it varies with the occasion as well. For formal occasions like in office I would prefer that it imparts a degree of elegance. For occasions like parties and when on a date I would prefer more sensuality. On normal occasions I think I just want to look pretty and I dont think too much about the other aspects. 5. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? Yes it does draw attention. It particularly helps me to stand out when others around me dont use it. It helps me when I want to look sexy or want to project pouting lips, it definitely helps me. It helps me to enhance my lips. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Which brand do you use? Why are you attracted to this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands?

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I use mostly Lakme and Maybelline. Its the shade that is most important. I am not too company specific. I usually go to malls to buy them. I might go with a specific lipstick in mind. I might not want anything besides that one. However if I really need a lipstick and the one I want is not available then I check out similar shades of other companies and will buy them if I like it. I might also sometimes eventually end up liking the new product more. One of the differences lies in the brushes. Some are smoother and softer, others are not. Packaging also affects my choice. Since roll-ons are expensive I must really like them if I am to buy it. Another factor that leaves an impression is the shape of the bottle. If it has a square shape then I think it holds more quantity. But I find the round one easier carry as I can easily keep it in my pockets which is particularly helpful when I take it for parties. 2. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? Not entirely sure. But there was this one product from Lakme which I didnt like. It didnt go well with my lips. My friends liked it but it didnt work out for me. I guess I wont really take the chance since there are so many other choices out there that I dont see the reason to do so. 3. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? No 4. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? My price range is usually 160-6/700. I am definitely price sensitive. It mostly depends on the amount I have with me. But money is only secondary. Its the shade that is more important. I want something that is long lasting. It is not above 1000/- then I will NOT buy it. Its like a mental price limit. If the price has been raised significantly then it means that some upgrade has happened. There was this example of an eye-liner that I bought. I really liked it. But when I went to buy it a second time they had raised the amount as they had improved the look of the packaging. 5. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? Pink is my favourite colour. Wild berry is my favourite shade. It goes best with my skin colour. It makes me look young. Darker shades tend to add to my age. I generally keep two shades for regular use. I keep another three for occasional uses. One with extreme sparkle to mix and match, one which is dark maroon and another which has a gold burnished look. 6. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? I match it to both my skin tone as well as my dress. For white/black/blue/red/pink coloured dresses I use shades of pink. For brown /yellow/orange coloured ones I use brownish gold and for green coloured dresses I use nude or brownish colours. 22

7. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? Yes 8. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Light pink, Dark Maroon Pink and Beige brown 9. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Biege sophisticated Pink light fun, chirpy Coral Elegance Brown Aged Plum sexy Red sexy 10. Would you like to use a maverick colour? Like which one? Never. I might try out for nail polish. I dont like the emo look. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? Retail Chains, as I can check out a variety of brands. However if the product I want is not there and there is a boutique in the same mall then I will go and check it out. Boutiques tend to create a very uncomfortable snobby atmosphere for me. Its not a very nice feeling. I find it much more difficult to say no thanks and walk away from a boutique than from retail outlet. Its like there is a compulsion to buy when in a boutique store. 2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Yes. I would also prefer that all cosmetics of a brand are kept together rather than having lipsticks of all brands being kept together. It makes me confused. Besides when all cosmetics of a brand are kept together then I also tend to buy other cosmetics of the same brand. Its mostly need based. I go shopping for a lipstick when I run out of it, but I might still have the other cosmetics left with me so Ill just buy the lipstick. 3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends I wont specifically take any one with me. I really dont need anyones help. I know what I want. I dont need others opinions. However I have gone with friends when they have needed help with their purchases. 4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? I check out magazines, mostly the ones stacked in salons. I really dont take advice from others. But if I were to try out others lipstick and if I liked it then Id get that for myself.

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5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Yes and Yes 6. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? I would go for the outlet that has the specific brand I want. The salesperson would show me the different types that are available. I would select the type and then she would show me all the shades that are available in that particular category. I tend to try it out on my hands. I check it out in artificial light and I do my shopping mostly in the evenings. 7. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? Most important is the shade if it suits me. The second one is moisturising to a certain degree. The third is the life cycle how long it stays on. Im not too particular about the life cycle. A lipstick that stays on for too long tends to be harsh on the lips, besides since I carry my lipstick with me I dont find it a particularly significant issue. Also long lasting ones tend to be darker shades which Im not too fond of. 8. How would you prioritise your requirements? What criteria would you use to evaluate performance on each requirement? How would you evaluate? 9. What would cause you to re-evaluate your decision to buy a particular lipstick? 10. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? Around 10-20mins. I mostly cover what I like within 15mins. Most of what is available in the store gets covered in this time. 11. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? Not entirely. I feel lost when there arent any shades that I like. When none of the shades available are ones I dont really want then I kind of feel frustrated. However if I really need one and cant find one that I want then I am willing to make a compromise and buy one. 12. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? Only if they ask me. 13. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? Yes if I like it. I bought my last set in the last term. Two of them tend to last for a month and a half. 14. How is subsequent experience fed back into the decision? 15. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? Never till now 16. Are you concerned about the green-ness of the product? I have never thought of it until now. However if theres a big issue that crops up then I might consider. Besides I think that most of the big companies would avoid making mistakes in this aspect like using animal testing. 24

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? Yes. But I really dont care if there is no one to see me. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? (the procedure you use for application) I am happy with the shape of my lips so I dont use lip liner. There are 2 ways I normally apply lipstick. I apply lipstick and then gloss on top of it. The second way is to apply lipstick along the middle strip of my lips and then use gloss to spread over the rest. It puts the middle of my lips into prominence. It helps me create an impression of a pout. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? No 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I dont wear lipstick to bed. I take care to remove any trace of cosmetic before I sleep. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? I would prefer the matte followed by natural gloss. I dislike too much of gloss as it doesnt look nice. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? It hasnt really happened to me 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes. 9. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? Id would like one concept that is found in foundations. Having a setup that helps me to vary the amount of two liquid colours that are used to create a range of shades.

Please provide any other pertinent details or feedback or observations. I believe that people of different ages want different things from a lipstick. My mom never goes for a glossy finish. She is used to the use of plain colours in office that she doesnt consider the use of gloss even for social occasions. I feel that people in the age group of 35-40 dont wear gloss as they think they wont be taken seriously so its an issue of self-image

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Transcript of Interview Hina

Name: Hina Single, 25, Working - HR Interview Questions Basic Customer Need Identification 1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I use both. 2. How often do you use lipstick? ---Do you use it on a daily basis? I use it 2-3 days in a week. Do you use it for your office? I am in HR. I use whenever I have to make a trip out of office. If I am to stay in office, I may skip it. 3. Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event? My lipstick choices are usually driven by my dress. On occasions also, I choose whatever lipstick I would like with my dress. 4. Why do you use it? I use it to break out of monotony as it gives me a fresh look. I will categorize it under style statement from (a symbol of achievement, female emancipation, element of attraction, style statement, hygiene, health and protection, herd mentality or if its just something done on a routine basis.) 5. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? More beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? I think it helps me look more elegant and more feminine. 6. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? Yes, I think it certainly draws attention to me. No, not to my lips alone. As I usually do entire makeup when I use lipstick, so every part of my face is enhanced not just lips. Customer Product Preference 1. Which brand you use? I use Maybelline and Lakme. Which is your primary brand? Maybelline. 2. Why do u choose this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands?

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I use this brand because the shades that I like are available in this brand. And I also like the texture it gives to my lips. I use Lakme also. 3. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? Revlon. It is just the shade I choose. I didnt like it. Many of my friends are use Revlon. I dont think it is because of any fault, just the shade that I choose wasnt to my liking. 4. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? As such no. But I would ask them not to go for cheap local brands as it harms your lips. 5. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? My lipsticks are usually within Rs. 500. I dont think I need to go beyond 500, as there are a lot of shades and variety that is available within this budget range. I can consider a shade if it is close to my price range. For Maybelline, if they increase price to 600, I would still buy it. If they raise it to 800, I would look for other brands. 6. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? I like Brown. I have 2-3 shades of brown. It is my favourite shade because it complements my face. In total, I would have 5 lipsticks plus lipgloss. 7. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? Yes, I match with both my skin tone and dress. I use brown mostly as it goes with my face. 8. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? No. 9. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? I would pick my 2-3 shades of brown and lip gloss. 10. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Beige Elegant Pink Feminine Coral Sensuous Brown Natural Plum Feminine 27

Red Hot, Prominent 11. Would you like to use maverick colour? Like which one? Yes. I would like to use Mauve.

Customer Purchase Behaviour 1. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? From small brand or beauty outlets inside malls. (Retail Chains) 2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? I really dont care. 3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends Yes, I go with my mom and sometimes friends. I like them to tell me how it looks. 4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? No, I dont take product recommendations from anyone. However, I can ask the salesperson about what is the difference between the two products. 5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Yes and Yes. I can change my preference a little bit, if the shade is out of my budget. But I have not faced this issue as yet. 6. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? I like my lipstick to have gloss and shine. It should be smooth to apply. It should be stay on for longer and preferably be smudge-proof. 7. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? After liking the color/shade, I will apply it on the back of my hand. If I like it further, I will apply it once on my lips to confirm or remove confusion for the final shade to be purchased. 8. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? I think I spend around 30 mins to choose a shade. And I would generally try 4-5 shades before finalizing one. 9. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? Yes, always. I ask my mom or friends to help me choose.

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10. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? Not really. I can advice my friends and colleagues if asked. 11. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? Not for lipsticks. I bought one last month for my brothers wedding. 12. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? No 13. Are you concerned about the green-ness/animal testing of the product? Dont care. Customer Product Usage Behaviour 1. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? It doesnt matter that much to me. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? I apply it once to my lips. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? Yes. It is a must. 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I wash off all my make-up before going to bed. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? What about flavoured lipstick? Simple gloss would do. If there is a hint of color in the gloss, that would be ideal. Sometimes, I might use a matte followed by a gloss product. Yes, I prefer flavoured lipsticks. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? Yes and No. I would simply wipe it off. 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes. One. 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes. My favourite lipstick is flavoured. I use it all the time. The flavour I have currently is Banana Pudding. 9. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? Lip gloss should have a hint of color. 29

Transcript of Interview Vinita

Name: Vinita Married, 29, Working IT Manager Interview Questions Basic Customer Need Identification 7. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I use both. Generally combined in a single product. 8. How often do you use lipstick? ---Do you use it on a daily basis? I use it daily. 9. Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event? Yes, I choose my bright shades for special occasions. Otherwise, I pick the shade which goes with my dress. 10. Why do you use it? I will categorize it under female emancipation and style statement from (a symbol of achievement, female emancipation, element of attraction, style statement, hygiene, health and protection, herd mentality or if its just something done on a routine basis.) 11. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? More beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? It makes me look more feminine. 12. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? Yes and Yes. Customer Product Preference 12. Which brand you use? I use Revlon, Maybelline and Lakme. Which is your primary brand? Revlon. 13. Why do u choose this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? I have been always using this brand. I like the shades that are available in this brand. I have used Lake and Maybelline. 14. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? I tried a brand, I dont remember the name. It was in form of pencil. 30

15. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why?

16. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? Rs 250-300, I might also buy a lipstick of Rs. 500. Yes I will buy a shade if I like it. I will still buy if the price is within 500-600. 17. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? I have shades of Mauve and peach. I have 4 shades in lipsticks and lip gloss. 18. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? Yes, I match with my face. Yes, I match it with my dress. I use contrasting colors for pencil and outline. 19. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? For office, I would use pink, peach and mauve. For attending parties or functions, I use maroon. 20. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Mauve, peach and maroon. 21. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Beige Light mood Pink Happy, glowing Coral Neutral Brown I dont use it. Plum Light mood Red Hot 22. Would you like to use maverick colour? Like which one? I have used Green and Dark purple in my younger days.

Customer Purchase Behaviour 31

14. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? From small brand or beauty outlets inside malls. (Retail Chains) 15. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? I am okay if they are placed together. 16. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends Yes, I used to go with my cousins. Now, I guess I will go with my husband. 17. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? Yes, I took feedback from cousins but in the end it is my choice. 18. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Yes, I go with a particular color in mind. Yes, I am liable to change my color preference on seeing the available range. 19. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? It should look good on my face. It should be from a good brand. 20. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? The factors that affect me are color, shade and brand. I try it on the back of my hand but almost never on my lips to see how it looks. 21. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? I spend around 20-30 mins to choose my lipstick. And I would generally try 8-10 shades before choosing. 22. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? Yes. I just buy it. 23. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? No. No, unless they ask. 24. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? No. Not for last one year. Is this because you got a lot of lipsticks from marriage?

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No. I left most of my shades in my maternal home which I didnt like. But they lipsticks last long, so my earlier ones are still running. But this survey is making me realise I havent bought one in long time, so I need to go buy one. 25. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? No 26. Are you concerned about the green-ness/animal testing of the product? Dont care. Customer Product Usage Behaviour 10. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? Depends on where and with whom. 11. How do you apply the lipstick? I apply it once to my lips. Lipstick and the gloss. 12. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? 50% of the time. 13. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I wash off all my make-up before going to bed. 14. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? What about flavoured lipstick? I would prefer a lipstick followed by gloss. No, I tried a flavoured lipstick but didnt like. 15. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? No and No. 16. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes. One. 17. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? No. 18. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? I would want more stylish and attractive lipsticks. If they could make a single lipstick with lipstick on one end and gloss on other, it would be great as I would not have to carry two lipsticks.

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Transcript of Interview Neha

Name: Neha Single, 23, Working Govt Employee - Bank Manager Interview Questions Basic Customer Need Identification 13. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I use lip gloss. I think lipsticks damage lips. 14. How often do you use lipstick? ---Do you use it on a daily basis? I use lip gloss in the morning once. And if attending any party, I would use it before that. 15. Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event? I have 2-3 lip glosses from Lakme. And recently I bought one from Street Wear. 16. Why do you use it? I think Style statement and Protection from (a symbol of achievement, female emancipation, element of attraction, style statement, hygiene, health and protection, herd mentality or if its just something done on a routine basis.) 17. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? More beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? It makes me look more beautiful. 18. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? Not much. Not much, as it is very light color. Customer Product Preference 23. Which brand you use? I like Street Wear. I have also liked Avon when I was in school. I liked eating it. But you have more lip gloss from Lakme. Dont you have only one lip gloss from Street Wear? Yes. But I like Street Wear. I will try Revlon next. 24. Why do u choose this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? Street Wear is a good brand. I just saw the Street Wear store and bought it. 25. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? Lakme. It is very glittery and sticky too (chip-chip karta hai.)

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26. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why?

27. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? Less than Rs 400. No, I will not buy a lip gloss if it is outside my budget range. l will buy if the price is within 500. If it is 600, then I will consider it with other brands. 28. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? Mocha chino light brown. It is light and appears natural with my face. I currently have 4 lip gloss. 29. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? Yes, I match with my skin tone and face. No, I do not match it with my dress. I like natural shades. I dont like Pink as it doesnt go with every dress. 30. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? I only use it for office. I do not use lip gloss at home. I may use a lip balm. I use the same shades for party also. 31. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Mocha-chino, light pink and light orange. 32. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Beige ??? Pink Happy, Happy Coral ??? Brown Dull Plum Sensuous Red Hot, Sexy 33. Would you like to use maverick colour? Like which one? If it goes with my face, I will try light purple or light violet. It should be the lightest.

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Customer Purchase Behaviour 27. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? Showroom. (Retail Chains) 28. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Sometimes. Yes. 29. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends Mostly with mom or friends. 30. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? Yes, I ask friends. No, I dont ask salespeople. 31. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Sometimes, I go with a particular color in mind. Yes, I am liable to change my color preference on seeing the available range. 32. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? I look for color and brand. It should not be harmful to my lips. It should not be too expensive. And lip gloss should be durable for an year. 33. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? I choose on the basis of color, shade and brand. I ask salesperson feedback about the brand. 34. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? I spend around 10-15 mins to choose my lip gloss. And I would generally try 7-8 shades before choosing. I would do it on the back of my hand and not on lips. 35. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? No. 36. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? No. Not really. 37. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? No. 36

None, last one I bought was 9 months ago. 38. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? No 39. Are you concerned about the green-ness/animal testing of the product? I am a little concerned. I believe if it is a good brand, then it must be okay. Customer Product Usage Behaviour 19. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? It depends on the occasion. Otherwise I am okay either way at home or at office. 20. How do you apply the lipstick? Apply gloss once. 21. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? No. 22. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I wash my face before sleeping. 23. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? What about flavoured lipstick? I would prefer a glossy lipstick. Yes, I would very much prefer flavoured lipsticks. 24. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? Not much and No. 25. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Sometimes, like when I go for parties. 26. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes, all the time. Strawberry and fruit flavours are my favourite. 27. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? If it could last longer, both in terms of durability of product for the year as well as lip gloss application throughout the day, it would be great !

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Transcript of Interview Kusha

Interview Questions Basic Customer Need Identification 1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I mostly use lipgloss which is my preferred choice. I hardly use lipstick. I use lipstick when I want to change the colour of my lips and want a bit more shine.

2. How often do you use lipstick? Do you use it on a daily basis? I forget to use it every day, so I use it once or twice a week. I dont think its a mechanical process for me. I use lipstick for special occasions. I prefer to use more vibrant colours for traditional events like marriages. For formal events I use muted colours or may be none at all. 3. Why do you use it? It gives me confidence. It makes me feel good and I also look good with it. I dont use it because others use it. I dont believe my usage is a routine event. I have to remember to use it. I mostly tend to use it for occasions. For me it makes a style statement. I think it makes me more attractive. The moisturising aspect is also important. 4. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? More beautiful? More elegant? more feminine? Any element of sensuality? It makes me feel more elegant and at the same time gives a feeling of sensuality. I would identify more with a ladylike elegance rather than with outright sexual imagery a Katherine Hepburn as compared to Marilyn Monroe. I started using lipcolour in the 11th grade. 5. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? I think it does draw attention to me. It is good to be noticed. I think it probably might draw attention to my lips. I think it is natural that I would draw attention. It also makes me stand out especially when others dont use it. I like the feeling because I like being different. It make me feel confident. Customer Product Preference 1. Which brand do you use? Why are you attracted to this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? Maybelline, LOreal and Lakme occasionally. These brands have an assurance of quality. I believe their products are reliable. Also I think the product variety is more. There are also better health benefits with these brands I can use them as a lip balm too.

2. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again?

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Elle 18. The quality was bad. There was no shine and there was no variety. Also since the price is pretty low I dont think the product is good. I wouldnt reconsider since I am brand loyal 3. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? Not really but I would advise them against using local brands. 4. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? My price range is generally 400-800. If I really like a shade then I will buy it. I might be willing to go up to 2000 but not beyond particularly if its exclusive. I get the exclusivity feeling from self satisfaction that I am using a higher priced product than the others. For me the self-knowledge is more than sufficient. I tend to keep within my specified range for cosmetics. If my usual brand raises its prices then I will try and look for others but if I dont find any that I like then Ill stick to the old one even if the price has increased. 5. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? My favourite colour is pink. I mostly like all shades of pink. It suits my facial tone the best. I usually keep around 7-8 shades. 6. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? I tend to match it both my face tone and my dresses, but my skin tone takes higher priority. I use light pink colours for light colours dresses. For darker and brighter coloured dresses I would use chocolate lip colours. 7. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? I mostly use muted light colours for office and brighter colours for personal occasions. 8. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Light Pink, Dark Pink and Chocolate 9. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Biege sober Pink cute Coral confidence Brown not appealing, extremely aged. Would associate it with middle aged women. Plum sober, I like it Red lustful. People who want to stand out use it. 10. Would you like to use maverick colour? Like which one? 39

Never. I dont like looks being imposed on me. Customer Purchase Behaviour 1. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? I buy my cosmetics from malls. But I would actually prefer boutiques. I usually know which brand it is that I want in this case I feel boutiques would be better since they give more of a choice of the same brand. When I feel like experimenting I would rather go to a mall since they offer a lot of different brands. I also kind of feel the need to buy something when I go to a boutique but I dont feel as compelled if I were to go to a boutique.

2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Yes. Yes. I would prefer that other cosmetic items also be placed together since that would make it easier for me to pick and choose. I would also prefer that all the pink lipsticks of all brands placed together rather than having all the colours of one brand being placed together. This is because I am sure I would want only pink and I would only like to experiment within pink shades. The other primary cosmetics that I would prefer having placed along with the lipstick are eyeliner, lipliner, mascara and foundation. 3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends I go with my friends. They help me judge the colour and if it suits me. But the value I give to their advice depends on the friend in question too. There was this one time when I like a deep brown colour but my friend disliked it, however I ended up buying it anyway. Sometimes our tastes might not match and eventually its my decision whether to buy or not. 4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? Not always. I sometimes browse through fashion magazines. I really dont go through the brand websites I might do it only if I am completely jobless and nothing else in the world to do. I do ask the salespeople for their opinions when I am not with my friends. However I think they can be biased toward a brand or colour especially in the malls. The ones in the boutiques might give me more frank opinions. I choose and try different shades in different price ranges and usually end up buying the mid-range one. 5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? I most usually go with the pink colour in mind. 6. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection?

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I apply it on my hand and see how it looks. I might sometimes even apply it on my lips to see the effect. Since the malls mostly use harsh lighting I might insist on switching or dimming them when I try on the lipcolour. 7. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? First off Id want something that wouldnt harm my lips. I would also want it to provide moisturising. I also need some degree of shine. But I think that choice would also depend on the occasion which I have in mind while I am shopping a little bit of shine for general purchases and a lot more for events like marriages and personal gatherings. 8. How would you prioritise your requirements? What criteria would you use to evaluate performance on each requirement? How would you evaluate evaluated? 9. What would cause you to re-evaluate your decision to buy a particular lipstick? 10. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? I usually spent around 1 hour in making my purchase. I try on around 20 different ones on an average before I make my decision. 11. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? I have felt lost very often. I feel lost because most brands basically offer the same things the same shades of colour and the same features and additions. I try to get out of that mode by trying to limit my choice availability. I would do that first by setting a brand barrier then a price barrier and since I am almost always fixed on pink the choice narrows down a great deal. Then I start looking for the qualities I mentioned in qn.7 12. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? I do give my opinions but only if I am asked, not voluntarily. I dont give any online reviews nor do I consult online reviews. 13. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? Yes but it also depends on my mood. In the past three months I havent bought any. 14. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? No I dont. 15. Are you concerned about the green-ness of the product? No I dont. Customer Product Usage Behaviour 1. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? I dont feel the need to always be dressed up. I more often use it for special occasions. I feel more sober when I have my natural lip colour I am my natural self but I know that I look good. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? I blot it out and reapply. I always do it that way. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? 41

Yes. It helps define my outer lips more prominently and then the application of the colour also becomes easier for me. 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I take off all my makeup before I go to bed. I am not allergenic to lip colour as such. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? I would prefer a matte because it helps me adjust the amount of shine that needs to be there. I dont like the glossy ones because they are too shiny. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? Yes very much. I would take the effort to reapply it properly if this happens. I feel under confident (the respondent was very emphatic on this statement). 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? I carry my lipgloss along with me. 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes. My favourites are strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. I use it almost always. 9. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? I am fine with what is available right now but I would like it if all the lip colours came in with sunscreen protection by default.

Transcript of Interview Richa

Interview Questions Age: 23 Occupation: Student All questions use lipstick as the product. However if you use lip gloss instead of lipstick kindly answer all questions with lip gloss as the relevant product

1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? Yes, I use both depending on the occasion. So, on a regular basis I use gloss and in parties I use lipstick, on top of which I would use a gloss. 2. How often do you use lipstick? Do you use it on a daily basis Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event?

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Weekly. Honestly speaking, If I get up early and have time to get ready I would use a lipstick otherwise I wont even think about it. I have a whole range of shades, but I prefer light pink colour. It should match well with my dress too. If I go to college I would prefer muted colours, light pink colour and for parties I could wear a brown shade if my dress is very heavy. For professional use a shade between brown and pink, a mixture is what I use. Marriage, I would use a shimmer too. 3. Why do you use it? I dont know. Element of attraction could be one. 4. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? more beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? Pretty, feminine, elegant and beautiful. 5. Do you associate yourself with these actresses? Katherine Heigl (ladylike) and Marilyn Monroe? No. 6. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? No. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Which brand do you use? Why are you attracted to this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? For regular use I would not go for the costly ones like Maybelline. I would use Lakme for day to day use. Occasion wise NYC, Maybelline etc. considering the costlier nature; I dont use others on a regular basis. Its my mindset to use Lakme to use for regular use. I started following my mom to be frank and I feel it is better. I also have elle 18 which is even cheaper(it is sub brand of Lakme). 2. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? Wallstreet. It did not stay for longer and I used to clot on my lips (cracked when I applied it). No, Im dedicated to my brands. 3. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? No 4. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? I start from Rs. 299+ which is the Lakme lipstick price. I do have lipsticks for around Rs. 1000+. I would not go for more that Rs.1500. 43

I will buy anything that I really like, I am not sensitive to the price then. If lakme increases its price, I would still buy it as I am addicted to it. 5. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? Pink is my favourite colour. Light shades are my favourite as that matches my skin tone. I have lots of shades, people call me crazy cause I have around 30 lipsticks! 6. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? I am a diehard fan of cosmetics, so whenever my parents or relatives go abroad they get me cosmetics as a gift. When I purchase I would generally buy pink. I match it to both my skin tone as well as my dress. For dark dresses like violet salwar kameez- I wanted pink n violet mixture colour. For darker dresses I find coffee shade goes well. 7. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? Depends on the dress I wear. 8. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Light pink, coffee and violet n pink with a silver tint. 9. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Pink Pretty Coral baby feeling colour Brown Hot Plum I dont prefer that shade Red I just dont red 10. Would you like to use a maverick colour? Like which one? Never. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? There is a cosmetic shop in Mumbai where I usually goto. In Bangalore, its the malls that I goto. I would not prefer to goto a branded boutique. Malls give me variety at one place. 2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Yes. I would also prefer that all cosmetics of a brand are kept together rather than having lipsticks of all brands being kept together. Ill get confused. It should be brand specific placement.

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3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends I take friends along with me and I do take their advice, but generally I dont go with their advice. I buy only what I like irrespective of what they say. 4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? Not reviews. But I do look at the new advertisements that come in magazines. I do browse through fashion magazines to see new products that are out in the market. 5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Yes and Yes, I am willing to change my preference. 6. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? I start with the pink colour. I might ask the salesperson to suggest colours that match to my skin tone and I try those 7-8 colours on my hand. 7. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? It shouldnt harm my lips. It should stay longer (I like the 9-5 range for this reason). The moisturising effect should also be there. Yes, colour is also important. I would not want the colour to crack once its applied. 8. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? An hour. I try 7-8 colours at least. 9. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? Yes. Depends on the salesperson also. Sometimes they cant give you what you are looking for. I end up buying the first colour that I like, so I come back to that lipstick after getting confused. 10. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? No, not reviews but yes I do tell my friends and relatives when this topic pops up. 11. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? 3 or 4 at random. 12. How is subsequent experience fed back into the decision? 13. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? Not till now. 14. Are you concerned about the green-ness of the product? I have never thought of it until now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? 45

Yes, with my lip colour cause it looks good. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? (the procedure you use for application) I dont need the mirror to apply lipsticks. I am used to using a lipstick. For a party I do use a lip liner to make my lips more defined. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? Yes 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I dont use a regimen but yes I do remove it at night. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? I would prefer the glossy lipstick. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? It hasnt really happened to me 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes. 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes. I have many, strawberry, vanilla, mixed fruit gloss. 9. Does the packaging of the bottle affect your decision to buy a lipstick? The new roll-on ones are quite easy to use, so I feel they are better. But the shape in particular, not really. 10. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? Not really.

Please provide any other pertinent details or feedback or observations. I have seen that in the corporate sector women prefer dark shades such as the coffee shade. In marriages the auntys put those red and plum colours, which I dont like. I think pink on a regular basis is really good.

Transcript of Interview Deepika

Interview Questions Age: 19 Occupation: Student 46

All questions use lipstick as the product. However if you use lip gloss instead of lipstick kindly answer all questions with lip gloss as the relevant product

1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? Yes, I use only Lip gloss 2. How often do you use lipstick? Do you use it on a daily basis Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event? I use lip gloss for both reasons. One when I go to Party and second in winter season as a moisturiser. 3. Why do you use it? When I feel my lips are looking bad and it needs something as a moisturiser especially in winter season. 4. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? more beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? Pretty, feminine 5. Do you associate yourself with these actresses? Katherine Heigl (ladylike) and Marilyn Monroe? No. 6. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? Sometimes yes, sometimes not, depends on the places where I go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Which brand do you use? Why are you attracted to this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? I use Lakme and Revlon only. I think they are good brand and their products suits to my kind of skin 2. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? None till now. 3. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? No

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4. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? If I find good product which suits to my skin and lips I would never mind spending any amount of money on it. I just want quality products from my choice of brands. 5. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? Pink and Red are my favourite colour. Light shades are my favourite as that matches my skin tone but it should be shiny. I use only light shades. 6. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? I just try to match colour and shades with my skin tone. I dont match with dress colors. 7. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? No. I use only matching to my skin tone and my choice is limited. 8. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Light pink, Light Red, and Light Chocolates 9. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Pink, Chocolates, Red? Can you elaborate? Pink Pretty Chocolates - Good Red Hot 10. Would you like to use a maverick colour? Like which one? No. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Where do you usually buy your lipstick from? Do you get them from branded boutiques or from retail chains? Which one would you prefer? I usually buy my choice of Lip gloss from any retail shop in Mall or market. I dont go to branded boutiques since my choice of products are easily available in any retail shop. 2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Actually I use very less cosmetics. I use face powder, cream and Kajal apart from Lip gloss. So I dont care about having all cosmetics of same brand as lip gloss. 48

3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends I go with friends for shopping but I do take their advice since I have my own choice. 4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? No Suggestions, no reviews. I go with my own choice. 5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? Yes I go with particular mindset but I dont mind trying out different colours and shades and if something else suits to my skin, I buy it. 6. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? When I go to shop, I start looking for my choice. If I dont find I ask to salesgirl. I try 3-4 colours and shades and choose. 7. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? It shouldnt be allergic to my skin. Should be in light shade and should not shine much. 8. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? I have very particular choice so it doesnt take me more than 10-15 minutes to choose one. 9. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? Yes. When I have to go outside or in any party, and I am be able to find my choice of lip gloss In retail stores, I feel lost. 10. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? Yes, I tell my friends that lakme and Revlon are good brands and they should use these brands. 11. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? Yes. 2 times. 12. How is subsequent experience fed back into the decision? 13. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? Not till now. 14. Are you concerned about the green-ness of the product? Yes. If something of this comes before me I would be interested. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? 49

Yes, I want my lips to look good. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? (the procedure you use for application) I use mirror to apply lip gloss on my lips. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? No. 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? No. nothing in particular. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? No. I would not prefer the glossy lip gloss. It should shine but not too much. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? I have never experienced that. 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes. When I go to party. 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? Yes. I like strawberry taste. 9. Does the packaging of the bottle affect your decision to buy a lipstick? It doesnt affect as such but yes if something comes in better packaging with same quality, I would definitely buy one. 10. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? Since I like strawberry flavour of lip gloss but I dont like its fragrance. This is the one thing I think should be improved in the product. Please provide any other pertinent details or feedback or observations. As per my observation, I found ladies using very shiny lipstick in parties. And they try to match the colour with their dresses.

Transcript of Interview Bhairavi

Name: Bhairavi Age: 23 Occupation: Student All questions use lipstick as the product. However if you use lip gloss instead of lipstick kindly answer all questions with lip gloss as the relevant product

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1. Do you use either of lipstick or lip gloss? I use both . But I prefer lip balm for regular use. 2. How often do you use lipstick? Do you use it on a daily basis Do you use the same lipstick or different one for special occasions? Does your choice of lipstick change with the occasion at hand like marriage, party, formal event?

3. Why do you use it? Make me look good.

4. Are you pushed by social expectation towards using lipsticks Kinda of. Say in Delhi, where is normal to wear lipstick for everyday life 5. Does it in anyway make you feel prettier? more beautiful? More elegant? More feminine? Any element of sensuality? Pretty, feminine, elegant and beautiful.

6. Do you think it draws attention to you? To your lips? No.

1. Which brand do you use? Why are you attracted to this brand? Do you think this brand is better than the others out there? How? Do you use any other brands? I would try out only brands I heard of , say from friends or atleast seen ads. I really dont think any brand is any better than another.

2. Is there any brand that you have used but disliked? Why? If they rectify the fault will you be willing to try it again? No 3. Is there a brand besides the one(s) you disliked that you would not recommend to your friends? Why? No 4. Is there a price range that you set for the lipsticks you buy? If you find a shade that you really like but is outside your price range, would you still buy it? How sensitive are you to price? If your favourite brand raises the price beyond your affordable range would you still buy it? How far would you let the price rise before you decided not to buy it? 51

Around 300. 5. What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite shade? Why is it your favourite shade? How many shades do you normally have? Brown is my favourite colour. 6. How do you choose your colour and shade? Do you match it with you skin tone? Do you match it with your dress? What is the colour combination you use? I am a diehard fan of cosmetics, so whenever my parents or relatives go abroad they get me cosmetics as a gift. When I purchase I would generally buy pink. I match it to both my skin tone as well as my dress. For dark dresses like violet salwar kameez- I wanted pink n violet mixture colour. For darker dresses I find coffee shade goes well. 7. Would you use different shades between office and personal situations? Depends on the dress I wear. 8. If you were asked to choose only 3 colours or shades which ones would you choose? Brown, plum, colourless. 9. What emotions or feelings do you associate with the following colours - Biege, Pink, Coral, Brown, Plum, Red ? Can you elaborate? Biege :Elegant Pink : shrill Coral: Garrish Brown: Understated Plum: Mystrrious Red: Slutty

1. How do you make a choice of lipstick I have a consideration set of few brands, I would buy from them. Personal selling is important say in Shoppers Stop, I would be influenced a lot by the sales girls. If they insist on showing me a lot of shades, I would spend some time and if I like them I would buy. 2. Do you buy your lipstick along with your other cosmetics? Would you prefer that lipsticks and other cosmetic items be placed together? Not exactly, I dont use lipstick regularly , so I buy other cosmetics more often. 3. When you go for purchase do you visit alone or with other friends Girls usually shop together. Their opinion does influence me. 52

4. Do you take recommendations? From where do you take them? Do you ask friends, or check out reviews on magazines, cosmetic websites. Do you take feedback from the salespeople? I would check cosmetics only if the sale girls insist on showing to me. I go for shopping with my friends, and their opinion does influence my choice 5. Do you go for a purchase with a particular colour in mind? Or are you more willing to change your colour preference when you see the available range in the store? No, I never go with the intention of buying lipstick. I dont wait for lipstick to run down before buying a new one. Its there in the back of the mind. 6. How do you choose your lipstick? How do you go about the selection? I might ask for some colours that match to my skin tone and I try them on my hand. If the sale girl showed me some different color, I try them out too. 7. What are the requirements you look for when you buy a lipstick? Colour is most important. When I buy from a good, its understoot that it would have moisturising effect. 8. How long do you spend in choosing? How many do you try before choosing? How do you do your trials? May be 10 colour. May be 20-25 mins 9. Do you ever feel lost when you are trying to decide on a lipstick? What do you do then? I dont go with the intention of buying lipstick, so there is no complusion to buy one. If I am not able to zero upon a color, I would not buy any. 10. Do you provide reviews once you buy a lipstick? Do you advice your friends and colleagues? Ya, I suggest my friend when we shop. 11. Have you engaged in impulse buying? How many have you purchased over the last 3months? Lipstick buying is impulse buying for me. 1

12. Do you check for the ingredients when you purchase a lipstick? Never 13. Are you concerned about the green-ness of the product? The brand assures me of the greeness and safety -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.Would you like to be seen with or without your lipstick? Why do you want to be seen so? Yes, with my lip colour cause it looks good. 2. How do you apply the lipstick? (the procedure you use for application) 53

I dont need the mirror to apply lipsticks. I am used to using a lipstick. For a party I do use a lip liner to make my lips more defined. 3. Do you use lip liner along with the lipstick? Yes 4. Do you have to engage in any particular hygiene regimen because of your use of the lipstick? I dont use a regimen but yes I do remove it at night. 5. Would you prefer a glossy lipstick? Or would you prefer a matte followed by a natural gloss product? I wear a matte followed by a gloss. Is the fashion. 6. Does smudging irritate you? Would you go to the trouble to reapply every now and then? Not much. But I do reapply now and then. 7. Do you carry your lipstick along with you? Yes. 8. Do you like flavoured lipsticks? When would you use it? No 9. If you could change something about the lipsticks that you have used what would it be? Not really.

Please provide any other pertinent details or feedback or observations. The lifestyle and profession affects the choice of colours . Say a teacher would like something subtle, while a DJ would wear something bold.

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Appendix B Table 1

Table 2

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Table 3

Table 4

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Table 5

Table 6

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Table 7

Table 8

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Table 9

Table 10

Table 11

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Appendix C: Vote for Popular Lipstick

http://infobharti.com/indias-top-10/top-10-cosmetic-brands-in-india.php http://www.indianyellowpages.com/health-beauty/cosmetics/lipstick.htm iii http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V8B-4D1V8TB1&_user=1007270&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort =d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1520795147&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050224&_version=1 &_urlVersion=0&_userid=1007270&md5=ec93d6aeab70dbb854216bb4de08bda2&searchtype=a (Exploratory analysis of global cosmetic industry.pdf) iv http://www.hktdc.com/sourcing/product_searchresult.htm?bookmark=true&query=lipstick&search_view=pr oduct&locale=en?WT.srch=1&DCSext.dept=2&WT.mc_id=1386806&gclid=CJ7ljdq7_KQCFUJB6wodcXb-iQ
ii

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