Advertisement Effect on Consumer Buying Behavior: Sephora, Canada Case

This case study investigates the effect of advertising on consumer buying behavior in the cosmetic industry, focusing on Sephora Canada. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both primary data collected through questionnaires from Sephora customers and employees, and secondary data from a review of 17 scholarly articles. The research explores the specific promotional activities used by Sephora, such as digital marketing, creative packaging, makeover strategies, and free samples, and analyzes their impact on consumer awareness, interest, and desire. The findings, analyzed using SPSS, reveal the extent to which advertisements capture consumer attention, stimulate interest in cosmetic products, and ultimately influence purchasing decisions. The study also tests hypotheses related to the effectiveness of Sephora's promotional strategies in attracting customers and shaping their buying behavior.

Running head: Consumer Buying Behavior 1
Effect of Advertisement on Consumer buying Behaviour in Cosmetic Industry: A Case Study
of Sephora, Canada.
by
Course:
Tutor:
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Date:

Consumer Buying Behavior 2
ABSTRACT
The objective of the survey was to ascertain the effect of advertisement on consumer
purchase decision in cosmetic industry with Sephora Cosmetics, Canada, as the case study.
The study specifically aimed at determining the forms of advertisement used by the company
and their corresponding effect on consumer buying behaviour.
The survey was conducted at the Sephora store outlet and both primary and secondary data
were collected through structured questionnaires and literature review respectively. A total of
17 scholarly studies were reviewed and 50 employees and customers were involved in the
study. The collected data was descriptively analysed using SPSS and the outcomes presented
in the form of tables and figures.

Consumer Buying Behavior 3
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................2
LIST OF TABLES.....................................................................................................................5
LIST OF FIGURES....................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................7
1.1 Background Information..................................................................................................7
1.2 Research Question............................................................................................................7
1.3 Research Hypothesis........................................................................................................7
1.4 Study variables.................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................9
2.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................9
2.2 Significance of advertisment in the Cosmetic Industry....................................................9
2.2.1 Alertness....................................................................................................................9
2.2.2 Advertising convinces................................................................................................9
2.3 Effects of Advertisements on Consumer Buying Behaviour...........................................9
2.3.1 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers Cosmetic Products......................9
2.3.2 Advertisements impact the Consumer Buying Behavior by arousing interest..........9
2.3.3 Advertisements impact Consumer Buying Behavior by invoking Desire.................9
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................10
3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................10
3.2 Research Design.............................................................................................................10
3.3 Target Population...........................................................................................................10
3.3.1 Secondary Data collection.......................................................................................10
3.3.2 Primary data collection............................................................................................10
3.4 Sampling technique........................................................................................................11
3.5 Sample Size....................................................................................................................11
3.6 Sampling frame bias.......................................................................................................11
3.7 Ethical Considerations....................................................................................................11
3.8 Raw Data........................................................................................................................11
3.8.1 Sex of Participants...................................................................................................11
3.8.2 Age of Respondents.................................................................................................12

Consumer Buying Behavior 4
3.8.3 Education of the Respondents..................................................................................12
3.8.4 Awareness of Promotional strategies in Cosmetics.................................................12
3.8.5 Promotional Activities used by Sephora..................................................................13
3.9 Effect of Advertisements on consumer buying behaviour.............................................13
3.9.1 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers Cosmetic of Products................13
3.9.2 Advertisements impact the Consumer Buying Behavior by arousing interest........13
3.9.3 Advertisements impact Consumer Buying Behavior by invoking Desire...............14
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS..................................................................................15
4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................15
4.2 Alertness on forms of Advertisements in Cosmetics.....................................................15
4.3 Effect of Advertisments on Consumer Buying Behaviour.............................................15
4.3.1 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers Cosmetic of Products................15
4.3.2 Advertisements impact the Consumer Buying Behavior by arousing interest........16
4.3.3 Advertisements impact Consumer Buying Behavior by invoking Desire...............17
References................................................................................................................................18

Consumer Buying Behavior 5
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Target Population....................................................................................................10
Table 3.2 Sex of Participants...................................................................................................11
Table 3.3 Age of Respondents.................................................................................................12
Table 3.4 Level of Education of Respondents.........................................................................12
Table 3.5 Awareness of Promotional strategies in Cosmetics.................................................12
Table 3.6 Promotional Activities used by Sephora..................................................................13
Table 3.7 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers of cosmetic products.................13
Table 3.8 Advertisements impact the consumer buying behaviour by arousing interest.........13
Table 3.9 Advertisements impact consumer buying behaviour by invoking desire................14

Consumer Buying Behavior 6
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1: Alertness on forms of advertisements on Cosmetics.............................................15
Figure 4.2 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers of Cosmetic Products...............15
Figure 4.3 Advertisements impact the consumer buying behaviour by arousing interest.......16
Figure 4.4 Advertisements impact consumer buying behaviour by invoking desire...............17

Consumer Buying Behavior 7
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information
Solomon et al. (2012) define a consumer as one who buys and makes use of a product or
service. The demand of consumers of products and services differs depending on their tastes
and preferences, which also fluctuated with time. Thus, the work of promotional activities is
to influence the customer’s decision-making process towards a given product or service
(Ahmed & Ashfaq, 2013). The objective of promotional activities is to establish product or
service awareness and to increase publicity (Moriarty et al., 2014). It is the habit of a
consumer to always want to attain maximum benefit. Consumer behavior is the conduct that
is demonstrated by a consumer in making purchase decisions of products or services
(Solomon et al., 2014).
Several studies have been carried out on the relationship between promotional activities and
consumer buying behavior. Junaid et al. (2013) conducted a study on the young females in
Delhi and NCR regarding their cosmetic purchase decisions and found that product
positioning and aggressive retailing affects the consumer views and their attitude towards the
brand. Karbasivar & Yarahmadi (2011) showed that social, cultural and personal factors
affect the consumers’ choice of electronics. The disparity on the outcomes of the influence of
advertisement on the purchase behaviour of consumers inspired this study.
1.2 Research Question
What is the effect of advertisement on consumer buying behavior of cosmetics in Sephora
store, Canada?
1.3 Research Hypothesis
The following hypotheses were used to help in finding solutions to the research question
H0: Sephora store uses promotional activities to attract its customers

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H1: Sephora store does not use promotional activities to attract its customers
H0: Promotional activities draw the attention of the consumer on Sephora cosmetic products
H1: Promotional activities do not draw the attention of the consumer on Sephora cosmetic
products
H0: Promotional activities affect consumer buying behavior by developing an interest
H1: Promotional activities don’t affect consumer buying behavior by developing an interest
H0: Promotional activities affect consumer buying behavior by generating desire
H1: Promotional activities don’t affect consumer buying behavior by generating desire
1.4 Study variables
The study seeks to ascertain the relationship between consumer buying behavior (dependent
variable) and independent variables (promotional activities). The consumer buying behaviors
include developing interest, creating a desire, and drawing attention.

Consumer Buying Behavior 9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines a review of theoretical literature relevant to the study topic and guided
by the research questions
2.2 Significance of advertisment in the Cosmetic Industry
2.2.1 Alertness
Studies show that advertisements create awareness of the company’s products or service to
the consumers (Truong, McColl, & Kitchen, 2010; Solomon et al., 2012).
2.2.2 Advertising convinces
Promotional activities seize the attention of the consumers thus making them focus on the
advertised item which is geared towards influencing their purchase decisions (Brakus et al.,
2009; Gurun and Butler, 2012).
2.3 Effects of Advertisements on Consumer Buying Behaviour
2.3.1 Advertisements arrest the attention of consumers Cosmetic Products
Various studies carried out show that advertisements affect the purchase behaviors of
consumer by arresting their attention (Kumar, Lee, & Kim, 2009; Sonkusare, 2013; Wei &
Lu, 2013; Van Doorn et al., 2010; Chi, Yeh, & Yang, 2009).
2.3.2 Advertisements impact the Consumer Buying Behavior by arousing interest
The literature review of most of the studies show that advertisements influence consumer
buying behavior by developing their interest to the advertised products or services (Ahmed &
Ashfaq, 2013; Farooq & Latif, 2011; Ajzen, 2008; ur Rehman et al., 2014)
2.3.3 Advertisements impact Consumer Buying Behavior by invoking Desire
Various studies carried out show that advertisments affect consumer buying behavior by
generating their desire to the advertised products or services (Morrison et al., 2011;
Karbasivar, & Yarahmadi, 2011; Junaid, Nasreen, & Ahmed, 2013; Saleem, & Abideen,
2011).

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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This section provides an in-depth research methodology used in the survey. It includes the
research design, primary and secondary data collection, population study, sampling
technique, sample size, sampling frame bias and ethical considerations.
3.2 Research Design
The study collected both secondary and primary data to ensure that the findings were more
comprehensible and replicable
3.3 Target Population
3.3.1 Secondary Data collection
The study comprised a review of all relevant scholarly literature that was ever published
between 2008 and 2018. This consisted of a total of 17 articles, journals, and textbooks
3.3.2 Primary data collection
The researcher designed a structured questionnaire for collecting primary data. The
questionnaire had close-ended questions with feebacks being measured using a Likert
measure. The target population consisted of the staff of Sephora cosmetics and their
customers. The researcher preferred to use the population in order to confirm the hypotheses
made. A total of 500 respondents were targets as shown below:
Table 3.1: Target Population
Figure 1 Table 3.1: Target Population
Respondents Category Number
Male 200
Female 300
Total 500
Source: Researcher’s Analysis (2018)

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3.4 Sampling technique
The study adopted a case study design because it is the most suitable approach in settings
where a detailed assessment of a single study unit is required (Onwuegbuzie et al. 2012).
Purposive sampling and random sampling was used to choose the sample size of the study
which included Accountants, Cashiers, Sales officers, and Marketing Managers and
consumers’ respectively. The sample size was defined by exclusion and inclusion criteria
whereby only the studies relevant to the research topic were included in the study and they
were to fall between the years 2008 to 2018. The journals and articles were obtained from
scholarly research websites such as Google Scholar, Research gate, Springer link etc.
3.5 Sample Size
The sample size consisted of 50 participants from the various groups. This was based on
Mugenda and Mugenda (2012) recommendation that 10% of the entire population is a
sufficient representative sample.
3.6 Sampling frame bias
The list of existing literature included in the sample were those that were published between
2008 and 2018. This may have excluded important research that did not fall in the study
range, thus failing to represent all the study population.
3.7 Ethical Considerations
The identities of the respondents were coded to ensure anonymity during the period of
research to avert any consequences such as intimidation from the administration.
3.8 Raw Data
3.8.1 Sex of Participants
Table 3.2 Sex of Participants
Figure 2 Table 3.2 Sex of Participants
Sex Participants
Male 20

Consumer Buying Behavior 12
Female 30
Total 50
Diploma 13
Degree 30
Post Graduate 5
Masters 2
Total 50
Source: Researcher’s Analysis (2018)
3.8.2 Age of Respondents
Table 3.3 Age of Respondents
Figure 3 Table 3.3 Age of Respondents
Age Bracket
Number of
respondents
25-30 3
31-35 28
36-40 12
41-45 4
46-50 3
Total 50
Source: Researcher’s Analysis (2018)
3.8.3 Education of the Respondents
Table 3.4 Education of Respondents
Figure 4 Table 3.4 Level of Education of Respondents
Level of
Education Participants
Diploma 13
Degree 30
Post Graduate 5
Masters 2
Total 50
Source: Researcher’s Analysis (2018)
3.8.4 Awareness of Promotional strategies in Cosmetics
Table 3.5 Awareness of Promotional strategies in Cosmetics
Figure 5 Table 3.5 Awareness of Promotional strategies in Cosmetics