본 연구는 여성의 화장에 대한 욕구와 그에 따른 소비행위를 심층적으로 이해하기 위하여 ethnograhic 면접, 집단토의면접 및 설문조사를 통하여 수집한 자료를 통합적으로 분석하였다. 여기서 통합적인 접근방식이란 의미는 다양한 연구방법이 실시되어 그 결과를 종합하여 기술하였다는 것이다. 즉, ethnographic 면접을 통하여 소비자의 소비경험을 개략적으로 이해한 후 연령대별 차이점을 비교하기 위하여 집단토의면접을 실시하였으며 이들 결과에서 도출된 잠정적인 가설이나 모형을 검증하기 위하여 설문조사를 실시하였다.이러한 통합적인 자료수집방식을 통하여 본 연구는 여성의 화장의 범위와 화장행위의 유형, 화장품 구매과정에 추구되는 가치, 소비자의 상표선택과정의 복합성, 여성의 생애주기별 화장 및 소비경험의 변화를 주요 주제로 발견하여 이들에 관한 내용을 심층적으로 기술하였고 그 결과를 토대로 화장품 시장만이 갖는 고유한 특징을 정리하였으며 시사점을 논의하였다.
This study synthetically analyzed several types of data collected through enthographic interviews, focus group discussions and survey questionnaires to understand women’s needs for makeup and consumption behaviors in detail. We collected various types of data according to the research purposes, put the results together, and described the key findings synthetically.More specifically, we conducted ethnographic interviews to understand consumers’ consumption experiences with ethnographic interview, conducted focus group discussions to analyze differences in consumption experiences across women’s life stages, and we developed tentative research hypotheses and models. Finally we conducted survey research to verify those quantitatively.Through these integrative research methods, we found several interesting results. First, convenience, removal of anxiety, pleasure, prestige, utility, fulfillment were found as important values pursued by consumers at purchase situations. Expression, transformation, expectation,mood change, propriety were perceived as values at usage situations. Pride, display, and reassurance were felt as important values when they carry cosmetics. We provided detailed description on each values.Second, we found that consumers’ brand choice process is very complex, because there are so many brands available in the market. Consumers have to select brand under limited knowledges from their usage experiences and as a result they tend to depend more on salespeoples’ suggestions at the store and show interests in new brands. We also found social class, economic status, and skin type as the most influencial factors on consumers’ brand choice decisions. With these results, we explored why consumres show interests in new products and why consumers have reltatively low brand loyalty (or brand confidence).Third, we found that consumers changed their makeup patterns by their life stages.Detection of woman image, embodiment of lady image, discovery of motherhood andrediscovery of woman image were found as four different stages. We provided detaileddescriptions on their body image, emotional responses, social network by stage. We also discussed their motivation, makeup style and meaning of brand evolve by life stage. With these results, we explored unique characteristics of cosmetic markets and discussed its implications.