THE DETERMINANTS OF MARKET MAVEN TENDENCIES: PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM A COHORT OF FEMALE CONSUMERS OF BEAUTY PRODUCTS

Abstract

A trajectory in the use of beauty products is envisaged, owing to the impalpable benefits conveyed to consumers such as status and physical attractiveness, among other psychological and symbolic dispositions. This upsurge is attributed to the role of market mavens who are in principle, valuable for filling the omitted information gaps existing within the market. This study is in response to calls for unremitting replications on the nomological variables that are antecedent to the market mavenism construct, albeit within the context of female consumers in the southern Gauteng region of South Africa. In this preliminary test, a selfadministered survey technique using a conveniently selected sample of female consumers was applied, yielding 158 usable responses. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed a mean score ranking above 4.0, thereby signalling agreeability among the respondents. Initial exploratory factor analysis steered the extraction of two personal factors (consumer innovativeness and physical vanity) and two social context factors (subjective norms and social self-image) that are salient towards calibrating the efficacy of the female market maven. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient values greater than 0.70 ascertained data quality, whereas the positive correlation coefficient values, significant at p<0.05, depicted linearity of relationships among the variables. These maiden findings suggest that it is possible to anchor the construct of market mavenism within a broader behavioural science theory. Therefore, it is recommended that marketing managers capitalise on the contribution of market mavens as auxiliary dispensers of new product information.

Keywords

• Market maven,Beauty products,Female,South Africa

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