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

Year 2018, Volume: 10 Issue: 2, 0 - 0, 31.12.2018

Zinhle Lindani Dlamini Nobukhosi Dlodlo

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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