According to the Yearbook of Chemical Industry Statistics of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the total sales of domestic cosmetics market in 2008 was approximately 1,507. 1 billion yen, slightly less than that of 2007. In Japan's mature cosmetics market, however, the sales of anti-aging skin care products has been growing every year. The reasons are the arrival of an aging society and females' increasing emphasis on their appearances. There are over 1,200 cosmetics manufacturers in Japan. The distribution of these companies according to their sizes appears to be M-shaped. The top five¡XSHISEIDO, KAO, Kanebo, Kose, and P&G Japan, have been in heated competition for years, but it does not stop new entrants from joining the battlefield. In the face of fierce competition among the cash-rich giants and the threats of aggressive new entrants, the smaller-scaled companies that lie in between are facing daunting challenges. This study intends to show how such medium-sized companies might come up with a competitive strategy to ensure their survival and profitability. Saishunkan Co. Ltd. is one of those medium-sized cosmetics manufacturers. Saishunkan has modest capital amount of 100 million yen, yet it is able achieve annual sales of over 20 billion yen. The company has unique ways of marketing and sales, clearly targeted customers, products with special ingredients, and a sound market segmentation strategy. This thesis intends to examine, through the case study of Saishunkan, how a smaller-scaled company might compete and survive in a theater filled with cash-rich big companies who enjoy the economy of scale.

男性保養品市場在近幾年相當受到市場注目，許多大型化妝品集團均針對男性開發男性專屬的皮膚保養用品，在2000年之後，每一年全球的市場均達到二位數之高度成長。從數據上看來，最近幾年的化妝品產業的連年成長，有很大部份是來自於男性消費者的消費主力逐漸產生，他們對於自我外貌的觀念，因為產業、媒體、社會環境的交相傳播影響，使得產品及品牌的觀念漸漸成型，品牌忠誠度與產品的再購也有不少提昇。 本研究即就此一現象做男性專櫃保養品之生活型態與購買決策研究。透過問卷調查，探析男性專櫃保養品消費者的生活型態，並輔以非專櫃保養品之消費者，做兩者的比較分析。本研究共回收937份有效問卷，其中591份是專櫃消費者，346份是非專櫃消費者。本研究利用利用因素分析及集群分析將消費者做生活型態分類；用ANOVA、卡方分析、獨立樣本t檢定分析消費者在購買行為、生活型態、人口變項上的差異；最後用迴歸分析探討品牌滿意度對品牌忠誠度的影響。 研究結果顯示，時尚先鋒族是男性專櫃保養品的目標消費者，其人口變項、生活型態都與其他集群有顯著差異。這個族群對於流行訊息非常敏感，在團體中很活躍、重視社交，並且在意自我形象。他們會透過多元的管道購買專櫃保養品，也會透過網路與其他使用者交換使用心得。而在非專櫃消費者中的時尚先鋒族則是男性專櫃保養品的潛在消費者，他們同樣重視自我的外貌，也會利用較低價的開架式保養品，只是年紀較輕，收入較少，尚未有足夠的預算購買專櫃產品。此外本研究也發現有部分消費者的需求並沒有完全被滿足，某些肌膚問題無法對應該有的專櫃產品。 根據研究結果，企業應加強對時尚先鋒族的行銷，加強價格定位，做好專櫃通路的品牌形象及服務，以提高時尚先鋒族的品牌態度，進而形塑品牌忠誠；強化網路在行銷溝通上的地位，做好網路上的議題管理與公關策略，以強化消費者的品牌滿意度；並且企業應針對目前尚未滿足的需求，發展出對應的專櫃產品，以增加獲利。 / It’s been a wide attention to the men’s skin care matkets in recent years. Many of the large cosmetic groups are developing skin care products specifically for men. After the year of 2000, men’s skin care markets around the world are enjoying double-digit growth every year. Also, based on the numbers, the growth of the entire cosmetic industry in these years has largely benefited from the emerging men’s skin care product consumers. The concept of male consumers’ own look, is changing by the communication of the skin care industry, media information, and the whole atmosphere in the society. This phenominon has the power to form the concept of men’s skin care brands and products, and also raises the brand loyalty and repeated product buying. This research is based on this situation and doing a survey of the consumer lifestyle and purchase decision of men’s skin care products. Through an Internet survey, this research is to analyze the lifestyle of men’s luxury skin care product comsumers, and to compare with the lifestyle of men’s non-luxury skin care product comsumers. Effective samples are in the amount of 937 in total, 591 in luxury consumers, and 346 in non-luxury consumers. The statistics are conducted with factor analysis and cluster analysis to categorize the consumers by their lifestyles; with ANOVA, Chi-square, and independent sample T-test to see the consumer differences in purchase behavior, lifestyles, and demographics; and with regression analysis to discover the impact of the brand satisfaction to the brand loyalty. Based on the prominent differences in demographics and lifestyles, the result shows that the trend-pioneers are the target of the men’s luxury skin care products. This cluster is especially sensitive to fashion information, active in a group, caring about social activities, and their self images. They purchase luxury skin care products in diversed channels, and exchange information after using products with other users through the Internet. And we discover that the potential consumers are inhabited in the trend-pioneers in the non-luxury product consumers. They’re younger, having less income, also caring about their looks, using cheaper skin care products sold in supermarkets and drugstores, and very willing to buy luxury products in the future. They just need some time to get enough budgets. Another discovery in this research is that some comsumer needs are not fulfilled entirely; certain skin problems do not correspond to products with specific solutions. Men’s luxury skin care companies, based on the research results, should reinforce the marketing strategies to trend-pioneers, the price positioning strategies, brand images and services in luxury products channels to raise the trend-pioneers’ brand attitudes, and then to form the brand loyalty. The Internet should get more attention in marketing communication, and be used to enhance the issue management and PR strategies in cyber world, to raise consumers’ brand satisfaction. Additionally, to raise the profits, companies involved should develop corresponding luxury products to specific unfulfilled needs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a treatment package to teach a child with autism to willingly accept skin care products conducive to health and normal everyday living. The current study uses graduated exposure, modeling and contingent social attention to teach the child to accept the application of skin care products previously avoided. Results of the study showed that the participant tolerated criterion amounts of all target stimuli with both experimenter and parent. Follow-up probes revealed maintenance of the behaviors with only two out of the three target skin care products.

Syfte – Syftet med studien var att studera skillnader i marknadsföring av hudvårdsprodukter riktat till kvinnor respektive män på Instagram. Genom att titta på helhetskonceptet av företagens instagramkonton utreds vilka könsstereotyper som används för att inspirera kvinnor och män till att följa dem på Instagram. Metod – För att uppfylla syftet har sex olika instagramkonton inom hudvård riktade till kvinnor respektive män studerats. Först gjordes en små-N-studie i form av en semiotisk bildanalys. Genom att studera denotation och konnotation av bilderna genomfördes en analys där vi även använde teorier från Teoretisk Bakgrund. Därefter genomfördes gruppintervjuer för att stärka konnotationen med hjälp av andra personers erfarenheter och åsikter. För att ge struktur åt analysen och se till att liknande delar av kontona granskades delades kontona upp i kategorierna Översikt, produktbilder, inspirations-/livsstilsbilder och citat i både den egna analysen och gruppintervjun. Resultat – Resultatet av gruppintervjuerna var att många grupper nämnde gemensamma beskrivningar och känslor av de olika kontona. Deras uppfattningar gick generellt i linje med vad vi kommit fram till i den egna denotationen och konnotationen, även om den var mer utförlig. Utifrån insamlade teorier och insamlad empiri från semiotisk bildanalys och gruppintervjuer identifierades könsstereotyper på de olika instagramkontona, vilket syntes genom färgval, uttryck av livsstil, fritidsintressen och rekvisita i produktbilder. Detta visade tydligt på kvarlevandet av gamla könsstereotyper om vad det innebär att vara man och kvinna. Implikationer – Implikationen för studien, alltså vad undersökningen pekar mot och verkar leda till, att könsstereotyper fortsätter att finnas och frodas, även på New Media. Detta leder till fler könsroller, fler begränsningar för kvinnor och män och fortsatt ojämställdhet. Att fenomenet även finns på New Media innebär att könsstereotyperna har större påverkan på människor, och att de också når ut till ännu fler människor. Begränsningar – Det som påverkar arbetets omfång och resultat är bland annat den begränsade tiden på vilken studien genomfördes, vilket begränsade antalet deltagande vid gruppintervjun, antal metoder och även djupet i den teoretiska bakgrunden. Hade studien utförts vid en längre tidsperiod hade studien kunnat vara mer omfattande vilket skulle ha stärkt studiens resultat. / Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in marketing of skincare products on Instagram against a female or male target audience. By studying the companies concepts on Instagram we examine which gender stereotypes is being used to inspire women and men. Method – To fulfill the purpose, the authors have studied six different Instagram accounts within skincare marketed against women and men. A small-N-studie was done through a semiotic picture analysis. By studying the denotation and connotation of the pictures we did an analysis where we used theories from the Theoretical Background. Thenceforth we did group interviews to strengthen our connotations with the support from other peoples opinions with different experiences and backgrounds. To regulate the analysis we used headlines as overview, product-pictures, inspiration/lifestyle pictures and quotes both in the own analysis and in the group interview. Findings – The result of the group interviews was that many of the groups mentioned common descriptions and associations to the pictures on the Instagram accounts. Their perceptions was generally in the line of what we discovered through our own denotations and connotations even though ours was more detailed. From the theories and the discovered findings from the semiotic picture analysis and the group interviews we could identify gender stereotypes in the different Instagram accounts. This was shown through the colour-palettes, the life style that was promoted, the hobbies and the props in the product pictures. These findings clearly showed the signs of old gender stereotypes regarding what it means to be a man or a woman. Implications – The implications of the study is that the gender stereotypes will continue to exist and develop even on New Media. This leads to more limitations for women and men and continued inequality. The fact that this phenomenon is also on New Media means that the gender stereotypes has an even bigger impact on people, as it reaches to a larger group of people. Limitations – What influenced the size of the study was, among other things, the time limitations of the study. This limited the amount of participants in the group interview, the number of methods and even the extent of the theoretical background. If the study had been done during a longer period of time the study could have been more extensive which would have strengthened the findings of the study.