Department Of Marketing And - Lingnan University Library

Understanding ConsumersLosing weight has become a pressure to most women. According to Solomon (1999),women’s physical appearance is a large part of her self-concept. Body image is very importantto females. Women have their ideal of beauty, and the pressure of losing weight is continuallyreinforced both by advertising and by peers. A distorted body image has been linked to the riseof eating disorders, which are particularly prevalent among young women. Most of them arefound in white, upper-middle class teenage and college-age women.The traits of consumersThe target customers of weight loss products can be estimated as female and the age groupis about 18-34 according to the above findings. The educational level of the target customers ishigh school graduate or above, and they are middle class or above. It is becauseprofessional/executive/traders and women from high-income groups are more likely to usedrugs to improve their weight condition. The reasons are that they do not have much time to doexercise, and they have the ability to buy the drug pills (Family Planning Association of HongKong, 1993). In the psychographic dimension, these women perceive a strong link betweenself-esteem and appearance. And they are bombarded by images of thin, happy people.12