Department Of Marketing And - Lingnan University Library

Consumer behaviorIt is difficult to know exactly how thin women want to be. However, people commonlyhope that they can be as thin as a super star, this trend can be found in many developedcountries such as Japan, Hong Kong and USA. According to Bigge (1982) and Bandura (1925),observational learning is one of the reasons why people learn from the super star. By virtue ofthat the super stars are with the traits which are beauty, ability, etc. So they will be the “model”,and people will imitate them in order to be recognized by the others (Fong, 1994).When women feel dissatisfied with their weight/body shape, they will have the intention tolose weight. According to the survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, it found thathalf of the 342 interviewees (women, aged 18-55) have used weight loss products in the pasttwo years, and one third of them spent about $800 per month on weight loss products. But 67 %of them stopped using them within 1-2 months because they found that the products couldn’thelp them to loss weight. One fact must be pointed out, that is 60% of the interviewees believedthat the products were without side effect. Most of them ignored the dangers of the products(Hong Kong Commercial News, 2000).From the survey, it can be seen that women are particularly vulnerable. They are willing tospend much in order to be more beautiful and confident, it is a social force and pressure. Andthey tend to believe is the advertisement contents. When women feel that they are fat, they willthink it is very urgent to improve it. Women also have curiosities to try weight loss products in13