Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Business and Policy Studies

Series Vol. 17 , 13 September 2023


Open Access | Article

How Do Companies' Marketing Strategies Affect Consumers' Appearance Anxiety & Confidence and Promote Purchasing Behaviors?

Bingheng Wu * 1 , Zhengkun Yu 2 , Yiting Chen 3 , Yichen Mu 4
1 RDF international school
2 Zibo Shiyan High School
3 Basis International Hangzhou
4 Sino-Canada High Schoo

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences, Vol. 17, 25-33
Published 13 September 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Bingheng Wu, Zhengkun Yu, Yiting Chen, Yichen Mu. How Do Companies' Marketing Strategies Affect Consumers' Appearance Anxiety & Confidence and Promote Purchasing Behaviors?. AEMPS (2023) Vol. 17: 25-33. DOI: 10.54254/2754-1169/17/20231053.

Abstract

This work analyzed how marketing strategies for businesses impacted consumers’ levels of anxiety or confidence, encouraging purchasing behaviors. By conducting research on consumers who are experiencing social appearance anxiety (SAA) and analyzing two cases studies (Fenty’s Body Confidence-Oriented Marketing Strategy and Brandy Melville’s Controversial Appearance-Anxiety Marketing Strategy), our study concludes that social appearance anxiety-oriented marketing strategies have negative consequences on both consumers and companies. For the consumers, SAA can lead to mental/physical damage. For the businesses, the use of SAA can result in a loss of reputation. Finally, this report offers several recommendations for businesses’ marketing campaigns, and these recommendations can improve profits in the long run without harming consumers or risking their standing in the market.

Keywords

social appearance anxiety & confidence, compulsive buying disorder

References

1. Levinson, Cheri A., et al. “Social Appearance Anxiety, Perfectionism, and Fear of Negative Evaluation. Distinct or Shared Risk Factors for Social Anxiety and Eating Disorders?” Appetite, vol. 67, Aug. 2013, pp. 125–133, 10.1016/j.appet.2013.04.002.

2. Sherif, H., Youssef, N. A. E. D., Aly, R. M., & Zolfakar, Z. (2020). The impact of unrealistic images and beauty standards in TRESemmé’s advertisement on consumer’s social appearance anxiety, physical health and psychological wellbeing= TRESemmé.

3. Hongxing News. “General Administration of Market Regulation: Creating “Appearance Anxiety” and Other Top Ten Medical Beauty Advertising Chaos Will Be Focused on Combating.” Wappass.baidu.com, 28 Aug. 2021, baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1709312481982513093&wfr=spider&for=pc. Accessed 5 Aug. 2022.

4. Shenzhen Business News. “Medical Beauty Market Size of Nearly 200 Billion Yuan, “Appearance Anxiety” Why the Cause.” Wappass.baidu.com, 3 June 2021, baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1701518523151161212&wfr=spider&for=pc. Accessed 5 Aug. 2022.

5. Wang, Y. (2022). THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING MARKETING COMMUNICATION AND CONSUMER CONSUMPTION ANXIETY—FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. Psychiatria Danubina, 34(suppl 1), 617-618.

6. Luck, E. (2016). Commodity feminism and its body: The appropriation and capitalization of body positivity through advertising. Liberated Arts: a journal for undergraduate research, 2(1).

7. Koran, L. M., Faber, R. J., Aboujaoude, E., Large, M. D., & Serpe, R. T. (2006). Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying behavior in the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163(10), 1806-1812.

8. Elmer, E. (2017, June 30). Validation of the social appearance anxiety scale with older heterosexual and sexual minority men. OUP Academic. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/article/1/suppl_1/891/3900267.

9. Biolcati, R. (2017, January 1). The role of self-esteem and fear of negative evaluation in compulsive buying. Frontiers. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00074/full#B6.

10. BIOLCATI, R., & MELOTTI, G. (2013). Contribution to the internal validation of the Italian version of the Compulsive Buying Scale (Valance, d'Astous and Fortier, 1988). BPA-Applied Psychology Bulletin (Bollettino di Psicologia Applicata), 59(266).

11. Lee, C. S. (2017, March 21). Social appearance anxiety and eating disorders. Anxiety.org. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.anxiety.org/social-appearance-anxiety-predicts-binge-eating-behaviors#:~:text=Previous%20studies%20have%20indicated%20that%20social%20appearance%20anxiety,social%20appearance%20anxiety%20and%20binge%20eating%20behaviors.%204.

12. Rieger, E., Van Buren, D. J., Bishop, M., Tanofsky-Kraff, M., Welch, R., & Wilfley, D. E. (2010). An eating disorder-specific model of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-ED): Causal pathways and treatment implications. Clinical psychology review, 30(4), 400-410.

13. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2018, February 20). Anorexia nervosa. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia-nervosa/symptoms-causes/syc-20353591.

14. Susan Cowden, M. S. (2020, September 17). 40 potential warning signs of anorexia. Verywell Mind. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/symptoms-warning-signs-of-anorexia-nervosa-1138239.

15. Aggarwal, J. (2022, June 3). Anxiety and fatigue: Meaning, signs, link, effects and treatment. Mantra Care. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://mantracare.org/therapy/anxiety/anxietyfatigue/#:~:text=Anxiety%20is%20a%20mental%20disorder.%20However%2C%20its%20sym toms,just%20get%20out%20of%20bed%20in%20the%20morning.

16. Çelik, E., & Tolan, Ö. Ç. (2021). The Relationship between Social Appearance Anxiety, Automatic Thoughts and Depression-Anxiety-Stress in Emerging Adulthood. International Journal of Progressive Education, 17(5), 345-363.

17. Schlosser, S., Black, D. W., Repertinger, S., & Freet, D. (1994). Compulsive buying: Demography, phenomenology, and comorbidity in 46 subjects. General hospital psychiatry, 16(3), 205-212.

18. Black, D. W. (2007, February). A review of compulsive buying disorder. World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/.

19. About us: Savage X fenty by Rihanna. About Us | SAVAGE X FENTY by Rihanna. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.savagex.com/featured/aboutus?nav=about-main.

20. Okwodu, J. (2018, September 13). Savage X Fenty spring 2019 flips the script on traditional lingerie shows. Vogue. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.vogue.com/article/savage-fenty-spring-2019-anti-angels.

21. Hakeem, F. (2020, December 28). Examining body positivity in Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Lingerie runway show. International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.12011.

22. Low, E. (2019, November 23). Why the victoria's secret fashion show was canceled. Yahoo! Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-victoria-secret-fashion-show-175204346.html.

23. Thomas, L. (2021, July 20). Victoria's secret details comeback plan after L Brands Split, admits it lost relevance with womenLauren Thomas. CNBC. Retrieved October 26, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/victorias-secret-details-comeback-plan-after-l-brands-split.html.

24. Holla, S. M. (2018). Aesthetic objects on display: The objectification of fashion models as a situated practice. Feminist Theory, 19(3), 251-268.

25. Cohen, L., & Lauren Cohen Lauren is a freshman at Penn State studying digital and print journalism. When she's not writing. (2022, March 29). How brandy melville became a fashion faux pas. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from http://www.valleymagazinepsu.com/how-brandy-melville-became-a-fashion-faux-pas/.

26. Harshbarger, A. (n.d.). One size fits small. The Catalyst. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://millardwestcatalyst.com/10840/opinion/one-size-fits-small/.

27. Nunes, M. (2022, April 15). It's true: The average size of the American woman is no longer 14. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.byrdie.com/average-body-weight.

28. Brighton, U. K., Industry By Jessica Byrne London, U. K., & Face By Sofia Phillips London, U. K. (2021, September 16). Brandy Melville accused of racism and fat shaming. Thred Website. Retrieved August 3, 2022, from https://thred.com/style/brandy-melville-accused-of-racism-and-fat-shaming/.

29. Namerow, J. (n.d.). Brandy melville- a one-size-fits-small, body-shaming brand. Upstream News. Retrieved August 3, 2022, from https://cvhsnews.org/6895/arts-entertainment/brandy-melville-a-one-size-fits-small-body-shaming-brand/.

30. TodayShow. (2020, June 12). Brandy Melville faces allegations of racism and body-shaming by former employees. TODAY.com. Retrieved August 3, 2022, from https://www.today.com/style/brandy-melville-faces-allegations-racism-body-shaming-former-employees-t183363.

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).

Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Business and Policy Studies
ISBN (Print)
978-1-915371-77-5
ISBN (Online)
978-1-915371-78-2
Published Date
13 September 2023
Series
Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
ISSN (Print)
2754-1169
ISSN (Online)
2754-1177
DOI
10.54254/2754-1169/17/20231053
Copyright
13 September 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated