The research problem statement

1 The Research problem (or dilemma)

1.1 What is the research problem you want to work on?

The main goal of my research will be to examine the effect that consumer's perception
of the environmental value of the cosmetic products will have on their attitude toward
purchasing those cosmetics products.

1.2 Why is it a relevant problem?

In the last few decades researchers have noticed a significant turn in the consumer
behavior and attitudes, from choosing products based on its hedonistic reasons such as shape,
color preference, flavor, or aroma to other more important factors like environment and health
benefit. Main reason behind this attitude shift is perceived danger of climate change. This
kind of climate change treat is not just perceived, it's very real and present. According to
Urban pollution and eco-(not that much) friendly behavior affects the global distribution of
water, increasing regional, seasonal and annual variability. There are higher risks of floods in
some areas to severe droughts in the other places. Higher temperature will also influence the
crop yields. The social and economic costs of global warming will directly influence the
progress in developing world. Green marketing probably can play major role in at least
reducing to some extent the impact of climate change since there are sufficient evidences to
support the fact that human activities are the major contributors towards climate change.
Green marketing is the marketing of products and services in ecofriendly manner. It can be
practiced in all the product categories.
(maybe…) As mentioned before, there is a new consumer demand for more environmentally
safe (eco-friendly, green) products. This can be characterized as an increase in the
environmental awareness in consumers which produces a new need for ecologically safe
products. Having that in mind, it is of our interest to examine what needs guide consumers
purchase decisions, that is, is persons’ environmental awareness the key factor in deciding to
buy eco-friendly products or stay loyal to industrial brands, and which other consumer needs
are important factors for this kind of purchase decisions.

(maybe....)New scientific research on climate change and carbon emissions is increasingly

informing public opinion about the need for new environmental policies and environmentally
safe choices for, both, individuals and large companies and producers. Conversations about
climate change and global warming have increased environmental awareness in public
opinion, changed the focus of public discourse on enviromental issues, and created a new
collective need for eco-friendly enviroment. In other words, growing environmental
awareness has changed consumer behavior and the way they decide what to buy. Consumer
needs, along with public discourse, are changing in the direction of demanding a greater
environmental safety of products. We can see that, in dveloped countries of the world, eco-
friendly and green products have become a prime preferance of many consumers (Shafie &
Rennie, 2012). Therefore, the main problem of this paper is to examine which needs drive
consumers to chose which brands to buy and be loyal to. In more detail, it is of our interest to
examine the influence of consumers’ degree of enviromental awareness and their other needs
onto their purchase descisions – are consumers still loyal to the old brands they have always
been loyal to, regardless of their environmental policy, or are they more inclined to to buy
eco-friendly brands and what needs drive these purchase descisions.

2 The Research objective

The objective of this paper is to examine what are the relevant needs that guide consumers’
purchase choices, that is, based on what needs consumers decide what kind of label brand to
buy – eco-friendly or more conventional, industrial products. Moreover, we want to examine
the role of consumer’s environmental awareness in making such decisions, as well as to map
other potentially relevant consumer needs that influence that decisions.

3 The Research questions

3.1 What is the main research question?

3.2 What are the underlying questions (maximum three)?

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(2015).
-Reid, A. J. et al. Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater
biodiversity. Biol. Rev. 94, 849–873 (2019).

-Warren, R., Price, J., Graham, E., Forstenhaeusler, N. & VanDerWal, J. The projected effect
on insects, vertebrates, and plants of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C rather than 2 °C.
Science 360, 791–795 (2018).