The French have an obsession for their hair, and the others?
A study conducted by the Ifop Beauty Department of the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), whose research is at the crossroads of expertise luxury, health and consumerism, was interested in the relationship that women have with their bodies . The main objective here was to offer brand-advertisers pilot angles to develop their future strategies.
The study was conducted among 8000 French, Chinese and Russian women to obtain a representative panel between mature and emerging markets. It helped to determine the most important part of the body in their eyes, the one they are least satisfied with, and finally the part for which they would be willing to spend more.
For 60% of women surveyed, the face is the main concern. This issue is all the more important for Chinese women, who say more than 25% that they would be willing to spend more than they already do. This result explains the strong increase in aesthetic procedures in the country, especially in the eyes.
For many women in France and Russia, it is the hair which are problematic. 42% of French and 35% of Russians even present them as a priority issue. Among them, respectively 10 and 25% of women are totally unsatisfied with their hair and would be willing to invest more to achieve a better result.
Another interesting result, women are very focused on the pace of their breast and their belly, whatever the country questioned. The study reveals that one in two women is ready to spend more than she does today on her belly, and nearly four out of ten women bosom. Chinese women are particularly sensitive to this last part of the body, considered important by 40% of them and unsatisfactory by nearly 30%. This can certainly be explained by average chest size, lower in China than in Russia and France. In both countries, surgical procedures on bosom are also more common than they are in China.
If the findings of this study will be able to guide the world of cosmetics in the establishment of their future research and product developments, it is also interesting from an anthropological point of view. It allows us to see that the relation to the body is globally the same in France and Russia, because of common Western standards of beauty. But Russian women are generally more demanding, finding more faults than in other countries and being willing to spend more to overcome their complexities.
In China, physiological differences remain an important factor to take into account. They are at the source of a number of Chinese concerns.
