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Abstract Most purchasing choices and decisions are influenced by customer analysis of the pros and cons and emotional aspects. Psychological and marketing studies have validated the role played by customer emotions at various stages of the purchasing process. The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions and factors that potentially affected customers' emotions in buying luxury cosmetics. First, to identify the dimensions of customers' emotions, qualitative studies were conducted using in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 customers of luxury cosmetics in Telegram groups. This phase led to identification of the dimensions of customers' emotions and a list of factors that potentially acted as the antecedents affecting emotions in the target population. In the second phase of the study, the factors affecting the customer's emotions were identified based on group consensus. The panel members at this stage were 15 marketing and psychology experts and managers of importing luxury cosmetic products, who were active on social networks and managers of luxury cosmetics in a Telegram group. The group consensus was led to 36 variables that were identified as the effective factors on customer emotions in the Telegram groups of luxury cosmetic products and were placed in 3 categories: group and product variables, situational variables, and individual variables. Introduction Most purchasing decisions are influenced by customer analysis to identify the pros and cons of emotional aspects. Psychological and marketing studies have validated the role played by customer emotions at various stages of the purchasing process. The role of customer’s emotions is evident in the purchase of luxury products. Besides, emotions play a large part in shaping consumer’s experience and affect people’s consumption reactions (Ladhari, 2007). Today’s consumers establish emotional relationships with products and brands and makes\ choices based on them. Therefore, being aware of the role of customers’ emotions can be very important for product marketing (Lin & Liao, 2012). A global consumption pattern that is rapidly expanding in Iran is the desire to consume luxury goods, including luxury cosmetic products, which have become popular among the young people (Khairi, 2015; Quchani et al., 2013). A review of the literature shows that the dimensions of customer emotions and the factors affecting those emotions in the luxury cosmetics industry, especially in Iran, have not been comprehensively investigated. In addition, identifying the set of variables that excites customers in the market and leads to the purchase of certain products is specific to that market, which may be determined by such factors as a large number and variety of products to choose from, prices, shopping environment, and other factors mentioned in the previous sections. Therefore, in each market, these and other unidentified factors should be investigated based on the environmental, cultural, technological, and other characteristics of that market. Hence, conducting a comprehensive research in the Iranian market by considering the different values of consumers in choosing products and the obvious difference between the brands of luxury cosmetics and the studied Iranian brands in terms of creating excitement for customers and the factors affecting it can bridge the gaps. The current research sought to achieve such goals. Methodology: This research aimed to identify the dimensions of customers’ emotions and examine, prioritize, and categorize the factors affecting those emotions during the purchase of luxury cosmetic products from the customers’ points of view in the Iranian Telegram groups selling luxury cosmetic products. To reach the research objective, a two-stage study was conducted by using thematic analysis and fuzzy Delphi methods. The purpose of using thematic analysis was to identify the dimensions of the customers’ emotions in the Iranian Telegram groups, while the purpose of using the fuzzy Delphi technique was to identify and categorize the potential factors affecting their emotions through the consensus of a group of experts. In the first step, an in-depth semi-structured interview was conducted with a number of active and experienced customers, who had made frequent purchases from the online Telegram groups selling cosmetics. The interview forms consisted of two main sections. In the first part, the respondents were asked about the demographic characteristics and the relevant information about the extent to which they used virtual networks in terms of hours per day, as well as the times they spent in the online groups of cosmetics shopping. The second part was designed to gain experiences of the respondents’ emotions during the presence-in-group stage and the purchasing process. They were asked to explain what emotions like anger, worry, joy, fear, etc. they usually experienced when they entered a telegram group selling cosmetics online, usually by looking at the products, reading comments, talking to the members, and comparing the prices. They responded by describing their mental states. Considering the qualitative nature of the research, sampling was done via a judgmental or purposeful method. In the first stage, the sample finally consisted of 23 people, by which the interview reached saturation from the theoretical dimension. The data obtained from the interviews were then coded in this step. Findings In this study, considering the research objective and consulting the research supervisors, the expert panel members were determined to be 15 specialists with expertise in marketing and/or psychology, companies importing luxury cosmetic products active in virtual networks, and active managers of Telegram groups selling luxury cosmetics via the fuzzy Delphi technique. The validity and reliability of each step were also evaluated and confirmed. For thematic analysis, all the interviews were recorded in writing and the resulting texts were read several times to determine the general pattern in the text of the interviews. Then, based on the patterns observed in the general framework of the interviews, a list of primary codes was created. In this step and in the first step, a total of 454 codes were identified. In the next step, these codes were categorized into groups with similar and coherent concepts and refined into 33 codes. The output of this stage included 11 secondary themes, which led to 2 organizing themes of "positive excitement" and "negative excitement" for the overarching theme of customer emotions. Conclusion: By considering the related studies and for expanding the previous concepts, this study examined the concept of customer’s emotions and its dimensions and components in the luxury cosmetics industry through a case study of Iran with regaerd to the international sanctions on the Iranian customers. The research was carried out in two stages by using thematic analysis and fuzzy Delphi technique. In the first stage, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 23 active customers with a long history of purchasing from Telegram groups selling luxury cosmetic products in Iran. In the interviews, some questions were asked about people’s feelings, emotions, and mental states during the stages of being in the group and the buying process. Next, by collecting the data from the interviews and using the method of thematic analysis, the dimensions of the customers’ emotions in the Iranian Telegram groups were identified and categorized in the two groups of positive and negative emotions and their components were determined. In the second stage, to provide a comprehensive picture of the factors affecting the customers’ emotions and impulsive buying behaviors, the Delphi-Fuzzy technique was used. The initial list of factors affecting the customers’ emotions was prepared and provided to the experts in the form of a closed questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale. After 3 rounds of evaluation and comparison of the opinions by the expert panel members, 36 factors were finally identified as the potentially effective factors that could affect the customers’ emotions when they were in their groups and chose and bought cosmetic products. The factors were prioritized based on their importance in terms of the impacts they could have on the studied concept and were classified into 3 general categories. |
