The Influence of Young People’s Concern for Appearance and Appearance Management on Their Makeup Awareness and Grooming Behaviors: Focusing on South Korean and Chinese People in their 20s and 30s

Abstract

This study aimed to help broaden awareness horizons among people in their 20s and 30s in South Korea and China in terms of both the necessity of appearance management and the importance of makeup. Therefore, after a survey carried out among young people in South Korea and China, we conducted a comparative analysis of how their concern for appearance and appearance management has an influence on their makeup awareness and grooming behaviors, with the intention of exploring practical implications to help develop cosmetics for men and give the their cosmetics market a jump-start. The findings are as follows. First, it turned out that nowadays, Chinese young people see the graduate school entrance rates rising significantly, with the increasing number of Chinese students studying in graduate schools in South Korea. It means that the education is considered as the ladder of socioeconomic success in China. Second, concern for appearance and its management, makeup awareness, and grooming behaviors, saw difference by education among Chinese men while seeing difference by age among South Korean men. It illustrates there is increasingly noticeable perception in Chinese men that a good appearance is the ladder of socioeconomic success. Moreover, the higher degree the Chinese men had of education, the more clear their perception was. It implies that Chinese men with a high degree of education have a lot of potential to emerge as the largest buying class in the cosmetics consumption. Finally, men in China as well as in South Korea proved to have a strong interest in their concern for appearance, appearance management, makeup awareness, and grooming behaviors. It also showed, the higher concern for appearance, and appearance management they had, the more active they were in makeup awareness and grooming behaviors. Irrespective of gender and nationality, the concern for appearance as human common needs should be a guarantee of a sustained growth and a development potential in the industry of makeup with a direct effect on an appearance enhancement. To sum up, the implication of this findings is that there is a need for developing cosmetics fitting the taste of not only women but also men in China to help give the men's cosmetics market a jump-start.