Motives and Stimuli in Organic Cosmetics Purchases: Understanding the Consumer Behaviour Drivers

Abstract

The global shift toward sustainable and health-conscious consumption has propelled organic cosmetics from a niche category into a mainstream segment of the beauty and personal care industry. Yet the behavioural mechanisms that translate consumer attitudes into actual purchase intention remain incompletely understood, particularly in emerging markets where organic cosmetics compete with well-established conventional brands on price, availability, and perceived efficacy. This study empirically examines the internal motives and external marketing stimuli that drive consumer purchase intention toward organic cosmetics, adopting a Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. Primary data were collected from 200 respondents using a structured questionnaire measuring five motivational constructs (health consciousness, environmental concern, social influence, price sensitivity, and product quality perception) and four stimulus constructs (advertising exposure, packaging appeal, word of mouth, and in-store availability), together with purchase intention as the outcome variable. Reliability of the instrument was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.785 to 0.843, with an overall alpha of 0.906. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the combined set of motives and stimuli explained 59.7 per cent of the variance in purchase intention (R² = 0.597, Adjusted R² = 0.578, F(9, 190) = 31.32, p < .001). Health consciousness, product quality perception, packaging appeal, word of mouth, environmental concern, and social influence emerged as significant positive predictors, while price sensitivity was a significant negative predictor of purchase intention. Independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA indicated no statistically significant differences in purchase intention across gender or age groups. The findings offer actionable insights for organic cosmetics marketers on prioritising product quality communication, packaging design, and referral-based promotion over price-led strategies, and contribute to the growing body of literature on green and ethical consumption behaviour.