Responsible Beauty

Due to challenges in today’s age companies are increasingly engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in order to differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage. This study explored the role of CSR in the cosmetic industry and the influence on customer-organization relationships by the use of a content analysis and a survey. Overall, cosmetic customers find CSR important and it seems to influence relational and transactional outcomes. Customers want to pay a higher price for socially responsible products, are more loyal and give better brand recommendations. However, these factors are not most important in their buying decisions, and quality and previous experience are more important. Furthermore, there seems to be a discrepancy in what cosmetic companies communicate and what customers want to hear. Therefore, these companies might miss out on strategic benefits. Next, awareness appears to be a moderator, which implies that aware customers have a better relationship with brands. Furthermore, the results imply that direct communication from the organization is most effective, because customers do not have to search for this information themselves.