DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2017.472
title: The attitude and buying behavior of women towards cosmetic surgery and opportunities of service providers

description: Today, relevant information regarding cosmetic surgery has become more accessible for Thai people, with positive and negative views. People still believe that beauty should come from the inside, meaning a person’s personality, and that people should not be judged only by their appearances (Thairath Online, 2014). But, the market size of cosmetic surgery in Thailand has grown year by year even during an economic downturn  (Marketeer, 2016). This overall research is to study what influences Thai people to decide to have cosmetic surgery and to identify some significant factors for choosing a service provider. The main objective of this research is to explore customer attitudes towards cosmetic surgery and to determine customer purchasing behavior as well as providing recommendations for service providers to enhance their market opportunities for the future. From the literature review, we can conclude that; 1) Cosmetic surgery’s popularity keeps growing; it is not only for a niche group. 2) The Korean natural style of cosmetic surgery is widespread among Thai consumers. 3) Some people still have doubts and drawbacks related to having cosmetic surgery. 4) The competition of the cosmetic surgery market has become intense in Thailand. Nevertheless, we do not know the factors that influence the customers purchasing decisions, or what are the important factors for them when they are choosing a service provider. This research is an applied study of marketing in the areas of health and society.  The research was composed of two market research approaches. The first was exploratory research which consisted of secondary research and in-depth interviews with target respondents. The second approach was descriptive research. This involved conducting questionnaires through online channels which acquired 124 respondents. The Statistical Software Package (SPSS) was applied to analyze the data from the questionnaires. The key findings from the quantitative research are as follows:•The most important reason why most respondents consider having a cosmetic surgery is to enhance their self-confidence.•The factors that impact the purchase intention are from the reviews—‘the service quality of service provider’ and ‘the review from past customers’. The better quality of the customers’ reviews, the better they can make a decision.•The online channels, such as a service provider’s official website and public forum websites, are the main source of information when customers want to search for information about cosmetic surgery.Therefore, the marketer should implement an effective marketing strategy that motivates past customers to generate good reviews—which is based on their experience of having plastic surgery—and to keep engaging with them with an after-sale service strategy. The research aims to encourage the service providers to understand the characteristics of potential customers, attitudes, and important factors for choosing a service provider. The results of the study can lead to an effective strategy to attract customers in the future.