Study On The Influence Of Reference Groups On Male College Students' Degendered Consumption

With the gradual development of science and technology,the heavy and complicated work which requires a lot of physical strength will gradually be replaced by artificial intelligence.Accompanied with the promotion of gender awareness,and social development,the responsibilities of different genders have changed.The traditional advantage of male power has gradually faded in the evolution of social division of labor.At the same time,due to the continuous changes in work requirements and the purpose of attracting others,the society and the male consumer group have gradually paid more and more attention on the appearance of themselves.However,the products that help to promote the appearance,such as cosmetics,have certain gender roles because of social and cultural influences.However,it was reported that the male cosmetics consumption has been creasing by domestic well-known e-commerce platforms.The domestic cosmetics market has been leading by the well-known foreign cosmetics brands such as L'oreal,Estee lauder for a long time.But when the awareness of male consumer has been promoted,here may come a great chance for the domestic male cosmetics brands to occupy the dominant position in the early stage of the market.After the emergence of relevant trends in the industry,academia has also begun to do some study on this phenomenon.Different scholars have conducted different studies on the factors which may influence men's degendered consumption behavior.The reference group perspective is one of them.This paper selects the male college students as the sample to study with the perspective of the reference group.Through literature reading,empirical research and case analysis.The study found that the attitudes and behaviors of the reference groups(family members,lovers,classmates,groups eager to join and online groups)had a significant impact on the male college students consumption of cosmetics.Different love status,ages and consumption levels show significant differences on their cosmetics consumption.And male college students most expect to get the support of their classmates when consuming cosmetics.The brands in the marketing often use the group “eager to join” as the consumption stimulus,and build the consumption scene with the opposite gender.