Sample Structure

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CHPATER IV DATA ANALYSIS

The purposes of this study is to examine whether readers/consumers’ satisfaction toward beauty blog content would influence their interest, purchase behavior, and WOM referral. Moreover, the WOM credibility of three different types of blog post was examined to provide with more understanding on readers/consumers’ attitudes as well as tendencies toward buzz marketing among beauty blogs.

The data collected was run and analyzed using SPSS 16.0. The online survey was conducted from May 27, 2010 to June 9, 2010, and posted on My3Q website. 639 samples were collected, and 604 of which are valid, with 28 male consumers and seven system missing being excluded from the study.

4.1 Sample Structure

For the first section of the questionnaire, preliminary descriptive analysis was conducted to provide with a general demographic profile of participants on age, education, marital status, occupation, monthly income, and residency (Table 4-1). To further understand the internet-using frequency and blog-using habit, descriptive analysis was performed on average hours spent online per week, blog owning, average time spent on editing blogs, average time spent on reading beauty blogs, and beauty blog reading motivations (Table 4-2).

Age

Among 603 valid samples, the accumulation of two age groups account for the majority (83.5%); respectively age group 18 to 24 years old (46.7%) and 25 to 29 years old (36.8). Following up by age group 30 to 34 years old that accounts for 10.3% of the total samples.

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Level of Education

With the accumulated percentage of 94.4% that receive education up to

college/university or above out of 602 samples, it is shown that the majority of participants are fairly educated. 398 participants hold college/university degree (65.9%), 166 master degree (27.5%) and 6 doctor degree (1%).

Marital Status

552 (91.4%) participants are single, accounting for the great majority of all 600 valid samples. While 46 are married (7.6%), two participants fall under the group of

separated/divorced/widowed (0.3%).

Occupation

Among 598 participants that answered, 289 are students, accounting for 47.8%.

Second largest group falls in education, with 57 participants that account for 9.4%.

Participants who are unemployed (32 persons), in service industry (32 persons), in electronics or information industry (31 persons), in medial or environment industry (26 persons), and in communications industry (24 persons) share close percentages that rang from 4% to 5.3%.

The rest 107 participants accounting for 17.7% distributed in other 21 industries.

Monthly Income

More than 90% of the participants make less than 50,000 NTD per month, among which the largest group falls in making less than 10,000 NTD per month (278 participants, 46%), following by those who make 30,001 to 50,000 NTD (145 participants, 24%) and those who make between 10,001 to 30,000 NTD (132 participants, 21.9%). People who make more than 50,001 NTD account for a total of 43 persons, 7.1%. This distribution is in

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accordance with the previous question on age and occupation, in which younger group as well as students take up for majority of all participants.

Residency

Among 601 valid samples, 403 indicate their residency in northern Taiwan (66.7%), 71 in central Taiwan (11.8%), 86 in southern Taiwan (14.2%), 8 in eastern Taiwan (1.3%), and 10 in foreign countries (1.7%), including Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, France, and Guatemala.

Table 4-1. Descriptive Analysis: Demographics

Frequency Percentage (%) Age

Senior / Vocational High School 29 4.8

University/ College 398 65.9

Master 166 27.5

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Electronics / Information 31 5.1

Manufacturing 17 2.8

Communications 24 4.0

Logistics / Warehouse 5 0.8

Agriculture / Forestry / Fishery / Farming 1 0.2

Tourism / Leisure 4 0.7

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Average Hours Spent Online per Week

The largest group is composed of 278 participants out of 602, accounting for 46%, indicate their average time spent online is more than 20 hours per week, implying nearly half of the participants are heavy users of the internet. The second largest group is those who spend 5 to 8 hours per week, with 120 participants accounting for 19.9%. 78 (12.9%) have indicated their average time spent online per week is 9 to 12 hours, 49 (8.1%) indicated 13 to 16 hours, 42 (7%) indicated less than 5 hours, and 35 (5.8%) indicated 17 to 20 hours.

Blog Owning

There are 597 valid samples, among which 431 participants (71.4%) indicate blog owning, while 166 participants (27.5%) do not own any blogs.

Daily Average Time Spent on Editing Blog(s)

Among the 431 participants that suggest blog-owning, 423 has answered this question.

The majority, 383 participants that account for 88.9%, averagely spend less than 2 hours on

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editing blog(s). 34 participants (7.9%) spend 2 to 4 hours, two spend 8 to 10 hours (0.7%), and only one spends more than 10 hours (0.4%) per day.

Average Time Spent on Reading Beauty Blogs

Up to 93.4% of the participants spend averagely less than 2 hours reading beauty blog(s) each day; among which those who spend less than 30 minutes per day account for the majority (290 participants, 48%). With the percentage of 29.8%, 180 participants spend 30 minutes to less than an hour to read beauty blogs. 93 participants accounting for 15.4% spend 1 to 2 hours. Participants that spend more than 2 hours each day account for 6.2%.

Beauty Blog Reading Motivations

Blog readers may have more than one motivation to read beauty blogs, therefore multiple choices are offered for better describing reading motivations. Among 603

participants, “to exchange information” was chosen by 363 participants (60.1%), “to learn knowledge” was chosen by 358 participants (59.3%), “to kill time” was chosen by 299 participants (49.5%), “to relax” was chosen by 243 participants(40.2%), “to seek suggestion”

was chosen by 197 participants (32.6%), “to exchange opinion” was chosen by 52 participants (8.6%).

From the descriptive result, it is clear that beauty blogs are considered more functional for readers as information-exchanging and knowledge-learning are the top two purposes of reading. Nonetheless, beauty blogs are also viewed as good tools for time-killing and relaxation. In other words, beauty blogs serve multiple functions; readers can not only look for helpful information or practical knowledge, but also can relax as well as get rid of boredom. Moreover, readers can even seek for suggestions on decision-making.

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Table 4-2. Descriptive Analysis: Internet-using Frequency and Blog-using Habit Frequency Percentage (%) Average Online Hours Per Week

Less than 5 hours 42 7.0

Average Time Spent on Editing Blog(s)

Less than 2 hours 383 88.9

Average Time Spent on Reading Beauty Blog(s)

Less than 30 minutes 290 48.0

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To exchange information 363 60.1

To exchange opinion 52 8.6