Page 275 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

Pinpointing beauty and wellness industry as a spotlight, Kopelman et al. (2021) state that social media have channeled window of opportunity
for aesthetic experts to excel in marketing through the actions of raising an awareness on their products and services, identifying themselves
and their practices, as well as building up their influence. Prior study has shown that social media usage enormously benefits the brand
awareness and brand image of medical centers, consequently influences consumers’ trust (Ventola, 2014). For this reason, the format and
direction of media social content carries to completion of consumer engagement as Vries et al. (2012) stated that posts with multisensory
and interactive elements were more presumably to result in consumer’s engagement. In the same manner, previous study found that post with
photos have a tendency to stimulate involvement from social media users (Kim et al., 2015).

That being the case, this study is aiming to gain a deeper understanding on the level of vividness and interactivity of social media content
that contributes the most significant impact on consumers’ social media engagement behavior as according to Shahbaznezhad et al. (2021),
there is a limit in apprehension of social media content for the reason that previous studies only stated the theoretical relationship between
social media advertisement and consumer engagement, provided a limited explanation of social media engagement behavior, and only a few
of them evaluated the relationship between the vividness of social media content and the social media platform in expecting consumers’
engagement behavior. On top of that, Kaur and Kumar (2021) also noted that academic research on social media in the beauty and wellness
industry is not as much as in other industries.

Beauty and Wellness Industry

Health Sciences Authority (2020) defines cosmetics products as any natural or artificial ingredient or mixture intended to be applied on a
human face, body, or teeth in order to clean, enhance, change, odorize or scent its users' appearances. Bring to a focus of skincare, it includes
a large variety of products such as cleansers, moisturizers, face and neck creams or lotions, body and hand creams or lotions, as well as foot
powders or sprays (Cosmetics Info, 2021). Today, people of all ages perceive physical beauty and wellbeing as a preponderance. As a
consequence, beauty and wellness services which were perceived as a tools to please individual’s satisfaction in yesteryears, have now
become an essential in daily life (Tfaily, 2017). Following this statement, it is safe to say that the cosmetics industry is one of the outstanding
industries in the global market. In the number of six categories under the global cosmetics industry, skincare arose among all equal to 36.4
percent of the global market in 2016 before it crumbled when the global cosmetics market declined by 8 percent compared to the year before
(Sabanoglu, 2021). In recent article, it is reported that the beauty and wellness market has increased by 6.4 percent from $3.7 trillion in 2017
to $4.2 trillion, twice as fast compared to the growth of the global economy (Stasha, 2021). Meanwhile in Malaysia, skincare was the most
significant sector under the cosmetics and toiletries industry, with sales of RM1.96 billion in 2019, and the industry is forecasted to hit a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.8 percent from 2019 to 2024 (Global Data, 2020).

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The most favored skincare companies in Malaysia consist of Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal and Nu Skin with market share of 12 percent, 10
percent, and 7 percent sequentially (Tan, 2021). Following an immense demand for skincare products, many local skincare brands instigate
the initiatives to stand on par with highly reviewed international skincare products. Among local skincare brands with a large customer base
consists of Bougas Beauty, Kayman Beauty, JELITA.KL, Mimpikita, ZarZou Beauty, yello, SKINEATS, Alluskin, Daughters of Malaya,
and Nature's Palette accordingly (Bakar, 2021). Addressing Nature's Palette as a foreground, Nature's Palette Resources is a local skincare
brand founded in 2017 by Regina Chin and Alex Beh with cleanser and essence as their main products made up of four products in total.
Intending to craft luxurious yet practical skincare products using the finest ingredients for their consumers, Nature's Palette currently has two
partners and three part-time employees, with a consumer base of approximately 5000-6000 people and the age range between 18-35. Most
of their customers are locals, but they do have international customers occasionally. The unique proposition value of Nature's Palette's
products is its most refined ingredients, which are cruelty-free and fragrance-free.

Nature's Palette uses websites and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with their consumers and
employ marketing activities generally since they do not have their bricks and mortar. With 310 followers on Nature's Palette's Facebook
account, they keep their page simple with basic and essential information such as the link for their website page, frequently asked questions
(i.e., products' price, business background, assistance, recommendation), and an empty box to type a question. Moving on to Instagram,
Nature's Palette has 4,869 followers with 370 posts. Along with 3,147 followers and 6,070 tweets on Twitter, Nature's Palette is trying to
build trust among its potential consumers by reposting ‘stories' on Instagram and ‘retweet' on Twitter regarding their consumers' positive
reviews and feedback. Nature's Palette social media posts consists of informative rather than interactive content with a considerably balanced
number of photos and videos. This situation eventually results in a lack of engagement on Nature's Palette's social media platforms as they
scarcely execute push strategy. In other aspects, Nature's Palette also admits that they lack leads and conversions which can lead to purchase
intention through their social media content.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Social media platforms enable users to share media, update profiles, connect with people and join the community (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).
In the context of business, social media provides brands with the advantages of advertising and forming positive connection with customers
which results in the opportunity to establish brand communities and engage with customers (De Vries et al., 2012; Labrecque, 2014 as cited
in Qin, 2020). Statista (2021) reported that the use of social media for marketing purposes can deliver the benefits of increased exposure,
increased traffic, genereted leads, developed loyal fans, improved sales, provided marketplace insights, and grew business partnerships.
Previous studies by Juntunen et al. (2020) also cover the topics of social media content that stimulate engagement

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