Consumer Innovativeness And Aspirational Attractiveness As Market Mavenness Stimulants For Self-Care Products’ Trial

This study aims to draw on the malleable nature of market mavenism by identifying consumer innovativeness and aspirational attractiveness as the underlying stimulants of mavenship behaviour, albeit as they are unique to the context of self-care products. It examines the internal borderline conditions that offer a more sophisticated understanding of how marketers can encourage innate and desired attributions as pre-conditions of consumers’ trial probability towards self-care products. This study utilized a self-administered survey whereby a multi-item questionnaire was nominated as the instrument of choice. Specifically, a quantitative, cross-sectional study was employed, followed by both descriptive and correlational research designs. The snowball sampling method yielded (N=475) female market mavens, representing those eliciting high mavenship behaviour. Using the regression model, the study found that consumer innovativeness and aspirational attractiveness explained 68.2% of the variance in market mavenness. Consequently, the research findings add to the scant research in developing countries, such as South Africa, by making inferences that the standardisation of any new product can be enhanced by trial probability feasibility by deploying altruistic mavens who are knowledgeable and trusted by consumers. Based on the empirical research findings, pertinent recommendations for practice were highlighted, including research limitations and conclusions.