THE EFFECTS OF SALON PATRONAGE IN RELATION TO SEX APPEAL IN PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is truth in the notion that sex sells to women better than more conservative advertisements that focus on skills and services when advertising for an upscale full-service salon. The study will also look at whether female consumers are honest with themselves about how they respond to advertisements. Two advertisements were produced for an upscale salon, one with sex appeal and one without. A survey was conducted at that salon which determined whether women would patronize the salon based on the sexy advertisement. The two different advertisements were then handed out to a target market of women with different variables such as age and marital status. The results of this study showed that the responsiveness of women to a salon advertisement is dependent on whether the advertisement has sex appeal or no sex appeal. Advertisements with sex appeal garnered significantly larger response rates than advertisements without sex appeal. Additional results showed that that there is a difference between the percentages of current customers who indicate they would respond to a sex appeal advertisement versus the percentage of non-customers who did respond to the advertisement with sex appeal. ii