Consumer Behavior Essay

This dent describes the roles of crossroad expression in the process of consumer evaluation and extract. For this aim, lit in the fields of harvest-festival development, increase fancy, consumer behavior, marketing, and human factors has been searched. The literary returnions shows that the optic sort of a intersection mint influence consumer product evaluations and resource in several ways. Several authors considered the role of product or mailboat fashion in consumer product evaluation or choice (Bloch, 1995 Garber, 1995 Garber et al. , 2000 Veryzer, 1993 Veryzer, 1995).However, they did not discuss explicitly the antithetic ways in which appearance influences consumer choice and their respective implications for product design. In addition to these more recent contributions to the literature, the functions of a product in consumerproduct interaction are expound in earlier industrial design literature (Lo? bach, 1976 Pilditch, 1976 Schu? rer, 1971). Several of the se functions concern product appearance. in that respect are differences between authors in the number of roles (i. e. , functions) of product appearance they distinguish and the terms they spend.For example, communication of ease of use was menti matchlessd by Bloch (1995) and was described as part of the aestheticalalal function by Lo? bach (1976), tour Veryzer (1995) called it the communicative function of a product appearance. If all the roles menti unrivaledd in the literature are considered as a whole, the following six roles of product appearance for consumers can be distinguished (1) communication of aesthetic, (2) symbolic, (3) functional, and (4) ergonomic product discipline (5) attention drawing and (6) categorization. A description of these six roles and their implications for product design follows. proceeds Appearance and Aesthetic Product Value The aesthetic take to be of a product pertains to the pleasure derived from seeing the product, without consideration of utility (Holbrook, 1980). A consumer can value the look of a product purely for its declare sake, as looking at something beautiful is rewarding in itself. When product alternatives are similar in functioning and price, consumers volition prefer the one that appeals the most to them aesthetically (see, for example, Figure 1). Aesthetic responses are primarily aflame or feeling responses, and as such(prenominal) they are very own(prenominal) (Bamossy et al. , 1983).Several researchers have tried to determine properties of products that are related to aesthetic appreciation. Innate preferences are proposed for visual organization principles, such as harmony (i. e. , congruence in elements), proportion (e. g. , the Golden Section), and symmetry (Hekkert, 1995 Muller, 2001 Veryzer, 1993 Veryzer and Hutchinson, 1998), and an anatropous U-shaped relation is proposed between aestheticpreference and complexity (Berlyne, 1971). An new(prenominal) property influencing aesthetic judg ments is wring.The sex appeal of a color will change according to the object to which it is utilize (e. g. , a car or a table) and with the style of the object (e. g. , upstart font or Georgian) (Whitfield and Wiltshire, 1983). In addition to ( ignorant) preferences for real properties of stimuli, prototypicality is found to influence the aesthetic response. Proto typicality is the degree to which something is representative of a category (see withal the variance about categorization). In several studies, evidence is found for a lordly influence of visual prototypicality on aesthetic preference (Hekkert, 1995 Veryzer and Hutchinson, 1998 Whitfield and Slatter, 1979).According to Hekkert et al. (2003), products with an optimum combination of prototypicality and novelty are preferred aesthetically. As well as the product-related characteristics previously mentioned, in that location are cultural, social, and personal influences on design enjoy. For example, color preferences differ between cultures and in time (Whitfield and Wiltshire, 1983). In addition, personal factors, such as design acumen, prior experience, and personality influence the design taste of consumers (Bloch, 1995).The influence of an aesthetic judgment on product preference can be moderated by the perceived aesthetic fit of the product with other products the consumer owns, or his or her home interior (Bloch, 1995). Product Appearance and emblematical Product Value Consumer goods carry and communicate symbolic meaning (McCracken, 1986). emblematic value even can be the key determinant for product selection (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982) and can account for the selection of products that clearly are low in their tangible characteristics (Levy, 1959).An example of the latter is Philippe Starcks Juicy Salif puke squeezer (Lloyd and Snelders, 2003). The choice for a specific product or taint whitethorn convey the kind of person someone is or wants to be consumers use products to expr ess their (ideal) self-image to themselves and to others (Belk, 1988 Landon, 1974 Sirgy, 1982 Solomon, 1983). Symbolic meaning can be attached to a product or brand on the basis of, among other things, ad (McCracken, 1986), country of origin, or the kind of people using it (Sirgy, 1982).But the productitself also can communicate symbolic value in a more direct way, namely by its appearance. A products appearance communicates messages (Murdoch and Flurscheim, 1983), as it whitethorn look cheerful, boring, friendly, expensive, rude, or childish (see, for example, Figure 2). In addition, a indisputable style of appearance may evoke associations with a certain time or place (e. g. , the Fifties). Furthermore, the product or encase appearance can reinforce the image of a brand, as the individuation of a brand is expressed visually in the appearance of products (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997).Consumers may attach the meaning of a brand to elements of the physical appearance of products. In this way, a brand image may transfer to different kinds of products (see the section about categorization). Many companies therefore make consistent use of certain design elements, such as a color combination, a characteristic take shape element, or style. For example, car manufacturers often try to keep different car models recognizable as belonging to the identical brand. The distinctive radiator wicket of BMW automobiles is an example of a recognizable design element.The linking of brand meaning to elements of the product appearance will be easier when the associations these elements engender by themselves (e. g. , because they are innate or are determined by culture) correspond to the desired brand image. For example, use of bright alter and a large size, which is associated with aggression (Murdoch and Flurscheim, 1983), will make it easier to position a car brand as aggressive. Although there are large individual and time-specific differences in the experience of colo r and form, there are certain associations that seem to be relatively constant.Overviews of the influence of form and color on consumer perception of symbolic value (but also ergonomic and aesthetic value) can be found in Muller (2001), Murdoch and Flurscheim (1983), Schmitt and Simonson (1997), and Whitfield and Wiltshire (1983). For example, angular forms are associated with dynamism and masculinity, while roundness evokes softness and femininity (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997). glossiness is an important determinant of the interpretations that consumers give and the associations they have with certain factors of aproducts appearance. For example, color associations vary from culture to culture (Whitfield and Wiltshire, 1983). In the States and Europe, the color white stands for purity, and brides traditionally dress in white in Japan itis a color of mourning. Furthermore, meaning is context dependent. The embossment that colors give may change completely by combining certain colo rs (Muller, 2001). Also, the meaning of forms and colors may change in time, as meanings are continuously transformed by movements in art, fashion, etcetera (Muller, 2001).There is some debate about whether symbolic interpretation is part of the aesthetic experience. In most literature, aesthetic value is mentioned as botha hedonic impression and a result of interpretation and representation (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997 Vihma, 1995). It is acknowledged in this phrase that whether a product is conceived of as beautiful is affected by what it represents (Vihma, 1995). The same style can be considered good taste at one point in time, while being considered bad taste 10 years later, because the connotations associated with it or the interpretations given to it have changed.For example, orange was a modern color for clothes, furniture, and plastic products in the Seventies, generally was perceived as demode and ugly in the Eighties, and became used in products and clothing again in the Nineties. However, the view in this article is that aesthetic and symbolic value should be distinguished, as they may have opposite influences on preference. For example, someone who likes a colorful design may not buy it because it looks too childish. Product Appearance and Functional Product Value