Elsevier

Journal of Business Research

Volume 81, December 2017, Pages 31-39
Journal of Business Research

Consumer responses to functional, aesthetic and symbolic product design in online reviews

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.006Get rights and content

Abstract

This research addresses calls to consider consumer responses to product design along three dimensions: functional, aesthetic, and symbolic design. Based on an analysis of online consumer reviews, this research sheds light on the role of all three design dimensions and reveals how each uniquely contributes to consumers' behavioral responses directly and indirectly though emotional arousal—a key mediator. Furthermore, an important distinction—rooted in consumer information processing models—is made between low-involvement and high-involvement products. The results indicate that the effectiveness of each of the three design dimensions differs depending on the level of product involvement. Taken together, the research findings highlight the importance of taking all three design dimensions into account, including the symbolic design dimension, which has received relatively little attention to date.

Introduction

Competitive markets demand product designs that deliver benefits that go beyond functionality by offering less tangible—yet potentially more valuable—aesthetic and symbolic benefits (Chitturi et al., 2008, Homburg et al., 2015, Landwehr et al., 2013). Functional design focuses on what a product is supposed to do and involves technology, functionality, and utility (Bloch, 2011). Aesthetic design pertains to perceptions of beauty (Leder, Belke, Oeberst, & Augustin, 2004) and how a product appeals to the senses (Liu, Li, Chen, & Balachander, 2017). Symbolic design involves how a product resonates with consumers' self-image, personality, or values (Seva & Helander, 2009); how it helps communicate status, gender, and social roles (Debevec and Iyer, 1986, Douglas and Isherwood, 1979, Solomon, 1983); or how it signals group membership (Belk, 1988).

Product developers have put increasing emphasis on designing for consumer experience (Candi et al., 2013, Liu et al., 2017), which requires a concerted focus on all three design dimensions (Homburg et al., 2015). Yet debate remains about how to best leverage the three design dimensions—especially from a consumer perspective. For example, Homburg et al. (2015) suggest that the importance of symbolic design varies depending on product type. The Marketing Science Institute (2016) identifies research examining aesthetic design and experience design as a top priority. Likewise, Liu et al. (2017) stress the need for research that explores ideal product design strategies. Thus, both academics and practitioners clearly stand to gain from an investigation of consumers' responses to the three product design dimensions (Homburg et al., 2015, Srinivasan et al., 2012).

Therefore, this research examines the relationships between the three product design dimensions and two key outcome variables: consumers' post-purchase emotional arousal and behavioral responses. This research also investigates how product involvement moderates these relationships. Existing research finds positive effects of product involvement on brand attitudes (Lutz, MacKenzie, & Belch, 1983) and purchase intentions (Bart, Stephen, & Sarvary, 2014). As such, product involvement likely influences consumers' emotional and behavioral responses to product design; however, such interactions remain under-researched.

To investigate how consumers' evaluations of functional, aesthetic, and symbolic design are related to their emotional arousal and behavioral responses and also whether and how level of product involvement moderates these relationships, this research employs a content analysis of online product reviews obtained from Amazon.com's website. The importance of online reviews is widely recognized (e.g., Zhang, Craciun, & Shin, 2010), but extant research focuses mostly on seller implications such as sales and reputation (e.g., Cervellon and Carey, 2014, Lee and Bradlow, 2011). Given the increasing pervasiveness of online reviews (Singh et al., 2017), examining online word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors from a consumer perspective that focuses on the content of online reviews rather than reviewer characteristics is timely. Online reviews contain rich, unsolicited consumer-generated content (Lee & Bradlow, 2011), offering a deep understanding of consumers' emotions (Kim & Gupta, 2012) and behaviors (Moon, Park, & Seog Kim, 2014). Furthermore, unlike traditional experiments and survey-based studies with pre-determined product attributes, a content analysis of online reviews affords a stronger focus on consumers' actual perceptions by taking into account the full range of attributes mentioned (Lee & Bradlow, 2011).

This research makes several important contributions. First, it addresses calls to consider product design along three dimensions (Homburg et al., 2015), in contrast to approaches that view product design as one loosely defined concept (e.g., Bruce, Daly, & Kahn, 2007) or those that adopt a dichotomous utilitarian versus hedonic perspective (e.g., Chitturi et al., 2008). Second, this research is based on online review data linked to actual consumer purchases and obtained in an unobtrusive setting, in which genuine consumer emotions, reactions, and intentions can be observed without manipulation (Kozinets, 2002). Third, this research accounts for consumers' directly expressed emotional and behavioral responses to product design and investigates the key mediating role of emotional arousal between consumers' expressions of product design and their behavioral responses. Fourth, this research offers an important addition to product design literature by examining the moderating role of product involvement, which yields findings that are more nuanced than those of prior research (e.g., Chitturi et al., 2008, Homburg et al., 2015). Finally, this research heeds calls for consumer-based strategy studies (e.g., Dahl, 2016) by employing consumer-level data to inform firm strategies.

Section snippets

Conceptual framework and hypotheses

Homburg et al. (2015) evaluate the impact of functional, aesthetic, and symbolic design on consumer behavior and argue that these dimensions are not mutually exclusive, implying that a product can manifest all three concurrently. This argument aligns with that of Mishra, Dash, and Malhotra (2015), who suggest that design dimensions should be viewed holistically, as well as Noble and Kumar's (2010) concept of “design levers,” which enable product designers to transfer value to users, which in

Methodology

To test the model (Fig. 1), this research adopts a two-step analysis approach. First, content analysis was conducted to quantify the variables in the research model. Second, regression models were tested with three-stage least squares (3SLS) simultaneous estimation and Process (Hayes, 2013).

Results

H1 was tested by simultaneously estimating a set of hierarchical regression equations using 3SLS in SAS 9.4.3 A pooled model that included all 547 responses was estimated (system-weighted R2 = 0.19) to test the predicted positive relationships between consumer expressions of product design dimensions and expressed behavioral responses. The results show significant relationships for functional design (Std. β = 0.36, p < 0.001) and symbolic

Discussion

This research elucidates the relationships between functional, aesthetic, and symbolic design and consumers' emotional and behavioral responses. Overall, the findings suggest that product designers should focus on aesthetic and symbolic design, in addition to functional design. Specifically, the findings indicate that although all three design dimensions influence consumers' behavioral responses, they do so uniquely. For example, the influence of functional and symbolic design on behavioral

Acknowledgement

Part of the funding for this work has been provided from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 324448.

Marina Candi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Reykjavik University's School of Business and the Director of the Reykjavik University Center for Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She received her Ph.D. from Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests include design driven innovation, experience-based innovation, business model innovation, and interactive marketing. Her research has been published in academic journals including the Journal of Product Innovation Management,

References (92)

  • E.J. Arnould et al.

    Consumer culture theory (CCT): Twenty years of research

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (2005)
  • P. Auger

    The impact of interactivity and design sophistication on the performance of commercial websites for small businesses

    Journal of Small Business Management

    (2005)
  • Y. Bart et al.

    Which products are best suited to mobile advertising? A field study of mobile display advertising effects on consumer attitudes and intentions

    Journal of Marketing Research

    (2014)
  • R.W. Belk

    Possessions and the extended self

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (1988)
  • R.W. Belk et al.

    The sacred and the profane in consumer behavior: Theodicy on the odyssey

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (1989)
  • A. Beltagui et al.

    Setting the stage for service experience: Design strategies for functional services

    Journal of Service Management

    (2016)
  • P.H. Bloch

    Seeking the ideal form: Product design and consumer response

    Journal of Marketing

    (1995)
  • P.H. Bloch

    Product design and marketing: Reflections after fifteen years

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2011)
  • P.H. Bloch et al.

    A theoretical model for the study of product importance perceptions

    Journal of Marketing

    (1983)
  • J.J. Brakus et al.

    Brand experience: What is it? How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty?

    Journal of Marketing

    (2009)
  • M. Bruce et al.

    Delineating design factors that influence the global product launch process

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2007)
  • M. Candi et al.

    Innovation through experience staging: Motives and outcomes

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2013)
  • M. Candi et al.

    Exploring the relationship between aesthetic design as an element of new service development and performance

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2011)
  • M.C. Cervellon et al.

    Sustainable, hedonic and efficient: Interaction effects between product properties and consumer reviews on post-experience responses

    European Journal of Marketing

    (2014)
  • S. Chand

    High-involvement products and low-involvement products involvement difference

  • R. Chitturi et al.

    Delight by design: The role of hedonic versus utilitarian benefits

    Journal of Marketing

    (2008)
  • A. Cohen

    Comparing regression coefficients across subsamples: A study of the statistical test

    Sociological Methods & Research

    (1983)
  • M.E. Creusen et al.

    The different roles of product appearance in consumer choice

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2005)
  • D.W. Dahl

    The argument for consumer-based strategy papers

    Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

    (2016)
  • K. Debevec et al.

    Sex roles and consumer perceptions of promotions, products, and self: What do we know and where should we be headed?

  • P. Desmet et al.

    A wheelchair can be fun: A case of emotion-driven design

  • U.M. Dholakia

    A motivational process model of product involvement and consumer risk perception

    European Journal of Marketing

    (2001)
  • M. Douglas et al.

    The world of goods

    (1979)
  • J.R. Edwards et al.

    Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis

    Psychological Methods

    (2007)
  • J. Enrique Bigné et al.

    The impact of experiential consumption cognitions and emotions on behavioral intentions

    Journal of Services Marketing

    (2008)
  • F. Franzak et al.

    Design benefits, emotional responses, and brand engagement

    Journal of Product and Brand Management

    (2014)
  • Y. Ha et al.

    Online visual merchandising (VMD) cues and consumer pleasure and arousal: Purchasing versus browsing situation

    Psychology and Marketing

    (2010)
  • W.J. Havlena et al.

    The varieties of consumption experience: Comparing two typologies of emotion in consumer behavior

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (1986)
  • A.F. Hayes

    Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach

    (2013)
  • A.F. Hayes

    An index and test of linear moderated mediation

    Multivariate Behavioral Research

    (2015)
  • P. Hekkert et al.

    Design and emotion

    The Design Journal

    (2003)
  • E.C. Hirschman et al.

    Dimensions of possession importance

    Psychology and Marketing

    (1990)
  • J. Hoegg et al.

    Seeing is believing (too much): The influence of product form on perceptions of functional performance

    Journal of Product Innovation Management

    (2011)
  • M.B. Holbrook et al.

    The experiential aspects of consumption: Consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun

    Journal of Consumer Research

    (1982)
  • C. Homburg et al.

    New product design: Concept, measurement, and consequences

    Journal of Marketing

    (2015)
  • M.J. Houston et al.

    Conceptual and methodological perspectives on involvement

  • Cited by (61)

    • The role of product design in shaping masstige brand passion: A masstige theory perspective

      2022, Journal of Business Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      It can also be used to communicate one's preferences and values (Candi et al., 2017), as well as to develop one's own identity (Belk, 1988; Seva & Helander, 2009). The reflective product design-construct has garnered little attention in the marketing literature due to the subjective nature of the reflected dimension or simply because the reflective value is unique to each individual (Candi et al., 2017). However, few studies have examined the impact of reflected product design on customer responses.

    • Effectiveness of a three-dimensional-printing curriculum: Developing and evaluating an elementary school design-oriented model course

      2022, Computers and Education
      Citation Excerpt :

      Logos can involve simple visual graphics that represent concrete objects or abstract ideas (Chen et al., 2010). Product design usually involves three components: aesthetics, function, and symbolism (Candi et al., 2017). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2019) defines cultural goods as consumer goods that convey opinions, symbols, and lifestyles.

    • Self-image motives for electric vehicle adoption: Evidence from China

      2022, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Marina Candi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Reykjavik University's School of Business and the Director of the Reykjavik University Center for Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She received her Ph.D. from Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests include design driven innovation, experience-based innovation, business model innovation, and interactive marketing. Her research has been published in academic journals including the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Technovation, Long Range Planning, Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Service Management, Creativity and Innovation Management, and Design Studies. She has over 20 years of experience in the IT sector as a Software Engineer and Project Manager and, during the latter half of her industry career, held positions in executive-level management as well as sitting on the boards of directors of IT firms. She is a visiting professor at the LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome. For more information, please see www.ru.is/staff/marina.

    Haeran Jae, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her PhD in Marketing from University of Kentucky. Dr. Jae's research involves marketing communications with consumers with varying literacy skills. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and the Journal of Macromarketing. Dr. Jae teaches undergraduate International Marketing and Service Marketing at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Jae has worked with the Greater Richmond Area READ (Reading and Education for Adult Development) Center and the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce in developing marketing communication tools targeting and assisting low-literate adults. Prior to academia, Dr. Jae worked in areas of marketing and customer service for Delta Airlines.

    Suzanne Makarem, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her PhD in Marketing from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University. Dr. Makarem's research program falls under the area of consumer decision-making and especially the role of emotions, with a primary focus on consumer decision-making within the healthcare context, the effects of patient emotions on health behavior, and patient satisfaction and retention. Other areas of consumer research that she studies include customer satisfaction with service encounters, consumer responses to product design, online word-of-mouth, and consumer boycotts. Dr. Makarem's research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Service Research, the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the Journal of Services Marketing, and Health Care Management Review. For more information, please see: http://business.vcu.edu/faculty-and-research/persondetail.php?urn=scmakarem.

    Mayoor Mohan, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Mohan currently teaches Product Development and Management and also serves as faculty mentor in VCU's da Vinci Center for Innovation. His research focuses on managerial decision-making, innovation strategy, and brand strategy. His research in these areas has been published in journals including the Journal of Business Research and the European Journal of Marketing. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, Academy of Marketing Science, and the Product Development and Management Association.

    All authors contributed equally to this work and are listed in alphabetical order

    View full text