The Different Roles of Product Appearance in Consumer Choice Biographical Sketches

Product design has been recognized as an opportunity for differential advantage in the market place. The appearance of a product influences consumer product choice in several ways. To help product development managers in optimizing the appearance of products, we identified the different ways in which the appearance of a product plays a role in consumer product evaluation, and hence, choice. In addition, we list the implications for product design of each role, and give managerial recommendations for optimizing the appearance of products. ‘ Based on a literature review, six different roles of product appearance for consumers are identified: communication of aesthetic, symbolic, functional and ergonomic information, attention drawing and categorization. A product’s appearance can have aesthetic and symbolic value for consumers, communicate functional characteristics and give a quality impression (functional value), and communicate ease of use (ergonomic value). In addition, it can draw attention and influence the ease of categorization of the product. In a large qualitative study (N = 142) we tested whether these roles indeed exist in consumers’ process of product choice, and whether they are sufficient to describe the way in which product appearance plays a role for consumers. In addition, we gained qualitative insight into these roles. After making a choice between two answering machines, subjects were interviewed about the reasons for their choice and the product information they used to form the judgments underlying their choice reasons. The six appearance roles indeed proved relevant for consumers and were sufficient to describe the influence of product appearance on product choice. The number of ways in which appearance played a role for consumers differed between zero and five, most subjects mentioned two different ways in which appearance influenced their product choice. The aesthetic and symbolic roles were mentioned most often. The preferred shape (e.g., rounded or angular), color or size were found to differ depending on the way in which product appearance played a role for subjects. For example, bright colors may be valued from an aesthetic point of view, but may diminish the impression of quality (i.e., functional value). This makes it difficult to optimize all roles and illustrates that the product value that is most important for consumers when purchasing a specific kind of product should be the starting-point in the design of the product appearance. Furthermore, the influence of shape, color, or size on a certain kind of product value – aesthetic, symbolic, ergonomic or functional – differed between subjects. One person likes a rounded shape, while another prefers a rectangular shape. This means that the value of guidelines indicating how the perception of a specific kind of product value can be engendered by means of shape, color and size is limited. This is especially the case for aesthetic and symbolic product value, which are very personal. Therefore it is recommendable to test the performance of the appearance of a newly-developed product on these six roles with the target group of consumers. Insight into the different ways in which appearance characteristics, such as form and color, may influence consumer choice will increase managers’ awareness about how to use product appearance as a marketing tool. In addition, distinguishing these six appearance roles will help product development managers to better optimize the product appearance to market needs, as the roles have different and sometimes even conflicting implications for the design of the product appearance.