Product Design and the Indian Consumer: Role of Visual Aesthetics in the Decision Making Process
The research paper aims to examine the influence of ‘Product design’ on buying decision making in the Indian urban market sector, focussing on visual product aesthetics; the characteristics that create a product’s appearance and have the capacity to affec
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Abstract The research paper aims to examine the influence of ‘Product design’ on buying decision making in the Indian urban market sector, focussing on visual product aesthetics; the characteristics that create a product’s appearance and have the capacity to affect observers and consumers [1]. Product design, specifically the ‘Visual Aesthetic’ [Visual Aesthetics (VA), for the purpose of this study, is defined to entail the colour, size and proportions, materials and design expression of the designed product] has been recognised as a key strategic variable in securing or defending a marketplace advantage. This question will be examined in the context of Indian social, cultural and economic systems and with regards to the relative position of visual aesthetics in the decision making process of young adults in the Indian urban consumer market. Keywords Product design
Indian consumer Social psychology
1 Introduction ‘Aesthetics proper is a recent discipline, born of a real revolution in our perception of the phenomenon of beauty’—Ferry. Ferry [2] comments in his article—‘The Origins of aesthetics’, specifically the visual aesthetics in the field of art, and this same understanding prevails in the N. Sridhar (&) M. O’Brien University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3HD, UK e-mail: [email protected] M. O’Brien e-mail: [email protected]
A. Chakrabarti and R. V. Prakash (eds.), ICoRD’13, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-1050-4_21, Springer India 2013
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relatively younger creative areas such as Graphic design and Industrial design. This comment can be construed such that the understanding of beauty or the subjective perception of beauty and in a broader and more relevant context, general visual aesthetics is congenital in all humans and is then subject to recall. The demands of today’s consumer marketplace continuously influence how retail, wholesale, distribution and consumer product manufacturers operate. As a result, these organizations need to understand and anticipate customer needs in order to remain competitive and provide innovative, differentiated products. Marketers realise now, that the reactions of the target consumer is foremost at the visual level, especially in the tangible consumer goods market and the measure of this as a factor in the success of the product is mostly in the marketer’s domain of control. ‘‘It is important to understand and measure these individual differences relating to design for several reasons: First, individual differences in responsiveness to visual aesthetics may underlie a number of other well-established consumer behaviour variables such as product involvement, brand loyalty, materialism, innovativeness, self image congruence, choice, and usage behaviour’’ [3]. In such markets, developing a product image in a consumer’s mind becomes an essential marketing tool; an image once in the consumer’s long-term memory is more likely to be purchased when a need for that product arises [4]. H
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