Perceived Importance Of Product Aesthetics For Consumers

The basic questions answered by the research described in this paper is: Are people assigning the same importance to the product aesthetics of different product classes? Are women and men assign the same importance to product aesthetics? Three experiments were organized with a large number of participants, the data was verified in terms of accuracy and reliability, and, after the statistical processing of the data, the following conclusions were formulated. a) People assign different importance to product aesthetics of different product classes. Basically, the order of importance is: personal and family products; professional products; and products associated with activities that not everyone practices. b) Women and men assign the same importance to the product aesthetics of some classes of products, respectively for articles that are generally bought and used by the whole family and for products used for professional purposes. Women assign an increased importance to product aesthetics of articles of adornment, household, and travel goods; and men to product aesthetics of means of transport, arms, and smokers' supplies. c) People assign different importance to the product aesthetics of different product subclasses within the same class. This is due to the fact that product classes (as indexed in Locarno classification) can contain quite different subclasses in terms of consumers interest for product aesthetics. d) People are influenced by images in assigning importance to product aesthetics only if the identity of the product class is not noticeably clear and the image help them to reflect to the aesthetics possibilities.