The Role of Car Aesthetics on Consumers’ Decisions: An Example from Romania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47743/saeb-2020-0002Keywords:
aesthetics, consumer behavior, automotive market, visual perception, competitive advantageAbstract
Visual impact is essential when consumers are assessing car preferences. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic model focusing on car aesthetic dimensions and its impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. Our findings are based on a questionnaire completed by 388 participants and analyzed with SPSS and AMOS. The results show not only that the aesthetic dimensions such as color, shape and sound influence the processing stimuli, but also the significant and positive relationships established between the stimuli and the purchase decision. Also, this study can guide marketers when developing an effective marketing strategy. As our research focuses on the Romanian market, testing our framework in different cultures is strongly encouraged.
JEL Codes - M31; M21References
Baisya, K. R., and Das, G. G., 2008. Aesthetics in Marketing. London, UK: Sage.
Bloch, P. H., 1995. Seeking the Ideal Form: Product design and consumer response. Journal of Marketing, 59(3), 16-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002224299505900302
Bloch, P. H., Brunel, F. B., and Arnold, T. J., 2003. Individual Differences in the Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics: Concept and Measurement. The Journal of Consumer Research, 29(4), 551-565. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/346250
Bluntzer, J. B., Ostrosi, E., and Sagot, J. C., 2015. Styling of cars: Is there a relationship between the style of cars and the culture identity of a specific country? Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part D, Journal of Automobile Engineering, 229(1), 38-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0954407013517221
Byrne, B. M., 2010. Structural equation modelling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications and programming (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge.
Charters, S., 2006. Aesthetic products and aesthetic consumption: A review. Consumption Markets & Culture, 9(3), 235-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10253860600772255
Chassy, P., Lindell, T. A. E., Jones, J. A., and Paramei, G. V., 2015. A relationship between visual complexity and aesthetic appraisal of car front images: An eye-tracker study. Perception, 44(8-9), 1085-1097. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0301006615596882
Chattaraman, V., Deshpande, G., Kim, H., and Sreenivasan, K. R., 2016. Form 'defines' function: Neural connectivity between aesthetic perception and product purchase decisions in an fMRI study. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 15(4), 335-347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cb.1575
Creusen, M. E. H., and Schoormans, J. P. L., 2005. The different roles of product appearance in consumer choice. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 22(1), 63-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0737-6782.2005.00103.x
Crilly, N., Moultrie, J., and Clarkson, P. J., 2004. Seeing things: Consumer response to the visual domain in product design. Design Studies, 25(6), 547-577. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2004.03.001
Dawar, N., and Parker, P., 1994. Marketing universals: Consumers' use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer reputation as signals of product quality. Journal of Marketing, 58(2), 81-95.
Fenko, A., Schifferstein, H. N. J., and Hekkert, P., 2010. Shifts in sensory dominance between various stages of user-product interactions. Applied Ergonomics, 41(1), 34-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2009.03.007
Field, A., 2009. Discovering Statistics using SPSS (3rd ed.). London, UK: Sage.
Franke, N., and Schreier, M., 2008. Product uniqueness as a driver of customer utility in mass customization. Marketing Letters, 19(2), 93-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11002-007-9029-7
Garber, L. J., 1995. The package appearance in choice. NA - Advances in Consumer Research, 22, 653-660.
Garber, L. J., Burke, R., and Jones, J. M., 2000. The role of package color in consumer purchase consideration and choice. Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series, 00-104.
Gaskin, J., 2012. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Gaskination’s StatWiki. from http://statwiki.kolobkreations.com
Gronow, J., 1997. The sociology of taste. New York, US: Routledge.
Hair, J. F., Black, C. W., Babin, B. J., and Anderson, R. E., 2010. Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Hekkert, P., Snelders, D., and van Wieringen, P. C. W., 2003. 'Most advanced, yet acceptable': Typicality and novelty as joint predictors of aesthetic preference in industrial design. British Journal of Psychology, 94(Pt 1), 111-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000712603762842147
Hepola, J., Karjaluoto, H., and Hintikka, A., 2017. The effect of sensory brand experience and involvement on brand equity directly and indirectly through consumer brand engagement. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 26(3), 282-293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2016-1348
Hoegg, J., and Alba, J. W., 2011. Seeing is believing (too much): The influence of product form on perceptions of functional performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28(3), 346-359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00802.x
Hoyer, W., and Stokburger-Sauer, N., 2012. The role of aesthetic taste in consumer behavior. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(1), 167-180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0269-y
Hulten, B., 2011. Sensory marketing: The multi-sensory brand-experience concept. European Business Review, 23(3), 256-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09555341111130245
Hyun, K., Lee, J. H., and Kim, M., 2017. The gap between design intent and user response: Identifying typical and novel car design elements among car brands for evaluating visual significance. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 28(7), 1729-1741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10845-015-1176-8
Kaplan, D., 2009. Structural equation modelling: Foundations and extensions (2nd ed.). London, UK: Sage.
Kreuzbauer, R., and Malter, A. J., 2005. Embodied Cognition and New Product Design: Changing Product Form to Influence Brand Categorization. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 22(2), 165-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0737-6782.2005.00112.x
Krosnick, J. A., and Presser, S., 2010. Question and questionnaire design. Handbook of Survey Research (2nd ed. ed.): Emerald.
Lageat, T., Czellar, S., and Laurent, G., 2003. Engineering hedonic attributes to generate perceptions of luxury consumer perception of an everyday sound. Marketing Letters, 14(2), 97-109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1025462901401
Landwehr, J., Labroo, A. A., and Herrmann, A., 2013. Gut liking for the ordinary: How product design features help predict car sales. Nature Methods, 5(1), 38-43.
Landwehr, J. R., Wentzel, D., and Herrmann, A., 2013. Product design for the long run: Consumer responses to typical and atypical designs at different stages of exposure. Journal of Marketing, 77(5), 92-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jm.11.0286
Lindstrom, M., 2009. Branduri senzoriale. Bucuresti: Publica.
Liu, Y., Li, K. J., Chen, H., and Balachander, S., 2017. The effects of a product's aesthetic design on demand and marketing mix effectiveness: The role of segment prototypicality and brand consistency. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 83-102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0315
Luchs, M., Brower, J., and Chitturi, R., 2012. Product choice and the importance of aesthetic design given the emotion-laden trade-off between sustainability and functional performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 29(6), 903-916. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2012.00970.x
Malhotra, G., Nandi, A., and Mukherjee, A., 2012. An empirical research on consumer behaviour towards small car segment in Indian market. Business Perspectives and Research, 1(1), 37-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2278533720120104
March, A., 1994. Usability: The new dimension of product design. Harvard Business Review, 72, 144-149.
Martinez, L. F., and Zeelenberg, M., 2015. Trust me (or not): Regret and disappointment in experimental economic games. Decision (Washington, D.C.), 2(2), 118-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dec0000025
McCracken, J. C., and Macklin, M. C., 1998. The role of brand names and visual cues in enhancing memory for consumer packaged goods. Marketing Letters, 9(2), 209-226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1007965117170
Muller, W., 2001. Order and Meaning in Design. Utrecht: Lemma, Netherlands.
Norman, D. A., 2005. Emotional Design. New York: Basic Books.
Orth, U. R., Campana, D., and Malkewitz, K., 2010. Formation of consumer price expectation based on package design: Attractive and quality routes. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 18(1), 23-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679180102
Page, C., and Herr, P. M., 2002. An investigation of the processes by which product design and brand strength interact to determine initial affect and quality judgments. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12(2), 133-147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327663JCP1202_06
Petkus, E., Budeva, D., Chung, C., and Dzhogleva, H., 2011. Marketing outputs as art? Bringing an aesthetic sensibility to the marketing curriculum. Marketing Education Review, 21(2), 113-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/MER1052-8008210202
Ranscombe, C., Hicks, B., Mullineux, G., and Singh, B., 2012. Visually decomposing vehicle images: Exploring the influence of different aesthetic features on consumer perception of brand. Design Studies, 33(4), 319-341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.06.006
Reimann, M., Zaichkowsky, J., Neuhaus, C., Bender, T., and Weber, B., 2010. Aesthetic package design: A behavioral, neural, and psychological investigation. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(4), 431-441. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2010.06.009
Revilla, M. A., Saris, W. E., and Krosnick, J. A., 2014. Choosing the number of categories in agree-disagree scales. Sociological Methods & Research, 43(1), 73-97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0049124113509605
Ridgway, N. M., Dawson, S. A., and Bloch, P. H., 1990. Pleasure and arousal in the marketplace: Interpersonal differences in approach-avoidance responses. Marketing Letters, 1(2), 139-147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00435297
Schmitt, B. H., and Simonson, A., 1997. Marketing aesthetics: The strategic management of brands, identity, and image. New York, US: The Free Press.
Schmitt, B. H., and Simonson, A., 2002. Estetica in marketing. Bucharest, Romania: Teora.
Tarta, C. P., and Plaiaş, I., 2015. The aesthetic elements kept in mind by Romanians when buying a car. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference in Marketing – From Information to Decision, Cluj Napoca, Romania, 93-101.
Tarta, C. P., Plaias, I., and Martinez, L. F., 2015. Conceptualization of an aesthetic model for the automotive industry. Romanian Journal of Marketing, 4(October - December), 32-38.
Townsend, C., and Shu, S. B., 2010. When and how aesthetics influences financial decisions. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(4), 452-458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2010.06.013
Veryzer, R. W., 1995. The place of product design and aesthetics in consumer research. Advances in Consumer Research. Association for Consumer Research (U. S.), 22, 641-645.
Veryzer, R. W., and Hutchinson, J. W., 1998. The influence of unity and prototypicality on aesthetic responses to new product designs. The Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 374-385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209516
Wang, J. Y., Cruthirds, K. W., Axinn, C., and Guo, C., 2013. In search of aesthetics in consumer marketing: An examination of aesthetic stimuli from the philosophy of art and the psychology of art. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 17(2), 37-55.
Ward, A., 2010. Towards a New Model of Consumer Aesthetic Evaluation of Product Design. Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal, 4(1), 145-160. http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/1833-1874/CGP/v04i01/37706
Yadav, H. C., Jain, R., Shukla, S., Avikal, S., and Mishra, P. K., 2013. Prioritization of aesthetic attributes of car profile. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 43(4), 296-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2013.04.008
Zeithaml, V. A., 1988. Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: A means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52(3), 2-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002224298805200302
Zhu, Z., Cao, H., and Li, B., 2017. Research on logo design and evaluation of youth education brands based on visual representation. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 26(7), 722-733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-08-2016-1287
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 SCIENTIFIC ANNALS OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All accepted papers are published on an Open Access basis.
The Open Access License is based on the Creative Commons license.
The non-commercial use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License as currently displayed on https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license, the author(s) and users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) under the following conditions:
1. they must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor,
2. they may not use this contribution for commercial purposes,
3. they may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.