Emotional Product Design and Perceived Brand Emotion

Abstract

Product aesthetics give people a sense of beauty and impression and encourages them to consume and collect. Companies employ shapes that are both emotionally appealing and compatible with the brand’s image of aesthetics in generating favorable consumer responses. Existing research on branding and product design has demonstrated the importance of emotions. Consumers can base their evaluations of a brand extension on their subjective-affective reactions toward products. Many products are designed to attract consumers, and considerable literature exists on product-design methods. However, few studies have offered specific guidance on how to design products with emotional appeal to link brands and to initiate consumer emotions. Using a recognized brand and products as an example, we argue that emotional product design strengthens brand emotion and is appealing to consumers. We explored brand and product emotion by conducting a consumer-emotion survey and determined that (a) emotional-brand products have emotional product design characteristics, particularly the beauty characteristic; (b) emotional product design characteristics influence the brand emotion (repurchase, willingness to recommend, attachment, positive emotion, and passion) of consumers; (c) emotional-brand products have simple shapes, pure colors, and natural textures that exude a sense of design, fashion, and a pleasing appearance of emotional product design. The findings of this study support the future development and growth of emotional product design.