Using social distinctions in taste for analysing design styles across product categories

People can develop a taste for particular styles of design across a wide range of product categories. The literature has suggested that people’s preferences for such ‘cross-category’ design styles are influenced by social distinctions, based on education level and age bracket. In this article, we have argued more precisely that such social distinctions are indispensable as criteria for an analysis of cross-category design styles. In a quantitative study with over 400 people and 200 products in 10 product categories, we have demonstrated how design preferences across product categories are related to people’s education level and age bracket. We then qualitatively analysed people’s design preferences across product categories, and we arrived at seven cross-category design styles. Five of these styles could be identified only on the basis of the differences in design preferences between groups of a different age and education level, as established in previous studies. Taken together, this article has provided an approach for designers to analyse cross-category design styles, based on the inclusion of social distinction indicators (education level and age bracket) that help identify critical differences in people’s tastes

Subjectivity in the Consumer's Judgement of Products

Industrial Design Engineerin

The object of service design

no abstrac

The role of surprise in satisfaction judgements

Empirical findings suggest that surprise plays an important role in consumer satisfaction, but there is a lack of theory to explain why this is so. The present paper provides explanations for the process through which positive (negative) surprise might enhance (reduce) consumer satisfaction. First, the arousal that is part of the surprise reaction can contaminate subsequent positive affective reactions or emotions about the product or service. Second, the surprise reaction allows for a strong focus on a single product or service aspect. This will create more accessible knowledge that may have a disproportionate effect on memory-based satisfaction judgements. In addition, several possible moderators of the surprise-satisfaction relationship are described. Finally, the managerial implications of the proposed processes and moderators are discusse

Lange-termijneffecten van sales promotion

Sales promotion wordt binnen de marketing gehanteerd als instrument om op de korte termijn direct koopgedrag in de gewenste richting te beïnvloeden. Daarbij wordt vaak voorbijgegaan aan de mogelijke effecten op de langere termijn. F.M. Spijkerman en H.M.J.J. Snelders geven evenwel aan dat sales promotion ook na de actie aankoopgevolgen kan hebben, met name negatieve. Deze worden veroorzaakt door overschaduwing- en attributieprocessen

The object of service design

no abstrac