Shape congruence in product design: Impacts on automatically activated attitudes

Abstract

Scientific studies have strongly emphasized the importance of automatic (unconscious) processes underlying consumers’ behavior. However, research is missing on automatically activated attitudes resulting from product design. This study aimed at examining such attitudes by relying primarily on evaluative priming methods (i.e., affective priming task, and lexical decision task combined with a semantic priming procedure). In line with a processing fluency framework, it provides evidence that shape-congruent (vs. shape-incongruent) product designs may be associated with a more positive affective response and a greater activation of trust-related perceptions. Important implications are involved for retailing and professionals in charge of product management.

Introduction

Design is everywhere and definitely matters in marketing. For many years now, it has been recognized that the appearance of a product is a key determinant of marketing and sales success (e.g., Black and Baker, 1987; Bloch, 1995; Bruce and Whitehead, 1988; Gemser and Leenders, 2001; Mugge et al., 2018; Roy, 1994; Simonson and Schmitt, 1997). This is especially the case in most of today's societies marked by extensive advertising exposure and the self-service economy, where products and their packaging are often the unique medium between consumers and the brand products at the time the purchase decision is made. Research on the influence of product design on consumers' reactions is therefore highly valuable for designers and marketers, and definitely deserves attention in the scientific community.

While different roles of product design have been proposed (e.g., Becker et al., 2011; Bloch, 1995; Creusen and Schoormans, 2005; Veryzer, 1995), this research addresses in particular the influence of product “aesthetics”. It refers to the pleasure derived from seeing the product, based on the “look” of a product (aesthetic responses being primarily emotional; Holbrook, 1980). Another major role of product design relates to how it implicitly conveys meanings to consumers (i.e., values, qualities that are not depicted explicitly, literally; e.g., Childers and Jass, 2002; Huettl and Gierl, 2012; Van Rompay et al., 2005; Zhang et al., 2006). This more cognitive dimension makes product design a great communication tool in many circumstances of everyday life. A large body of research has demonstrated the importance of these affective and meaning-communication functions on brand impression formation and consumers’ positive responses towards products, including purchase decisions (e.g., Bloch et al., 2003; Norman, 2004; Favier et al., 2019; Reimann et al., 2010).

Studies have focused on various product design elements, such as color (Becker et al., 2011; Funk and Oly Ndubisi, 2006; Garber et al., 2000; Kauppinen-Räisänen and Luomala, 2010), shape (e.g., van Ooijen et al., 2017), typeface (e.g., Karnal et al., 2016; Velasco et al., 2014) and images (e.g., Ares et al., 2010; Madzharov and Block, 2010; Van Rompay et al., 2014). However, research is missing when it comes to the impact of visual congruence between design elements. The present study addresses this gap by focusing on shape, which is a prominent design element. Specifically, its objective was to examine whether congruence (vs. incongruence) between the shape of the product container and the shape of its label may result in more positive affective reactions and trust-related perceptions.

In addition, the present study was designed to take into account the substantial discrepancy between the huge number of products consumers are exposed to and the very limited resources they have to devote to these exposures (in terms of time, cognitive capacity, or motivation). This discrepancy makes it highly relevant for both researchers and practitioners to focus on whether and how product design can impact consumers at an automatic level that is not reliant on the availability of resources. Therefore, the present study aimed at examining the impact of congruence on consumers' automatic responses using implicit methods (e.g., evaluative priming techniques). In this way it differs from previous research on the impact of product design, which has largely relied on consumers’ self-reported, explicit measures.

This study was conducted with the purpose of making both a managerial and a theoretical contribution. On a practical level, it may provide guidelines for product design management. On a theoretical level, it aims to address the processes underlying the hypothesized positive effects of shape congruence, assuming that these effects result from greater processing ease (i.e., processing fluency theory; see below).

The next section reviews the existing body of studies on shape and congruence in product design. Section 3 is then dedicated to the theoretical framework of the study and its resulting research hypotheses. Section 4 advocates the relevance of using implicit methods for examining these hypotheses and, more generally, the impact of product design. The methods and the research design are described in Section 5, while the resulting findings are reported in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 presents the conclusion of this study, its implications at both theoretical and managerial levels, as well as its limitations and some directions for future research.