Conveying personality traits through product design for a symbolic product

Laure Jacquemier-Paquin (1) , Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier (2) , Caroline Lancelot Miltgen (3)

1 CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille
2 GRANEM - Groupe de Recherche Angevin en Economie et Management
3 Audencia Recherche

Product design, through its sensory attributes, plays a major role in product perceptions and its consumers’ understanding. These attributes convey rich symbolic associations and contribute to shape a brand image and some personality traits. A natural flower is a singular product, expressive and particularly evocative through its design. The expressive and leaving nature of flowers make us consider them as brands, owing human-like traits. An experiment being run on two flowers’ species (tulips and roses) with 509 French participants shows how the shape of the flower (pointed or rounded petals) and the brightness of its color (pink for the lighter and burgundy for the darker color), influence the perceived flower’s character, with gender as a moderating variable. The findings confirm the power of design to shape consumers’ perceptions, especially for symbolic products such as flowers.

Mots clés: product design; brand personality; sensory cues

Domaines: Gestion et management

Laure Jacquemier-Paquin, Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier, Caroline Lancelot Miltgen. Conveying personality traits through product design for a symbolic product. Kulutustutkimus, 2018, Markets in Transition, 2018 (1-2), pp.46-61. ⟨hal-01990369⟩