A Study of the Non-Visual Factors of Cars Affecting the Consumer’s Cognitive Appeal
Keywords:
DEMATEL, cognitive appeal, non-visual factor, consumer, sub-factorsAbstract
The success of a car in the market depends on visual as well as non-visual factors. Both these sets of factors influence the cognitive appeal of cars for potential buyers. Purchasing a car is not only about economic choices but also related to emotional, aesthetic, sensory responses to driving, kinship patterns, habitation, sociability, and functionality. This study aimed to identify the major non-visual factors of cars that affect the cognitive perception of buyers and estimate their importance relative to each other. A set of non-visual factors and their sub-factors were identified through a literature search and an open-ended survey among car owners. Many of the sub-factors had the same meaning and therefore these factors were grouped under twenty separate sub-factors. Then, these twenty sub-factors were analyzed by using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to evaluate the most influential sub-factors among the identified sub-factors. Six designers were involved in the analysis of the sub-factors through the DEMATEL approach. The results showed that the car’s brand value, cost, engine performance, reliability, and safety are the top five sub-factors. Outcomes of this study can be utilized by designers and top management people to understand the most influential factors affecting the cognitive behavior of consumers when purchasing a car. This understanding will help companies to design cars as per the requirements of consumers, which will ultimately lead to better profitability of these companies.
References
Vink, P. & Hallbeck, S., Editorial: Comfort and discomfort studies demonstrate the need for a new model, Applied Ergonomics, 43(2), pp. 271-276, Mar 2012.
Bloch, P.H., Seeking the Ideal Form: Product Design and Consumer Response, Journal of Marketing, 59(3), pp. 16-29, 1995.
Peighambari, K., Sattari, S., Kordestani, A. & Oghazi, P., Consumer Behavior Research: A Synthesis of the Recent Literature, SAGE journals, 6(2), pp. 1-9, Apr 2016.
Simmonds, G. & Spence, C., Thinking inside the Box: How Seeing Products on, or through, the Packaging Influences Consumer Perceptions and Purchase Behaviour, Food Quality and Preference, 62, pp. 340-351, Dec 2017.
Singh, J. & Sarkar, P., Understanding the Gap between the Perceptions of Consumers and Designers about Non-Visual Factors of Cars, Journal of Visual of Art and Design, submitted for publication.
McKeown, C., Neuroergonomics: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to Human Factors and Ergonomics, Ergonomics, 57(1), pp. 137-138, Jan 2014.
Fenko, A. & van Rompay, T., Consumer-Driven Product Design, Methods in Consumer Reseach Vol. 2, Ares, G. & Varela, P., ed. 1, Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition, pp. 427-462, 2018.
Crilly, N., Moultrie, J. & Clarkson, P.J., Seeing Things: Consumer Response to the Visual Domain in Product Design, Design Studies, 25(6), pp. 547-577, 2004.
Mumcu, Y. & Kimzan, H.S., The Effect of Visual Product Aesthetics on Consumers’ Price Sensitivity, Procedia Economics and Finance 26, pp. 528-534, 2015.
Jagtap, S., Attributes and Emotions in Product Form Design: A Survey of Professional Industrial Designers, Research into Design for Communities, Chakrabarti, A. & Chakrabarti, D., Springer, pp. 705-714, 2017.
Crilly, N., Moultrie, J. & Clarkson, P.J., Shaping Things: Intended Consumer Response and the Other Determinants of Product Form, Design Studies, 30(3), pp. 224–254., 2009.
Blijlevens, J., Clementine, T., Paul, H., Lin-Lin, C., Helmut, L., & Whitfield, T.W.A., The Aesthetic Pleasure in Design Scale: The Development of a Scale to Measure Aesthetic Pleasure for Designed Artifacts, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(1), pp. 86–98, 2017.
Liu, K., & Racherla, U.S., Innovation, Economic Development, and Intellectual Property in India and China: Comparing Six Economic Sectors, Springer Singapore, 2019.
Barathram, A., Dhawan, R., Gupta, S., Mangaleswaran, R., & Vig, G., Shaping the New Normal, McKinsey & Company, 2020.
Blessing, L.T.M. & Chakrabarti, A., A Design Research Methodology, Springer London, 2009.
Norman, D.A., Emotion & Design: Attractive Things Work Better, Interactions, 9(4), pp. 36-42, Jul 2002.
Orth, U.R. & Malkewitz, K., Holistic Package Design and Consumer Brand Impressions, Journal of Marketing,
(3), pp. 64-81, May 2008.
Veryzer, Robert, W., & Hutchinson, J.W., The Influence of Unity and Prototypicality on Aesthetic Responses to New Product Designs, Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), pp. 374-385, 1998.
Mono, R., Design for Product Understanding, Liber Publishing, 1997.
Angelova, B. & Zekiri, J., Measuring Customer Satisfaction with Service Quality Using American Customer Satisfaction Model, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 1(3), pp. 27-30, Jan 2011.
Johnston, R., The Determinants of Service Quality: Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 6(5), pp. 53-71, Dec 1995.
Seth, N., Deshmukh, S.G. & Vrat, P., Service Quality Models: A Review: A Review, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 22(9), pp. 913–949, Dec 2005.
Manu, M., Quality and Customer Satisfaction Perspective on Organizations by Gap and Total Quality Improvement Methods, Ph.D. dissertation, Industrial Management, Universitas Wasaensis, 2011.
Flack, A.C., Ortengren, R. & Hogberg, D., The Impact of Poor Assembly Ergonomics on Product Quality: A Cost-Benefit Analysis in Car Manufacturing, Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing, 20(1), pp. 24-42, Jan 2009.
Shin, J., Bhat, C., You, D., Garikapati, V.N. & Pendyala, R.M., Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Advanced Vehicle Technology Options and Fuel Types, Transportation Research Part C Emerging Technologies, 60, pp. 511-524, Nov 2015.
Rajput, S., & Singh, S.P., Identifying Industry 4.0 IoT Enablers by Integrated PCA-ISM-DEMATEL Approach, Management Decision, 57(8), pp. 1784-1817, 2019.
Sharma, Y.K., Mangla, S.K., Patil, P.P, & Uniyal, S., Sustainable Food Supply Chain Management Implementation Using DEMATEL Approach, Advances in Health and Environment Safety, Siddiqui, N.A., Tauseef, S.M., & Bansal, K., Springer Singapore, pp. 115-125, 2018.
Singh, P.K. & Sarkar, P., A Framework Based on Fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL for Sustainable Product Development: A Case of Indian Automotive Industry, Journal of Cleaner Production, 246(118991), Feb 2010.
Wang, W.C., Lin, Y.H., Lin, C.L., Chung, C.H., Lee, M.T., DEMATEL-based model to improve the performance in a matrix organization, Expert Systems with Applications, 39(5), pp. 4978-4986, Apr 2012.
Huang, C.Y., Joseph, Z. & Tzeng, G.H., Reconfiguring the Innovation Policy Portfolios for Taiwan’s SIP Mall Industry, Technovation, 27(12), pp. 744-765, 2007.
Kumar, A. & Dash, M.K., Causal Modelling and Analysis Evaluation of Online Reputation Management Using Fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL, International Journal of Strategic Decision Sciences, 8(1), pp. 27–45, 2017.
Wu, H.H. & Chang, S.Y., A Case Study of Using DEMATEL Method to Identify Critical Factors in Green Supply Chain Management, Applied Mathematics and Computation 256, pp. 394–403, 2015.
Mangla, S., Kumar, P. & Barua, M.K., An Evaluation of Attribute for Improving the Green Supply Chain Performance Via Dematel Method, 1(1), pp. 31-35, Jan 2014.
Mangla, S.K., Luthra, S., Jakhar, S.K., Tyagi, M. & Narkhede, B.E., Benchmarking the logistics management implementation using Delphi and fuzzy DEMATEL, Benchmarking: An International Journal, 25(6), pp. 1795-1828, Aug 2018.
Gardas, B.B. Mangla, S.K., Raut, R.D., Narkhede, B. & Luthra, S., Green Talent Management to Unlock Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector, Journal of Cleaner Production, 229, pp. 850-862, Aug 2019.
