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How Do Product Design Ratios Affect Consumer Decisions of Age and Gender Demographics?
Word Count: 4168
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine what role the design qualities of aesthetics
functionality play in the consumer behavior of various age and gender demographics. Prior
research shows consumers make their product selection based on a variety of qualifiers such as
emotional attachment, brand recognition, and price signals. Research has yet to be conducted on
identifying how the aesthetic and functionality ratios of products are favored by demographic.
Data was collected through a quasi-experimental design in the form of a survey that
quantitatively analyzed how likely consumers were to select products based on various
combinations of aesthetics and functional qualities. Qualitative analysis questions were required
at the end of their product selection by asking for their rationale. Subjects included 76 Reddit
forum members ranging from 14 to 71. Five categories of products were analyzed: sneakers,
coffeemakers, television sets, backpacks, and water bottles. In these categories, there were three
examples ranging from mostly aesthetic to mixed quality to mostly functional. Initial results
showed that that mostly aesthetic and mixed quality products were chosen over mostly functional
products, yet the rationale was mostly about function. This suggests products are subconsciously
chosen based on aesthetic, but justified by personal function. The study was limited by the age of
Reddit participants and the quantity of products to chose from. It can be concluded that
producers can utilize a new design and marketing method with an emphasis on flexibility and the
needs of the consumer. This conclusion benefits the consumer by enabling a higher level of
personal attention to consumer needs.
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Introduction
With the current waves of millennial and Generation Z consumers coming to financial
maturity, consumer values and tastes are changing. Starting in 2020, the US Retail Market is
projected to be worth 5.54 trillion dollars as both production and online shopping increase
(O’Connell 2020). In a marketing world filled with a homogeneous state of products, consumers
are not getting marketed products that fit their desires. Despite increases in big data and
consumers touch-points for consumer marketing, marketing is done predominantly to trends
across all consumers in general opposed to specialization in the needs and wants of certain
demographics. This problem has negatively impacted both consumers and producers of these
various products because consumers are not getting the best product that fits their needs, and
producers aren’t able to determine which products can be great fits for their customers. These
consumers range from all ages, socio-economic backgrounds, and genders.
The literature on this topic doesn’t contain much information about the specific design
needs of different demographics or how companies can utilize these consumer values to their
advantage. At the moment, researchers have classified consumers into groups based on factors
such as price, brand loyalty, or emotional attachment but are yet to really solidify how this is
affected by demographic desires.
Ultimately, I intend to map consumer decisions via interviews of groups by demographic
characteristics in order to compare and determine product design strategies that best fit different
consumers. While using these maps, I can formulate a system of product design that helps
facilitate producers cater to the consumers better and therefore drive more business.
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Literature Review
Aesthetics
In an article discussing the cognitive and emotional effects of art and product aesthetics, the
author, Helmut Leder, writes, “A kind of cognitive mastering somehow is inherent in several
psychological and philosophical theories of aesthetic experience… ongoing success in cognitive
mastering results in positive changes of the ‘affective state’, leading to a state of pleasure or
satisfaction” (Leder, p.499). Leder, the Psychology Department Head at the University of
Vienna, performed a study to show the effects of aesthetics on the human brain in order to
demonstrate how important it was in the decision making of people observing said aesthetics. In
mapping out the aesthetic psychological process, Leder made the distinction between aesthetic
emotion and aesthetic judgements. To the average consumer who isn’t a product or design
expert, they rely on aesthetic emotion when making their consumer decisions. Those quick
reactions to how the product looks will dictate a lot of their initial ideas about the item. But this
doesn’t necessarily mean that more aesthetics is always better. As Yakun Chen, a researcher of
consumer aesthetic preferences at Weifang University of Science and Technology, says, “When
the aesthetic attraction of product design is moderate, the conflict will enhance the consumers'
aesthetic experience of the product, thus increasing the confirmed purchase rate of products”
(Chen, p.505). In the experiment performed by Chen, designs that seem too gaudy or over the top
tended to actually have a negative affect and often conflicted with the consumers neurological
center for attraction.
Functionality
People want products that work and work well. This is an obviously essential step for companies
and producers to get right as products need reliability and utility in order to be purchased.
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Companies in recent years have begun to take extra care of product functionality by utilizing
functional models. As Robert Stone, a member of the National Science Foundation and
engineering research, describes, “Functional models can be developed for existing products, but
offer great benefits when they are linked with the design process to represent the desired product
functionality in order to satisfy customer needs” (Stone, p.99). These specific systems are
extremely useful when taking into account the very specific needs of the consumers. Models
generate a level of usability that is tailor towards consumers and can be measured with a matrix
of tests to determine its objective metrics. One such example of these models is the MFF (Matrix
of Function and Functionality). This model was developed by researchers at J. J. Strossmayer
University of Osijek. As M. Karakasic, a professor of mechanical design, states “The beginning
of the design process requires a new set of customer requirements. Through the set of rules, the
process of mapping customer requirements into the set of functions represents a transformation a
customer domain into the functional domain” (Karakasic, p.403). Essentially with models,
customer desires can be translated to actual functional results.
Confounding Variables
Consumer choice isn’t made by factors as binary as aesthetic and functionality. There are many
different confounding variables in that can change how consumers of all kinds of demographics
make their purchases. Dr. Walter A Woods, a researcher of consumer marketing at the College of
William and Mary, wrote that consumers can be grouped into various groups based on the
stimuli that attracted them to buy a product regardless of the design. These included: brand loyal
or habitual shoppers, rational shoppers, price cognitive shoppers, impulse shoppers, emotional
reactors, and new product consumers (Woods, p.17). Of these confounding variables, Woods
says that price sensitivity is by far the second guiding factor for a purchase besides the product
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itself. As consumers get attracted to a product via it’s aesthetic design or functional metrics, their
mind will most likely turn to the price tag shortly there after. This check is to put the consumers
feelings towards the product on an objective measure of value.
While price is a major factor for many consumers, brand identity can be as well. For example the
emergence of eco-friendly companies or products associated with charitable organizations can
attract many consumers. T. Samai, a researcher of agricultural business in India, noted that
consumers “considered green product as environmentally friendly products … and that green
products are of better quality than non green products”(Samai, p. 401). This positive brand
message causes consumers to associate a better quality product with all sorts of positive brand
identities.
Implications of Design Methods
Companies can address different demographics’ needs by utilizing design methods that can tailor
products to a variety of consumers. If products were tested and produced explicitly for their
target audience’s needs, companies could have a better success rate of the sales. M. Crnjac, a
design researcher at Split University in Croatia, utilized the Promethee and Taguchi methods
focusing on functionality and aesthetics respectively in order to advance methodology in product
design selection. He writes, “The first stage … is used for selecting the most suitable design
according to the chosen preferences and in the second stage … the most appropriate parameters
for selected suitable design (parameters like the diameter of the steel bar, the thickness of the
steel tube, etc.)”(Crnjac, p. 40). When comparing different combinations of designs, producers
can take can compare their realistic options relative to the optimal desired version from
consumers. Additionally stores can extrapolate this two-step method other methods to generate
sales such as storefronts or online stores. Tayla Porat, researcher in cognitive performance at the
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Deutsche Telekom Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University, states, “Entertainment cues
(escapism, diversion, aesthetic enjoyment, and emotional release) affected consumers’
involvement and attitudes (Richard, 2005), and stimulating experience predicted consumers’
arousal and pleasure, which enhanced willingness to purchase in the online store” (Porat, p. 238).
When looking at traditional storefronts, the aesthetic design is the primary factor for attracting
customers, while online stores count on both aesthetically pleasing pages and usability to keep
customers engaged. On a double front, retailers can attract customers with their storefronts and
generate a high rate of return on sales with the multifaceted product.
Methods
My research question is “how does the ratio of aesthetics and functionality change the
consumer decisions of different age and gender demographics?”. This is a qualitative research
project to get consumer opinions on various products using interviews and surveys. Consumers
make these decisions based on factors that affect human behavior, therefore I used APA citations
and format for my research due to it’s basis as the formatting for science and psychological
research. I designed my research project as a quasi-experiment where I separated interviewees
into several groups based on demographics such as males aged 14 to 21 or females aged 55+ and
compared those groups to a control group representative of all consumers. This was not a trueexperimental design unlike thought of at first glance because there was no random assignment in
each block group. I couldn’t randomly assign people to each demographics’s group unless they
match that demographic. Originally I intended on going to a retail location and setting up a booth
and asking shopper questions based on the products the store had there, however with the tight
non-soliciting rules of locations such as Target or Walmart in didn’t seem plausible. The way I
ended up running my experiment and collecting data was by first establishing a list of products
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that are chosen for their various functionality and aesthetics using Amazon pages to determine
the marketing for aesthetics and quantitative data for functionality. By looking at the Amazon
page for product descriptions and market tactics, I determined if companies put emphasis on said
products for the aesthetic or their functionality. For example in the TV category, the aesthetically
leaning product had a product description that noted the curve of the TV, the “sleek design”, and
chrome finishing, while the functional option noted its size, features, and picture quality. I used
Reddit to find and solicit my survey to. Using these many forums, I was able to target several
demographics by posting my online survey to forums that shared a community based on gender,
age or decade affiliation, and overall survey oriented forums. For example using key words in
the search bar, I was able to comply a list of several female oriented forums. The first questions
of the survey asked participants to state their age, gender, and select an option that approximated
there annual income.Then after breaking consumers into groups determined by age and gender,
which are two primary factors for determining different purchasing outcomes, each group was
asked to make decisions on which products they would choose to buy. However, purchasing is
not always a binary decision, so consumers had three options: yes, no, and maybe depending on
outside factors such as, brand and cost. Then using this data, I took each group of decisions and
plot them on a scatterplot using the x-axis as the aesthetic rating and the y-axis as the
functionality rating. With each point, I marked them with a different color to signify what
category the product was in. I took these charts and compared these thresholds to one another in
order to determine the relationship between demographics, product qualities, and purchasing
patterns. Additionally, I followed up the survey with an interview asking participants questions to
further understand why said products were chosen over other products. These questions were
along the lines of a brief explanation of what was the reason they chose their product. This was
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essential in order to limit the amount of bias, confounding variables, and misinterpretation of
data. These interviews were recorded through a Google form, so I needed access to an
organization software such as Excel. The survey on the other hand also had been recorded,
sorted, and charted inside Excel in order to fully comprehend what the responses were saying.
The data was then reported via statistics and graphs in order to illustrate the potential differences
in purchasing frequencies across the group. Based on this procedure, I needed access to a variety
of different people and demographics specifically ranging in age and an gender, graphing
software, a mix of products that have been tested using functionality and aesthetic checks
previously mentioned, and a computer to sort through the results.
Results and Findings
As stated in the Methods Section, my survey was posted on several online forums found
on Reddit. From these forums, 72 individuals agreed to participate in the survey. In similar quasiexperimental research studies, sample sizes ranged from 65 to 1000 participants, which puts my
sampling on the lower end of the acceptable range. One example of such research was
“Assessing an Information Literacy Assignment and Workshop Using a Quasi-Experimental
Design”, by professors at CSU San Marcos (Fitzpatrick), which was a research on the
effectiveness of methods on increasing literacy using a sample size of 71 students.
Each of the 72 participants and their responses were grouped together in order to
represent all US consumers. From the demographics questions, the gender split was exactly 50 to
50 percent male to female. The youngest participant was a 14 year old female while the oldest
was a 67 year old male, however the average age was 30.38 years old. In addition to age and
gender demographics, there was a multiple choice question asking participants to select which of
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a possible six income ranges they belong to. Only 67 participants chose to answer this question
with the most common selection at 34.3% was 0-30,000 dollars a year.
When looking at the overall sample’s consumer behavior across all five product types,
consumers chose the mixed of aesthetics and functionality product a majority of the time at a
frequency of .488 compared to .299 for mostly aesthetic and .213 for mostly functional. While
across all product types selected, the mixed quality product was chosen most frequently, products
with half or more aesthetic appeal were chosen disproportionately above others in categories that
were used outside of the household like water bottles and backpacks. For example, the water
bottle category resulted in a more than 88.2% selection for the mixed and mostly aesthetic
options.
Consumer behavior based on gender changed as age increases. For the age group between
14 and 21, the male and female groups were mostly similar as seen in the following figure
charting the frequency of each type of item was chosen.
Figure 1
Figure 2
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According to figures 1 and 2, males tended to choose the mixed quality product at a
higher rate compared to females, who selected the functionality product at a larger percentage.
With very few differences, both males and females in the 14-21 demographic followed the trend
of choosing aesthetically pleasing outward facing products at a higher rate than household
products.
Figure 3
Figure 4
In age groups 22 to 29 years of age (figure 3 and 4), males tended to choose mixed
products at higher rates than females, as well as participants from the ages 41 to 55, whose
females participants tended to choose aesthetically pleasing options. For the oldest demographics
whose ages are older than 55, females surprisingly followed younger trends and chose the more
aesthetically pleasing options at a higher rate compared to the fairly balanced male demographic.
Additionally female demographics specifically aged 14-21, 30-40, 41-55, and 55+ were a major
of demographic groups that use some form of the functional product 50% or more times, which
contrast the male consumer behavior and my original hypothesis.
In the survey participants were asked to provide their reasoning to match why they chose
one option over the rest of the products. On the whole these descriptions frequently referenced
specific features or size opposed to aesthetics, colors or materials. Some of the more interesting
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finds of the data was the variation between product design and participants’ rationale for
selection. For example one participant (female age 17) selected a functional product and wrote
the following rationale, “I have never been a fan of K-cup pods because they seem wasteful and
the second option seems to have too many options and would be too bulky and would take up too
much space”. This description predominantly talk about size and modes of the other options are
references for their selection, which matches its qualities. However some responses hit on details
that fit the opposite options’ specialities, “It has the most compartments and looks the most like
the type of backpack I choose, looks like you can fit a lot if you need to, and it doesn't look like a
fancy city backpack”(female age 34). This participant used many keywords to describe its
aesthetic such as look, fancy, and type in order to denote a specific style.
Consumers tend to pick items that on a surface level appeal to there visuals, but don’t go
to the extremes. Each product should highlight unique aspects of its designs and functions.
Marketing and design should inform interested consumers while specifically targeting
demographics needs.
Analysis
By asking demographic questions at the beginning of my research, I was able to tell a lot
about how age, gender, and finances play a part in the consumer process. In my quasiexperiment, consumer behavior could be boiled down into five categories; gender’s effect on
functional v. aesthetic, age’s effect on functional v. aesthetic, finance’s effect on functional v.
aesthetic, aesthetic on the overall consumer, and functionality on the overall consumer. Are these
categories part of the research data and graph, or a part of the demographics of your research, in
which each would play a role in bias.
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For the first demographics question, I explored what role gender played in the consumer
buying process. From the data, on average women were more likely than men to choose a
functional product than an aesthetically pleasing item. Additionally, women were slightly more
likely to tailor their decisions to extremes by choosing mixed quality products at a lower rate
than men. I also noted that, in the comment section, women often referred to the size of products
in comparison to everyday need as a common rationale for their decisions. This shows producers
a couple of things about women as demographic. Companies need to focus on the specific needs
of women as noted above because of their attention to the personal use of products.
Personalization of products is one way companies can appeal to women. By making items that
can be suited specifically for their needs instead of trying to assume women’s needs as a whole.
By making a system where women can have a plethora of options for the same product, they can
find personal utility in a multitude of designs that works best. While the design must be
appealing to catch the eye of a male consumer, most of their rationale for products noted the
functional marketing and features associated with the product. By taking aesthetically pleasing
products and marketing them as functional products, companies can capitalize the male markets.
For the second effect on consumer behavior, I looked at the role of age on consumer
behavior. Similar to gender’s effect on consumer behavior, age’s true effect was contrary to my
original hypothesis that as age increased the likelihood of a participant choosing an aesthetic
product decreased. However, as in my study as age increase, the likelihood the participant would
choose an aesthetic product increased. This demonstrates how companies should change the way
they brand their products nowadays to older demographics. By designing products that are more
modern and “cool” looking, brands are more likely to pull in older consumers that had not been
appealing to before.
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For finances’ effects on consumer behavior, I asked for the income of participants in
order to see if a higher income correlated with a more aesthetic appeal. There seemed to be no
correlation found between more aesthetically pleasing selections and income level, and very few
participants mentioned price in their rationale. In my opinion, companies should not focus as
much on the socioeconomic status of their consumers when marketing, unless their product is of
a significantly higher than normal substitute. For example, a luxury brand wallet versus generic
leather wallet would cause a company to appeal to status as a motivator.
When looking in the reverse on the effect of design aesthetics and functionality on the
consumers behavior regardless of demographic, I asked participants to select products from five
categories. For the first category question, which asked “Which coffee maker would you
choose”, the most common answer among participants was a mixed quality coffee maker. The
next most common answer for this category was mainly aesthetic coffeemaker leaving 12.1% of
participants to choose the mainly functional coffee. Oddly enough, the coffee maker category
was a contradiction to both my original hypothesis and the trend of interior products being
favored for function compared to exterior products. When comparing interior household products
with exterior products such as backpacks, water bottles, and sneakers, the aesthetically pleasing
products on average were favored in the external categories. For companies this means that they
should be cognizant of how they differentiate their marketing for household products and
everyday “outdoors” use products. When other people could potentially see what participants
were wearing or using, they tended to choose the better looking option and rationale it with its
limited functions. By using marketing that could demonstrate what others think of the product,
companies could push a product to consumers under the assumption that the design would make
them look better or cool, etc. One other thing of note when looking at aesthetics and functionality
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was that across all demographics, participants would predominantly explain their choice in
specific features, compared to how the product made them feel or emotions. I believe this is
because it is easier to communicate how features appeal to you over how designs appeal to you.
Therefore, I propose that companies use designs that can subliminally appeal to different
demographics, but market it in ways that can point to specifics in order for consumers to
internally rationale their own decisions.
Limitations
There are several issues with my study that could have been addressed in order to get
better results. I would revisit the research and first address my population that I studied. Because
the general population of Reddit is younger, the sample I used to get my data was younger than
the average U.S. consumer, and was skewed to the 14-18 year old demographic. I would
definitely get started on gathering a list of subreddit forums that are marketed to an older group
of users or potentially solicit my survey by other online methods such as email chains due to
more age access.
In addition to my limited age reach, the product categories and individual products in
their respective categories are limited. For the five categories, I wish I added more externally
seen products and household products to further explore the correlation between eyes on the
product and the consumer’s desire for a more visually appealing object. Even within each of the
categories, I would need at least two other versions of that category. For example in the
backpacks categories I would have five options: mostly aesthetic, aesthetically forward, mixed,
functionality forward, and mostly functional. This adds an element of precision to really tell what
side of the design qualities they are drawn to either functional or aesthetic and specifically the
marketing.
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Finally, I would add some more quantitative components to my research in order to fully
understand and explore the role of family finances on marketing and desired design
qualifications. This could explain the role of finances as an underlying variable in the consumer
process. I felt as though there was some either response bias in people not willing to state their
income or maybe it was not clear to say personal or household income. In addition to my extra
questions on finances I would want to add more products and explore the design side from the
producer side.
Conclusion
When starting my research, I began making assumptions of the desired qualifications for
products of many demographics. I stereotyped older people as not being aesthetically forward in
favor functional craftsmanship. I thought that women would put more influence on aesthetics
then men. I even assumed producers knew what consumers thought of their products. However, I
have now learned from my data that the consumer behavior across all types of people is not as
easily categorized as I thought. From my study, I noticed that aesthetic preferences vary wildly
between demographics groups, and people can find justification for their aesthetic needs for
many different products. Consumers require a more personalized design system than correctly
available. A consequence of this proposal would be a new design and marketing method with an
emphasis on flexibility and the needs of the consumer. Producers would allow consumers to
customize base products in terms of color, shape, and pattern, as well as marketing products as
having people usage styles for everyday need. This would enable consumers of all demographics
to put there aesthetic spin on the products outside of the stereotypical aesthetic associated with
their market and then justify their purchase with purpose that extrapolate from the marketing
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campaign. In a sense this follows the trend of mixed quality product selection from my
experiment. However this new understanding is predicated on the data collected from my study,
which has its limitations. Due to skewed age of my participants towards a younger group, my
analysis of older generations might also be skewed. This underrepresentation of people over 45
was due to limited sample who would be willing to participate in my project. Additionally, a
small sample of product categories and substitutes may have caused a limited understanding of
how product type can change the consumer’s needs.
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Appendix
Product Options Slideshow (Appendix 1)
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Survey Images (Appendix 2)
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