The Influence Of Product Design Philosophy On Consumers’ Product Preference

In recent years, as people living standard rise, consumers pay more and more attention to the design value of products, and the enterprise marketing researchers have started to use product design philosophy to guide consumer demand. The marketing scholars of domestic and foreign are also discussed the influence of product design philosophy on consumer behavior, but there is less study about consumers’preference for product design philosophy in different countries and the influence mechanism, which are the starting point of this essay, to explore the influence of product design philosophy (user-design, designer-design) on product preference of consumers in different countries and with different personality.Study 1 explored the cross-country difference influence of product design philosophy on product preference. We proved that it exist cross-country difference, USA consumers prefer to user-design products, while China consumers prefer to designer-design products.Study 2 explained the conclusion of study 1, and explored the moderator effect of power distance belief (PDB) and mediating effect of firm identification, competence trust. We proved that low PDB consumers prefer to user-design products because of firm identification, while high PDB consumers prefer to designer-design products because of competence trust.Study 3 extended the contents of study 1, and introduced brand reputation to explore the boundary condition of interaction effect between product design philosophy and PDB. We proved that for senior brand, low PDB consumers prefer to user-design products, while high PDB consumers prefer to designer-design products. But for ordinary brand, no matter consumers with low or high PDB, they all prefer to user-design products, especially for latter.It has positive theoretical and practical significance. First, it enriches the product design philosophy research.We proved product preference exist cross-country difference and introduced PDB to explain it,further proved mediating effect of firm identification, competence trust,introduced brand reputation to explore interaction effect between product design philosophy and PDB. In practice,Muji may improve sales by promote designers’expertise to enhance China consumer’s trust. Lining brand may make strategy with consumers’PDB level.