The Influence Of Metaphorical Design On Purchase Intentions Of Sporting Cultural Products: The Mediating Role Of Mental Imagery

Prosperity of service supply and enrichment of consumption industry is one of the important measures to promote sports consumption in China,and the introduction of high-quality sports consumption products with new design,new creativity and new trends,centered on sports innovation and integration,is a key link to enrich the sports consumption industry.In recent years,due to the demand of China’s sports consumption market and the encouragement of policies,a large number of sports cultural and creative products integrating sports elements and combining sports culture design have gradually appeared in the market.The majority of product information is obtained visually by consumers,and visual information is the most important sensory information for consumers to choose products.Consumers will respond to the function and meaning of products based on visual information brought by product design.Product design is a key factor in consumer response and product success,and different types of consumer product design play an important role in influencing consumers’ willingness to purchase.Metaphorical design is currently widely used in sports products,but it is not yet clear how the adoption of metaphorical design in sports products affects consumer purchasing behavior and the mechanism of influence.The following key research questions can be summarized from the above:Research Question 1: Do different design types of sports products affect the purchase intention of consumers with different sports experience? Research Question 2: Can consumers’ mental imagery play a mediating role in the influence of different design types of sports and creative products on purchase intention? Research Question 3: Can consumers’ sport experience play a moderating role in the effect of different design types of sports and creative products on consumers’ mental imagery arousal? Research Question 4: Do different design types of sporting products affect the information search patterns of consumers with different sporting experiences? Research Question5: What is the relationship between the mental imagery arousal and attention allocation of consumers by different design types of sporting products?The theoretical model of this study is derived based on the S-O-R model and other related theories,the key problem to be solved is deconstructed,two sub-studies are set up,and according to the two sub-studies,specific experimental purposes and experimental designs are proposed,and data collection is conducted to test the conceptual model and related hypotheses.The two sub-studies focus on the mediating role of mental imagery in the influence of different design types of sports and creative products on consumers’ purchase intention and the moderating role of consumers’ sports experience in it,as well as exploring the relationship between consumers’ attention allocation and mental imagery.The study show that metaphorical design is more advantageous than straightforward design for consumers with high motor experience when it comes to purchase intention of sporting products.When sport creative products were represented by metaphorical designs(as opposed to direct designs),low-sport-experienced consumers had significantly lower mental imagery arousal when viewing metaphorical designs than direct designs;high-sport-experienced consumers had significantly higher mental imagery arousal when viewing metaphorical designs than direct designs,and mental imagery mediated the relationship between product design type and purchase intention.In addition,individual motor experience moderated the effect of product design type on mental imagery arousal.The information-seeking patterns of metaphorical designs differed significantly across consumers with different motor experiences,while consumer attention allocation was significantly and highly correlated with consumers’ mental imagery.Conclusion: Metaphorical design contains richer product information and occupies more of consumers’ attention;therefore,metaphorical design stimulates increased arousal of consumers’ mental imagery,which further increases consumers’ purchase intention.Consumers’ sports experience is an important condition for perceiving the psychological distance,and consumers with high sports experience perceive the psychological distance of metaphorical sports products as closer,and are more able to use specific features to represent things,thus evoking higher psychological imagery.It is worth noting that there is a dynamic relationship between the distribution of consumers’ attention and the degree of mental imagery arousal that assists and complements each other.