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1 A Differential Study on the Product Form Perceptions of Different Age Group Users Chang, Chien-Cheng & Shih, Yi-Yen Department of Industrial Design, Huafan University, 1, Huafan Road, Shihting Hsiang, Taipei, Taiwan, 223, ROC Abstract: In the era of consumerism, successful products in the competitive market are those that really meet the requirements of users rather than those that lead in technology. Owing to the differences in time and space as well as the cultural development, people of different age groups will vary in concepts and might interact with the same product in a totally different way. Since there may exist remarkable differences in the consumer s behaviors, the degree of satisfaction towards products may vary accordingly. It is, therefore, a design issue to investigate whether there exist differences among users of different age groups in terms of product form perceptions that serve as indicators of the consumer s satisfaction toward a product. In the study, four groups of Y generation users were invited in the experiment to investigate whether there exist significant differences among these young consumers in terms of product styling perception. Semantic differential method (SD) was used to evaluate the preference and image perceptions of mobile phones of the elementary, junior high, senior high, and college students in Northern Taiwan. With the database, similarity and difference among four groups of users were then analyzed. It is hoped that such a quantitative database can help designers and managers decide suitable strategies for product planning, thus reducing cost and time as well as risk in new product design and development. Keywords: different age groups, Kansei engineering, product planning 1. Introduction Because of different cultural backgrounds and living experience, different age groups of users may have different perceptions towards the same product form. Thanks to such differences in the consumer s behaviors, the degree of user s satisfaction towards products may vary accordingly. Many scholars classify consumers into X generation, Y generation, and Baby boom [4]. These three generations represent three different types of consumers. Because the age range in each generation is so large that it is a challenge for designers to work out a design that meets the user s needs in every generation. In light of this, marketing segmentation is one way to cope with this problem. According to Frederick, many approaches can be applied, some of which are based upon geographic areas, gender, races of people, and life styles [3]. Among them, the age group is an important variable. As we know, Y generation is a huge population group, ranging from 8 to 26 years of age. It is a difficult thing to design a product that meets the needs of users all the way from 8-year children to 26-year adults. Therefore, whether different age groups of Y generation have significant differences in their preference and image perceptions towards product form is a problem worth further investigation. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences between different age groups of Y generation. If there are significant differences, what mechanisms cause such differences? Based upon the living styles of family life cycles, Murphy and Staples divided Y generation into post-childhood (6-12 years), pre-adolescence (13-15 years), post-adolescence (16-18 years) and young singles (19-24 years) [7]. In the study, four groups of Y generation users were invited to investigate whether there exist significant differences among these young consumers in

2 terms of product styling perception. Semantic differential method was used to evaluate the preference and image perceptions of mobile phones of the elementary (10-12 years), junior high (13-15 years), senior high (16-18 years), and college students (19-23 years) in Northern Taiwan. With the database, the mechanisms that caused the differences among four groups of users were then analyzed. The results obtained from the experiment can serve as references for designers or managers to make decision in product planning. In Taiwan, mobile phones are very popular commodities, especially to young generation. Almost every young man has a mobile phone. More importantly, they would renew their mobile phones after a very short period of time. In such a competitive mature market, designers should keep in mind what the target users really want. Another potential market for this popular commodity is the junior high school and elementary school students. To design and develop a mobile phone for this target population, a proper design strategy is critical for designers to consider. Should designers design and develop a series for the current senior high and college young generation and another series for elementary and junior high school students? Or they can only design a series for all the age groups? Or they may even split the elementary and junior high school kids market into two separate ones? 2. Literature review In the era of consumerism, the underlying principle of product design is to consider the user s needs. According to this trend, the users needs and preferences are primary concerns in product development within a highly competitive market [10]. In order to meet the users needs, designers have to make explicit the connotative and denotative meanings of their products [6]. Compared with X generation and Baby boom, Y generation consumers are really special. According to Murphy and Staples, in post-childhood, the degree of their dependence upon their parents will be reduced gradually. They will join the living environment of their counterparts. The products that interest children in this age group include foods, toys, comic books, and so on. When they enter junior high schools, they will transfer their life circle to counterpart party little by little and pay a lot more attention to their appearance. At this time, junk foods, magazines, sports facilities, and the like big-sized or higher-priced commodities will interest them. At the adolescence stage, they will have independent behaviors to some degree. Because they have some economic resources, they start the entertaining consumption like traveling. The biggest challenge in responding to this young generation consumers is how to catch up with their fast-changing life styles and puzzling tastes [7]. Product segmentation is a design strategy for mature products. To respond to special needs of different marketing segments, a big, heterogeneous market is divided into smaller and more homogeneous sectors corresponding to varying products. If a company s target is not specified, they need to offer all the consumers with a single identical product. This strategy has the advantage of cost-effectiveness. However, it is difficult to compete with those specially designed for a particular marketing segmentation. The future market is up to the consumer. Therefore, designers need to pay more attention to the customer s tendency of preference and their feeling about the product. Consumers buy a certain product because it has an absolute attraction no matter how strong the competitor may be. The key to launch a successful product is, therefore, to grasp the customer s mind [2]. Product differentiation makes it possible for consumers to know that a product of a specific company is different from that of competitors. A preference towards a specific product can be cultivated from the recognition that a product is unique and superior. Basically, the creative design of product differentiation depends upon the target population (who), the message to communicate (what), and how the users respond to the message

3 incorporated in the product (how)[5]. During the early stage of design research, designers should transform the marketing information into design specification of new products [8]. Moreover, the details should present quality and aesthetics so as to catch the consumer s eyes. In the study, semantic differential method was used to build up Y generation users image database. Through the analysis of differences, the design specifications, especially those closely related to their preferences and specific images were discussed. The quantitative information regarding product form design will help designers and managers make decisions, and reduce the risk in new product design and development. 3. Method The semantic differential method was used to explore the user s preferences about product form of mobile phones. The experiment was made up of two parts: (1) Pilot test: to construct the measurement scale for preference study and (2) The semantic differential test: to measure the user s preference and image perception toward mobile phone design. From pilot test, a cluster analysis was conducted to select the representative samples of image words as well as mobile phone design for SD test. Subjects: four groups of Y generation, elementary (10-12 years, 5 th and 6 th grades), junior high (13-15 years), senior high (16-19 years), college (19-23 years). There are 100 students for each group, totaling to 400 subjects. Materials: 18 representative mobile phones (Figure 1) and 15 image word pairs (Table 1). The color mobile phone image was coded and put in a 4X6 photo album, with a full-sized front view and white background. Figure mobile phone samples used in the experiment Table image word pairs used in SD test Adj1 traditional modern Adj2 idle active Adj3 unadorned splendid Adj4 childish mature Adj5 conflicting harmonic Adj6 popular individual Adj7 indifferent cute Adj8 plagiaristic creative Adj9 obedient rebellious Adj10 large compact Adj11 masculine feminine Adj12 coarse delicate Adj13 hand-made hi-tech Adj14 practical decorative Adj15 simple complicated

4 Semantic scale: In the SD test, the preference and image words were scored according to a 9-point scale, which is defined by a bipolar pair of descriptive adjectives with an image word on the right and its antonym on the left. On such an evaluation scale, a score of 9 points means that the subject has a very strong preference or image impression of the mobile phone sample, while 1 point for the least preference or image impression. 4. Results and Discussions With the product form evaluation data, the following analyses were made: (1) the distribution patterns of preferences and image perceptions, (2) analysis of variance (ANOVA) of preference and image perceptions of Y generation subjects, and (3) the principal components of the subjects cognitive space. 4.1 The distribution patterns of preferences and image perceptions The distribution patterns of four age groups in Y generation vary in different image words and different mobile phone samples. In the study, the ranges four age groups have in 15 image words were, first of all, used to compare and contrast their differences. The range of the average scores of image perception of mobile phone samples reflects the subject s form discrimination ability. The bigger the range, the better the subjects form discrimination ability, and vice versa. From Figure 2, it can be seen that the ranges of college and senior high students are bigger than those of elementary and junior high students, meaning that senior high school and college students are better than elementary and junior high school students in product form discrimination. Moreover, the fact that junior high school students are also better than elementary school students indicates that junior high students are better than elementary students in form discrimination. However, the differences between senior high school and college students are not evident. This means that senior high school and college students resemble each other in form discrimination ability. Figure 2. The distribution patterns of the range for four age groups 4.2 Preferences of four age groups of Y generation User s preference towards products is a key index to the degree of their satisfaction. Because user s preference consists of many unknown mental representations, it is a challenge for designers to transform user s preference into specific design specifications [1]. As can be seen in Table 2, mobile phone samples S1, S9, and S10 are highly preferred by subjects in four age groups, but they do not prefer mobile phone samples S2, S3, S6, S12, and S16. Mobile phone samples S4, S5, S11,

5 S14, and S17 are preferred by junior high students, but less preferred by senior high students. Samples S7, S8, and S11 are favored by elementary and junior high students, but not preferred by senior high and college students. The discrepancy of preferences towards product samples indicates that elementary and junior high students are more likely to have similar feelings about product form, and senior high and college students are similar to each other in perceptions of product form. Table 2. The average preferences of four age groups of Y generation S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10 S11 S12 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17 S18 Elementary Junior high Senor high College In terms of image words, it is found that there exist bigger differences in four age groups in the images of modern, mature, harmonic, cute, compact, feminine, and hi-tech. If a new mobile phone s style is set to some of these images, designers should be aware that Y generation users in different age groups may feel different about the same product form in these aspects of styling perception. 4.3 ANOVA of preference and image perceptions of Y generation subjects The result of ANOVA of four age groups (Table 3) indicates that elementary, junior high, senior high, and college subjects are different either from image words or from mobile phone samples to different extents. Table 3. P values of ANOVA for four age groups in Y generation (Significance level=0.05) modern active splendid mature harmonic individual cute creative rebellious compact feminine delicate hi-tech decorative complicated N s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s M *N= number of image words four age groups are significantly different in looking at the same mobile phone sample. *M= number of mobile phone samples four age groups are significantly different in terms of the same image word. For the same mobile phone samples, there are 5 to 12 image words in which four age groups of Y generation

6 are significantly different in perceiving the product form. Averagely speaking, for every mobile phone sample, the subjects will have remarkably different responses in 8.44 (46.89) image words. This means that, while looking at the same product form, in one out of every two images, four age groups in Y generation will feel in a significantly different way. It is similar in terms of each image word (average M=10.13 (56.28%). For these image words and mobile phone samples of which the P values <0.05, the Post Hoc was conducted to check which age group causes the difference. Table 4. The Duncan MRT clusters of 4 age groups in image perceptions of Sample S1 Image word Age groups Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Image word Age groups Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 ADJ1 Junior high 5.57 ADJ9 Elementary 5.07 Modern Elementary 5.58 Rebellious Junior high Senior high 7.06 Senior high College 7.19 College 6.09 ADJ2 Elementary 5.29 ADJ10 College 6.5 Active Junior high 5.91 Compact Junior high 6.51 Senior high 6.64 Elementary 6.53 College 6.71 Senior high 6.9 ADJ3 Elementary 5.74 ADJ11 Junior high 3.84 Splendid Junior high 6.63 Feminine Senior high Senior high 7.27 Elementary College 7.52 College 4.51 ADJ4 Elementary 5.88 ADJ12 Elementary 6.09 Mature College 6.17 Delicate College 6.24 Senior high 6.36 Junior high 6.57 Junior high 6.41 Senior high 6.58 ADJ5 Elementary 5.04 ADJ13 Junior high 6.31 Harmonic Junior high 5.78 Hi-tech Elementary 6.4 College 6.18 College 7.07 Senior high 6.28 Senior high 7.14 ADJ6 Junior high 5 ADJ14 Elementary 4.51 Individual Elementary 5.42 Decorative Junior high 4.94 Senior high 6.61 Senior high 5.6 College 7.24 College 6.01 ADJ7 Elementary 4.28 ADJ15 Elementary 4.25 Cute Junior high Complicated Junior high 4.29 College 5.36 Senior high 5.37 Senior high 5.42 College 5.6 ADJ8 Elementary 5.64 Preference College 5.64 Creative Junior high 5.9 Junior high 5.79 Senior high 6.63 Elementary 6.24 College 6.76 Senior high 7.2 The results of the Post Hoc (Duncan s MRT) of Sample S1 are shown in Table 4. In the preference of Sample S1, college, junior high, and elementary are in the same group while senior high is another group. In images mature, compact, and delicate, there is no significant difference among four age groups in the perception of Sample S1. Two clusters can be assigned in images modern, creative, hi-tech, decorative, and complicated: elementary and junior high the first group and senior high and college the second group. There exist significant differences between any age group in different clusters. In perceptions of harmonic, cute, and feminine images, junior high, senior high, and college are in the same cluster, and there exist significant differences between elementary group and each of these three groups. In active image, senior high and college students are in the same group but there exist significant differences between elementary and senior high and college as well as between junior high and senior high and college. Elementary students also have a significantly different view in active image. At last, in rebellious image, there exists no significant difference between elementary and junior high,

7 between junior high and senior high, and between senior high and college students. But significant differences can be found between elementary and senior high and college students. Generally, in 7 out of 15 image words, elementary and junior high are assigned in the same group and senior high and college are in another group. Similarly, it is found that, for Samples S6, S7, S14, and S17, elementary and junior high students will be assigned in the same cluster. Likewise, senior high and college students will be assigned in another same cluster in most image words. This demonstrates that between elementary and junior high students as well as between senior high and college students, the difference is not much evident. On the other hand, the same situation occurs in the images of modern, mature, harmonic, creative, delicate, cute, and rebellious. The results demonstrate that these four age groups can be dealt separately. One series of mobile phones may be necessary for elementary and junior high students and another series of mobile phones for senior high and college students. 4.4 The principal component of the cognitive space of Y generation The subject s perception data in 15 images is simplified by factor analysis to extract the principal components. According to Osgood et al., people s perception of objects can be divided into three main factors: evaluation, potency, and activity factors [9]. In the study, four age groups average image data of mobile phone samples were combined to conduct a joint factor analysis. Three factors were extracted: evaluation, emotion, and shape factors. From the same factor axis system, the factor scores for 18 samples were obtained to compare their relative distances in the imaginary spatial system, the so-called cognitive space. Table 5. The factor scores of 18 samples in the principal factor axes Elementary Junior high Senior high College Sample Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s In the simplified cognitive space, the total relative distance can be calculated from the factor scores for these 18 mobile phones. Moreover, the degree of difference among four age groups can be clarified. From Table 6, it is clear that elementary vs junior high (d 1,2 = 0.57) as well as senior high vs college (d 3,4 =0.66) are relatively smaller than those of other pair-comparisons. The smaller the relative distance, the more alike the two groups in a pair. Therefore, in terms of the cognitive space of Y generations, on one hand, elementary students are similar to junior high school students; on the other, senior high school students resemble college students.

8 Table 6. The average Euclidean distances between different age groups Difference in Factor 1 Difference in Factor 2 Difference in Factor 3 Relative distance Elementary vs Junior high * Elementary vs Senior high Elementary vs College Junior high vs Senior high Junior high vs College Senior high vs College * 5. Conclusions In the study, semantic differential method was used to evaluate the preference and image perceptions of mobile phones of the elementary, junior high, senior high school, and college students in Northern Taiwan so as to build up the image database. To the same product sample, different age groups of Y generations may have different images. The results of statistical analysis of the image database demonstrate that elementary and junior high school students can be considered one group and senior high and college students another group. Therefore, designers may need to design and develop two series of products for the Y generation users, one for elementary and junior high school students and another for senior high and college students. When the target users are different, we need to figure out the relative form treatment and adopt proper responsive design strategies. Finally, whether there will be such differences between different age groups in other products should be further investigated. In the study, only Y generation subjects were examined. It is necessary to explore other consumer groups such as X generation and baby boom in terms of marketing segmentation or product differentiation. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank National Science Council for the financial support of this project (Project No: NSC H ). References 1. Chang, Chien-Cheng, Perceptual Factors Underlying User s Image Perception toward Product Form, Unpublished dissertation, National Chiao Tung University (2000). 2. Charles D. Schewe & Alexander Hiam, The Portable MBA in Marketing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (1998). 3. Frederick E. Webster, Jr., Market-Driven Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (1995). 4. Gobe, Marc, Emotional Branding: the new paradigm for connecting brands to people, Leviathan Publishing (2001). 5. Garth Hallberg, All Consumers Are Not Created Equal, Rock Publications (1995). 6. Lin, R., Lin, C.Y., and Wong, J., An Application of Multidimensional Scaling in Product Semantics. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 18, (1996). 7. Murphy and Staples. A Modernized Family Life Cycle, P12-P22 (1979). 8. Nagamachi, M., Kansei engineering: A new ergonomic consumer-oriented technology for product development, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 15, 3-11 (1995). 9. Osgood, C.E., Suci, C.J. and Tannenbaum, P.H., The Measurement of Meaning, Urbana: University of Illinois Press (1957). 10. Shang H. Hsu, Ming C. Chuang and Chien C. Chang, A differential study on the conceptual model of product form between designers and users, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 25, (2000).