Angle for Aesthetic Appeal with the Abstract

Consumers appreciate aesthetic design in products and shopping environments. Marketers might translate this appreciation into the consumer’s willingness to pay a higher price for purchases. Pulling from the other direction, though, could be the shopper’s belief that a designer’s or manufacturer’s attention to aesthetics will detract from necessary attention to functionality. “If it’s pretty, it won’t work,” is how researchers at National Chengchi University and Northeastern University tag this belief. The researchers then went on to question how to sidestep this view.
     The answer was to move the shopper away from a concrete perspective and toward an abstract perspective. With utilitarian items—those purchased primarily for the outcomes they produce rather than the enjoyment in using them—an abstract perspective—thinking about the “why” of behavior rather than the “how” of behavior—will increase the valuing of aesthetic design.
     In one of the studies, participants were presented with a set of statements such as, “Chris is considering going to a driving school.” Then those participants who were assigned to the concrete-mindset group were instructed, “Please describe how you think Chris would do that.” Those assigned to the abstract-mindset group were instead instructed, “Please describe why you think Chris would do that.” Following this, each participant was shown pairs of items such as a stapler and a portable charger, with one of the pair having previously been described as significantly more aesthetically appealing than the other by another group of consumers.
     Compared to the study participants primed with the concrete-mindset task, those primed with the abstract-mindset task were more likely to choose the aesthetically appealing item of the pair. The researchers’ explanation is that asking “why” when considering the benefits of a product or shopping environment stimulates attention to the value of aesthetic design.
     You’re unlikely to be asking your shoppers about the particulars of Chris’s driving school plans. Instead, if selling a utilitarian item with aesthetic appeal, you could lead by discussing why the item is a good choice for the customer.
     Where the shopper is looking also makes a difference. Studies at China’s Fudan University found that when considering a purchase in the future, rather than right now, people move toward an abstract mindset. Also when they’re gazing upwards. According to Ghent University researchers, shoppers are relatively more interested in concrete features when looking down at the merchandise and relatively more interested in abstract claims when peering up.

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