Research On The Influence Of Anthropomorphic Image On Consumers' Choice Between Hedonic And Utilitarian Products

In the context of limited resources,people often encounter the dilemma of choice between utilitarian products and hedonic products.In addition to the factors such as consumer needs and product features,consumers could be influenced by irrelevant information which helps to trigger temporary goals in consistent with the stimulus,further influencing the decision making process and also,the following results.Based on that,Marketing departments try to use various tactics to promote the sales of different types of products.Anthropomorphism is one of them.Although many enterprises have already applied this kind of tactic to the real market,the results and optimization methods are still mysteries.Are there any differences between the influence of positive anthropomorphism image and negative one on consumer choice?Rare articles focus on the relevant topic.Based on that,the study progressively discuss the influence of anthropomorphic image on consumer choice.It is divided into three parts.Established on the practical and theoretical background,the first study explore the influence of listing anthropomorphic image on consumer choice.Then in the second part,the study focus on an important factor encounter in the design process which is the emotion of anthropomorphic image,discussing its effect on consumer choice and also the mechanism of how it happens.Finally,the research further study the influence of product involvement in this situation,trying to find the limitation of the influences.According to the results,product anthropomorphism helps to increase the chance of hedonic consumption.Compared with negative emotions,anthropomorphic image having positive emotion increase the possibility of hedonic consumption.This is possibly due to consumers' short-tern promotion focus stimulated by the positive emotion of anthropomorphism image.With the increase of product involvement,the effect may be impaired with consumers awareness of reasonable thinking when making choice of high price.The research has broaden the existing theory related to anthropomorphism.It not only discusses the effect of humanize products on consumer choice,but also further study the role of different anthropomorphic emotion on consumer choice.It helpspolicy makers in marketing area to adapt different kind of images to typical products.The result is also beneficial to product design and marketing communication.At the same time,it not only stay on the result of the influence,but further study the mechanism of what happens,the boundary of this effect,showing certain kinds of theoretical significance.The innovation of this research can be concluded as follows:First of all,the study is different from previous research which consider anthropomorphism as a whole,only discussing whether the existence of anthropomorphism can influence consumers' cognitive behavior,it initially focus on the practical level of anthropomorphism which is the emotion of anthropomorphic image.Secondly,there's a lot of elements relating to consumer choices.Among them,the design of the products or special marketing strategy can be easily used by companies and brands.Latest research has found the effect of product portfolio,the way of product presentation and special discount on consumer choice,but there's rare academic research on the frequently used marketing tactic---anthropomorphism.This study focused on that for the first time which is very novel.In addition,anthropomorphism is creatively acted as a stimulus.We study its possible priming effect on consumer behaviors which helps a lot in understanding the whole mechanism and the effect of regulatory focus on the priming process.This perspective has rarely been seen in previous research,showing its creativity and uniqueness.Finally,late research concerning anthropomorphism payed more attention to the effect of different means of anthropomorphism,but the applicability of various anthropomorphic method is rarely discussed before.After introducing product involvement into the whole structure,this study newly explored the adaptation of anthropomorphism in different product categories.