What you touch, touches you: The influence of haptic attributes on consumer product impressions
Touch is one of the most important senses that allows consumers to directly experience a product. Haptic information, attained through touch, can influence consumers’ evaluations of a product. Products’ haptic information can vary in terms of their material properties, including texture, weight, hardness, and temperature, and in terms of how salient these properties are to consumers.
Although prior research has explored the effect of the salience of haptic information on consumer judgements, no research has studied the interactive effects of haptic attributes. Therefore, this study examines the prediction that the haptic attributes of product texture (smooth, rough) and weight (light weight, heavy weight) affect consumer product impressions. Drawing on schema congruity theory, it also examines how haptic cue congruity, which are how different haptic cues correspond with each other, impact consumer product impressions. Since extant sensory literature focuses on congruence between touch and other senses, this study is the first to predict cue congruence within the sense of touch.
This study expects these effects are mediated by product personality, which is the profile of human personality characteristics used to describe a product. Derived from the brand personality literature, product personality examined in this study has five dimensions:
sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Moreover, an need for touch (NFT), or a preference for touch with a hedonic-oriented goal, is predicted to change the effect of haptic attributes and haptic cue congruity among texture and weight on consumer perceptions of product personality, as opposed to goal‐oriented instrumental‐NFT.
Method and sample
Before the main study, a qualitative exploratory study involving depth interviews with 13 design industry practitioners was conducted to determine the use of terms that indicate texture and weight in the experiments.
Study 1a examined the interaction of texture (smooth vs. rough) and NFT on consumer product impressions, using two identical photo frames of the same weight as experimental stimuli, one made from a smooth coated paper and the other from a medium-coarse paper. This involved a laboratory experiment using a 2 x 2 between‐participants design, with 84 participants form a university in Australia. NFT was measured using the 12 item NFT scale, and product personality dimensions were measured using the 15-item product personality scale, both on seven-point scales.
Study 1b explored the interaction of weight (light weight and heavy weight) and NFT on consumer product impressions, using two portable remote controls with identical texture as stimuli. To create a lightweight stimulus, some internal parts were removed. To create a heavy weight stimulus, coins were inserted inside the controls. 100 students from the same population participated in a 2 x 2 experimental design. NFT and product personality were measured using the same scale as in Study 1a.
Study 2 examined how haptic-evoked product personality could drive consumers’ willingness to purchase (WTP). The stimuli were identical water bottles with a smooth and a rough fabric used as cover pouches to manipulate texture. To manipulate weight, bottles were either filled with sand and water or left empty. A 2 x 2 x 2 experiment was conducted with 160 students, following the same experimental procedure used in Study 1. The five product personalities and WTP were measured.
Key findings
- Study 1a found that haptic attributes corresponding to texture impacted consumer product impressions, which was driven by hedonic-oriented NFT. High ‐NFT people were more responsive to haptic stimuli in that texture effects on consumer judgements on products with sincerity, excitement, and competence are stronger for ‐NFT consumers but weaker for low ‐NFT consumers.
- Study 1b supported the prediction that weight is associated with consumer product impressions and the moderating role of NFT. The influence of the haptic attribute of weight on consumer product impressions is stronger for higher autotelic‐NFT. In particular, high autotelic‐NFT consumers reacted more strongly on competence and ruggedness for a heavy weight product than for a light weight product.
- Studies 1a and 1b both demonstrated that haptic product attributes of texture and weight affect consumer product impressions and that high autotelic‐NFT consumers react more strongly to haptic‐evoked product impressions than their low autotelic‐NFT counterparts.
- In Study 2, the effect of haptic cue congruity was influenced by a consumer’s hedonic‐oriented autotelic‐NFT. Consumers with a high autotelic-NFT perceived the product had a more exciting and sophisticated personality when haptic cues are incongruent (smooth/heavy) rather than congruent (smooth/light). Low autotelic‐NFT consumers reacted the opposite way. In addition, the two personalities predicted WTP
Recommendations
This study suggests that the thoughtful and creative use of haptics can be a powerful marketing tool. Firms can develop strategies to evoke consumers’ perceptions of product personality through understanding the effects of a product’s haptic attributes on such perceptions.
These findings are also useful for market segmentation in terms of individual differences in processing haptic information. It is recommended brands with an exciting personality have incongruent haptic designs to increase the WTP of high -NFT consumers. In contrast, sophisticated brands should have congruent haptic designs to increase low ‐NFT consumers’ WTP. To reach both high and low ‐NFT consumers, firms must consider what would appeal to each cohort and integrate consumers’ haptic inputs and preferences during the planning, new product development, and marketing stages.
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More information
The research article is also available on eprints.