A Study of the Relationship Between Symbolic Consumption and Product Design－Limited-Edition Sports Shoes as Example

• Main Authors: Yu-Hsuan Huang, 黃于軒
• Other Authors: Chun-Ching Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7ha7r5

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 設計管理研究所碩士班 === 95 === With the change of social custom and lifestyle, people are satisfied with daily needs and start to pursue what they want. This causes a new consumer behavior, which is named as symbolic consumption. Many products on the market produce symbolic character to meet customers’ desire. This particularly can be seen in some sports products. Therefore the purpose of this research focus on the relationship between symbolic consumption and product design, and take limited-edition sports shoes as an example. This study aims at understanding the potential factors of symbolic consumption, through reviewing the literature relevant to lifestyle factors, consumption idea and symbolic consumption, and investigating the symbolic factors of existing limited-edition sports shoes product. Then a symbolic consumption questionnaire survey was conducted to understand the consumers of the limited-edition sports shoes product. This is followed by carrying on a depth interview with the sales personnel of limited-edition sports shoes so as to understand the design characteristic of the product and marketing strategy. The results show that traditional low price strategy is no longer used by these symbolic sports products. Instead of function, symbolic significance becomes the key point of the product. In this study the participant’s age distributes between 16~30 years old and mostly male, students of low incomes. Among the sportswear brands, NIKE is their favorite; the fashion-sport style and the leisure style shoes is the most welcome for the consumer. These shoes use new design, colors, brands cooperation or new advertisement’s story to create the symbolic product using the existing shoes types. The participants place importance on product’s appearance and design, as product topic, unique design and strong colors can present personal style. However the limited-edition sports shoes do not provide special after-sale service to the customer. The results show the product’s symbolic value is mainly on the "brand" and "design". The conclusion shows that symbolic consumption becomes a new tendency. Multi-combination of design factors and special colors can activate the product to attract the consumer. In the symbolic characteristic, “design” is the first image when the consumer meets the product, however, the brand becomes the factor to affect consumer''s decision. It shows the importance of the "brand" on the marketing. Additionally, the main symbolic consumer is the young people, hence the marketing can focus on the web blog and search engine to increase the interaction with the consumer. It is expected that the conclusion of this study can provide useful suggestion for product designers and marketing professionals on the product design and development.