Conference article

Design of a branded product requires an effective understanding of how the consumers perceive and make sense of products and the brand. Kansei Engineering is an approach that takes the consumers perception and emotions into account through the Kansei words and provides information about the relation between perceptual concepts and physical properties of the product. However; the consumer perception related to non-physical aspect of the products (such as brand association) is not considered in the KE approach. This paper introduces the “branded product emotion framework” to help an understanding of the relation between brand image and Kansei concepts. According to this framework the consumer emotional responses to a new branded product can be evoked by consumers’ perception of the physical properties of that specific product (Kansei); by the associations to the brand and by the association to the product class. The objective of the framework is helping to achieve a better analysis of the factors that are contributing to generate or affect the emotions and evaluations that consumers make of a branded product and reduce the risk of overlooking those emotions that brand elicits without the intermediation of the product. The frameworks is helpful in the design process of branded product in which the members of the design team; especially product designers and engineering designers; should collaborate and communicate around the brand value and the Kansei concepts to justify the design decisions and implement these concepts into a new product.

Branded products; Kansei Engineering