Managing emotion for a sustainable future

Abstract

This paper seeks to theoretically explore the role of emotion in designing products that consumers will love and use for long. The new insights on value of product and visual perception are drawn from interdisciplinary scholarship: 1) product value consists of “utilitarian and hedonic values”, 2) product personality consists of “semantic and symbolic personalities”, and 3) product form consists of “shape and surface”. These perspectives have been developed into patterns of consumer purchase and possession that are defined by the degrees of utility and emotional attachment that the product offers to consumers. Subsequently, a possible way of managing a consumer’s psychological process towards a decision of “desired purchase” will be illustrated. Finally, these discussions of emotionally attractive products will be integrated with the emergent research area of artificial intelligence for consideration of future production.