A measurement scale for evaluating the attractiveness of a passenger car form aimed at young consumers

To enhance the likelihood of success of a product when launched onto the market, it is essential to assess the attractiveness of its product form during the design stage and to remedy any perceived form-related defects if necessary. However, few practical measuring instruments exist to assess the form attractiveness of specific products from a consumer perspective. Consequently, product form designers lack reliable indicators to guide their design efforts towards developing products which will satisfy the consumers’ needs. Therefore, this study develops a comprehensive model of form attractiveness and an evaluation instrument for measuring the attractiveness of passenger car forms targeted at young consumers. The tasks conducted in this study include identifying the potential origins of product form attractiveness, generating potential evaluation items, collecting data, and validating the developed multiple-item evaluation scale. This study carefully investigates the reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed instrument by analyzing data obtained from a sample of 218 representative consumers. The results suggest the use of a five-factor 22-item instrument to explore the form attractiveness of a passenger car in terms of the aesthetic sensibilities, novelty-and-fashion, identity suitability, apparent function, and symbolity of its form design. The empirically validated instrument provides product form designers with a valuable tool for measuring and improving the attractiveness of their form designs.Relevance to industryThe model and instrument developed in this study discriminate various aspects of product form attractiveness and are capable of providing the systemic and detailed information necessary to conduct the form attractiveness evaluation. Using the proposed instrument, the attractiveness of a product form can be objectively assessed and then improved such that the likelihood of its marketing success is enhanced.