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Product design is an important marketing variable. Most literature about consumer preference for product design focuses on aesthetic product value. However, the appearance of a product also influences consumer perception of functionalities, quality, and ease of use. This paper therefore, seeks to assess how preference for visual complexity and symmetry depends on the type of product value that is important to people.

In a conjoint study the utility of visual complexity and symmetry in determining preference for eight VCR pictures are assessed (n=422). These utilities are used as dependent variables in regression analyses with the different product values (aesthetic, functionalities, quality, and ease of use) as independent variables.

The effects of visual complexity and symmetry on consumers' preferences depend on the product value to which consumers paid attention.

To increase insight into the relationship between design and consumer product preference, the impact of a design on consumer perception of all types of product value – not only aesthetic value – should be taken into account.

This research has direct implications for managers overseeing aspects of product development relating to aligning the design effort with target customers and determining specific product design executions.

Past research on consumers' post‐purchase behavior has focused on understanding satisfaction. However, the consumer‐product relationship is much broader. This paper aims to deal with another aspect of post‐purchase behavior: the emotional bond consumers experience with their durables during ownership. The paper contributes to the literature on this topic by testing a conceptual model of product attachment and its relationships with satisfaction, and the determinants: utility, appearance, and memories.

Two experiments are presented in which the product categories photo cameras and mobile phones were used as stimuli to test the conceptual model.

Results show that the product's utility and its appearance positively affect both product attachment and satisfaction. For both product attachment and satisfaction, the pleasure elicited mediates the effects of utility and appearance. Only for product attachment, the presence of memories serves as an additional determinant that also moderates the effects of utility and appearance. Importantly, satisfaction has no direct effect on product attachment.

The paper contributes to the lack of knowledge concerning consumers' post‐purchase behavior by exploring the relationships between product attachment and satisfaction.

Diffusion of many successful communication technologies, like telephony and television technology, follows an almost perfect S‐shaped curve. This curve implies that, after their introduction, subsequent sales of products on the basis of these technologies can be predicted accurately. However, the diffusion of other breakthroughs in communication technologies, like interactive television, videotelephony or broadband mobile communication technology, shows a more erratic pattern. Introduction of these technologies is often postponed or, once introduced, they are quickly withdrawn from the market after the first disappointing results. Rather than distinguishing alternative patterns, this article shows that the S‐shaped curve and the more erratic patterns represent subsequent phases in one pattern of development and diffusion of breakthrough communication technologies. Three phases are distinguished in this pattern. Managerial implications of the differences between these phases are discussed. the paper shows that a company trying to introduce a new communication technology has to adopt different strategies in each phase.

Retailers' new product acceptance in base of pyramid (BoP) markets is crucial to marketers in this segment. This paper seeks to develop propositions for research on factors that affect retailers in new product introduction. The propositions also aim to make a distinction between urban and rural BoP markets.

The paper provides a broad description of India's BoP market (one of the world's largest BoP markets) to better understand context. It uses literature from developed country context to BoP markets to arrive at research propositions for further research.

The key research propositions derived relate to exogenous and endogenous factors. Exogenous factors relate to store trading area, competitive environment, shopper characteristics and product diversity. The endogenous factors include store atmosphere, assortment and shelf space allocation, price and promotion. The differences across rural and urban BoP markets are highlighted for each proposition.

Understanding differences between rural and urban BoP retailers can help make crucial new product introduction decisions. Considering endogenous and exogenous factors that influence retailer acceptance decisions will make product introduction decisions successful.

BoP literature has been replete with research on marketers and products but less on retailing. This paper addresses that gap. In addition, very few papers make the distinction between urban and rural BoP markets and mostly across countries but not within a country. This paper places the distinction within the country. Finally, explaining how various factors influencing retailing differ in urban and rural contexts and developing propositions is a major original contribution of this paper.

Previous research in the context of feature fit has examined the effects of congruence (i.e. more specifically, the extent to which a new feature and the product are similar in the hedonic-utilitarian benefits they provide to consumers). The purpose of this paper is to examine a second dimension of feature fit: complementarity (i.e. the extent to which a new feature is related and contributing to the main functionality of the product).

The role of feature fit is examined in two experimental studies (n=593) in the context of feature additions, and also for feature deletions.

The results showed that complementarity adds value to a product as an additional dimension of feature fit beyond congruence, complementarity matters more for a hedonic than for a utilitarian product, and complementarity can compensate for lack of congruence.

For a product developer, adding new features to a product offers an array of choices in terms of what feature(s) to include. Although having a large pool of potential features to choose from is attractive it can also prove problematic, as products may become overly complex and features do not fit well together. The results demonstrate the importance of both congruence and complementarity as predictors of feature fit when features are added to or deleted from products.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Marketing Intelligence & Planning is split into nine sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Marketing Strategy; Customer Service; Sales Management/Sundry; Promotion; Marketing Research/Customer Behaviour; Product Management; Logistics and Distribution.

This study focuses on tourists’ perceptions of a capsule hotel, a budget form of accommodation with a unique appearance and the small size of a sleeping pod. The data were obtained in Bangkok from 402 foreign travellers from over 30 countries. The results indicate that room size, sleep ambient control system and in-room television were the three main attributes that were positively correlated with decisions to stay in such hotels. Tourists with previous experience of staying in capsule hotels had more positive perceptions regarding room size and indicated higher intentions to stay than those without such experience. The researchers also found that budgetary considerations negatively moderated the relationship between room size and intention-to-stay. Additionally, the relationship between intention-to-stay and three other hotel attributes, including room size, the service scape and perceived security, was weaker for female travellers than for male travellers. Lastly, risk avoidance also positively moderated the relationship between intention-to-stay and location and security.