ABSTRACT

Visual appeal is a critical determinant in eliciting positive consumer responses. In an online shopping environment, in which consumers’ interaction with products is limited to the visual, the pictorial representation of products becomes of paramount importance. While product visual appeal is a widely applied concept, relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how consumers process the visual appearance of a product in an online setting and form attitudes toward a newly encountered brand. The purpose of this study is to examine both how varying levels of product visuals online affect aesthetic appreciation and brand attitudes as well as to what extent arousal and processing fluency can link appreciation and attitudes. The levels of online product visual appeals were manipulated in a 2 (good vs. plain package design) × 2 (high vs. low image quality) factorial design (N = 407). The contrast analysis revealed that better product visuals increased the arousal and fluency that consumers experienced. The structural equation modeling showed that consumers’ arousal and fluency mediated the relationship between product visuals and consumers’ aesthetic and attitudinal responses. The regression analysis also indicated that arousal and processing fluency independently affected visual aesthetic appreciation.

摘要

视觉吸引力是引起消费者积极响应的关键决定因素。在消费者与产品的互动仅限于视觉的在线购物环境中，产品的图像表现变得至关重要。虽然产品视觉吸引力是一个广泛应用的概念，但对于消费者如何处理在线环境中产品的视觉外观以及对新遇到的品牌形成态度的潜在机制知之甚少。本研究的目的是检验不同水平的在线产品视觉效果如何影响审美欣赏和品牌态度，以及唤醒和处理流畅性在多大程度上可以将欣赏和态度联系起来。在线产品视觉吸引力的水平以 2（良好与简单的包装设计）×2（高与普通包装设计）进行控制。低图像质量）因子设计（N = 407）。对比分析显示，更好的产品视觉效果增加了消费者体验的唤醒度和流畅度。结构方程模型表明，消费者的唤醒和流畅性介导了产品视觉效果与消费者审美和态度反应之间的关系。回归分析还表明，唤醒和加工流畅度独立影响视觉审美欣赏。