The Role of Product Design in Developing Brand Association

Purpose - This paper aims to find the role of functional and aesthetic attributes of product design in developing brand association among smart phones users between ages 21 to 30 years by using user image congruence as moderator. Design/methodology/approach - A theoretical framework is developed based on literature review. A close ended questionnaire was used from consumers on psychographic basis. Stratified random sampling with sample size 384 is used to collect data from respondents in twin cities. Data is then analyzed by applying correlation and regression. Findings - The results of the study suggest that both functional and aesthetic attributes of product design significantly build brand association. Result evidences that user image congruence builds brand association and helps in strengthening the relationship between product design’s attributes and brand association. Research Limitations - This study only focuses on two major attributes of product design and scope of the study can be increase by adding other attributes like symbolic and non-product related attributes. Similarly, this study is limited to only one technological product such as smart phone and its scope of the study can also be increase by adding other technological products to proposed theoretical model. Practical Implications - Analysis of the study concludes that industry should focus on components like function, aesthetics and user image congruence when developing design of the smart phone and this helps in building brand association. Originality/Value - The main contribution of this study is that, it combines product design’s attributes, user image congruence and brand association. In Pakistani perspective, this study is the first to identify such relationship among variables in technological product like smart phone. The model that is developed in this study can be further analyzed with other highly technological products. Paper Type – Research Paper.