The Impact of an Eye-Catching Product Design on Customer Responses in the Context of Embarrassing Purchases

The Impact of an Eye-Catching

Product Design

on Customer

Responses in the Context of Embarrassing Purchases

MSc Marketing Management - Master Thesis

The Impact of an Eye-Catching

Product Design

on Customer

Responses in the Context of Embarrassing Purchases

Galina Hermann Student Number: S3200973

Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen

Supervisor: Dr. Martijn Keizer Co-assessor: Dr. Janny Hoekstra

Word Count: 7700

ABSTRACT

When consumers perceive the threat of embarrassment originating from the purchase of specific products, they attempt to make the embarrassing product less salient to the attention of other people. In this context the product design of the embarrassing product itself determines the salience as well. By means of a survey, the current study investigated the influence of different product designs (eye-catching vs. neutral) on consumer responses in terms of anticipated embarrassment and purchase intentions. Since hedonic products require different functions of the product design than utilitarian, I further examined whether the effect of product design on purchase intentions varies across those product categories. Results revealed that people anticipated embarrassing products with an eye-catching design as more embarrassing compared to those with a neutral design. Subsequently, participants showed a lower purchase intention for eye-catching embarrassing products than for the neutral version of it. Nevertheless, this effect does not always hold, since the relationship between product design and purchase intentions appeared to be moderated by the product category with an opposing impact. More specifically, the purchase intentions for a utilitarian embarrassing product were higher for a neutral design, whereas purchase intentions for a hedonic embarrassing product were higher for the eye-catching design. To conclude, this thesis contributes to a more precise understanding of the impact of product design as an important antecedent for consumer responses with regard to purchases of embarrassing product.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ... 1

THEORYAND HYPOTHESES ... 4

Embarrassment and its influence on consumer behavior ... 4

The impact of product design ... 5

Conceptual Model ... 8

Limitation of product design characteristics for this research ... 9

METHODOLOGY ... 11

Pretest ... 11

Participants and Design ... 13

Procedure ... 13 Analysis Plan ... 15 RESULTS ... 16 Manipulation Check ... 16 Main Analysis ... 16 DISCUSSION ... 19 Main findings ... 19 Implications ... 20

Limitations and further research ... 21

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“Today was the most embarrassing day of my life”. Did you ever think or say this

sentence? Just to correct yourself the week after? Overlooking a step and falling in the middle of a shopping center, spilling tomato sauce on the clothes right before a business meeting, or even buying condoms in the local store – almost everyone experiences numerous situations like this in daily life. The resulting emotion from these situations is embarrassment, which represents an essential part of our lives. But what happens when people perceive embarrassment? Erving Goffman (1956) related embarrassment to typical physical indices such as blushing, stuttering, and tension of the muscles. Due to these unpleasant and undesirable effects, the author found that individuals often attempt to avoid embarrassing situations by modifying their behavior.

Taking this reaction as a basis, previous research examined the impact of embarrassment in the context of consumer behavior and showed a variety of behavior modifications. In order to diminish the threat of an embarrassing situation, consumers come up with several coping strategies including so-called ‘face-saving’ and ‘masking’ strategies (Blair & Roese, 2013; Nichols, Raska & Flint, 2013). Face-saving strategies comprise the attempt of consumers to minimize embarrassment through approaches like avoiding crowded shops or waiting until they are alone in the aisle to acquire the product (Blair & Roese, 2013). Masking strategies represent the effort to hide or to cover up the embarrassing product and include buying additional nonembarrassing products in believe that attention is spread among those (Nichols et al., 2013). The underlying process for these strategies appears to be the endeavor to divert the attention away from the source of embarrassment, thus to make the product less salient to the attention of other people.

or the cashier. On the contrary, a product that is designed rather neutral might bear the risk of not gaining the buyer’s attention.

Second, the product design aims to communicate information to consumers (Nussbaum, 1993) and adds value to the product by transferring the feelings of usage experiences associated with it (Bloch, 1995). Hence, a specific design might be necessary to induce a particular meaning, which supports the purpose of the product (Bloch, 1995). To illustrate this function, the example of condoms can be taken, which are used for excitement and pleasure. To evoke these feelings, a vivid product design is required. Hence, aesthetics and the transmission of experiential benefits particularly matter for hedonic products rather than for utilitarian products (Okada, 2005). Transferring the setting of expectations connected to the usage by means of the product design might also be a factor that influences purchase intention so that purchase intentions might vary across product categories.

Following from these findings, the design of embarrassing products seems to require some trade-offs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how consumer responses are influenced by different approaches for the product design (eye-catching vs. neutral), which to date represents an unexamined variable in the context of embarrassment. Summarizing this into a more specific question: How

does the salience of the design of embarrassing products affect consumer responses in terms of anticipated embarrassment and purchase intention, and does the latter effect vary across different product categories?

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Embarrassment and its influence on consumer behavior

Definition. Research of embarrassment dates back to Erving Goffman (1959) who defined the term as an emotion resulting from a failure in everyday social situations. This definition contains three main findings. First, embarrassment represents an

emotion, which typically appears in visible indices such as blushing or stuttering, but

also in invisible symptoms like tension of the muscles or a dry mouth (Goffman, 1959). These exemplary effects can be seen as rather unpleasant and undesirable.

Second, embarrassment results from a failure. In this context, previous research identified two mechanisms that elicit embarrassment: social evaluation and the loss of self-esteem. Individuals fear that their behavior does not gain acceptance from other people and therefore provokes negative evaluations (Miller, 1996). Since negative evaluations harm the individuals’ social image, they result in the loss of self-esteem (Krishna, Herd and Aydınoğlu, 2015). Finally, the loss of self-esteem has been shown to produce embarrassment (Modigliani, 1971).

Third, embarrassment occurs in social situations. The mentioned findings classify embarrassment as a public emotion by assuming that embarrassment requires the presence of other people (Miller, 1996). However, it can also occur in situations when an individual is alone and represent a private emotion (Krishna et al., 2015), Flicker and Barlow (1996) found that this was less often the case. Yet it has been shown, that also noninteractive social presence influences people’s emotions (Argo, Dahl & Manchanda, 2005; Dahl, Manchanda & Argo, 2001).

Embarrassment in the context of consumer behavior. Previous research has identified several examples of behavior modification when it comes to purchasing embarrassing products. One strategy of consumers aimed at avoiding purchases that might evoke embarrassment is purchasing the products online, since it allows for privacy (Krishna et al. 2015). Nevertheless, this is not always feasible, for example when people need the product urgently or simply are not familiar with online shopping. With regard to physical purchases in a retail setting, prior research has recognized so-called ‘face-saving’ and ‘masking’ strategies, which have been defined as coping strategies exerted by consumers in embarrassing purchase situations (Blair & Roese, 2013; Nichols et al., 2015). When consumers apply face-saving strategies, they attempt to minimize embarrassment for example by avoiding crowded shops or waiting until they are alone in the aisle to acquire the product (Blair & Roese, 2013). Masking has been acknowledged as a strategy aimed at hiding or covering up the embarrassing product and includes purchasing additional products (Nichols et al., 2015).

When taking a closer look on these coping strategies, they share one similarity: the central goal is avoiding the focal attention from other people. Thus, the process underlying avoiding embarrassment is more specifically diverting attention away

from the source of embarrassment, which is the embarrassing product. It is,

however, problematic that the product itself is composed of an element that is used as a mean to capture people’s attention: the product’s design.

The impact of product design

A stimulus like product design can create different consumer responses, which are are divided in cognitive, affective and behavioral responses (Fennis & Stroebe, 2016). This thesis will go beyond cognitive responses, and investigate the effect of product design on the affective response embarrassment and the behavioral response purchase intention.

personal lubricant, the product is mostly sold in the tube or bottle. In other cases like condoms the single items are packed in a box, which represents a product-related element but is not the physical product itself (Underwood et al., 2001). For the purpose of this study, this product packaging is considered as synonym for the term product design.

The importance of product design becomes visible through high investments in it, which can even exceed companies’ investments in advertising (Schoormans & Robben, 1997). Since product design represents a crucial factor for consumers’ product choices and perceptions (Ampuero & Vila, 2006; McDaniel & Baker, 1977), it is considered as an important marketing tool (Bloch, 1995). Within the field of marketing, the product design combines several functions. This thesis highlights two of them regarding their possible relations to consumer responses in the context of embarrassing products: first, the function of gaining customers’ attention and second, the function of communicating to them. Both will be elaborated in the following.

Attention attraction. The physical form is supposed to gain consumers’ attention, which is especially relevant in a cluttered competitive environment (Folkes and Matta, 2004; Schoormans & Robben, 1997). Paradoxically, as previously elaborated attention is exactly what consumers try to avoid when buying embarrassing products, more precisely the attention of other people. Even if other people do not actually detect the embarrassing product, embarrassment is already triggered by thethreat that it might gain their attention (Dahl, Manchanda & Argo, 2001). Attention in this context means that the embarrassing product is noticed by other people, such as customers or the cashier, and brought to their awareness, where it is identified and categorized (Fennis & Stroebe, 2016). Finally, the identified product might constitute a reason for negative evaluations, which the individual is afraid of (Miller, 1996).

attracts other people’s attention that easily than an eye-catching design. Visa versa, an embarrassing product with an eye-catching design aimed at attracting consumers’ attention, would lead to the result that people perceive a higher level of embarrassment when buying it, out of the fear to attract the attention of others as well. Therefore, the following prediction is made:

H1: Anticipated embarrassment will be stronger for embarrassing products with an

eye-catching design than for embarrassing products with a neutral design.

Questionable is, however, if the effect of product design on embarrassment also spills over to a behavioral response, specifically the purchase intention for the focal product. If a neutral, less eye-catching design leads to a lower level of perceived embarrassment, people should intuitively opt for a less eye-catching product, provided that they have suitable alternatives, in order to avoid other customer’s or the cashier’s attention during the purchase experience. This reasoning results in the following assumption:

H2: The purchase intentions for eye-catching embarrassing products will be lower

than for embarrassing products with a less eye-catching design.

Communication. The product design is used as a mean to communicate with the customer (Nussbaum, 1993), more specifically to transmit positive aesthetic, experiential, functional, symbolic and/or informational benefits (Underwood & Ozanne, 1998). One of these functions needs to be emphasized in particular at this point, namely the connection between product design and usage experience associated to the product. Previous research found that a specific design might be necessary to induce a particular meaning, which supports the purpose of the product (Bloch, 1995). To illustrate this, the example of condoms can be taken, which are used for excitement and pleasure. To transfer these attributes, a vivid product design is required. This setting of expectations connected to the usage might also be a factor that influences purchase intention and represents a critical aspect with regard to the mentioned relationship between salience of a product and purchase intention for embarrassing products. Therefore, it is essential to categorize embarrassing products with regard to the importance of the explained effect.

distinction is not limited to the product level. Thus, products can have both, utilitarian and hedonic characteristics (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000) However, for the sake of simplicity I will examine these two characteristics at the abstract level, meaning categorizing the products as either one of them.In a broad sense, utilitarian goods are primarily instrumental, practical and functional, while hedonic products relate to more experiential consumption, fun, pleasure, and excitement (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000).

Relating the product purposes to the function of communication of the product design, aesthetics and the transmission of experiential benefits particularly matter for hedonic products (Okada, 2005). These findings lead to following predictions: On the one hand, a hedonic embarrassing product like condoms that is used for excitement requires a vivid and salient product design. On the other hand, a utilitarian embarrassing product like anti-diarrhea medicine should be kept basic and simple to indicate functionality.

Hence, it is assumed that product categories moderate the effect of salience of product packaging on consumer responses. Following from these aspects, this research examines whether the effect of salience on purchase intention varies across different product categories and expects that

H3: The effect of an eye-catching product design on purchase intention in the

context of embarrassing products is stronger for utilitarian products than for hedonic products.

Conceptual Model

FIGURE 1: A MODEL OF CONSUMER RESPONSES TO THE DESIGN OF AN EMBARRASSING PRODUCT

Limitation of product design characteristics for this research

The physical form of a product entails numerous design elements such as shape, scale, material, color, reflectiveness, and texture (Kellaris & Kent, 1993). Ampuero and Vila (2006) divided those in two components: graphic components including color, typography and images, or structural components including shape, size, and materials. This research focuses on the graphic elements, due to the reason that those have been demonstrated to capture consumers’ consciousness and attention more quickly (Underwood et al., 2001; Tutssel, 2000), since they are faster and easier for consumers to process (Silayoi & Speece, 2007). In line with the idiom “what you see

is what you get” previous research has particularly highlighted two elements to be the

driving forces in capturing people’s attention: color (Labrecque & Milne, 2010; Baik, Suk, Lee & Choi, 2013) and visual imagery (Underwood et al., 2001).

communicating specific meanings of the product. With regard to the hedonic products, Labrecque and Milne (2010) revealed that especially the colors red and orange transfer arousing, exciting and stimulating feelings.

The second important element chosen to characterize the salience of product design, represents visual imagery on the product. Mostly, the usage situation or the affected component is displayed. Empirical results from a virtual reality simulation showed that package pictures increase consumers’ attention to the brand (Underwood et al., 2001). An explanation for this effect might be the so-called figure-ground principle, which states that figural stimuli become more focal than non-figural (Fennis & Stroebe, 2016). Moreover, there is evidence that picturing the product or its usage situation facilitates activation of the product concept in memory during exposure (Shapiro, 1999).

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The primary goal of the study was to show that consumer responses to embarrassing products vary with different product designs and product categories. The first analyzed consumer response, was anticipated embarrassment. Following hypothesis 1, I predicted that consumers would perceive an eye-catching product design as more embarrassing than a neutral design. Moreover, I assumed that an eye-catching design would have the opposite effect on purchase intention in the context of embarrassing products, since people would tend to buy a neutral design not to catch other people’s attention. Furthermore, I expected a varying effect of product design on purchase intention for different product categories.

Pretest

In order to determine a suitable product for the study that is clearly classified as either utilitarian or hedonic and provokes strong feelings of embarrassment, I conducted a pretest with a separate participant group. Twenty participants were provided with a set of pictures of eight embarrassing products, which were retrieved from previous research and consumer surveys: anti-fungal medicine, lice shampoo, hemorrhoidal cream, anti-diarrhea medication, condoms, lubricant, massage oil and a romance novel. Participants were asked to categorize the shown products as either utilitarian or hedonic. I also included a note with a short explanation of both categories for those who were not familiar with the terms. Furthermore, the participants were requested to rank the resulting set of products per product category with regard to their perceived embarrassment when they would have to buy them in a store (most embarrassing product first, then sorted downward).

regarding it from the protection view, but on the other hand can be seen as enjoyable and exciting when connecting it to the sexual experience it is made for.

Product Category: Utilitarian Products Category: Hedonic Products

1 Anti-Fungal Medicine 100% - 2 Lice Shampoo 100% - 3 Hemorrhoidal Cream 100% - 4 Anti-Diarrhea Medication 100% - 5 Condoms 35% 65% 6 Massage Oil 10% 90% 7 Lubricant 5% 95%

8 Romance novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” - 100%

TABLE 1: ALLOCATION OF PRODUCTS TO THE CATEGORIES UTILITARIAN VS. HEDONIC

Moreover, figure 2 and 3 show the ratings for the most embarrassing products per product category. 60 % of the participants rated the hemorrhoidal cream to be the most embarrassing utilitarian product to purchase in a store. For the hedonic products 65 % of the respondents rated the lubricant as most embarrassing.

FIGURE 2: FIRST RANK RATINGS FIGURE 3: FIRST RANK RATINGS

UTILITARIAN PRODUCTS HEDONIC PRODUCTS

Participants and Design

A total of one hundred and eighteen English-speaking people, approached via social media or at the campus of the University of Groningen, participated voluntarily in the experimental survey conducted with Qualtrics. The full survey can be found in the appendix. Twelve participants did not finish the survey, thus their responses were not included in the analysis. Nevertheless, it was noticeable that nine of these participants ended the survey when the product was introduced representing the focus of the following questions. This seems to imply that the product and questions related to it represented a topic, which was perceived as unpleasant and personal.

The dataset consists of 41 male (38,7 %) and 65 female (61,3 %) respondents, with an average age of 25 (M= 24,91, SD = 4,73). Participants were randomly assigned to one condition in a 2 (product design: neutral vs. eye-catching) x 2 (product category: utilitarian vs. hedonic) factorial between-subject design.

Procedure

The participants were asked to take part in an online survey with the cover story to get helpful insights for the development of a new product’s design. Each participant was randomly allocated to one of the four conditions. At the beginning of the survey, the participants were instructed to imagine the scenario that they urgently have to buy the respective product, which was either a hemorrhoidal cream or a lubricant. The instruction also included a story of visiting a local store in order to make the imagination of the experience more vivid.

Independent variable. The product design was manipulated through four different

Condition 1: Utilitarian product, neutral design Condition 2: Utilitarian product, eye-catching design

Condition 3: Hedonic product, neutral design Condition 4: Hedonic product, eye-catching design FIGURE 3: MANIPULATION OF PRODUCT DESIGN FOR THE STUDY

Dependent variables. Afterwards the participants were asked to answer several

questions with regard to the shown product. This part started with the measurement of the first dependent variable, namely anticipated embarrassment when purchasing this specific product. The variable was measured using a scale that draws from previous research (Blair & Roese, 2013; Dahl et al., 2001). Participants were asked how embarrassed / comfortable / awkward (1 = Not at all, 7 = Extremely) they would feel purchasing this product (M = 13.64, SD = 5.06, α = .92). Subsequently, the second dependent variable purchase intention was measured. Respondents were asked to indicate their likelihood to buy the shown product based on the visual appearance and displayed information on a 7-point scale (1 = Very unlikely, 7 = Very likely).

Additional measurements. Furthermore attention was measured, which was

indicated their opinion about how much attention other people would pay to the product in question during the purchase situation (M = 7.91, SD = 3.35, α = .84).

Before the collection of demographic information, I conducted a manipulation check to verify that the eye-catching product design was also perceived as those and respectively the neutral design. If people perceived the manipulation of the products differently then indented, the results would be biased. Hence, respondents had to indicate their perceptions about the salience of the chosen product dimensions color and imagery on a 7-point scale (1 = Not noticeable/eye-catching at all, 7 = Very noticeable/eye-catching).

Analysis Plan

In order to analyze the hypotheses SPSS has been applied. First, the manipulation check was conducted using a multivariate ANOVA with the product design as independent variable and both, the color perceptions as well as the perceptions regarding the salience of the picture, as dependent variables.

The first hypothesis was tested by means of an ANOVA with product design as independent variable and anticipated embarrassment as dependent variable. Furthermore, research suggested two variables that might influence embarrassment: gender (Krishna et al., 2015) and purchase familiarity (Dahl, Manchanda & Argo, 2001). Therefore, they were included in the analysis as control variables. Given that gender is a nominal variable and embarrassment is interval, an independent samples t-test was conducted. To t-test for the influence of purchase familiarity, the variable was included as covariate in an ANCOVA.

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Manipulation Check

In order to test whether the product dimensions color and imagery were perceived different for the manipulated product designs, I performed a MANOVA. This test was significant (F(2, 212) = 112.39, p < .001), showing that both, the eye-catching product design (F(1, 104) = 197.92, p < .001) as well as the neutral product design (F(1, 104) = 134.81, p < .001) were also perceived as those.

Main Analysis

Embarrassment. The predicted main effects of product design (eye-catching vs. not

eye-catching) on the dependent variables anticipated embarrassment was tested by means of an ANOVA. Consistent with the predictions, results showed a significant effect (F(1, 104) = 34.92, p < .001). As illustrated in Figure 4 this means that respondents anticipated a higher level of embarrassment when the product design was salient (M = 5.33, SD = 1.35) compared to a neutral design (M = 3.64, SD = 1.59).

In order to analyze whether the average anticipated embarrassment of men differs from the average anticipated embarrassment of women I executed an independent samples t-test with the variables gender and embarrassment. Results showed no significance (t(104) = -1.20, p = 0.234). Hence, the average anticipated embarrassment of men (M = 4.3, SD = 1.86) did not differ from those of women (M = 4.7, SD = 1.56). The influence of purchase familiarity on embarrassment was tested with a regression analysis. The analysis did not chance the significance of the main effect (R2 = 0.291, F(1,103) = 36.593, p < .001). Hence, the purchase familiarity did not have an influence on anticipated embarrassment in this study.

Purchase intention. The second investigated main effect of the relationship

However, in order to interpret this result, we have to take a look on the moderating effect.

FIGURE 4: THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT DESIGN FIGURE 5: THE IMPACT OF PRODUCT DESIGN ON ANTICIPATED EMBARRASSMENT ON PURCHASE INTENTION

Moderation of product categories. The missing confirmation of hypothesis 2 might

FIGURE 6: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF PRODUCT CATEGORY

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Embarrassment has been defined as emotion resulting from a failure in everyday social situations (Goffman, 1956). Due to its rather unpleasant and undesirable effects, people attempt to avoid embarrassing situations by consciously modifying their behavior (Goffmann, 1956). Previous research discovered that this behavior modification could also be found in the context of consumer behavior, since consumers engage in numerous strategies to prevent a situation that might elicit embarrassment. These strategies share one similarity: customers try to make the embarrassing product less salient to the attention of other people like other customers or the cashier. This thesis suggests that the product itself represents an element that determines the salience. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the product design influences consumer responses in terms of anticipated embarrassment and purchase intentions. Furthermore, it should examine whether the latter effect holds for different product categories.

Main findings

Results revealed that the product design affects anticipated embarrassment in a way that an eye-catching design leads to a higher level of embarrassment compared to a neutral design. This is in line with the predictions, as people aim to lure attention away from the embarrassing product, but an eye-catching product presents a higher threat that other people would notice the product during the purchasing process. Furthermore, this is consistent with the finding of Blair & Roese (2013), who stated that embarrassment already occurs when a threat is perceived.

However, results showed that the assumption about purchase intention does not always hold, since the relationship between product design and purchase intention is moderated by the product category. For utilitarian products the purchase intention was significantly higher whenever the product design was less eye-catching. In the case of lubricant representing hedonic products, consumers responses were not that clear. Purchase intentions flipped for this product category, meaning that they were higher for the eye-catching version of the lubricant than for the neutral version. Nevertheless, analysis did not reveal a significant effect for this product category, which means that the purchase intentions did not differ significantly between the two different designs.

Implications

Theoretical contribution. The results of this research contribute to the findings

about irrational and unpredictable behavior in the context of embarrassing products. When it comes to the mechanism of embarrassment, attention can be seen as one of the major influencers, which is captured by the product itself, more precisely its physical form. This research is among the first to date that investigated product design as an antecedent for consumer responses in the context of embarrassing products. Furthermore, it showed that the effect of purchase intentions varies across different product categories, which has not been examined separately before. This is especially important in order to understand how product design effects the focal emotion and subsequent decision-making.

Practical contribution. It is crucial for marketers to recognize consumer responses

but also lead to lower purchase intentions compared to a neutral version. For those brands it is worth to investigate the impact of product design separately from other product attributes and to consider adjusting their design.

An important function of the product design is transferring an imagination of the usage experience, especially for those products made for pleasure and excitement. Although salience increases embarrassment, it seems to play an important role for purchase intentions for hedonic products, since the effect on embarrassment did not spill over to the purchase intentions. Those were still higher for the eye-catching lubricant than for the lubricant with a neutral design. However, results revealed that the purchase intentions did not differ significantly. This could imply that brands with different variants for the same product could vary their product designs in order to offer both alternatives for customers and not to loose customers to competitors, when salience represents the crucial factor for the purchase decision. The well-known brand for lubricants Durex seems to adapt this approach. They currently launched the lubricant Durex Naturel, which is more neutrally designed than the rest of their assortment.

In order to decrease embarrassment for eye-catching hedonic products marketers should seek for other drivers than product design, for example the store layout. Embarrassing products could be placed close to the checkout in order to avoid carrying the products through the aisles and risking the attention of other customers. Furthermore, self-checkout systems could minimize social interaction.

Limitations and further research

Although this study is subject to some limitations, it also highlights many ideas for further research. First, the study was conducted in a non-laboratory setting with the focal manipulated stimulus. This requires some imagination from the participants. However, it has been shown, that also noninteractive social presence influences people’s emotions (Argo, Dahl & Manchanda, 2005; Dahl, Manchanda & Argo, 2001), it would be interesting to investigate if the effects also hold in the field surrounded by real people and other products as comparison.

product purchase decisions at the point of purchase (Rosenfeld, 1987; Prone, 1993). However, attributes such as the brand or price might still exert a higher influence on purchase intentions. Therefore, further research could test the importance of the product design compared to other product attributes in the context of embarrassing products.

Finally, there is an increased tendency to buy embarrassing products online in a private environment, since it allows for privacy (Krishna et al. 2015). There, the product design might have a different effect, because people are not seen during purchase. Hence, research could replicate the survey indicating that the products are bought in an online shop instead of a physical retail store.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the product design was found to represent an antecedent of consumer responses in the context of embarrassing products. A neutral product design leads to a lower anticipated embarrassment on the one hand, and higher purchase intentions on the other hand. However, the latter relation is more complex than it seems, since it is moderated by product categories. These findings indicate numerous opportunities for marketers to help consumers overcoming their hesitations in the context of embarrassing purchases.

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Welcome

Dear participant,

thank you for taking part in this survey. The research will be used for a project aimed at developing a new product as part of my Master Thesis at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen.

All responses are anonymous and will be treated confidentially! No interferences with your identity can be made.

Thank you for your time and best regards,

Galina

Instruction

Please imagine the following scenario:

You urgently have to purchase a Hemorrhoidal Cream (Deutsch:

Hämorrhoidensalbe). Therefore you visit a local store. You choose the product from the shelf, walk to the checkout and pay at the cashier.

You find the product shown on the picture below as part of the assortment.

Note: This product will be the foundation of the following questions. Please try to keep it in your mind.

Product Picture

How would you feel purchasing this specific product described by the following adjectives?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = not at all" to "7 = extremely".

embarrassed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

awkward 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Based on its visual appearance and the displayed information, how likely is it that you would purchase the product shown?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = very unlikely" to "7 = very likely".

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

How likely is the shown product going to capture your attention in the shelf amongst other products you have in mind when thinking about this product category?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = very unlikely" to "7 = very likely".

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

In your opinion, how much attention would other people (e.g. other customers or the cashier) pay to the shown product during your buying process?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = very little" to "7 = very much".

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Do you mind if other people pay attention to this product during your buying process?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = very little" to "7 = very much".

How noticeable/eye-catching did you perceive the following dimensions of the product?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = not noticeable/eye-catching at all" to "7 = extremely noticeable/eye-catching".

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

How familiar are you with purchasing Hemorrhoidal Cream?

Please answer the question on a scale from "1 = not familiar at all" to "7 = very familiar".

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

General Questions