People and Products: Consumer Behavior and Product Design

By examining the interface between consumer behavior and new product development, People and Products: Consumer Behavior and Product Design demonstrates the ways in which consumers contribute to product design, enhance product utility, and determine brand identity. With increased connectedness and advances in technology, consumers and marketers are more closely connected than ever before. Yet consumer behavior texts often overlook the application of the subject to product design, testing, and success. This is the first book to explore this interface in detail, exploring such issues as: the attributes and qualities that consumers demand from products and services, and social and cultural forces to be aware of; design and form and how they facilitate product usage; technological developments and the ways they have changed how consumers interact with products; product disposal and sustainability; emerging and future trends in consumer behavior and product development and design. This exciting volume is relevant to anyone interested in marketing, consumer behavior, product development, technology, engineering, design, and brand management.

About the Author

Allan J. Kimmel is Professor of Marketing at ESCP Europe in Paris, France. He holds MA and PhD degrees in social psychology from Temple University, USA. He has published extensively in the fields of consumer behavior and marketing, including articles in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Psychology & Marketing , Business Horizons , Journal of Marketing Communications , and European Advances in Consumer Research .