How designers and buyers evaluate products

This article reports a research project in which industrial buyers and designers were asked to make market value estimations on various product configurations. The product variations tested were on a class of variables defined as "emotive" characteristics (e.g., size, color, and texture). Recent literature in industrial buying and physchology was used to operationalize the construct of emotive product characteristics for industrial products. The responses to such emotive characteristics were experimentally measured within a representative sample of industrial buying centers. A total of 51 buyers and designers participated via on-site visits. Significant role-based differences were found, and the implications of these differences are discussed.