Art or Design: Art Infusion in Product Design

Abstract: In this paper, we seek to reach further insights into the concept known as art infusion. More specifically, we seek to study whether the framing of a product's design as art in advertising will affect consumers' perception and evaluation of that product. In order to study this effect, we have carried out an experiment in which 259 students at Stockholm University and the Stockholm School of Economics participated in surveys distributed in person. Our manipulation group was shown an advert in which the product was framed as 'art', while the control group was shown an advert in which the product was framed as 'design'. We used five different product categories in our adverts, as this gave us a more representative range of consumer products while also allowing us to study specific product categories. We found a significant correlation between the artistic qualities perceived in a product and the overall evaluation of said product. In fact, perceived artistic qualities also correlated with perceived product quality and luxuriousness, as well as with evaluations of the advert and of the store featured in the advert. This correlation was visible in all product categories. Furthermore, we observed significant differences between our manipulation group and control group in two of our five product categories, pertaining mainly to the overall evaluation of the product. As such, we could conclude that for certain types of products, framing a product's design as a work of art might increase consumers' overall evaluation of the product in question.