Kelley School of Business

Kelley School of Business faculty members possess a keen business acumen, offering a fresh approach and sharp perspective on contemporary issues. Our students benefit from the practical experience that our professors have gained in their careers and can see the real-world applications in their lessons.

Kelley faculty are also prolific producers of business research, offering new knowledge in all areas of business.

Get the latest news—including faculty research insights like those featured above—delivered right to your inbox when you subscribe to our blog.

Kelley marketing professor Krista Li talks about her research on product design and marketing.

WEBVTT 00:01.170 --> 00:03.753 (upbeat music) 00:08.110 --> 00:11.100 - Imagine that you're going to buy a car for yourself. 00:11.100 --> 00:13.300 The exterior style and design of cars 00:13.300 --> 00:16.210 is a very important factor that affects your decision. 00:21.480 --> 00:24.210 Design is not only important for cars, 00:24.210 --> 00:25.940 it is also important for products 00:25.940 --> 00:27.700 in a wide range of industries, 00:27.700 --> 00:31.530 such as handbags, watches, consumer electronics. 00:31.530 --> 00:34.070 Despite the importance of a product design, 00:34.070 --> 00:36.820 there has been very limited research about product design 00:36.820 --> 00:38.320 in the marketing literature. 00:38.320 --> 00:40.400 The main challenge for studying design 00:40.400 --> 00:43.010 is that the exterior design of a product 00:43.010 --> 00:45.590 is very difficult to measure and quantify. 00:45.590 --> 00:47.940 Without objective measures of a design, 00:47.940 --> 00:50.830 it is difficult to analyze the impact of a design 00:50.830 --> 00:53.520 on consumer choices and marketing outcomes. 00:56.550 --> 00:57.890 Along with my co-authors, 00:57.890 --> 01:00.710 Yan Liu, Allan Chen, and Bala Balachander, 01:00.710 --> 01:02.970 we use image processing software 01:02.970 --> 01:05.270 to analyze thousands of picture for cars 01:05.270 --> 01:08.720 for all cars sold in the US market over eight year period. 01:08.720 --> 01:11.660 We measure how much each car looks different 01:11.660 --> 01:14.240 from the average look of a segment, 01:14.240 --> 01:16.130 and how much each car looks consistent 01:16.130 --> 01:18.320 with the average look in its brand. 01:22.920 --> 01:25.800 Consumers like cars that look moderately different 01:25.800 --> 01:27.800 from their category and from their brand. 01:27.800 --> 01:30.280 Consumers are more price sensitive when they think 01:30.280 --> 01:32.620 about buying cars that look very typical. 01:32.620 --> 01:35.620 Economy cars benefit from imitating the design 01:35.620 --> 01:37.140 of luxury cars. 01:37.140 --> 01:39.960 Advertisement is more effective if it features 01:39.960 --> 01:42.770 cars that look more consistent with its brand. 01:42.770 --> 01:45.090 All this findings will be very useful 01:45.090 --> 01:48.050 for brands to make optimal design, pricing, 01:48.050 --> 01:49.690 and advertising decisions. 01:49.690 --> 01:51.930 If you'd like to hear more about this research, 01:51.930 --> 01:54.790 I invite you to read our paper in the forthcoming issue 01:54.790 --> 01:56.240 of the Journal for Marketing.

IU Kelley School of Business Assistant Professor of Operations Management Amrou Awaysheh works with manufacturing facilities to save millions in energy costs. Read the story.

This bimonthly journal publishes original articles on a wide range of timely topics, prompting new and innovative thoughts on business.

#1 Faculty ResearchKelley Direct Online MBA, Financial Times, 2021