Aww! it’s Cute: how do consumers perceive Cuteness

Abstract

A consumer is a person who purchases a product or service for fulfilling his needs. It is the consumer’s mind that makes the purchase decision. The perceived value that the consumer attaches to the product or service is extremely critical for the brand as it what that finally builds on to become the critical factor to access brand equity. In today’s modern world it is very much essential for a brand and its products to be considered as cool or cute so as to increase its value amongst the Gen X, Gen Y masses. It is through this perceived value that the brand can attain the connect with the masses who are not just their customer but also the brand custodian for the future era . Brand image is extremely essential for the sustenance of a brand and its products as it provides differentiation, premium pricing ,positive word of mouth, it is the responsibility of a company to ensure the image remains relevant with the consumers, through its products, promotion, place and price as today’s generation wants everything to be cool or cute, thereby ensuring brand recall for the company. Thus firms are spending heavily on the practice of cool and cute hunting, hiring experts to identify emerging trends among the youth predicted to become more widely accepted in the near future. In general the words are heavily used by marketing and advertising planners for whom the words describes a greater phenomenon. Recently the words are widely used in brands, advertisements, web pages, song lyrics, t-shirts, book titles and business documents in order to impart the perceived quality that the consumer can connect to easily. Even after the great progress in the academic understanding of the meaning and origin of these words- cute and cool, the existing literature in consumer research regarding cute is still at its formative stage.