KPR Insight Tree Analyzes 530,000 Big Data Records
Mentions of ‘Design & Interior’ Up as Much as 104% Year-on-Year
When buying home appliances, consumers place greater importance on ‘design’ and ‘interior’ than on price or benefits, a survey has found.
KPR Insight Tree, a big-data content subscription platform, recently analyzed 530,000 big-data records related to consumers’ home appliance purchasing factors and found that the growth rate of terms associated with the ‘design and interior’ category rose by up to 104% compared with a year earlier.
Among the main terms associated with ‘design and interior,’ ‘volume’ showed the highest growth at about 104% (57,581 → 117,363 cases), followed by ‘compact’ at about 98% (68,922 → 136,883 cases) and ‘interior’ at about 37% (44,883 → 61,856 cases). By contrast, among terms associated with ‘price and benefits,’ ‘amount’ grew about 46% (76,168 → 111,410 cases) and ‘price’ about 43% (123,575 → 177,206 cases), while ‘benefit’ posted the lowest figure at –55% (92,275 → 41,327 cases).
The KPR Digital Communication Research Institute, an affiliate of the integrated communications group KPR (President Kim Joo-ho), explained that the meaning of home appliances and the key factors behind their purchase have changed as technology has advanced. As personalized lifestyles have become more common with the rise of single-person households, home appliances now go beyond simply improving efficiency to offer consumers special experiences through specialized functions and design.
Meanwhile, KPR Insight Tree cited the following as major factors influencing home appliance purchases: △appliance designs that reflect individual tastes, △appliances that incorporate the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), and △features tailored to single-person households.
According to additional research, the role, functions, and design of home appliances have changed as household composition has shifted toward nuclear families and single-person households. For example, the TV that the whole family once watched together in the living room has become a personal TV to be enjoyed in one’s own space, and new products equipped with features such as mobility, a compact size, and smartphone mirroring are gaining popularity.
On top of that, consumers now perceive home appliances as a new means of self-expression. As designs have shifted from all-in-one to personalized ones, appliances are increasingly regarded as special interior items. Design elements have become so important that they have even spawned new coined terms such as ‘applianceterior’ (appliance + interior) and ‘colorterior’ (color + interior).
Kim Eun-yong, head of the KPR Digital Communication Research Institute, said, “As consumers’ lifestyles change, the criteria for choosing home appliances are changing as well,” adding, “In home appliance marketing, not only price and benefits but also a product’s design and technological elements will serve as important deciding factors.”
▲ Analysis of the rate of change in mentions by home appliance purchasing factor