KPR Insight Tree Analyzes 530,000 Big Data Points
Mentions of ‘Design & Interior’ Up as Much as 104% Year-on-Year
A survey has found that when purchasing home appliances, consumers place greater importance on ‘design’ and ‘interior’ than on price and benefits.
KPR Insight Tree, a big-data content subscription platform, recently analyzed 530,000 big data points related to consumers’ home appliance purchasing factors and found that the growth rate of terms associated with the ‘design and interior’ category rose by as much as 104% compared with last year.
Among the key terms associated with ‘design and interior,’ ‘volume’ posted the highest growth rate at about 104% (57,581 to 117,363 mentions), followed by ‘compact’ at about 98% (68,922 to 136,883 mentions) and ‘interior’ at about 37% (44,883 to 61,856 mentions). By contrast, for terms associated with ‘price and benefits,’ ‘amount’ grew by about 46% (76,168 to 111,410 mentions) and ‘price’ by about 43% (123,575 to 177,206 mentions), while ‘benefit’ was the lowest at –55% (92,275 to 41,327 mentions).
The KPR Digital Communication Institute, an affiliate of the integrated communications group KPR (President Kim Joo-ho), explained that this reflects how the meaning of home appliances and the main factors behind their purchase have changed as technology has advanced. As personalized lifestyles have become widespread amid the rise in 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 the key factors influencing home appliance purchases: △appliance designs that reflect personal taste △appliances incorporating the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), and △features tailored to single-person households.
Additional research showed that as household compositions shift toward nuclear and single-person households, the roles, functions, and designs of home appliances have changed. For example, TVs that the whole family once watched together in the living room have evolved into personal TVs that can be enjoyed in one’s own space, and new products featuring mobility, compact size, and smartphone mirroring functions are gaining popularity.
In addition, consumers are increasingly recognizing home appliances as a new means of self-expression. As designs shift from uniform, all-in-one styles to personalized ones, appliances are being seen as distinctive interior items. Indeed, design elements have become important enough to spread new coinages such as ‘gajeon-terior’ (appliance + interior) and ‘color-terior’ (color + interior).
Kim Eun-yong, head of the KPR Digital Communication 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.”