Purpose

Focusing on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are characterized by resource restrictions, this paper aims to explore consumer segment profiles by considering demographic, personality and creativity traits to determine whether consumers with different profiles exhibit distinct affective reactions to different logo design types (organic, cultural and abstract).

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory study incorporates recent methodological developments, such as the novel response style correction method, to account for response style effects in evaluations of affect toward logo design. In separate analyses, respondents are segmented according to response style–corrected logo affect and personality and creativity items. The segmentation analysis relies on reduced k-means, a joint dimension and cluster analysis method, which accounts for dependencies between items while maximizing between-cluster variability. A total of 866 respondents from the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal: n = 543; Spain: n = 323) participated.

Findings

Based on a study using unknown logos (proxy for lower levels of budget communication, characteristics of SMEs), results reveal that there are three segments of consumers based on their affective response toward logo design: logo design insensitives, cultural logo dislikers and organic logo lovers. These segments are associated with different personality traits, creativity and biological sex (although biological sex is not a discriminant variable).

Research limitations/implications

The decision not to control logos by color, to increase external validity, could limit the study’s internal validity if this aspect interacts with relevant study variables. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence can be used to further test associations between consumer profiles and responses to logo design.

Practical implications

Findings highlight the relevance of considering complex profile segments, combining demographics, psychographics and creativity to predict affective consumer responses to brand logo design. This research provides guidelines for SMEs when choosing or modifying their logo design to appeal to different consumer segments.

Originality/value

This study provides managers of SMEs (less present nowadays in empirical studies) with evidence suggesting that complex customer profiles help to understand differences in affective responses to natural logo designs. Furthermore, it relies on the use of a novel methodological development that improves the accuracy of the exploratory study developed.

中文翻译：

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探索标志设计中对自然性的情感反应所定义的消费者群体

目的

本文针对资源受限的中小企业（SME），旨在通过考虑人口、个性和创造力特征来探索消费者细分档案，以确定不同档案的消费者是否对不同标志表现出不同的情感反应设计类型（有机、文化和抽象）。

设计/方法论/途径

这项探索性研究结合了最新的方法论发展，例如新颖的响应风格校正方法，以在标志设计影响评估中考虑响应风格的影响。在单独的分析中，受访者根据响应风格（修正后的徽标影响以及个性和创造力项目）进行细分。分段分析依赖于简化的 k 均值（一种联合维度和聚类分析方法），该方法考虑了项目之间的依赖性，同时最大化聚类间的变异性。来自伊比利亚半岛的总共 866 名受访者（葡萄牙：n = 543；西班牙：n = 323）参与了调查。

发现

基于使用未知徽标（代表预算沟通水平较低、中小企业特征）的研究，结果表明，根据对徽标设计的情感反应，消费者分为三部分：徽标设计不敏感、不喜欢文化徽标和有机徽标爱好者。这些细分与不同的人格特征、创造力和生物性别相关（尽管生物性别不是判别变量）。

研究局限性/影响

如果这一方面与相关研究变量相互作用，则决定不通过颜色控制徽标以提高外部有效性，可能会限制研究的内部有效性。尽管如此，经验证据可用于进一步测试消费者概况和对标志设计的反应之间的关联。

实际影响

研究结果强调了考虑复杂的个人资料细分、结合人口统计、心理统计和创造力来预测消费者对品牌标志设计的情感反应的相关性。这项研究为中小企业选择或修改其标志设计以吸引不同的消费者群体提供了指导。

原创性/价值

这项研究为中小型企业的管理者（如今在实证研究中较少出现）提供了证据，表明复杂的客户档案有助于理解对自然标志设计的情感反应的差异。此外，它依赖于使用新颖的方法开发来提高所开发的探索性研究的准确性。