The Examination of the Effect of Visual Product Aesthetics on Internal Reference Prices*

Abstract

Nowadays, changing consumer demands makes managers find new strategies to draw consumers’ attention. Product and service differentiation via aesthetics is an effective way to be successful in competition. In today’s world, the factor of visual aesthetics creates value for consumers. Therefore visual product aesthetics affects consumers’ willingness to pay. In this context visual product aesthetics is a significant factor that affects internal reference price and the consumers’ price thresholds. However, there is a lack of literature on the relationship between visual product aesthetics and price thresholds. This study aims to investigate the relationship between visual aesthetics of products and consumers’ internal reference prices. Willing to pay the highest price, lowest price and reasonable price are considered as internal reference prices. Convenience sampling was employed. The data of the study is collected via a survey form from 1000 respondents from Eskisehir, Turkey. Regression analysis was employed to test the research model. The results revealed that visual aesthetics of products affects internal reference prices.