Consumer identity significantly impacts adoption of sustainable product-service systems

Why It Matters

Understanding the role of consumer identity is crucial for designing and marketing sustainable solutions. Designers must consider how PSSs can accommodate or reframe existing identity affiliations to encourage uptake, rather than assuming a purely rational or environmental motivation.

Key Finding

Consumers' strong sense of self and community derived from owning iconic products can create resistance to product-service systems that offer access rather than ownership.

Key Findings

• Iconic product ownership, like Harley Davidson motorcycles, fosters strong emotional attachment, brand community identification, and self-definition through customization.
• Users of access-based PSSs, such as Zipcar, often view them as temporary solutions and may resist brand community involvement, sometimes expressing negative sentiments towards shared use.

Research Evidence

Aim: How does consumer identity, particularly in relation to product ownership, influence the adoption of product-service systems (PSSs) as sustainable consumption solutions?

Method: Ethnographic analysis and comparative case study

Procedure: The research involved in-depth ethnographic analysis of two contrasting consumption models: Harley Davidson motorcycle ownership and Zipcar car-sharing. This included examining the sociocultural, symbolic, and ideological aspects of each, with a focus on the role of product ownership in consumer identity formation and brand community engagement.

Context: Consumer markets, sustainable consumption, product-service systems

Design Principle

Design sustainable product-service systems that acknowledge and integrate consumer identity and emotional attachment to products, rather than solely promoting access over ownership.

How to Apply

When designing a new product-service system, conduct research into the target audience's existing relationships with products and brands to understand how ownership contributes to their identity. Then, develop PSS offerings that either leverage these existing connections or provide compelling new avenues for self-expression and community.

Limitations

The study focuses on specific, potentially extreme, examples of ownership (iconic brands) and PSS use, which may not represent all consumer segments or product categories.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: People really like owning things, especially cool stuff like Harley bikes, because it helps them feel like themselves and be part of a group. This makes it hard to get them to use services where they just borrow things, even if it's better for the planet.

Why This Matters: Understanding why people are attached to owning things helps you design products or services that people will actually want to use and adopt, especially if you're trying to make something more sustainable.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can product-service systems be designed to fulfill the identity-related needs that consumers currently satisfy through product ownership?

IA-Ready Paragraph: Research indicates that consumer identity, deeply intertwined with product ownership and brand affiliation, presents a significant challenge for the widespread adoption of product-service systems (PSSs). Studies comparing ownership models (e.g., iconic brands) with access-based PSSs reveal that strong emotional attachments and the ability to express individuality through customization can create resistance to services that prioritize access over ownership. Therefore, successful PSS design requires addressing these psychological and symbolic dimensions to align with or reframe consumer identities.

Project Tips

• When researching a new product or service, ask users not just what they need, but how owning certain items makes them feel and who they feel they are when they own them.
• Consider if your design project could offer a service that still allows for personalization or a sense of belonging, even if it's not traditional ownership.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the challenges of introducing new consumption models, particularly those that shift from ownership to access, and how user identity can be a barrier or facilitator.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding that user adoption is not solely based on functionality or environmental benefit, but also on deep-seated psychological and social factors related to identity.

Independent Variable: Type of consumption model (ownership vs. access-based PSS)

Dependent Variable: Consumer adoption and engagement with the consumption model

Controlled Variables: Product category (motorcycles, cars), brand iconic status, consumer demographics (implicitly)

Strengths

• Provides a nuanced understanding of user motivation beyond rational choice.
• Uses rich qualitative data from ethnographic studies.

Critical Questions

• How can PSS designers actively foster a sense of belonging or identity for users within their service model?
• Are there specific types of PSSs or product categories where ownership identity is less of a barrier?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate the potential for a PSS that offers a high degree of personalization or community building to overcome identity barriers, perhaps for a specific user group or product.

Source

Product Service Systems Users and Harley Davidson Riders: The Importance of Consumer Identity in the Diffusion of Sustainable Consumption Solutions · Journal of Industrial Ecology · 2016 · 10.1111/jiec.12518