Why do people become attached to a bag?

02 April 2007 by M&C

How can a designer increase the degree to which people bond with a product? This is the question researcher Ruth Mugge tackled. She will receive her PhD degree on it at Delft University of Technology on Tuesday April 3.

During her doctoral research Ruth Mugge investigated the topic of product bonding – the strength of the emotional attachment of a consumer to a specific product. Mugge’s underlying idea was that if people feel strongly attached to a product, they will be less likely to discard it (which her research confirmed). The lifespan of the product therefore increases, which has positive environmental effects.
Mugge distinguishes four factors influencing product bonding: self-expression (can I distinguish myself with a product?), group affinity (does ownership of a product connect me to a group?), memories (related to the product) and pleasure (provided by the product). 
Mugge focused particularly on the issue of self-expression. One of her important conclusions in this regard is that consumers bond more strongly with products which have a ‘personality’ agreeing with their own personality (e.g. extrovert or introvert). However, feeling attached to a product with an equivalent personality does not necessarily lead to a long-term relationship with such a product, because fashion changes influence the relationship between product attachment and product lifespan.   Mugge also investigated the self-expression factor by determining the influence of product personalisation on the degree of product attachment. Product personalisation is the degree to which the consumer can exercise influence over the product. By personalising a product (for example, by painting it), an individual invests effort in the product and is able to use it to express his or her identity. Self-expression in turn has a positive effect on the degree of attachment to a product. For designers who wish to extend a product’s lifespan it is thus a good strategy to incorporate the possibility of personalisation. Mugge offers the example of Swiss company Freitag, where customers can buy bags made of recycled printed canvas from trucks via the Internet. On the website customers can assemble their own bag by ‘reserving’ individual pieces of canvas and positioning them in a specific place on their bag. Each bag is thus absolutely guaranteed to be unique. 
Mugge notes that this Swiss firm’s website is one of the few examples of the opportunity to personalise a product being applied well. There is certainly some interest in product bonding from the designer world, but in practice the Delft researcher says not much has been done about it. And relatively little scientific research has been conducted into product bonding.

Note for editors:
Further information:
Ruth Mugge: tel. 015-278 3801; e-mail: r.mugge@tudelft.nl
PhD supervisor: Jan P.L. Schoormans: tel. 015-278 3068; e-mail: j.p.l.schoormans@tudelft.nl 
Science information officer: Ineke Boneschansker: tel. 015 278 8499; e-mail: i.boneschansker@tudelft.nl