Perceived color quality: The effect of light reflection brightness of a car’s exterior design on consumers’ purchase intentions

In industrial design, perceived quality is driven by color, material, and finishing (CMF). Extant literature on CMF in the automobile industry has primarily focused on hue. Accordingly, the present study focused on color brightness with the goal of assessing whether light reflection brightness of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) positively affects consumers’ purchase intentions due to an expectation of premium design. Additionally, it was hypothesized that light reflection brightness of compact cars would negatively affect consumers’ purchase intentions, as they would expect a cost-effective design. Subsequently, multiple car designs—with the same style but different levels of light reflection brightness—were created, and randomized controlled trials were conducted through an online research environment in Japan. The results confirmed the study hypotheses, indicating that while light reflection brightness of SUVs positively affected consumers’ purchase intentions, the same effect was not observed for compact cars. This suggests the importance of coherent embodiment based on product concepts. While some elements, such as safety and durability, are required in all products, compatibility with product characteristics needs to be examined for emotional elements, such as design.