POSITIONING 141One of the options to counter the trend of deploying natural resources and polluting the air is the partial or complete
shift to electric vehicles. Car manufacturers have started to develop and launch electric cars. They face the challenge
of developing and positioning a new product type that is responsive to consumer needs. In this context, product
design and advertising are boundary spanning functions between companies and consumers. Product categories
and brands are often categorised as either functional (e.g. lawnmowers) or symbolic (e.g. cars).^63 A functional
product possesses mainly product-related or concrete functional associations^64 and is bought primarily to satisfy
utilitarian needs since they emphasise physical product features, performance and benefits.^65 Products or brands
with a symbolic positioning internally generate needs for self-enhancement, role position, group membership, or
ego-identification and usually entail non-product-related or abstract, image-based associations.^66 Symbolic motiva-
tions are more important determinants of car use than instrumental motivations. This enables car manufacturers
to differentiate their products beyond differences in concrete functional needs. Brand experience is one of the
important cornerstones of symbolic brand identity. Brakus et al. conceptualise brand experience as subjective
consumer responses that are evoked by specific brand-related experiential attributes (sensory, behavioural and
intellectual).^67
A conjoint measurement study explored how to evoke different types of anticipated experiences for designing
and advertising electric cars.^68 Firstly, brainstorming sessions were organised in six groups of between 6 and 10
participants (all masters students) to identify electric car features that would be capable of evoking three different
types of anticipated experiences, i.e. sensory, behavioural and intellectual. Only those ideas that were deemed to
be both original and workable in the near future were considered. A number of the most often elicited characterist-
ics were chosen that could be used to design and position an electric car as sensory, behavioural or intellectual.
These characteristics served as input for the conjoint analyses.
The purpose of these conjoint analyses was to identify a relatively limited number of combinations of electric car
characteristics that would evoke a relatively exclusive sensory, behavioural or intellectual anticipated experience.
Three conjoint designs were set up, one for each experience type. In each of these designs, four two-level attributes were
defined. For each analysis, an orthogonal conjoint design was generated in which eight car types were defined as
combinations of the two levels of each of the four attributes. For each of the conjoint measurements, a sample of 100
individuals, representative of the Flemish (Belgium) population in terms of gender, age and level of education, was
selected by a professional marketing research agency. They received an online questionnaire. Firstly they were asked
to read a general description of a person who was going to buy an electric car. They were then exposed to the eight car-
type descriptions. These eight descriptions were randomised across respondents to avoid order effects. Respondents
were asked to indicate their anticipated experiences. One item was selected to represent each of the three experience
types. Con sequently, in each of the three conjoint analyses, the respondents were asked to score each car type on
a five-point Likert scale (completely disagree to completely agree) on the following items: ‘ This car makes a strong
impression on my senses’ (sensory); ‘ This car incites me to action’ (behavioural); ‘ This car makes me think and incites
me to solve problems’ (intellectual). Finally, respondents were asked to indicate their gender, age and level of education.
Two car descriptions were identified that were capable of evoking relatively exclusively a sensory and an intellectual
anticipated experience. No car could be identified that evokes an exclusively behavioural anticipated experience.
These characteristics could thus be used to develop experientially different electric car propositions in advertising.
However, this can only be effectuated for the sensory and intellectual car type, but not for the behavioural positioning.
The two cars have the following characteristics.Sensory
z The electric engine of this car makes no sound. Silence, or the music from the high-quality sound system, can
be experienced optimally.RESEARCH INSIGHT
Developing different types of anticipated experience positioning for electric carsM04_PELS3221_05_SE_C04.indd 141M04_PELS3221_05_SE_C04.indd 141 6/5/13 3:00 PM6/5/13 3:00 PM