The battle of the sexes: The effects of gender, product category, & design complexity on product purchase intention and likeability

Gender serves as an important basis for market segmentation and is frequently used because market segments are large enough to be profitable and are easily identified (Darley and Smith, 1995). Product aesthetics has been growing in importance for all industries and product categories, as it increases customer satisfaction and loyalty (Schmitt and Simonson, 1997). The purpose of this research is to explore how gender interacts with design complexity of hedonic and utilitarian products to influence consumers’ aesthetic preferences.