By examining the interface between consumer behavior and new product development, People and Products: Consumer Behavior and Product Design demonstrates the ways in which consumers contribute to product design, enhance product utility, and determine brand identity.

With increased connectedness and advances in technology, consumers and marketers are more closely connected than ever before. Yet consumer behavior texts often overlook the application of the subject to product design, testing, and success. This is the first book to explore this interface in detail, exploring such issues as:

• the attributes and qualities that consumers demand from products and services, and social and cultural forces to be aware of;
• design and form and how they facilitate product usage;
• technological developments and the ways they have changed how consumers interact with products;
• product disposal and sustainability;
• emerging and future trends in consumer behavior and product development and design.

This exciting volume is relevant to anyone interested in marketing, consumer behavior, product development, technology, engineering, design, and brand management.

'Kimmel introduces a key strategic alliance for the 21st century: consumer research plus product design. He builds a convincing case for this partnership through a delightful mix of intriguing examples, broad scholarship, and engaging insights.' - Russell Belk, York University Distinguished Research Professor and Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing 'At last, a book that lives up to its promised title, People and Products: Consumer Behavior and Product Design, and delivers on it. Today, people drive products, brands and markets more than ever before and it is important that Marketing takes this more seriously. Yet, Marketing can still be, and often is, a 'one way street' guised as a 'two way' approach. This book draws upon examples to describe each element of the title and the ways these interact. I also like the personalized, often 1st person narrative. This is a refreshing and educative read of modern-day Marketing.' - Philip Kitchen, Research Professor in Marketing, ESC Rennes School of Business, France