 A Study on Needs for Automotive Interiors Based on Lifestyle Characteristics of Taiwanese Female Office WorkersJui-Che Tu,
Chun Yang and
Yu-Ting Hung
Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-22 Abstract: With the transformation of social patterns, the proportion of female office workers has increased and women have seen a huge increase in purchasing power in the consumer market due to economic independence. From the perspective of the automotive industry, whose main customers were male customers, nowadays, it has changed to designing smaller models, which are more suitable for women to drive. When it comes to a car, men are more focused on horsepower and speed, while women pay more attention to its storage, safety, and easy operation. For female office workers, a car is not only a transportation tool for commutes, but also an assistant that can accompany them shopping and travelling. Therefore, if automotive interiors can meet the usage needs of females, meaning practicality and safety, they can make female drivers feel intimate and comfortable. In order to understand the real needs of female office workers for automotive interiors, in the first phase, this paper adopted case interviews to determine female car-purchasing trends in best-selling automobile manufacturers, as well as their opinions on needs for automotive interiors, which were used as the basis for the questionnaire design. In the second phase, the questionnaire method was used to discuss the life characteristics and needs of female office workers for automotive interiors, and the statistical software SPSS was employed to analyze the differences in needs for automotive interiors among female office workers of different types; and finally, a design principle suitable for this consumer group was concluded. Regarding the results of this paper, automotive interiors are divided into five factors, which are functional storage, spatial aesthetics, digital devices, comfortable feeling, and safety and cleanness. Female office workers are divided into the three groups: (1) The discerning and intellectual pleasure seekers; (2) The regular and easy-going-life seekers; and (3) The modern information seekers. The results show that there are differences in the needs for automotive interiors among female office workers of different types. To be specific, group 1, the discerning and intellectual pleasure seekers, who are engaged in the medical and electronics industries, pay the most attention to safety, cleanliness, and digital device needs. Group 2, the regular and easy-going-life seekers, who are engaged in public education, the financial industry, and traditional industries, pay most attention to the needs of comfortable feeling. Group 3, the modern information seekers, who are engaged in service and design industries, pay most attention to the needs of functional storage, spatial aesthetics, digital devices, safety, and cleanliness. Keywords: female office workers; life characteristics; automotive interiors; needs; differences (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:7:p:2168-:d:154361 Access Statistics for this article Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu More articles in Sustainability from MDPI |
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