“Emotions and luxury design: implications and insights from a consumer behaviour and marketing perspective - The Alessi's case”

The importance of the symbolic and experiential dimensions in the user-product relation as well as customers and brands leads to a growing interest towards the role played by the emotional component in the mutual interaction among these three agents. Moreover, desires emerge to be a relevant driver in the motivational flow, and aspirations connected to possession change their meaning becoming part of individuals’ self-determination process. The emotional sphere triggers purchase and consumption choices, which is a particularly relevant aspect for luxury brands as they widely rely on the experience and symbolic dimension to build their value. This is all the more relevant for the so- called cultural products, which is the reason why the specific case of a luxury design brand is examined. For the purpose of the research, the Alessi’s case is analysed in depth in order to understand the dynamics through which it is possible to design for emotions, hence letting specific design artefacts acquire a strong emotional appeal and become part of the individual’s self-expression. Thanks to the case’s examination, the factors determining emotions to be a lever for competitive advantage emerge. In particular, working through a design-driven approach and cultural engineering turns out to strongly contribute to the brand’s success in handling the emotional impact. In such a design discourse made by mutual interaction, this positively affects brand perceptions and value.