Question

Traditionally, customers may consider more about what they buy the product for. However, the image of product and the consuming circumstance have become the key points to attract customer awareness and stimulate their buying needs. Frequently, customers buy goods just because they are cute, lovely and unique. With a less emphasis on functional utilities, the experience and imaginative space are placed into an increasingly important role. The image of product is emphasized, as well as the communication between products and consumers. “Customer behavior, which appears to be focused and directed at the object and at pleasure, in fact responds to quite different objectives: displaced expression of desire, and the production of a code of social values through the use of differential signs”(Baudrillard) . The reason for image-oriented customer behavior is probably that customers’ lifestyle has been continuously virtualized by paying much attention to “Virtual Reality”. The evidences can be traced from computer games and Hollywood movies, in which customers’ preference for fleeing reality is perfectly matched.

 

This change requires us to take efforts to enhance product image by integrating style, color, taste, shape and material, and communicate with customers creatively, imaginatively and innovatively, and enable them to enjoy the distinctive experience image brings. “[A] need is not a need for a particular object as much as it is a ‘need’ for difference” ( Baudrillard). The typical example is Apple Computer’s IMAC, which has strong visual impact and outstanding dynamics. By this way, customer relationship can be set up through image, and brand can be treated as living that can transform people. Other examples commonly used are Disney Fairyland and Las Vegas, where new experience and imagination are fully demonstrated. In sum, consumption is negotiation, a never-ending conversation held in the languages of advertising, packaging, branding, fashion, and entertainment.

 

 

 

 

More Attention to the Image of Product

Main comparisons	Contexts
Different aspects ____1____about by people when they are shopping.	In the past, people think more about the __2__of the goods.
	People today are more easily ___3____by the ___4___ of product and the buying atmosphere.
Different ____5__ to promote sales	Traditionally, producers may focus more on the functional utilities of goods.
	Nowadays, product image should be __6___and there should be more effective ___7____with customers.
More　 details worth noticing
The___8___ for image-centered behavior	Influenced by computer games and Hollywood movies, people’s ___9____is virtualized.
___10_____are given to prove the importance of image	Apple Computer’s IMAC/ Disney Fairyland/ Las Vegas

 

Answer 1

1.concerned/ cared 2. use/ function 3. attracted 4.image 5. ways　 6. stressed　 7.communication　 8. reason 9. lifestyle　 10. Examples