A Survey of the Social Behavior & Emotional Preferences of Machin-Made Carpet Costumers in Terms of Design & Color Using Kansei Engineering

Machine-made carpet industry is now welcomed throughout the world. Due to their reasonable prices and also the wide range of manufacturers' advertisements, Iranians tend to buy machine-made carpets more and more. In recent years, the efforts of machine-made carpet manufacturers have focused more on upgrading weaving machines and increasing the quality of carpets in terms of weaving technology and the production and supply of 1000, 1200 and 1500 reed carpets with high densities which has made the competitive market more dynamic. However, unfortunately, due to lack of consultation with professional designers and the lack of attention towards research and development particularly in the field the design, many deficiencies in this field. Because of the variety of tastes of consumers and their different needs on one hand, and the existence of a competitive environment among manufacturers, on the other, the design and development of new carpets has always been a challenge for companies. It is now time for customers to choose the right carpets from companies whose products and services are of the same quality, and the customer's better sense of the variables, such as design and color, can greatly influence their choice of selection and purchase. Therefore, in today's competitive environment, consumer-centric carpet design is a necessity. The current paper aims to examine the social behavior of buyers of machine-made carpets and the relationship between the design and color of carpets and the emotional preferences of the consumers of this product. Then, it tries to answer these questions that what is the relationship between the social variables of buyers and the design and color of carpets? What are the desirable visual features of the buyers of machine-made carpets? This study employs descriptive-analytical method of study. Data for the descriptive section have been gathered through the collection of information on the machine-made carpet industry with theoretical orientation of research being Kansei engineering. Kansei engineering method has been used to analyze the data collected using SPSS and Excel software. The correlation test has also been used to study the relation of demographic variables with design and color on one hand and the relation between design and color characteristics of carpets and customers' feelings on the other. Kansei engineering method enjoys a special technology that regulates human emotions in the form of quantitative data. In this area, those products are developed that bring happiness and inner satisfaction for the user. A number of 110 Machine Carpet buyers who had visited "Mr. Carpet" hyper market in the summer of 2018, expressed their feelings regarding the carpets of their choice in the form of Kansei words. Eleven Kansei words related to the feelings of carpet customers were selected by observing the buyers’ behavior and interviewing them as well as consulting with the sellers and experts of this industry, and semantic differential scale and rating of 7 houses was presented to buyers.  Also, 27 features related to the design and color of these carpets were considered. Data was analyzed using SPSS software and correlation method. The results indicated that at present, Afshan (all-over pattern) design is more attractive to buyers than others followed by Corner-medallion design. Also, the three features of quality, harmony with the household furniture and price, are more important in the customers’ choice of selection. The results of correlation analysis showed that the customers are more looking for impressive, elegant, vibrant designs for their living rooms, and the effectiveness of the design can be achieved by designing two or more texts, using delicate designs, Khatayi spirals as well as discontinuous and meander borders.