Archives of Design Research

Culture affects the content and mode of individuals’ behavior. Although cultural differences become weaker with globalization, they can still be found (Kacen & Lee, 2002; Han & Shavitt, 1994; Hofstede, 1991). For example, cultural differences between “individualist” and “collectivist” cultures are likely to trigger differences between participants as illustrated by experiments performed in Kacen and Lee (2002). In their studies, participants from Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia responded to a questionnaire. They first categorized cultures as “individualist” (United States and Australia) or “collectivist” (Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong). Interestingly, they found that impulsive buying behavior was stronger among individualists than among collectivists. The result of another study, conducted by Han and Shavitt (1994), also showed that advertisements appealing to individual benefit are more persuasive for American participants than for Korean participants. Thus, the findings of the research showed a clear effect of culture on individuals’ consumer behavior.

If culture affects an individual’s behavior, then it also has an impact on the relationship between that individual and the products he or she uses, part of its general influence on that person’s preferences and tastes.

Interestingly, most research on cultural differences in consumer behavior has focused on differences between “European” or “Western” and “Asian” cultures (Kacen & Lee, 2002; Han & Shavitt, 1994; Hofstede, 1991). Studies in other realms of psychology also focus on the difference between “Western” and “Asian” subjects (Ji, Schwarz, & Nisbett, 2000; Masuda, Gonzalez, Kwan & Nisbett, 2008; Kim, 2002; Masuda & Nisbett, 2000). Kim (2002) also deals with difference between East Asian and European American cultures, indicating that the differences between them may be greater than any differences found between strictly Asian cultures. However, Evers and Day (1997) cast doubt on this viewpoint. In their research, Chinese, Australian, and Indonesian participants reported their preference with regard to a computer interface design that was presented to them. As Evers and Day reported, “one of the key findings of this study was that there are not only interface-relevant cultural differences between Asians and Australians (as expected), but that significant differences also exist within Asian groups specifically, between Indonesians and Chinese (p. 5.),” the results demonstrate greater preferential difference between Chinese and Indonesian participants than between Chinese and Australian participants. For instance, Indonesians showed a stronger preference than Chinese and Australian participants for soft colors, black-and-white displays, and pop-up menus.

Moreover, another study conducted in East Asia to illuminate potential cultural differences among subjects who belong to the “East Asian” cultural grouping observed clear differences between Japanese and Korean cultures (Oh & Kim, 2014). They searched fashion magazines in Korea and Japan and demonstrated that Japanese fashion magazines have more “cute” images of female fashion than Korean magazines, while Korean magazines displayed “classic” images. Additionally, they found that fashion magazines in Korean pictured “Western models” more prominently than in Japan.

In the present study, we narrow down the notion of difference in cultures to look at difference between Japan and (South) Korea, in the specific realm of color preference for smartphones. Differences in the color preferences of Korean and Japanese consumers have been examined in prior studies (Cha, 2010; Saito, 1996). This paper builds upon those previous studies by discussing not only differences in preferences but also how people’s preferences can change with changes in their cultural backgrounds.

We assumed that differences in color preference would be reflected in smartphone color choice.

H1: Color preferences will be influenced by culture and gender.

This hypothesis reflects that colors favored by male and female users are also expected differ according to culture. For example, a case where a black smartphone is favored by both male and female consumers in Korea, but only by male consumers in Japan, would indicate a cultural difference, where a black smartphone would be regarded as a unisex product in Korea but not in Japan.

To verify Hypothesis 1, the first questionnaire was designed and implemented. In all, 57 Japanese students (male: 36, female: 21) at Chiba University and 64 Korean students (male: 35, female: 29) at Yonsei University responded to the questionnaire (total respondents: 121). All participants were in their 20s. The participants answered the questionnaire while observing mock-ups of smartphones in different colors: first, mock-ups of a tablet-style smartphone (Sony_ZUltraSOL24) in three colors (black, white, and purple), which the participants had to rank in order of preference on a seven-point Likert-type scale, and second, mock-ups of another smartphone (Sony_Z1fSO-02F) in four colors (black, white, yellow, and pink), ranked the same way.

Figure 1 Mock-ups used in the questionnaire

Next, we investigated differences in the ideal images of smartphone colors held by Japanese and Koreans. The result of the first questionnaire may show differences in color preferences between Japanese and Korean participants. However, a difference in preference does not mean a difference in cognitive images. To be more specific, in the last questionnaire, participants reported their preference based on the mock ups that were presented by the researcher. In contrast, to investigate the differences in the ideal images of smartphone colors held by Japanese and Koreans, a hypothesis was set as follows.

H2: The ideal colors of smartphones imagined by Japanese participants are different from those imagined by Korean participants.

To verify Hypothesis 2, another questionnaire was designed and implemented. It consisted of one item: a drawing exercise in which participants were asked to draw an “ideal smartphone” in its actual size. The researcher asked the participants to include a “home button” while drawing the smartphone and to color the picture. The participants drew a front view and a side view of the smartphones; they used only the eight colored crayons that were given to them. In all, 40 Japanese students at Chiba University (Female: 22, Male: 18) and 37 Korean students at Yonsei University (Female: 16, Male: 21) responded to the questionnaire (total respondents: 77).

Subsequently, the colors that each participant used in their drawings were analyzed and grouped into three categories based on color diversity. Drawings that were black and white only were grouped together as were drawings with one color (not black or white) and finally drawings with more than two colors.

Figure 2 Analyzing colors used in the second questionnaire

This study deals not only with color preferences but also with change in them coming along with cultural change. The following hypothesis is based on the assumption that a change in one’s culture will lead to a change in one’s smartphone color preference.

H3: The smartphone color preference of an individual will change according to changes in their culture.

To verify Hypothesis 3, the third questionnaire was designed and implemented. In all, 23 Korean students who had been studying at Chiba University for over a year responded to the questionnaire (Female = 12, Male = 11). All the participants were in their 20s. The questionnaire was the same as the first questionnaire but with an added item in which the participants reported how many years they had been living in Japan.

First, Japanese participants showed stronger preference for yellow smartphones compared to Korean participants. The ANOVA results show that cultural differences affect the preference score for the yellow smartphone (F(1,117) = 10.19, p < .01). To be specific, the results of the t-test show that the Korean participants did not prefer yellow smartphones as much as the Japanese participants did (M_Korean = 3.45, M_Japanese = 4.23; t(119) = 3.00, p < .01).

Second, the black smartphone (Z1fSO-02F-Black) was preferred by both males and females in Korea, but not in Japan. Gender was found to influence the preference score for the black smartphone (F(1, 117) = 7.92, p < .05). There was a difference between the preference of Japanese male and female participants (M_JapaneseMale = 5.28, M_{JapaneseFemale} = 4.33; t(57) = 3.10, p < .01). However, there was no difference by gender for the Koreans (M_KoreanMale = 5.20, M_KoreanFemale = 4.90; t(64) = 0.96, ns). This means that the black smartphone is regarded as a unisex product in Korea, but a masculine product in Japan.

Third, the Japanese female participants showed stronger preference for pink smartphones compared to the Korean female participants. The preference for the pink smartphone (Z1fSO-02F-Pink) was affected by both culture and gender (Culture: F(1,117) = 5.50, p < .05; Gender: F(1,117) = 8.53, p < .01.). Interestingly, Japanese female participants preferred pink smartphones more than the Korean female participants did (M_KoreanFemale = 4.03, M_{JapaneseFemale} = 5.05, t(48) = 2.85, p < .01).

With regard to the second questionnaire (Hypothesis 2), the imagined colors for the phones clearly demonstrate the difference between the Japanese and Korean participants (x² = 8.1, p < .05). Only 13.5% of the Korean participants used colors other than black and white (Another = 5.4%; More than two = 8.1%), in contrast to 42.5% of the Japanese participants (Another = 22.5%; More than two = 22.0%). However, black and white were the most popular colors for both, Japanese and Korean participants: 57.5% of the Japanese participants drew smartphones using only black and white, in contrast to 71.4% of the Korean participants.

Before discussing the results of the third questionnaire (Hypothesis 3), we should consider the criteria by which change in preference is determined. In this section, the results of the first questionnaire were taken as the criteria. However, among the three results on the first questionnaire, two were associated with gender; therefore, only one result from the first questionnaire was selected as a criterion: The strong preference for yellow smartphones shown by Japanese participants as compared to Korean participants.

Figure 3 Preference for the yellow smartphone

The results show that Korean participants who have been living in Japan display a strong preference for yellow smartphones. That is, their preference is more similar to the Japanese participants’ preference than to the Korean participants’ preference. A post-hoc test (Scheffé test) revealed that these differences in preferences were significant. The difference between the Korean participants living in Korea and those living in Japan was significant (DIFF = 0.98, SD = 0.35, p < .05), whereas no such difference in preference was found between the Japanese participants and the Korean participants living in Japan (DIFF = 0.21, SD = 0.35, ns).