Impact of Functional versus Symbolic Signals on Initial Impressions: Implications for Designing the Look of a Website Homepage to Convey an Outdoorsy Brand Image/Personality for a Lifestyle Brand

As competition among brands escalates, marketers seek emerging opportunities to differentiate and position brands and grow a customer base by offering lifestyle brands. Lifestyle branding adds value to consumers by integrating superior functional performance, enabling fuller engagement in lifestyle activities with emotional appeals satisfying psychological desires, such as adventure, excitement, camaraderie, and self-expression. While the importance of both functional performance and emotional brand meaning have been justified in the marketing literature, an advertising maxim claimed successful communication required emphasis on one dominant message to create the most persuasive initial impression. Knowing that initial impressions impact consumer judgments of product design form, this study investigated whether functional or symbolic signals created more persuasive initial impressions when used to create the look of a website homepage for an outdoorsy lifestyle brand. The right look of a homepage creates a mood facilitating persuasion. Consent forms and APA Style complied with ethical research standards.