Consumers' attitudes towards product care: An exploratory study of motivators, ability factors and triggers

To contribute to a more sustainable way of consumption, products should stay usable as long as possible. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of products. Product care should be understood as any action that helps prolonging the lifetime of a product, such as maintenance, repair etc. These product care activities can be conducted by the consumer or by a service. Our interview study helps to understand consumers’ current product care behaviour towards products of different categories. Our study is based on Fogg’s behaviour model, which states that motivation, ability and triggers have to be present at the same time to lead to certain behaviour. We were able to identify different motivators (e.g. pleasure, price, functionality), ability factors (e.g. tools, time and effort) and triggers (e.g. appearance triggers, social triggers) for product care. Based upon the findings of this study, strategies that enhance product care are suggested and relevant aspects for future research are proposed.