1 Introduction

Electric Vehicles (EV) become more popular in the market and include Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle [37]. The development of electric vehicles (EVs) has become a dominant trend in environmental protection and energy-saving solutions since generating concise and effective pathways to solve humans’ environment impact is urgent [5]. However, electric car manufacturers must overcome many obstacles from petrol and diesel and consumers’ psychology before EVs gain popularity. Furthermore, the development of fuel vehicles has a long history and forms part of a massive industry from upstream to downstream worldwide. Hence, the petrol and diesel-powered cars industry develops an ingrained force that affects the entire vehicle industry and greatly influences consumers. In brief, EV manufacturers need to solve the problems of industries, technology, and consumer psychology to promote the popularity of EVs.

As an innovative brand of auto manufacturers, such as Fisker and Canoo, currently, Tesla undoubtedly has the most successful sales of EVs. Furthermore, Tesla used innovative technologies and a unique marketing model to break through the car market dominated by petrol and diesel car manufacturers. Based on the statistics from the Kantar BrandZ™ Most Valuable Global Brands 2021 ranking, Tesla has become the most valuable and fastest-growing auto brand around the world, and its brand value has increased from $11.35 bn in 2020 to $42.6 bn in 2021 [35]. This evidence implies that consumers’ acceptance of EVs has grown and will continue to increase in the future.

Traditional car manufacturers have experienced the threat of EVs. Hence, to address this crisis, the development of EVs has become the most common divisor among several iconic auto manufacturers, including Jaguar, Volvo, Lotus, General Motors, and Ford. These auto manufacturers plan to sell only EVs before 2035. Further, 70% of Volkswagen’s sales will be electric by 2030 [4]. The high acceleration of the global sales of EVs rose to a total of 3.2 m from 2010 to 2020. In line with this, all new cars sold worldwide will be electric in 2040, according to the estimations of the UBS bank [4]. In addition, the trend of EVs will last, and their market will expand in the future.

We have reached a turning point in which the sales of EVs will soon surpass that of petrol and diesel cars, although vehicles powered by petroleum-based fuels still dominate the auto market worldwide. However, the development of EVs currently faces huge ordeals, including resistance from traditional automakers and consumers’ complex psychology for EVs. Hence, how the industry of EVs turns around consumers ’psychology and makes them consider this type of car as their choice can be a critical issue for the development of EVs and motivates us to explore this research topic.

Generally speaking, the sales of EVs rely on traditional car deals, such as Audi, and direct sales [21], such as that of Tesla. In addition, electric car manufacturers interact with consumers through online and offline media. Concerning the online approach, besides social media, new technology, such as virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) [2], are gradually being applied to the marketing of EVs. Regarding the offline approach, consumers’ physical experiences in interacting with EVs and stores still play an important role in car marketing. However, car manufacturers have begun to consider ways to give consumers different impressions and reduce the cost of an exhibition. Hence, a new marketing strategy could be rearranging the design of physical car stores. Furthermore, integrating online and offline marketing methods to provide unique interactions with consumers is an essential issue in EV sales.

Thus, it can be seen that the cost-effective way to communicate with consumers is focusing on conducting successful marketing, and sustainable and innovative factors are known to be critical concepts to communicate with consumers. On this topic, in addition to Wesseling et al., who studied business strategies for EVs [40], Musonera and Cagle evaluated electric car brand positioning from a sustainable and innovative perspective [30]. In addition, Cherubini et al. explored the factors that affect consumers’ purchasing decisions with electric cars [10]. The above-mentioned research focuses on conducting strategic planning for marketing electric EVs from the attempts of firms, entrepreneurs, and manufacturers as well as government support. Compared to previous studies, this research focuses on the appeal of electric car marketing based on consumers’ intuitive emotions and perception. In addition, this research studies the online marketing that forms the foundation of sale instruments and online-to-offline marketing, which leads the market to promote EVs.

The successful sales of EVs have sparked the author’s motivation to probe the style, unique characteristics, and appeal of electric car marketing. Furthermore, the current marketing strategies of EVs cannot be limited to the traditional thinking of auto manufacturers. Still, they must consider different sales modes to interact with consumers online and offline channels. In addition, to evaluate if consumers’ intentions are affected, this study investigates the psychology behind buying EVs. Hence, we argue that a key reason for EVs’ increasing acceptability and popularity lies in the particular marketing design of auto manufacturers, which effectively attracts consumers. Furthermore, this study probes how the marketing interactions of EVs influence consumer preferences and their various characteristics.

Based on the above, this study set the following three research questions:

  1. (1)

    Why do consumers prefer O2O EV marketing over other types of sale modes?

  2. (2)

    What clear traits do O2O EV marketing have that fascinate consumers?

  3. (3)

    What are the implications of O2O EV marketing that enlighten the development of automotive industry? Hence, we hypothesized that the attractiveness of electric car marketing has strong connections with consumer perception, cognition, and affection and affects consumer preferences further. Compared to traditional car marketing, electric car marketing has to adopt various innovative design techniques to make this type of car more acceptable and attractive to consumers. In addition, we found that electric car marketing has particular online and offline characteristics for effective consumer interactions. Hence, Miryoku Engineering, as a technical system, was used to define the relationship between consumer preference and the attractiveness of electric car marketing interactions.

Therefore, three of the most critical issues in this study are how EV marketing communicates effectively with consumers, its appeal factors and characteristics to attract them, and how important each evaluation item is. The evaluation grid method (EGM) and quantification theory type I were used to probe these issues and conduct Miryoku Engineering in this study. Qualitative and quantitative assessments disclose this study’s results, including expert interviews, semantic analysis, questionnaire surveys, and statistical analysis. The following section reviews the important theories and arguments related to EV marketing interactions.

Thus, we compiled this article by dividing it into seven sections. First, the “Introduction” section provides important background information, motivation, overview, and organization of this study. Second, “Review of the literature” section probes the crucial issues regarding marketing, EV, and Miryoku Engineering. Third, the “Research objectives” section depicts the purpose, important issues, and ways to achieve the goal of this study. Fourthly the “Research methods” section explains how to use EGM to collect professional opinions and quantification theory type I to analyze consumers’ reactions. Fifth, the “Discussion” section analyzes the results of the research instruments used in this study. Sixth, the “Conclusions” section discloses the research findings, implications, and contributions.

2 Review of the literature

This article explores the literature related to EV marketing and the theoretical basis of this study in the following sections. Hence, we probe online marketing as the origin of O2O in “Electric vehicle marketing” section. Then, we study O2O, which is potential and futuristic for EV marketing, as described in “Online marketing” section. In addition, we discuss the critical issues related to EV marketing in “O2O (online to offline) marketing design” section. In “Miryoku Engineering” section, we declare the origin, application, and achievements of Miryoku Engineering, on which we base our study.

2.1 Electric vehicle marketing

Although EVs conform to future trends, market them are very complicated and involve inner and outer factors, which need to be solved to gain popularity. Thøgersen and Ebsen investigated motivational reasons for the low adoption of EVs and revealed that car owners’ inner attitudes and experiences could affect them regarding this type of car [36]. Then, Hausten and Jensen attempted to determine a way to increase EV adoption by considering functional and behavioral factors [18]. The studies mentioned above focused on consumers’ motivations for EV adoption.

Cherubini et al. enunciated ten CSFs that are relevant outer factors in purchasing decisions, including vehicle subsystems (value proposition and product-service system bundle), electronic on-board subsystem (advanced navigation system), infrastructure subsystem (incentives alternative transport system and advocacy campaigns), and infrastructure and energy subsystem (ease of use, proximity of charging point, and standardization) [10].

Car entrepreneurs play a critical role in develo** EVs because they have to overcome the limitations of develo** and selling them themselves and confront great disadvantages from outer conditions, such as unsound infrastructure. Sustainability is one index that examines car entrepreneurs’ attempts. Vătămănescu et al. analyzed the influence of entrepreneurs’ orientation toward sustainability on relational marketing practices [38]. In addition, Musonera and Cagle recommended sustainable strategies for electric car brand positioning and took Tesla’s mission and goals, for example [30]. Therefore, we can see that car entrepreneurs’ orientation toward sustainability is critical and beneficial for acquiring consumer recognition in the marketing aspect. In our study, “forming a complete industry chain of buying, selling and recycling,” “constructing a live circle of pure electric,” “meeting all consumers’ needs of using an EV,” and “sound and diverse charging network” can be viewed as the crucial marketing characteristics of sustainability which attracts consumers. Although the issues related to EVs have attracted increasing research interest and have accumulated significant achievements, as mentioned above, few studies have probed them from personal emotions to marketing strategies. We expand on core theory in the next section.

2.2 Online marketing

Online marketing has made significant progress in recent years. Passive online advertisements, such as pop ads, appeared in the early era of online marketing. This type of online marketing emphasizes consumers’ passive online reception of commercial information to achieve marketing goals. Consumers’ active responses have become increasingly important for online marketing in recent years. The critical factor of this transition lies in the emergence of social media platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram, which integrate social interaction into online communication and can elicit users’ active responses and feedback quickly. Online marketing, which uses the technique of social media, can then be named social media marketing. Current popular techniques, such as influencer marketing, have become effective practices in social media marketing. Many researchers have begun to explore related social media marketing studies, as this type of marketing creates huge cost-effectiveness for a brand or company. Vrontis et al. probed the appeal of social media influencer marketing based on its effectiveness in consumer attitudes and behavior [39]. The use of social media marketing in sales and marketing of cars is steadily becoming more popular with manufacturers [39].

The techniques of social media, which car manufacturers often use online, include “presenting users’ experience through fan areas,” “high rate of discussion,” and “influencer marketing.” Furthermore, influencers, such as celebrities, are undoubtedly one of the most critical factors in current online marketing and were evaluated by their effects on trustworthiness, brand attitude, envy, and social presence [23, 26]. In addition, YouTube, as a popular platform of influencers, was studied through its credibility, including trustworthiness, social influence, argument quality, and information involvement, which affect consumers’’ perception [11], meaning that shop** risk, prices, and promotions could affect consumers’ willingness to use online or offline channels. In this study, “the cost-effective price of car payment” can be viewed as an appeal to consumers’ shop** risks.

Further, “installing showing rooms to improve consumer experience” is used as an offline promotion to increase consumers’ real experiences. The concept “scenario-based” indicates that O2O EV marketing builds a situation that integrates online and offline promotions, such as “influencer marketing” and “installing rooms to improve the consumer experience.” “Scenario,” as a professional term, is widely used in-game and in other design fields and indicates an alternative to predictions, forecasts, and other single-future strategic planning process [5], and is currently being applied to commerce, such as scenario planning. Carroll elaborated that use scenarios support the integration of cognitive and organizational approaches to human–computer interaction by offering an abundant representation of activity from which cognitive and organizational perspectives can be developed [7]. In EV marketing, car manufacturers use scenarios to integrate online promotions with offline promotions to attract consumers and allow them to be involved in the virtual-real environment. The characteristics mentioned above of EV marketing provide an integrated online and offline experience to customers and are practiced by Tesla [14].

2.4 Miryoku engineering

The word “Miryoku” comes from Japanese and means “power of attractiveness,” which was named as the “appeal” in our study. In addition, “Miryoku” comprises a psychological concept that integrates emotions, sentiments, and perceptions. Junichiro Sanui and Masao Inui developed “Miryoku Engineering” based on the psychological concepts of personal construct theory [25]. Interdisciplinary meetings entitled the “Miryoku Engineering Forum held by Masato and Gen (1999) initially aimed to discuss problems, gather effective theories and methods for product design, and create attractive products in 1991 [29]. In addition, “Miryoku Engineering” is used to define the relationship between an individual's preferences and appeal.

Furthermore, preference-based Miryoku Engineering is the technical design system used to define product attractiveness from user preferences and involves psychology, sociology, and aesthetics. Miryoku engineering is currently being applied to probe the connection between product styles and design specifications. Furthermore, subjective and objective evaluations can explore the relationship between a user’s impressions and product style. In addition, the study results of Miryoku Engineering can be practiced by recognizing semantic differences and proceeding with multivariate analysis [24, 27]. So far, “Miryoku Engineering” has been widely used as a study design [13], 27 in media design [9], 13 and many other related fields.

Consumers cannot ignore the influence of their emotions when making consumption decisions, even if their rationality plays a vital role in it. Hence, an increasing number of researchers have endeavored to study consumers based on their emotions. Khatoon and Rehman argued that emotions are elicited through brand-related stimuli and strongly affect consumers during decision-making [26]. This argument disclosed the importance of consumers’ emotions, on which our study focused. Using the theory of “Miryoku Engineering,” we also try to determine how various EV marketing techniques aroused consumers’ emotions. In this study, we probe the marketing design of EVs based on their appeal, which elicits consumers’ emotions. Vrontis et al. also attempted to study the appeal of social media influencer marketing by analyzing articles [39]. In our study, “Miryoku Engineering” can be practiced through two researched methods, including EGM and quantification theory type I, and will be explained in “Research methods” section.

3 Research objectives

EV marketing, which integrates online and offline techniques, creates new design models with consumers and breaks through the barricades of sales. Effective EV marketing relies largely on online-to-offline marketing and persuasive promotions to motivate and convince consumers to accept this vehicle type. Furthermore, consumers’ complicated psychology and considerations of EVs have also been probed. The two critical issues are why consumers prefer EVs and the specific marketing characteristics that move them to accept such cars.

This study summarized experts’ images and expressions from interviews and determined the most critical appeal factors, their corresponding appeal factors, and EV marketing based on a system of semantic conversions. The questionnaire survey and analysis helped quantify the strengths and weaknesses of each of the appeal factors and characteristics of EV marketing. In addition, the relationships between the appeal factors and design characteristics of EV marketing can be established and used for further investigation.

4 Research methods

This study probes the appeal of EV marketing using two methods. First, the study adopted the EGM to gain expert opinions by digesting many articles, conducting interviews, and summarizing the results of the interviews in a hierarchical diagram. Second, quantification theory type I is used to analyze the quantitative results of a questionnaire survey and measure the importance of the appeal factors and marketing characteristics based on general consumers’ reactions. All procedures were performed according to the Miryoku Engineering theory.

4.1 Evaluating experts’ opinions using EGM

In this study, the EGM functioned as semantic analysis and extracted the appeal factors, reasons, and characteristics of EV marketing. Then, a hierarchical diagram disclosing the appeal factors and characteristics of EV marketing was created. In addition, the relationships between different appeal factors and the characteristics of EV marketing can be depicted through a hierarchical diagram. Sanui integrated the repertory grid method into the EGM using two sequential procedures [31]. At the beginning of the procedures, participants compared the objects and determined which one was good or bad and their favors and disfavors about them. Later, more continuous and detailed questions clarified their answers’ concrete meaning or condition. This system made it possible to codify participants’ impressions and reasons into a hierarchical structure. The EGM was used to classify participants’’ answers as abstract or specific and is widely applied in design [3], 29.

To obtain complete knowledge from participants with professional expertise, it is necessary to devote more time to interviews rather than simply asking questions with multiple answers. In addition, expert professional understanding needs to be analyzed systematically. Therefore, EGM is a suitable and necessary method to determine key evaluation items for product appeal. Interpretive structural modeling allows for the presentation of the results of this method. Successful results based on “Miryoku Engineering” could be referred to in a similar study by Dong [16]. In our study, the EGM was applied to capture the appeal factors, reasons, and characteristics of EV marketing and showed the results of the EGM study by using a hierarchical diagram of the appeal of this type of car. The detailed procedure is as follows.

First, research assistants were hired and trained to comprehend a specific description, such as “constructing a live circle of pure electric,” and an abstract emotional phrase, such as “friendly.” Then, these research assistants selected the experts’ descriptive vocabularies related to EV marketing from experts' opinions and distinguished specific professional descriptions from emotional words based on the EGM. All the processes of EGM evaluation were practiced by content analysis and holding a review meeting.

Second, EGM was used to analyze authoritative articles related to EV marketing, such as auto magazines, columns, and professional websites, which professionals wrote. Further, EGM was applied to capture the appeal factors and characteristics from the descriptions of the professionals’’ arguments with the support of the research assistants.

Third, three male and two female experts between the ages of 31 and 62 familiar with EV marketing were selected for interviews (Table 1). Three of them served as senior supervisors in car companies, and one of the three was the general manager responsible for the sales of an EV. In addition, before beginning the interviews, 55 sample cards with pictures displaying marketing characteristics and a few necessary annotations were prepared and selected for interviews.

Table 1 The detailed description of the interviewees for EGM evaluation
Full size table

Fourth, the experts’ qualifications were accredited by the condition of twenty years of working years in fields related to car marketing. Then, interviews were conducted based on EGM. The interviewees were allowed to freely express their preferences for EV sales during a one-hour interview session. The five experts were then asked individually at different times through the guidance by grou** the 55 sample cards into three stacks according to their preferences from high to low. Then, the research assistants asked these experts to explain the reasons for grou** the sample cards through a series of questions.

Fifth, content analysis and expert interviews captured the experts’ images and reasons for their preferences. Furthermore, this study eventually accumulated 215 emotional and professional words from articles and interviews involved in EV marketing. These words were processed to form their corresponding “upper-” and “lower-level” concepts. The “upper-level” concept indicates that words were more abstract and emotional in the hierarchical structure of semantics. In contrast, the “lower-level” concept suggests that its terms are more specific and professional.

Sixth, after all the “upper-level” and “lower-level” concepts were distinguished, the original evaluation item could be evolved from the convergence of the “upper-level” words by merging with similar ones.

The procedures mentioned above were arranged based on the EGM and were used to determine the appeal factor and specific marketing characteristics. A hierarchical diagram can then be created from the EGM results. Furthermore, there was the option of arranging the selected words as question items that were part of different original evaluation items in the questionnaire.

4.2 Evaluating consumers’ responses using quantification theory type I

Compared to EGM, which involved a semantic analysis of interview content to determine experts' general preferences, quantification theory type I was applied to perform statistical analysis of the survey on consumers’ emotional tendencies and determine the important appeal factors and marketing characteristics in this study. Furthermore, used quantification theory I to measure the “upper-level” and “lower-level” items derived from the EGM evaluation. Using multiple linear regression methods, quantification Theory Type I can predict the relationship between a response value and categorical values [19]. Quantification theory type I can also show the relationship between design characteristics and classifications. In addition, quantification theory type I can measure the weights of the factors that affect product user preferences [22, 34]. Thus, Miryoku Engineering used the quantification theory type I method to measure the degree to which a product arouses users’ emotional tendencies based on its features and characteristics.

This study selected the EGM items that occurred most frequently for inclusion in the questionnaire survey. The structure of a questionnaire that conformed to the EGM hierarchy was used to quantify the collected consumers’ reactions with Quantification Theory Type I to determine the importance of these appeal factors and critical evaluations of EV marketing. More specifically, the three-level hierarchy composed of the “upper-level," “lower-level,” and original evaluation items formed the questions from the abstract images to the specific design characteristics in the questionnaire. Then, the design of the questionnaire made all the questions as concise as possible so that respondents could answer them effectively. Table 3 lists the attributes and categories of EV marketing that formed the questionnaires.

The questionnaire survey was conducted with purposive sampling to target the suitable object of investigation and to collect general consumers’ reactions to EV marketing in this study. Furthermore, snowball sampling could collect more qualified samples by introducing and inviting participants continuously to maintain the reliability of the questionnaire during the collection of pieces. In addition, consumers who attempted to purchase EVs or already owned an electric car were selected. Then, consumers who did not have any interest in EVs were excluded from this study. Thus, a total of 423 questionnaires were distributed to consumers who were experienced users, owners, and researchers of EVs to investigate their preferences. Then, 295 questionnaires were valid for further quantification analysis among the returned 323 questionnaires, so there was a valid return rate of 70 percent. In addition, these valid questionnaires, answered by 150 men and 145 women (from 18 to 62 years old), were calculated using Quantification Theory Type I.

5 Analysis and results

5.1 Evaluating experts’ opinions using EGM

The structure of the evaluation items, which integrated all the experts’ points of view according to the technique of EGM, was categorized into three hierarchical levels and could be distinguished from the impressive adjectives to the concrete nouns, including original evaluation items, impressions of preferences, and specific marketing characteristics. Figure 1 shows an example of a participant’s evaluation structure. The hierarchy diagram (Fig. 2) presents the results of the EGM and answers one of the most important issues: what are the appeal factors and characteristics it uses to attract them? The hierarchy diagrams (Fig. 2) form the structure of the questionnaire, which is composed of the three types of questions, including original evaluation items and upper- and lower-level concepts, as presented in Table 2. Furthermore, Table 3 shows all the evaluation items ranked by the accumulated times and used to investigate consumers’ preferences for EV marketing in a questionnaire. Next, the three most important original evaluation items, including “scenario-based,” “accessible,” and “visionary,” were determined based on EGM for the three main parts of the questionnaire survey.

Fig. 1
figure 1

An example of a participant’s evaluation structure

Full size image
Fig. 2
figure 2

The hierarchical diagram of experts’ preferences for electric car marketing, determined by EGM

Full size image
Table 2 The setting of the level-based construction of questionnaire
Full size table
Table 3 Original impressions of the top five selected according to the number description in the EGM hierarchical chart and their reasons
Full size table

5.2 Quantification type I analysis for surveying consumers’ reactions

In this study, after the critical evaluation items were selected for the questionnaire survey, the weights of the features of EV marketing were measured based on consumers’ reactions through Quantification Theory Type I and required the following procedures to be executed.

The original evaluation items of EV marketing, determined based on the EGM, could be quantified by measuring their coefficient of determination. Partial correlation coefficients described the relationship strength of the upper-level evaluation items. At the same time, the category scores indicated the importance of lower-level evaluation items—furthermore, the formulas of quantification theory type I were transferred to Excel Macro for statistical analysis. Tables 4, 5, and 6 present the results of Quantification Theory Type I, which analyzed the factors of “scenario-based,” “accessible,” and “visionary” through the partial correlation coefficients, the category scores, and the coefficient of determination.

Table 4 The partial correlation coefficients, the category scores, and the coefficient of determination for the factor of “scenario-based”
Full size table
Table 5 The partial correlation coefficients, the category scores, and the coefficient of determination for the factor of “accessible”
Full size table
Table 6 The partial correlation coefficients, the category scores, and the coefficient of determination for the factor of “visionary”
Full size table

Then, the reliability test proved that all three original evaluation items play a critical role in EV marketing. The original evaluation item “scenario-based” gave an impression of “of presence” and “of topicality," which could be viewed as consumers’ reasons of preferences for EV marketing in this study. Furthermore, the coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.674) showed higher reliability for the factor “scenario-based” according to the analysis of quantification theory type I (Table 4). The determination that “of presence” scored the highest partial correlation coefficient (0.793) indicated that the reason had the most influence on “scenario-based.” The design characteristics “star marketing” and “showing car interiors or exteriors by new technology” were proved to have a positive influence on “of presence” based on the top two highest category scores which they got in the statistical data.

The EV marketing gave consumer impressions of “accessible” using the design factors “friendly” and “affordable” affordable’ in this study. Furthermore, the original evaluation item “accessible” was determined to have higher reliability because of its higher coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.608) according to the statistical analysis (Table 5). The impression “accessible” was most affected by the reason “affordable” that had the highest partial correlation according to the statistical analysis and comprised the lower-level concepts, including “cheaper electricity tariffs,” “cheaper maintenance fees,” “a cost-effective price of car payment,” and “government subsidies.” The category scores of “installing charging piles in big cities,” which were superior to other design characteristics belonging to the original evaluation item “accessible,” played a key role in “friendly.”

The original evaluation item, “visionary,” which consists of the three upper-level assessments, including “sustainable,” “revolutionary,” and “intelligent,” had higher reliability for the survey instrument based on the higher coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.665) calculated through quantification theory type I. In addition, “intelligent” had the highest partial correlation coefficient (Table 6) to make a great contribution to the “visionary” original evaluation item, which was composed of the categories, including “sound and diverse charging network,” “constructing a live circle of pure electric,” “forming a complete industry chain of buying, selling and recycling,” and “meeting all consumers’ needs of using electric cars.” Furthermore, “having the technique of Internet of vehicles” was proved to contribute to the impression “visionary” most positively.

In brief, this subsection presents the results of quantitative analysis. It determines the importance of each evaluation item, so the other important issue is “how important each evaluation item is” in this study.

6 Discussion

The hierarchical diagram of EV marketing (Fig. 2) depicts the results of the EGM, which shows the most typical appeal factors of EV marketing, including “scenario-based,” “accessible,” and “visionary.” In addition, the reasons for preferences that correspond to the factors mentioned earlier of EV marketing are included.

Next, the design characteristic “having the technique of Internet of vehicles” was measured to affect the impression “intelligent substantially.” Furthermore, “of presence” and “intelligent” were determined to have the most influence on consumers’ preferences for EV marketing among the seven appeal factors. In addition, “installing charging piles in big cities” with the highest category scores was proved to affect the impression “friendly” harder than the other 30 design characteristics of EV marketing.

The following design characteristics, including “presenting users’ experience through fan area,” “showing car interiors or exteriors by new technology,” “high rate of discussion,” “influencer marketing,” and “star marketing,” were proved to have a positive effect on the appeal factor “of presence” and “of topicality,” and could be concluded with the original evaluation item “scenario-based.” From this, it can be seen that the new technology was proven to play an essential role in EV marketing. In addition, new technologies, such as AR or VR, could be applied to integrate online to offline messages with emotional content that motivate consumers of EVs to alter their purchase intentions. This result showed the importance of new technology and echoed Shahab et al.’s work [29]. In addition, “scenario-based” and “of topicality” impressions can be managed to affect a consumer’ subjective norm and perceived behavioral control that are positively related to their intentions to purchase EVs [33].

In addition, six extracted marketing characteristics, including “meeting all consumers’ needs of using EVs,” “having support for home charging,” “having support for efficient charging,” “sound and diverse charging network,” “installing charging piles in big cities,” and “having a high density of charging stations” can be classified into the infrastructure and energy subsystem [10]; then, the last two marketing characteristics are determined to be more important than other ones in purchasing decisions because of the “friendly” reasons and make an impression on consumers. Furthermore, three extracted marketing characteristics, including “cheaper electricity tariff,” “cheaper maintenance fee,” and “a cost-effective price of car payment,” can be categorized as the vehicle subsystem [10] and make an “affordable” impression on consumers; then, the last one is the most crucial among other design characteristics. In addition, both “friendly” and “affordable” impressions can be viewed as incentives that are the reliable predictors of purchase intention of EVs [20].

Then, “Having the function of autopilot” and “having the technique of Internet of vehicles” belong to electronic on-board subsystem [10], “constructing a live circle of pure electric” and “government subsidies” are next and vests in the “infrastructure subsystem [10]; then, “Having the technique of Internet of vehicles” and “government subsides” are more important than the other marketing characteristics and make consumers feel “intelligent” and “affordable individually.” The aforementioned extracted marketing characteristics can be organized according to Cherubini et al. former study, highlighting the importance of broadening political support to foster EV diffusion [10].

Consumers preferred the design characteristics “meeting all consumers’ needs of using electric cars,” “innovative structure of hardware,” “support from the young generation,” “intelligent equipment,” “having the technique of Internet of vehicles,” and “having the function of autopilot” because of the reasons “sustainable,” “revolutionary,” and “intelligent.” Therefore, all the above evaluation items could be concluded with the impression “visionary.” This study proved that consumers increasingly attach importance to long-term value but are not limited to daily needs. This meant the product’s perceived value could invoke consumers’ purchase intentions [12]. Then, this evidence also confirms the influence of entrepreneurs’ orientation toward sustainability in marketing [38].

In brief, the design characteristics of EV marketing that correspond to the upper-level reasons are used to attract consumers by motivating consumers by giving them the “scenario-based,” “accessible,” and “visionary” impression revolutionarily, meaning that unique design characteristics were applied to arouse consumers’ interests by eliciting their emotional factors, which could be ascribed to the initial impressions. The EGM hierarchical diagram (Fig. 2) shows the relationships between the first assessment and upper-level and lower-level items. Therefore, we can see that manufacturers attempt to bridge the gap between ideal and reality in the consumer mind to increase EV sales, according to the results of this study. This evidence also replied to Thøgersen and Ebsen’s investigation of consumers’ inner attitudes [36].

7 Conclusions

This study initially probed the appeal of EV marketing from the perspective of human emotions. Although EVs have been developed for a long time, they are gradually being accepted as a consumer choice worldwide in recent years. To probe the influence of EV marketing, we used a preference-based study to determine its appeal. As the results indicate, compared to classic cars, the characteristics of electric ones can match their sales due to their novel model of marketing, which could motivate consumers based on their three impressions, including “scenario-based,” “accessible,” and “visionary.” Furthermore, we can see that an increasing number of people can gradually welcome EVs because of the seven appeal factors, including “of presence,” “of topicality,” “friendly,” “affordable,” “sustainable,” “revolutionary,” and “intelligent.”

As far as the “scenario-based” impression is concerned, consumers feel “scenario-based” because of the “presence” and “topicality” reasons, which can be recognized as effects of O2O marketing. The marketing characteristics that integrate online-to-offline techniques to promote EVs can then be viewed as the means to achieve the goals of marketing. Hence, consumers’ psychological needs related to “scenario-based” reasons: of “presence” and “topicality” can be fulfilled. Specifically, car dealers or manufacturers can create an atmosphere and make the topic increase consumers’ various psychological demands, such as pride and dignity. For example, “presenting users’ experience through fan areas” means that consumers’ experience, such as a sense of honor, could be presented through the promotion of social media.

Car dealers or manufacturers do their best to promote EVs; they still provide economic and cost-effective considerations while develo** marketing strategies. Hence, on the one hand, car dealers or manufacturers use various marketing techniques to promote consumer experience. Consumers’ “scenario-based” impressions are created through online to offline marketing to make consumers experience “presence” and “topicality.” Furthermore, online marketing, such as “high rate of discussion” and “influencer marketing,” is usually used to increase consumers’ influence. Offline marketing, such as “installing showing rooms to improve consumer experience,” is often applied to track consumers, although this type of marketing could let consumers get a taste of EVs. In addition, new techniques, such as “showing car interiors or exteriors by new technology,” can improve consumers’ sensory stimulation, but they are used to integrate online and offline marketing. Specifically, new technologies are widely applied to integrate virtual, and real environments, such as TV augmented reality (TVAR) and content, such as new media used to communicate integrated audio-visual information.

On the other hand, car manufacturers or dealers apply these technologies to motivate consumers and reduce the showing space on expensive and limited lands. Tesla, for instance, depends on few showing rooms in big cities but still obtains effective dissemination benefits. Therefore, to make this type of car more attractive and welcome in the future, the successful planning of O2O EV marketing has become a critical subject for auto manufacturers and dealers. In brief, O2O marketing is capable of making consumers feel “scenario-based,” hel** them to predict EVs and even imagine them. This means that O2O marketing functions as a media-based tool to manage EVs’ images.

Consumers have impressions related to “accessible” and “visionary” factors due to reasons such as the item being “friendly,” “affordable,” “sustainable,” “revolutionary,” and “intelligent,” all of which are involved in humans’ needs. This means that car dealers or manufacturers should attempt to motivate consumers using marketing characteristics to make the cars feel “accessible” and “visionary.” In this way, the consumers’ feelings are mainly concerned with the nature of EVs that make an impression. The two appeal factors determined in this study can be connected to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs [28]. As far as “basic needs” is concerned, consumers care about “accessible” for three reasons: friendly” and “affordable,” which reflect their basic needs for safety and security, such as “having a high density of charging stations.” As far as “self-fulfillment” is concerned, consumers’ desires to achieve their self-fulfillment could be shown as “visionary” based on the reasons, including “sustainable,” “revolutionary,” and “intelligent,” intelligent, which are most related to environmental protection and vision of the future belonging to the higher-level needs of humans. Then, “constructing a live circle of pure electric,” as the representative marketing characteristic, reflects consumers’ specific expectations of the future.

As stated above, car dealers or manufacturers use various marketing techniques to increase the appeal of EVs to motivate consumers. When develo** marketing strategies, it is also important to consider consumers’ psychological needs. In addition, the nature of EVs is key to satisfying consumers’ essential psychological needs for EVs, although O2O marketing can be shown to have an advantage in improving EVs’ image. In brief, this section expounds not only on the application of the appeal factors and characteristics but also the theory-based communication of human needs to answer “how EV marketing makes effective communication with consumers,” which is the most important issue in this study.

Besides the above-mentioned practical implications, the theoretical implications are disclosed as the following. This study uses Miryoku Engineering to simplify consumers’ complicated judging system of buying by separating their emotional impressions from specific characteristics of EVs, although their psychological operations that affect the purchase intentions of EVs are difficult to be evaluated. In fact, the way of arranging consumers’ linguistic expressions aims at building universal guidelines of EV marketing to evaluate consumers’ general preferences in this study. Furthermore, the extent of consumers’ preferences can be quantified to determine the critical appeal factors and design characteristics of EV marketing in this study. This means that the design proposal can be planed based on the data that are calculated through Miryoku Engineering. Hence, the proposal that conforms consumers’ preferences can be drawn up. In addition, Miryoku Engineering can be applied to study the field of design, especially the research objects that equip the traits of novelty, appealing and popularity.

The results of this study can help readers contemplate the implications of the success of electric marketing. The results can contribute to the fields of marketing, communication, and design. Hence, managers or researchers can either realize how to motivate consumers of EVs or know the clear marketing characteristics to sell this type of car based on the results of this study.

This study aimed to probe electric marketing based on Miryroku Engineering. The participants of this study include most consumers who are interested in EVs due to a current lack of popularity for the electric car market and a low market share of EVs. For this reason, in addition to purely electric cars, hybrid cars were included in the investigation in this research to improve the representative value of this study. In addition, experts’ opinions and consumers’ responses in Taiwan were studied, so the results of this research could only show the achievements in this area. Furthermore, the ages set in this study were above 18 because the interviewees should have experience in driving, be capable of, or intend to buy, EVs. The aforementioned explanations about participants and survey targets form the limitations of this study. Hence, the authors suggest that further study aim to examine purely electric cars and investigate drivers of EVs as the EVs market is maturing and becoming more popular.

Develo** EVs has become an irresistible trend; therefore, we plan to study the appeal of the interiors of EVs based on human emotions in the future. In addition, the study is motivated by the changes in the EV structure compared to the traditional one, so the interiors of this type of car have great potential to improve consumer satisfaction.