Life Cycle and Creation of Attractive Quality

Kano et. al.(1984) proposed the theory of Attractive Quality as a method describing the relationship between two aspects such as an objective aspect like physical sufficiency and a subjective aspect like customer satisfaction from a two-dimensional viewpoint based on the philosophers’ idea such as Aristotle’s and John Locke’s. According to this theory, one can classify the relationship into such categories as Attractive Quality, One-Dimensional Quality, Must-Be Quality, Indifferent Quality, etc. In this paper, we first empirically demonstrate that this categorization is not absolutely invariable but that it changes with time. Second, we propose a hypothesis that this change follows a life cycle such as: Indifferent quality => Attractive Quality => One-Dimensional Quality => Must-Be Quality In addition, we discuss the method of Attractive Quality Creation (AQC). AQC can be applied to revive a matured product that has aged and whose quality is evaluated as Must-Be Quality, into a renewed product with Attractive Quality. We show a case study of the application of AQC to a matured commodity.