Is smartwatch perceived as a wristwatch or a wearable device?: the experimental study for examining the categorization and the perceived fit with manufacturer on consumer evaluations

Recent researches demonstrated that when facing a really new product, consumers would learn about it through knowledge transfer from the base domains (existing familiar categories) to a new product category. This paper applied this theoretical background to the smartwatch category. Smartwatch can be categorized as another variant of a wristwatch or a wearable device, so we expected that consumers' responses would vary depending on the category frame and the manufacturer. We manipulated the category frame with the message on the ad and the manufacturer with the instruction. Specifically, we found that consumers' perceived fit varied depending on the category frame and the manufacturer, and consumers formed more expectation when the watch company launched a smartwatch framed as a wearable device than it framed was a wristwatch. In Experiment 2, we observed that consumers' affective response, perceived quality, and attitude were different depending upon the number of features on the ad and the category frame. Based on these findings, we presented discussions and implications about the smartwatch.