At present, most articles are concerned about the consumption behavior in the purchase stage, while little research focuses on the consumption behavior in the post-purchase stage. In fact, post-purchase usage behaviors such as post-purchase usage decisions also deserve attention, as post-purchase usage affects key indicators such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. At the same time, as an effective marketing strategy, anthropomorphic design has been widely used in enterprise marketing activities, such as product design, product packaging, advertising communication, etc. However, existing research mainly focuses on the role of anthropomorphic design in the pre-purchase stage for purchase intention, while little pays attention to its impact on usage in the post-purchase stage. Based on this, this paper explores whether the effect of anthropomorphic design in the post-purchase stage will lead consumers to increase or reduce usage.

This paper carried out a field experiment and two situational experiments. Study 1 conducted a field experiment to distribute mouthwash products by directly entering the dormitory building of a university in the north. A 2 (anthropomorphic design: anthropomorphic vs. non- anthropomorphic) × 2 (product type: hedonic vs. utilitarian) between subject experimental design was used, anthropomorphism and non-anthropomorphism were manipulated through the appearance packaging of products, the mouthwash was designed as utilitarian products and hedonic products with different advertising language, and the participants were observed to use four mouthwashes (2 anthropomorphic designs × 2 product types). Study 2 and Study 3 conducted situational experiments, taking shower gel and toothpaste as experimental objects respectively, and other designs are the same as study 1.

The results show that: For hedonic products, compared with non-anthropomorphic design, the usage under the condition of anthropomorphic design is more; for utilitarian products, compared with non-anthropomorphic design, the usage under the condition of anthropomorphic design is less. At the same time, the psychological distance between consumers and products is the mediating variable of the above interaction. For hedonic products, psychological distance has a positive impact on the usage of products. That is, anthropomorphic design reduces the psychological distance between consumers and products, thus making consumers increase the usage of products. For utilitarian products, psychological distance negatively affects the usage of products. That is, anthropomorphic design reduces the psychological distance between consumers and products, but makes consumers reduce the usage of products.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: First, most of the existing studies focus on consumers’ decisions in the purchase stage, while this paper studies consumers’ post-purchase usage decisions, which makes theoretical contributions to the integrity of consumer behavior research. Second, it focuses on the role of anthropomorphic design in the post-purchase stage. The effect of anthropomorphic design in the post-purchase usage stage is not exactly the same as that in the purchase stage, so this paper makes theoretical contributions to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of anthropomorphism. Third, it explores the impact of anthropomorphic design on the post-purchase usage in combination with product types, which provides reference for enterprises to apply anthropomorphic strategies.