When you or a family member gets a new vehicle, it’s an exciting time for you, your family and friends, because often they want to check out all of the new features and share excitement with the new owner. The same feeling of wanting to show off and others wanting to see what you got continues into the automotive community, where people are proud of what they have and are excited to show off. I will be investigating how enhancing certain car features like the frunk can influence peoples’ desires to show off and what kind of features will leave them wanting to.
When it comes to showing off, many people need something worthy of showing off, meaning the product must have features that excite the users especially in avenues where there are not many exciting options for customers. Begging the questions: Why do people feel the need to show off to others and what new features would enhance the experience of eagerness to display their product?
My entire life I have gone to car meets and observed a countless amount of cars but recently for this project, I have gone to car meets to observe more than just the cars. I started looking at the people and how they were interacting with cars. I attended car meets that were more lowkey and set up by students as well as larger car meets set up by Columbus Cars and Coffee, a company that holds car meats all over Ohio and claims to be “one of the largest and most dynamic automotive communities in the Midwest.” (Columbus Cars and Coffee 2024). I started noticing at the meets, the joy that people got from showing off their cars. And thought, why do people show off?
After researching I found how showing off is what comes from the excitement of obtaining things that serve to structure your desired personal identity. “Consumers strive to construct or maintain their identities through the acquisition and use of products and brands that are perceived to provide desirable symbolic values.“(Zheng 2018) This then connects directly into video game customization where when customizing your player, Mertsalmi talks about how the options you select, when not goofing around, are a self-representation that come from self image and desired self-image. Therefore, through obtaining items that work to complete the desired personal identity one’s identity will become more complete, and they will be more willing to show off because it is now a part of who they are. The reading then goes onto talking about how teenagers in video games prefer branded items as it helps them and to construct a self-identity (Mertsalmi 2010).
This leads into branding and how having branded merch allows for communities to have a stronger identity and for others to associate you with them (Monday Merch 2023). When you represent companies you can also be sponsored by them which we see all over cars in the original Fast and Furious movies when the cars have name brand items and the logos on the side of the car. The movies’ car scenes had an undeniable impact on the community and helped form what the culture is like, which led to people wanting to build crazy cars like the ones in the movies, even boosting the product sales from those in the movies (Aaron Gold, 2021) to be able to show off and be recognized by the community. The car meets in the movies were full of people showing off their cars which led to make it more acceptable as a community to show off what you got. This continues into the car show that is made for showing off, SEMA.
SEMA is one of the largest car shows in the world that is mostly for showing off equipment and products for the automotive industry, with many top tier car builds being used to show off these products. It really does seem like a large and controlled car meet, with the best cars of the current style and trends, many from these big companies. They’re all selling you ways to make your vehicle fit a desired set up for you, like video game customization. The show is appealing because it offers components of your ideal car, allowing you to customize it in a way that reflects your personal style, making it something you’d want to show off and aligning you closer to your desired identity.
Now, how do we find what to add to enrich a space enough for someone to want to show it off? For this project, we are dealing with enhancing the front-end storage otherwise known as a “frunk”. First I did some researching about frunks to be able to write and send out a survey about storage and frunks. I then sent out surveys to people in the car community to receive answers from a community of people who are more invested in their vehicles and understand the culture. The stakeholders in this include the company because they want to know what consumers want, the consumers, because they are the ones that will be buying this product, the people owners are showing off the product too, because when products are shown off it affects the community and may cause trends and other people to buy the product. Data was gathered to provide a deeper understanding of how individuals utilize their storage space and their attitudes toward frunks.
The data brings forward the idea of how the frunk is very overlooked and people seem to not care for it, thus why you don’t see people showing it off, but they also would be willing to pay more money for it to be nicer when buying a car. This offers up the argument that frunks need an updated version. From one of the survey responses we see that a majority want a storage space that is functional and versatile, and an idea for how much space would be preferred. More data shows that 48% had a problem with efficiency when accessing the storage space. Through these data analysis we can start to look at options that would help to enhance the frunk.
After researching I found articles about making spaces more useful through space efficiency and packing in utilities. This article about a pickup truck is designed to be extremely versatile. ”We made accessories for people who use trucks – on the job, weekends, adventure. You name it, we did it because it’s your platform and she’s bad to the bone.Canoo designed its pickup truck to be the most cab-forward and space efficient on the market (Press.canoo.com 2021).” There are many features to this truck and one of them was the extra perimeter lighting around the entire bed wall for additional visibility at night, which led to more research about lighting. In an article Jones states, “Lighting is essential to the spaces we live in and is one of the most important elements when designing a space. Get it right and a room can come to life, create atmosphere, functionality and style (Jones 2016) .” This expresses the importance of light and that it can enhance a space, which is what we are looking for to make a space worth showing off. The ideas of lights then evolved into research on the art style of cyberpunk. We as a society are headed down a path where our future is beginning to look closer and closer to one form a cyberpunk universe, because of the innovations in tech (Global Data Thematic Intelligence 2024). One of the styles in cyberpunk are long LED lighting options almost everywhere. Today many newer cars are using thin LEDs for headlights, taillights and even interior ambient lights. Since the styling of cars is constantly becoming more similar to cyberpunk with less of the “punk” tones, it may be beneficial to jump to where the market may be going, which is towards more LED bar lighting.
This is one of my conjectures on how to address enhancing the frunk space. The frunk would be fitted with LED lights around edges and the bottom of the hood to make the space more visible. The exterior light bar and light up logo are features that add that more futuristic style and when you drop down the front hatch the light bar will light up the ground around. This, and the ability to get into the frunk with just pulling the hatch down for quick access and the LED’s inside providing light for the pull-down work table. This idea came from the utility truck from Canoo with how many features they had, including a fold out table. The other piece of this conjecture is the Honda Badge being the handle to the frunk hatch. Recently there has been a trend of companies trying to make handles sleek, but they end up confusing instead of informing and can be tricky (Bassett 2023). That’s why the badge on the hatch would be a lever that pulls up and has a recessed pocket underneath to put your fingers in to pull just like a normal handle and door, for the easiest way of access. Especially since 48% of people in the survey had a problem with efficiency when accessing the storage space. With these options it would enhance the frunk space to be a more useful area making it more likely to be shown off.
The last conjecture focuses on making the most out of the space. I found that with overhead storage, you gain more room on the bottom but also items are more easily accessible (Fleximounts 2023). I took this into account while I was thinking about objects that are awkward to store in your car. The two that stood out to me were loose papers and food dishes. I wanted to create a storage in the frunk, and in this conjecture on the hood, that is perfect for carrying loose paper or folders and other light items. Food being the other awkwardly stored item, when transporting it, they always seem to never hold the right temperature and so a possible solution is to store the food in the frunk and have vents that connect the frunk to create a different climate. This would also allow for an easy access heat or a/c source from outside of the car. The other system in this conjecture would be the hooks that can snap out of place to hang things. This is an option that is extremely functional and versatile, answering the survey responders’ want for a frunk that is more functional and versatile.This option allows the user creativity to use the space anyway they can think. You could do many things with this including hanging up wet clothes or towels and blasting them with air to dry them or heat them up, keeping delcates away from other items, groceries that are at risk of being ruined, maybe even hanging up decorations to show off, like a flag for a tailgate.
This customization ties back into research from earlier and how through customization people are creating something to be able to enjoy and show off that builds on their ideal personal identity. Because these options enhance the space of the frunk they are possible answers to the question of what new features would enhance the experience for customers to want to show off?
The frunk is a problem area for many electrical vehicles as it seems to be pushed to the side as a priority, which looks as though it is wasting space. When a good design is celebrated it is shown off, and when it comes to the car community who love showing off their cars, the list falls short when it comes to frunks. The front storage space needs an updated design and I believe that prioritizing what makes people want to show off their frunk, will bring the frunk back into being a vital part of the car that consumers will care about.
References:
Bassett A. . (June 11, 2023). Modern Cars’ Door Designs Can Be Hard to Handle. Press, lift, pop out, pull, twist, push—automotive entry is getting complicated. Car and Driver. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a44040564/modern-car-door-designs-amalyzed/
Columbus Cars and Coffee. (2024). About. https://www.columbuscarsandcoffee.com/schedule.html
Demegillo, M. (2023, July 25). Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau Wrote a Key Iron Man Scene on the Spot. CBR. https://www.cbr.com/iron-man-scene-last-minute-robert-downey-jr/
Fleximounts. (March 20, 2023). Why Overhead Garage Storage is Becoming Increasingly Popular. https://www.fleximounts.com/blog/why-overhead-garage-storage-is-becoming-increasingly-popular
Global Data Thematic Intelligence. (January 24, 2024). The reality of a cyberpunk universe in the real world. https://www.verdict.co.uk/a-cyberpunk-universe-in-the-real-world/#?cf-view
Gold A. . (2021). Motortrend, Fast 9 Is Here: The Deep Impact of the Fast & Furious Franchise on Car Culture.https://www.motortrend.com/features/fast-9-fast-and-furious-movies-saga-impact-car-culture-feature/
Just Cars. (2020, December 17). REPORT – 2019 SEMA SHOW – JUST CARS. Just Cars. https://www.justcars.com.au/news-and-reviews/report-2019-sema-show/793980
Mertsalmi, J. (2010). Character customization in video games as symbolic consumption- how characters are customized. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Character-customization-in-video-games-as-symbolic-Mertsalmi/20435dce6dc5718b924dec7e4d03e7e503989957
Monday Merch. (January 5, 2023). Why Branded Merchandise is Important for Employee Satisfaction and The Company. https://www.mondaymerch.com/articles/why-branded-merchandise-is-important-for-employee-satisfaction-and-the-company#
Press.Canoo.Com. (2021). Canoo’s New Pickup Is All Electric, All American – Ready For Work & The Weekend. https://www.press.canoo.com/press-release/canoos-new-pickup-is-all-electric-all-american-ready-for-work-the-weekend
Xiaoying Zheng, Ernest Baskin, Siqing Peng. (2018).Feeling inferior, showing off: The effect of nonmaterial social comparisons on conspicuous consumption, Journal of Business Research, Volume 90, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318302169?casa_token=VSGsR1AmmsYAAAAA:5pc3rVRVuYEwyob-q3Ne2TBfS7cT2KgxX8C0ssBna-wxo8SIrcBKRU87zHF4X3pI0nPP9iwcyw#ab0005
