Narcissism can lead consumers to desire and purchase uniquely designed and expensive products, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Washington State University focused on the automobile industry to demonstrate how narcissism can be used to enhance marketing strategies. In this industry, firms offer a wide range of options that allow customers to self-design truly unique products.
Yet field evidence indicates that few shoppers fully use these systems. For example, most consumers select standard colours (black or white) rather than customise a car with a unique paint treatment (like volcano red).
The researchers conducted four studies showing how narcissism can lead consumers to desire and purchase uniquely designed products. One study established that actual car buyers self-designed more unique cars if they scored higher on narcissism.
Another study demonstrated that firms can put consumers into a temporary narcissistic state of mind with marketing techniques. For example, customers were shown an automobile advertisement with a slogan that capitalised on their desire for admiration.
Overall, the results showed car buyers with higher levels of narcissism selected significantly more unique and expensive cars, as did consumers in a state of narcissism.
Researchers said a rising trend in narcissism is a cause for retailing and manufacturing firms offering customisable products to rethink their marketing strategies.
"Our research suggests that firms should consider customers' narcissistic tendencies as well as the ability to influence their current states of mind to exploit the largely untapped potential of mass customisation systems," said David Sprott, a professor at Washington State University.
Researchers said that attributes should contain both mainstream options, as well as more unusual, unique options.
Firms may also benefit by indicating product uniqueness, such as percentage shares indicating how frequently an option is selected by other consumers.
The research also implies that firms need not increase customer share of true narcissists in order to enhance product uniqueness.
Rather, a firm can realise similar benefits by creating narcissistic states.
Data shows that narcissists rate customisable and personalise products more favourably and are willing to pay more for them, the researchers said.
The findings were published in the Journal of Retailing.
