An interesting study from Boston College and Harvard Business School suggests that luxury consumption can be a double-edged sword: while luxury consumption yields status benefits, it can also make consumers feel inauthentic because consumers perceive it as an undue privilege.
As a result, the study says, luxury consumption may backfire and lead consumers to behave less confidently as a result of undermining their feelings of self-authenticity.
This doesn’t affect everyone, of course. The more one feels one is entitled, the less one feels unworthy of the luxury.
The effects are robust across studies conducted in the lab and in field settings such as the Metropolitan Opera, Martha’s Vineyard, a luxury shopping center, and the Upper East Side in New York, featuring relevant consumption contexts and participant populations including luxury target segments.
“Studies show that consumers are particularly attracted to luxury when they feel less confident and less powerful compared to others, and they anticipate to experience a boost in confidence and power by buying and consuming luxury,” Nailya Ordabayeva, study author and associate professor of marketing at Boston College Carroll School of Management, told CNBC.
How might this affect bev/al advertising and public relations? One way, we think, is time-honored: To position a product as an “affordable luxury.” Another way, especially for higher-priced brands: Position them as a reward for accomplishment.
That accomplishment could be anything, of course – Getting a promotion, completing a project, achieving a new fitness record, even getting a teenager to clean his room.