Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 3813–3819

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

The perfection of the narcissistic self: A qualitative study on luxury

consumption and customer equity
Yeu-Jin Kang a, Seong-Yeon Park b,⁎
a
School of Business, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea
b
School of Business, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study explores the buying behaviors of the two types of narcissistic orientations, covert and overt, to see the
Received 1 December 2014 differences in purchasing behavior and psychology in luxury consumption and their different contributions to
Received in revised form 1 September 2015 customer equity of luxury brands. Covert narcissistic consumptions show counterfeit product consuming behav-
Accepted 1 December 2015
iors and a fast purchasing cycle, prefer to have trendy items, value quantity more than quality, and choose loud
Available online 19 April 2016
luxury goods. On the other hand, overt narcissistic consumption shows socially responsible consuming behaviors
Keywords:
and a comparatively slower purchasing cycle, the preference to have classic and limited symbolic items, prioritiz-
Narcissism ing quality over quantity, and choosing quiet luxury goods. This research confirms that the two types of narcis-
Overt and covert narcissism sistic orientations encourage people to have different modalities in luxury consumption and make different
Luxury consumption contributions to customer equity of luxury brands.
Customer equity © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.
Luxury brands
Consumer behavior

1. Introduction management for themselves. With the increasing narcissistic consump-

Luxury consumption has been pertinent to those in their forties and
fifties in the upper class. Recently, the luxury product market expanded
into different age segments. Young consumers' luxury consumption has
shown rapid growth worldwide. Furthermore, the male consumption
rate is increasing globally. Bain & Company's “Luxury goods worldwide
market study” states that the global luxury market topped 330 billion
US dollars in 2013 and shows continuous growth (http://www.bain.
com). Despite the global financial crisis, advanced information technol-
ogy and globalized marketing strategies are vastly accelerating the lux-
ury consumption rate.
Generally, the luxury market has a sensitive relationship with con-
sumers' economic condition and lifestyle. The sales rate changes of the
luxury market depend on the global economic situation because of the
high price of luxury products and services. However, consumers, who
consider the primary goal of their consuming behavior to be improving
personal value of self and expressing their identities effectively, carry
out luxury consumption despite of economic barriers. From their con-
sumption of luxury products and services, consumers intend to be per-
ceived as luxurious persona. This phenomenon is critically relevant to
consumer social psychology. While people have various relationships
with others in their own societies, they carry out impression
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ujinkang.jasmin@gmail.com (Y.-J. Kang), sypark@ewha.ac.kr
(S.-Y. Park).
tion, luxury consumption has expanded due to consumers' narcissistic
orientation, conspicuous consumption and impression management
(Lambert & Desmond, 2013; Park & Kang, 2013; Sedikides, Gregg,
Cisek, & Hart, 2007). The Impression Management Theory suggests
that people deliberately adjust their behaviors for the expression of pos-
itive social images of themselves (Leary, 1995; Tedeschi, 2013).
Baumeister and Leary (1995) argue that positive social feedback is a
crucial source of one's ego, which is intimately related to narcissism.
Thus, the characteristics of narcissistic orientations in relation to luxury
consumption need to be explicitly explored because narcissistic con-
suming behaviors contribute highly to the customer equity of luxury
brands.
Consumers try to identify themselves with goods, services, and im-
ages of brands or products. More importantly, congruency between
their ideal images of themselves and consuming objects has played an
important role in luxury consumption in recent years (Mandel,
Petrova, & Cialdini, 2006; Park, Rabolt, & Jeon, 2008; Vickers &
Renand, 2003)). Thus, what they use or wear, how close the relationship
between the individuals and luxury brands is, and what kind of tangible
and intangible benefits consumers earn from luxury brand consump-
tion become important issues. These can be extended to the term called
‘customer equity.’
To attract more consumers and maximize a firm's potential profit-
ability, customer relationship management emerges as a critical
marketing strategy. Thus, customer relationship management is recog-
nized as a part of a firms' assets, which is known as customer equity.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.073
0148-2963/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc.
3814 Y.-J. Kang, S.-Y. Park / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 3813–3819

Table 1
Summary of Research Findings.

Covert narcissism Overt narcissism

Common grounds in luxury consumption • Express themselves with luxury brand attributes in various ways
• Use luxury items as their sociopsychological resource
• Utilize luxury items as essential means for social activities
• Passionately indulge in luxury brands shopping
• Crave compliments and admirations from others
• Choose to purchase luxury brands even with a financial burden
Brand equity • Consume luxury brands to cover up psychological inferiority
• Concerned with the visibility of the logos and the public's de-
sirability of luxury brands
• Desire public recognition and evaluation of luxury brand
• Believe that luxury brands positive image and popularity make
themselves look positive and popular
• Purchase counterfeits
Value equity • Prefer low price
• Have no doubt about product quality
• Consider ‘showing off’ the biggest benefit from purchasing
luxury items
• Sell out old luxury items to make money for the purchase of
new trendy items
Relationship equity • Interests move along with trends (no attachment left behind
with the brand)
• Purchase popular items with lowest price possible
• Feel happy about owning various luxury brand items
• Do not feel the need to be loyal to luxury brands
• Consume luxury brands to express psychological
superiority
• Focus on brands' image, reputation, tradition, and
distinctiveness
• Equate luxury brands' overall impressions and
meanings with self-image
• Focus on expressed self-image which affects
preferences for luxury items
• Prefer to buy genuine products rather than
counterfeits
• Consider expensive prices and low convenience
as less important issues in their purchase
• Believe that luxury items deserve high price
• Refuse low quality items and counterfeits
• Prefer socially responsible items or
environment-friendly items
• Highly loyal to luxury brands which they feel
congruent with.
• Expect special recognition and treatments due to
the high price they paid for luxury brands
• Prefer to have limited edition items
• Participate in loyalty and affinity programs to
express their wealth

Customer equity consists of three parts: brand equity, value equity, and
relationship equity (Blattberg & Deighton, 1996). Monitoring and mea-
suring customer equity has become critically essential to survival in a
competitive market environment.
The roles of narcissistic consumption have been continuously ex-
panded in the customer equity of luxury brands. Despite the fact that in-
creasing narcissistic consumptions (covert and overt) show different
tendencies in peoples' psychology and behavior, previous research has
not directly explored consumers with the two types of narcissistic ori-
entations. Therefore, explicit empirical research regarding narcissistic
purchasing psychology and behavior of luxury brands is needed and
their influence on customer equity should be defined. This study tries
to grasp the different luxury consuming behaviors of covert and overt
narcissism by qualitative approaches in order to understand their ef-
fects on the customer equity of luxury brands. Qualitative research
methods are suitable for examining deep psychology and comprehen-
sive behavior in narcissistic luxury consumption.
Hence, this study will examine the following research questions:
1. Is narcissistic consumption an important factor in luxury brands?
2. How does narcissism influence consumer psychology and behavior
in luxury consumption?
3. How does narcissistic consumption contribute to the customer equi-
ty of luxury brands?
2. Literature review
2.1. Narcissistic consumption in luxury market
The term ‘narcissism’ is from Greek mythology, and British sexolo-
gist Havelock Ellis mentions the term in psychology for the first time
in 1898. Since then, Freud (1914/1957) applied narcissism as a psycho-
logical variable and, subsequently, narcissism research has been
expanding to various disciplines (Campbell, Foster, Sedikides, &
Spencer, 2007). Narcissism is defined as a self-loving tendency that peo-
ple have inside their minds. In modern society, capitalism and material-
ism incite people to build their self-esteem, elevate themselves, and
survive in a highly competitive environment without feeling of shame
or getting behind than others. Such behaviors become prerequisites
and crucial values for gratifying their lives (Lasch, 1980).
People with narcissism overly respect and treat themselves in an
egotistical way. They desire successful lives, influential social power,
compliments from others, goodwill, kindness, and special treatment
with high self-expectations in their psychology. To accomplish this,
they easily sacrifice their other desires and emotions (Emmons, 1987;
Lasch, 1980; Mazlish, 1982; Park & Kang, 2013; Watson, Grisham,
Trotter, & Biderman, 1984). Narcissism leads to create their own ideal
images and develop a self-concept systematically.
Normal narcissism helps people psychologically well adjust to pro-
moting a positive self-image and encouraging themselves to succeed
in self-development contexts. Furthermore, psychologically healthy
narcissism claims social ascendency, takes a positive view about oneself,
and has a mindset of flexible self-encouragement and achievement
(Ackerman et al., 2010; Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010).
According to Akhtar and Thomson (1982) and Hendin and Cheek
(1997), overt narcissism(Grandiosity-Exhibitionism) permits grandios-
ity that leads to direct expression of exhibitionism, self-importance, and
a preoccupation with attention and admiration from others. The studies
also argue that the attributes of overt narcissism are pursuit of social
success, lack of depth, ignoring and devaluating others, strong aspira-
tion, and passion for ethics, social politics, and aesthetic issues. They
have less feelings of depression, inferiority, and psychological anxiety
than covert narcissists (Hendin & Cheek, 1997; Park & Kang, 2013).
Akhtar and Thomson (1982) argue that overt narcissists have reinforced
self-respect, sense of privilege and invulnerability, ignoring and
devaluating others, passion for social success, strong ambitions, high
consideration about ethical, sociopolitical, and aesthetic issues, and real-
ity perception from self-centered perspectives.
Belk, Mayer, and Bahn (1982) suggest that consumers disclose their
self-concepts by making purchase decisions. The goal of such behavior is
to become their ideal images (Das, 2015; Schuhmacher, von Janda, &
Woodside, 2014). Sedikides et al. (2007) also state that the narcissists
spruce up themselves upon their self-image motives because narcissism
dominates consumers' purchase decision-making process which relies
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on self-image motives. They like conspicuous consumption and tend to
acquire expensive and scarce products (Kim & Lee, 2015; LaBarbera,
1988). Thus, overt narcissism encourages people to show a preference
for genuine luxury products that have exclusivity, durability, high qual-
ity, after-sales service, low social risk, status, ethicality, and legality
(Cheung & Prendergast, 2006; Yoo & Lee, 2009). The big reason for buy-
ing genuine products, which is a sign of wealth and social superiority, is
to get admiration from others because they are a part of elite groups
(Mason, 1998; Nia & Zaichkowsky, 2000).
On the other hand, covert narcissism (Vulnerability-Sensitivity)
brings uncertain feelings of grandeur, lack of self-confidence and initia-
tives, and vague feelings of depression. Covert narcissism shows hyper-
sensitivity, inferiority, pursuit of social power and honor, craving for
compliments, strong jealousy, dissatisfaction of working and society,
fragile ego, and likelihood of conscience contamination. Self-concept is
related to purchasing needs and motivations. Besser and Priel (2010)
state that covert narcissism makes people get easily distressed in a
threatening interpersonal environment. They manifest interpersonal
sensitivities in social situations where they may possibly experience a
feeling of shame. Self-protection appears because of the fear of negative
evaluation. Negative evaluations from the audiences are a strong pun-
ishment to those who are socially hypersensitive and are trying to pro-
tect their vulnerable self-esteem.
Markus and Kitayama (1991) suggest that some of the motivations
of luxury consumption come from the desires to keep their dignity,
prestige, social face, and class, to avoid isolation from the society they
are involved in, and to enhance the interdependence among the sur-
rounding people. They feel a sense of belonging to a wealthy group
and want to let others realize that through luxury consumption (Nia &
Zaichkowsky, 2000). Prior researches prove that both overt and covert
narcissism encourage people to show different characteristics and
those characteristics encourage them to consume luxury items based
on distinctive motivations of themselves.
2.2. Impression management and luxury consumption
Many consumers have upward consumption intentions and a con-
spicuous consuming tendency. They feel pressured to adapt to sur-
rounding peoples' consumption level and to avoid a feeling of shame.
Individuals accept information, styles, attributes from the people they
feel referenced by social comparisons (Moschis, 1976). This encourages
people to buy luxury goods excessively, which led luxury brands to be-
come one of the most profitable and the fastest growing types of brands
in market segments (Berthon, Pitt, Parent, & Berthon, 2009).
Luxury widely refers to products or services that are in a very high
standard (Shukla & Purani, 2012). However, the concept of luxury
does not have substantial definitions yet. Consumers' commonly de-
sired characteristics from luxury items that include: beauty, rarity, qual-
ity, price, and inspirational meaning of brands (Godey et al., 2013; Phau
& Prendergast, 2000). Additionally, the motivations to acquire luxury
goods are closely related to conspicuous consumption. Mason (1984)
explains conspicuous consumption as a behavior which allows people
to show off their ability to afford luxury goods or expensive goods. Con-
spicuous consumption strongly appears when consumers are involved
in impression management.
Impression management reflects how people control their identities
and establish their ideal images of themselves. Impression management
theory argues that consumers intend to adjust their behavior to develop
a positive social image (Carver & Scheier, 1981; Goffman, 1959). Chen,
Shechter, and Chaiken (1996) and Baumeister and Leary (1995) state
that positive social impressions boost their social interactions and they
try to receive more positive social feedbacks, which are important
sources of one's self-esteem.
According to Park and Kang (2013), people who have narcissistic
orientations show a tendency toward impression management. They
manage their impressions to maintain a favorable social image, which
3815
encourages more social interactions and positive social feedback
(Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Leary, 1995). They achieve their ideal self-
images via conspicuous consumptions and feel satisfaction from others'
responses to their luxury goods rather than the practical value in use.
The satisfaction from others' responses comes from having something
that others cannot obtain easily, and it appears in the form of envying
and fulfillment. According to Veblen (2007), the recognition of an
individual's social state from others derives from their consumption.
However, luxury goods are comparatively more expensive, which
creates financial barriers to many customers. The expensive prices of
luxury goods are, sometimes, beyond some people's purchasing
power. Therefore, people look for substitutes to fulfill their desires,
these substitutes are counterfeit goods. Even though they are illegal
products, people buy them to earn the symbolic value of luxury brands.
This phenomenon appears more frequent in Asian countries. Collectivis-
tic Asian culture makes people put more attention to surrounding peo-
ple and trying to belong to their society. Such an atmosphere motivates
people to maintain their social face, dignity, and personal prestige, and
to try to increase their codependency (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
These can relate to a consumers' narcissistic orientation.
2.3. Consumers with narcissistic orientation and customer equity in luxury
market
The relationship with customers has become a critical issue and
many firms recognize the strategic importance of customer relationship
management (CRM). Firms admit the relationship with customer as its
intangible assets and tools to manifest their sales in a long-term context
(Blattberg & Deighton, 1996). According to Blattberg and Deighton
(1996), customer equity refers to a firms' strategic and intangible finan-
cial assets that have to be measured, monitored, and strengthened to
maximize the long-term success.
Lemon, Rust, and Zeithaml (2001) state that customer equity is the
discounted sum of lifetime values of a firm in a customer context
which has three key drivers: brand equity, value equity, and relation-
ship equity. Brand equity is customers' subjective and emotional evalu-
ation of a certain brand which is strongly related to previously
accumulated experiences and intangible assessment of the brand. The
key drivers of brand equity are customer brand awareness, customer
brand attitude, and customer perception of brand ethics. Value equity
is a degree of utility benefits that customers objectively assess. It is
based on the perceptions of what is given up for and what is received.
Three key drivers of value equity are quality, price, and convenience. Re-
lationship equity refers to the intangible asset that the firm acquires
after composing the relationship between the firm and customers.
There are four key drivers of relationship equity, these are loyalty pro-
grams, special recognition and treatment programs, community-
building programs, and knowledge-building programs (Leone et al.,
2006; Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). However, the distinction be-
tween brand equity and customer equity has raised a lot of concerns be-
cause they share many factors in common. Both emphasize the
importance of customers to maximize the firms' profit. To make it
clear, brand equity focuses on the prescriptive marketing guidelines
and growth of marketing opportunities, while customer equity empha-
sizes the bottom-line financial values and customer relationship man-
agement (Leone et al., 2006).
Narcissistic orientations allow people to desire successful lives, influ-
ential social power, compliments from others, goodwill, kindness, and
special treatment with high self-expectations in their psychology
(Emmons, 1987; Lasch, 1980), which can lead to relationship equity.
In addition, consumers purchase luxury items to express their values
which can be explained by narcissistic orientation. Those consumers
who desire to have novelty, variety, and sensory gratification or plea-
sure show positive attitudes toward luxury brands. Such positive
attitudes toward luxury consumption also significantly influence cus-
tomer equity of luxury brands (Kim et al., 2010; Park, Song, & Ko,
3816 Y.-J. Kang, S.-Y. Park / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 3813–3819
2011). Because narcissistic orientation positively influences luxury con-
sumption, this study aims to explore the two different types of con-
sumers (covert and overt narcissistic orientations) and compare the
differences in their psychology, behavior and customer equity in luxury
consumption.
3. Research methodology
People consume to satisfy their desires by having devotion to self-
interests, pursuit of instant pleasures, and obsession with appearances.
These appear to help them maintain their distinctive identity (Lasch,
1980; Park & Kang, 2013) Luxury goods are useful for the people in
achieving such goals. Thus, this study aims to find the differences be-
tween the two types of narcissism in luxury consumption. To analyze
the deep and complex psychology of consumers, focus group interviews
and depth interviews were conducted because qualitative research
methods are suitable for determining why and how an issue is salient
(Silverman, 1998). Furthermore, these research methods provide a
deeper and more detailed understanding regarding certain questions
with fewer informants required (Litosseliti, 2003).
To confirm their narcissistic orientation, this study used the Narcis-
sistic Personality Inventory (NPI) of Raskin and Hall (1981) and the Hy-
persensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS) of Hendin and Cheek (1997). The
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) which uses a forced-choice for-
mat and a self-report questionnaire that allows respondents to pick ei-
ther narcissistic alternatives or non-narcissistic alternatives. Pincus
and Lukowitsky (2010) argue that NPI is preferred to capture overt nar-
cissism. The Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS), which is not cor-
related with the NPI, is a 10-item measure using a 5-point scale that
assesses covert narcissism (Hendin & Cheek, 1997).
The informants (n = 30) were aged between their twenties and
fifties. 57% of them had overt narcissism and the remaining 43% had co-
vert narcissism with previous experiences in luxury consumption. The
demographic characteristics of the informants are as follows: 53% of fe-
male and 47% of male, and 33% of 20s, 40% of 30s, 17% of 40s; and 10% of
50s. The occupations of informants varied and included undergraduate
and graduate students (26%), office workers (27%), housewives (27%),
business men (7%), and others (13%).
People who agreed to join the qualitative research completed a sur-
vey which contained two narcissism scales and questions regarding de-
mographic information. According to the pre-survey, pilot interviews
were conducted on those who have salient narcissism to confirm their
luxury consumption and sharable experiences. For the main research,
carefully selected participants were gathered in seminar rooms that
were convenient for them.
In-Depth interviews (n = 10) were conducted at least twice for each
participant. For focus group interviews (n = 20), each group consisted
of four people who were in relatively similar stages of their lives.
There was no history between or relationships among the participants
in order to allow them to share information freely and openly
(Litosseliti, 2003).
4. Findings
4.1. Narcissistic orientation in luxury consumption
According to the qualitative research, narcissistic orientations were
found to play significant roles in luxury brand consumption. Consumers
with narcissistic orientations express themselves through luxury brand
attributes in various ways. They also use luxury items as their sociopsy-
chological resources and the luxury items are used as essential means
for their social activities. Consumers with narcissistic orientations pas-
sionately indulge in luxury brand shopping to buy what may positively
affect their social images as their own ideal images. They keep trying to
reach out for their ideal images because they crave for compliments and
admirations from others. Therefore, they consume luxury brands even
with financial constraints. Narcissistic orientation was observed to sig-
nificantly affect luxury consumption.
“People simply judge me by what I am wearing. Depending on what I
wear, the way people treat me changes sometimes… I believe that lux-
ury products play a certain role as seasonings or garnishes of a plate.
Something make more delicious and attractive for one's appetite. Luxu-
ry products allow myself more valuable and attractive.”
4.2. Psychological and behavioral characteristics of narcissistic orientation
in luxury consumption
Even though normal people have certain degrees of narcissistic ten-
dencies, the numbers of covert and overt narcissistic tendencies are
increasing due to the influence of the highly competitive social environ-
ment which encourages people to avoid feelings of shame or getting be-
hind than others. It was observed that there are clear differences in the
consuming psychology and behavior between covert and overt narcis-
sistic orientations.
4.2.1. Covert type of narcissistic consumption
4.2.1.1. Counterfeit product consumption. The covert type of narcissism
emphasizes the symptoms of vulnerability and hypersensitivity which
are considered more as a psychodynamic dimension (Hendin & Cheek,
1997). Because of its vulnerable attribute of self, it causes consumption
of luxury items. However, luxury items are mostly high priced and the
financial barrier is one of the unavoidable issues. Thus, they choose to
purchase counterfeit goods. The primary reason for consuming counter-
feit products is the price advantage. It may be that, as argued by Akhtar
and Thomson (1982), covert narcissism leads to corrupted consciences.
This may relate to the fragile self-esteem and behavior of self-protect
and self-enhancing.
Covert narcissism makes people feel less guilt about buying illegal
counterfeit products because achieving and keeping up their ideal im-
ages are more important issues for them.
“Who knows that I'm carrying a fake Prada bag unless I say it out? No
one can find out. That doesn't mean I always wear fakes. I do have orig-
inals, but if I wear originals for most days and wear a fake for once in a
while, people think the fake item as original… I know fakes are illegally
produced and it is not nice doing so. But I can't stop. If I don't have
enough money to buy what I need to buy, then there is no choice.”
4.2.1.2. Must have trendy items. Consumers with covert narcissistic orien-
tations become stressed and depressed when they find out that people
close to them have purchased recently released and popular items. It is
their habit to check what other luxury items people own and to desire to
get some items before others do. This leads consumers to enjoy compli-
ments and envy about what they wear from others.
“My friends or colleagues always ask me where I bought this or that,
how much they cost, and what brand they are. They often get surprised
after I tell them the price, because they are all super new items from
famous luxury brands, which they have never seen before … But some-
times that attention moves to others, I almost feel like I am humiliated,
depressed, and ignored. I hate that feeling. So I always check out fashion
blogs and enjoy mining information… I pretty much enjoy being an
early-adopter. People admire my sense of style.”
4.2.1.3. Quantity than quality. Consumers with covert narcissistic orien-
tations prefer to value the number of items they can get for the same
price, rather than the quality. The variety of items they own is a crucial
point of their consumption.
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“I never wear the same outfit when I meet someone for several days in a
row. I don't want to be seen outdated or look the same. I hate to hear
‘does she have that only?’ I need to differentiate myself from other peo-
ple and make myself stand out every day… I prefer to have a few Mi-
chael Kors or Mark Jacobs than one Chanel. Many bags make me feel
more fancy and sensible.”
4.2.1.4. Fast purchasing cycle. Consumers with covert narcissistic orienta-
tions want to have as many luxury items as they can afford. Thus, they
want every new item of luxury brands to be in their hands. They sell
outdated items through online secondhand markets. As soon as they
get the money, they look for new items to buy. Some people show im-
pulsive buying behaviors.
“I love ties and watches. Ties coordinate with many of my outfits that I
have. I visit stores every new season and buy new items… Ties are not
that expensive but watches are. When I see a watch that I saw in a mag-
azine, I sell past seasons' watches at online communities. Most of the
brand new items that I had bought before were so popular, so it was
pretty easy to sell them on online markets. Then I buy new items… Some
people may think that I'm very rich because I always have new items.
But they don't know the truth behind it. It's even fun.”
4.2.1.5. Loud luxury goods. The logo exposures of the items need to be
loud because they want others to recognize the brands they own.
They do not feel the need to buy them if the items do not show the
logos or the brand names.
“Just like everyone has its own identity, all products own identities. If I
buy a sweater, I prefer those with a big logo. I don't like the tiny size
of Ralph Lauren logo. But I love the big pony series that came out later.
I bought several T-shirts with big pony logos.”
4.2.2. Overt type of narcissistic consumption
4.2.2.1. Genuine and exclusive product consumption. Overt narcissism has
also been known as a grandiosity narcissism that shows direct expres-
sions of exhibitionism and self-absorption, and a preoccupation with at-
tention and admiration of their socially congruent behavior and
personality from others. In other words, people with overt narcissistic
orientation consider themselves as high class, like the high-quality
products they consume. Thus, they prefer to wear classic and limited
items.
The history and reputation of a luxury brand is very important. The
meaningfulness of a product is a critical factor for consumers' purchas-
ing decision (Lee, Jeon, Li, & Park, 2015). If a certain luxury product is
considered as a necessary item for the flaunting of wealth, they want
to own it regardless of price. Therefore, they even apply for loans to
shop without financial constraints.
“Many people say that you must own Hermes Birkin or Kelly and Chanel
2.0 in women's life time. Those bags can be used regardless of trends.
The bag itself has heritage and reputation that trendy products don't
have… They are very expensive and Birkins and Kellys require you to
get on the waitlist to order. Last time I waited for a year. Yet I could wait
with no complaints, because I knew the bag was worth the long wait
and the loan interest. Definitely worth it.”
4.2.2.2. Quality than quantity. People believe that the qualities of the
product they wear or use express the value of self and class. In the
same vein, people with overt narcissistic orientations believe that one
good-quality item lasts longer than a bulk of cheap items. They also
feel self-congruency through the products they wear or use. For
3817
example, they relate using the products made by artisans or products
made from high-quality materials to their elite parentage or academic
background from prestigious school.
“My nature never allows the ambiguity. If it is, then it is. If it is not, it is
not. I hate hypocrites with no truthfulness and authenticity. I don't need
many people who are not true to me. The quality of relationship is more
meaningful and I don't want to waste my time, money, and emotion…
Thus, I only buy something with good quality and efficiency. One high-
quality good is better than many other junks…I even try to be a high-
quality person, too.”
4.2.2.3. Quiet luxury goods. Consumers with overt narcissism feel no need
to elevate themselves with brand logos because their value of self or
class is already high enough. They look down on people who wear
loud goods and consider themselves superior. Thus, they avoid buying
loud items.
“Some people try to show their wealth with logo of brands. I understand
the reason of expression but I want to tell them that the value of self can-
not be measured by those products. Truly wealthy people do not need to
try to show and they actually don't, because they already have the aura
of the wealth… The products with no logo but made with good material
are more noble.”
4.2.2.4. Socially responsible consumption. People prefer to consume
environment-friendly products and carry out exemplary consumption.
They desire to project socially advisable behaviors, because they believe
themselves to be respectful, trustworthy, grand and modest.
“This society I live in is very complicated and competitive. In this com-
petitive environment, people easily become conscienceless. I feel very
bad about it. So I try to live in a good and correct way, and I believe I
am a good model of righteousness and morality… If I see an advertise-
ment of a certain brand doing a promotion related to social-minded and
eco-friendly campaigns, I buy their products, regardless of price, for my-
self and others as presents. Other people will use them and realize the
meaningfulness. I give them a chance to buy something made with a
good cause and how helpful it is for the environment. That's who I am
and I feel proud of myself. ”.
4.2.2.5. Slow purchasing cycle. To buy a certain products, they weigh the
benefits that they can get from the product for comparatively longer
than others. The product needs to fulfill their own standards and should
not have any negative strains that may affect their social face or image.
“Not only because the products I usually buy are pretty expensive, but
also I have so many items I want to have, and therefore I cannot buy
them all. I now have a habit of thinking too deeply. ‘How much is it?
Is it worth the price? Does it fit my image? How would people think
when I wear this? How is the reputation of the brand? What advantage
will this product provide me? Are there any future negative effects from
having this?’ and etc. I am not a person who regrets the decisions I
made. I give myself at least a month to think about and then I decide
to buy it or not. So it takes time to buy something. But after I buy it, I
use it for a very long time.”
4.3. Customer equity and narcissistic consumers
4.3.1. Brand equity
Brand equity refers to the customers' subjective and intangible as-
sessment of the brand which is built by brand image and meaning.
This allows firms to attract new customers, remind customers about
their products and services, and create emotional ties between
3818 Y.-J. Kang, S.-Y. Park / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 3813–3819
customers and the firm (Lemon et al., 2001). Most luxury products have
their own brand images and meanings. The two types of consumers
have different perspectives and behaviors.
Consumers with overt narcissism focus attention on certain brands'
image, reputation, tradition, and distinctiveness. They equate the
brand's overall impressions and meanings with their image. In the
same vein, Johansson, Douglas, and Nonaka (1985) note that the brands'
subjective image affects the evaluation and actual purchase of luxury
items. In addition, people with overt narcissism have high involvement
in aesthetical perspective of selves (Akhtar & Thomson, 1982). Kim et al.
(2010) and Chae, Ko, and Han (2015) report that customers' involve-
ment in the fashion industry positively affects their attitudes toward
luxury brands and this positive attitude encourages firms to have
brand equity and customer lifetime value (CLV).
In contrast, consumers with covert narcissism show a lack of an
emotional attachment and subjective assessment toward luxury brands.
They are more concerned with the visibility of the logos, brands' desir-
ability from the public and public recognition and evaluations of
brand. People with covert narcissism have immoderate sensitivity to
compliments from others and feelings of inferiority (Akhtar &
Thomson, 1982). If a certain luxury brand is very popular and has a pos-
itive image, then they consume their items, which, they believe, can
make them popular and positive. As many popular and positive items
as they acquire, they believe that their social image becomes more pop-
ular and positive as well. This strongly affects people with covert narcis-
sism to consume counterfeit products. Due to their financial barrier,
they choose to purchase counterfeit products without hesitation.
4.3.2. Value equity
Value equity is the customers' objective assessment of the utility of a
brand which is related to the perceptions of what is given up for what is
received, and the key drivers that influence value equity are quality,
price, and convenience (Lemon et al., 2001). To achieve this equity, a
firm's products and services should basically fulfill customer needs
and expectations. Consumers with covert and overt narcissism provide
different attributes of value equity to the luxury brands.
Consumers with covert narcissism prefer low-priced luxury items
because expressing oneself with the luxury items is the most important
aspect in their consumption. The utility and quality of the products are
not usually considered. They believe that luxury items certainly have
good quality, which is why people call those as luxury products. The ac-
quirement of many luxury items provides the consumers with the ben-
efit called ‘showing off.’ This is the biggest benefit they get from
purchasing luxury products. If the item's price does not meet their fi-
nancial situation, they choose to buy counterfeit goods without realizing
that they are committing illegal actions. In bad financial situations with
high desires to buy new luxury items, they sell old items on second
handed markets to make money. This finding is congruent with
Akhtar and Thomson (1982). They note that covert narcissism is likely
to let people have corrupt consciences and have a lack of sincere in-
volvement with any sorts of objects.
However, people with overt narcissism have strong purchase inten-
tions even when the product is high priced and is low in convenience, as
long as it is high in utility and quality. They believe that luxury items de-
serve high prices because of their reputation, quality, tradition, and his-
tory. Like the notion of ‘low price means low quality and high price
means high quality,’ Darke and Chung (2005) suggest that the price
may influence the customers' perception of product quality. Consumers
with overt narcissism refuse to acquire low quality products, which in-
clude counterfeit products, because they believe that what they wear
represent who they are. They have grandiosity that leads them to
think ‘I wear high-quality luxury items because I am a person of dignity
and superiority’ or ‘I do not need to dress up to overly express what lux-
ury items I own, because I am a person of modesty and socially respon-
sible.’ Therefore, they also prefer to purchase socially responsible items
or environment-friendly items to overtly express their identities.
4.3.3. Relationship equity
Relationship equity is defined as the customers' tendencies to stick
with a brand. It has three key drivers; loyalty programs, special recogni-
tion and treatment, and affinity programs. The firms should not only at-
tract new customers with great brands and provide values, but also
enhance the loyalty of the existing customers (Lemon et al., 2001). Con-
sumers with covert and overt narcissism show directly opposed
behaviors.
Consumers with covert narcissism are very sensitive to the public's
preferences. Their interests move along with the trends. They purchase
products that are both popular and as cheap as possible. Since they have
a lack of authentic involvement, they stay with the brand as long as the
brand keeps its popularity. In case of a transition of popularity to anoth-
er brand, consumers move as well, with no sign of attachment to the
prior brand. Then, if the popularity comes back, they go back as well.
This purchasing cycle is very natural in covert narcissistic orientation.
They do not feel the need to be loyal to certain brands and even feel
happy about owning products from various brands.
In contrast, consumers with overt narcissism build up trust between
themselves and the firms, which means that they become highly loyal
to the brands when they believe that there exists a congruency between
themselves and the brand's overall image, reputation, brand concept,
etc. The products and services they consume are usually high priced.
This allows them to expect extra recognition and treatment from the
brands because they expend a great amount of money and express
their wealth by doing so. They consider that the expenditure should in-
clude the special treatment from the firms. In the same vein, preference
of limited items is related to their desire to be treated as special cus-
tomers, as there is a limited number of people who own the same prod-
uct. Thus, they participate in the firms' loyalty and affinity programs,
and enjoy special recognition and treatment. To be treated as special
customers, they continuously consume certain limited brands they
feel loyal to. Belk (1988) and Solomon (1983) note that some people
spend a great amount of money to express wealthy impression and
affordability.
5. Discussions and implications
People generally have a certain extent of narcissistic tendencies.
However, luxury brand consumers have comparatively more narcissis-
tic tendencies in accordance with their conspicuous needs and impres-
sion management. Increased uses of SNS (Social Network Services),
which allow people to have more chances to express themselves, and
a generalized luxury consuming atmosphere encourage those with nar-
cissistic tendencies to keep consuming luxury brand products. Hence,
exploration of consumers' narcissistic tendency and their customer eq-
uity in luxury brand are in need of research.
To summarize the findings, overt narcissistic orientation provides
more valuable contributions to the customer equity of luxury brands.
Overt narcissistic orientation provides greater values to brand equity
of luxury brands. In terms of value equity, overt narcissism makes a sig-
nificant contribution with the preference for genuine luxury products,
willingness to pay a high price for the utility values of luxury brands
and avoiding counterfeit products. Overt narcissism also promotes
strong brand relationships through special treatments or recognitions
such as special invitations for events, loyalty programs, etc. Therefore,
overt narcissistic orientation proved to offer superior value to the cus-
tomer equity of luxury brands. (See Table 1.)
This research, as the first study that explores narcissisms' effect on
consumer psychology and customer equity of luxury brands, may pro-
vide useful data for future researches in the area of customer equity
and luxury brand. In terms of theoretical contribution, this study may
provide comprehensive understanding and meaningful information
about the deep psychology of narcissistic orientation influences on lux-
ury consumptions, which will be very helpful in building concrete
knowledge about the customers of luxury brands and their customer
 Y.-J. Kang, S.-Y. Park / Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 3813–3819
equity. Consumers with covert and overt narcissism have clear differ-
ences not only in consuming behaviors but also in customer equity. Ac-
cording to this research, narcissistic attributes can provide essential
knowledge not only of the motivations of luxury consumption but also
of customer equity building.
In regard to managerial implications, this research suggests that lux-
ury brands should build distinctive marketing strategies that consider
covert and overt narcissistic consumers as separate targets. Consumers
with covert narcissism may prefer low pricing promotions and luxury
products with more logo exposure. Also, luxury brands need effective
communication strategies which deliver the values of consuming genu-
ine luxury products because covert narcissism provides more intentions
to consume counterfeit products. For overt narcissistic orientation, lux-
ury brands should emphasize their long traditions, reputations, and
craftsmanship. Also, frequent special invitational events and high-
quality membership services will be helpful to develop greater custom-
er equity from consumers with overt narcissistic orientation. These re-
search findings may help design different customer equity strategies
where each type of narcissism is considered and critical selling points
of luxury brands are developed.
In terms of limitations of the study, this study used only qualitative
methods where a limited number of informants participated. Future
studies may use quantitative approaches with a larger sample to over-
come this limitation and to develop the generalizability and validity of
the results. Furthermore, hypotheses and research models need to be
presented to prove the influences of narcissistic orientations in future
studies.
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