Dive Brief:
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Luxury brands do better when the store staff selling them are rude and snobby, according to research by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. The study, “Should the Devil Sell Prada? Retail Rejection Increases Aspiring Consumers' Desire for the Brand,” will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
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Snobby behavior by sales staff can actually make customers want more when it comes to upscale goods, much like mean girls can attract others to their “in group,” says Sauder marketing professor Darren Dahl.
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The effect didn’t work with downmarket or mass market brands, the study found.
Dive Insight:
When a rude Swiss salesperson refused to help Oprah Winfrey as she was shopping for a $40,000 handbag in Zurich last year, maybe she was just really good at her job. It may be baffling to the rest of us why upscale shoppers somehow revel in rude treatment by sales staff when they could be catered to, but, as they say, the one half doesn’t know how the other half lives.