The Luxury Indulgence Factor and Self-Control


Many marketers target humans’ natural want for a luxury good by promoting in the way that the consumer works hard, so they in fact deserve the good.  However, this type of advertising may backfire on companies.  Are consumers happier when they indulge for no reason vs. a “work hard play hard” mentality?  For example, Coca Cola marketed their “Open Happiness” campaign towards making consumers happier if they drank a Coca Cola product.  The way that an “indulgent” marketing campaign is received by consumers all depends on their level of self-control when it comes to these goods.
                  The study in this article had a number of hypotheses, focused around indulging with reason (e.g., a reward for hard work) or indulgence for no reason (someone with little self-control).  The study took a look at 175 students, aged averagely around 26 years and more than 60% female, and received a reward for completing this study.  The results of the study were concurrent and agreed with the proposed hypotheses mentioned earlier.  Those with higher self-control were happier when they indulged for a reason vs. those without, and vice versa.
                  This relates to the course content in terms of the marketing research topics covered.  This sample size here was the perfect example of a focus group.  When analyzing the results, the people running the experiment also used analysis methods such as a factor analysis and a regression analysis as well.


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811617300678?via%3Dihub

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