Retail Snobbery–Assistant Professor Morgan Ward of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University has co-authored a study entitled Should the Devil Sell Prada? Retail Rejection Increases Aspiring Consumers’ Desire for the Brand that will appear in the October 2014 edition of the Journal of Consumer Research. According to research from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, sales go up when the staff luxury brands hire are ruder to customers. When customers get the brush off, apparently they are more apt to make a purchase and prove their worth. Sauder Marketing Professor Darren Dahl shares, “It appears that snobbiness might actually be a qualification worth considering for luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci. Our research indicates they can end up having a similar effect to an ‘in-group’ in high school that others aspire to join.” However, it’s important to note that participants in the study proved that “you’ve got to be the right kind of snob in the right kind of store for the effect to work”. Also customers who had an increased desire to purchase saw diminishing desires two weeks later.
I can see it, but that was not the case a few years ago in the Ermenegildo Zegna store in Vegas for me. A rude staff member that wrote me off with a single, disgusted, head-to-toe look made me want to never buy from them (at least not from him so he could get commission from the sale). The nice staff members at the Dolce & Gabbana store down the way made me want to buy from there in the future.