Abstract:
This paper aimed to present empirical evidence demonstrating the existence and the extent of the impact of this symbolic appeal effect on narcissistic consumers. The correlational research design comprised of two studies, both in the setting of two conditions of product appeal (symbolic vs. functional). The first study focused on proving symbolic appeal effect with internal validity and was conducted on two hypothetical product brands. The second study aimed to expand the inference into real commercial context (high external validity) as well as to investigate whether the impact lasted across consumption process. Therefore, it was carried out on two brands that actually exist in the market. The total number of the participants was 1,320, aged between 18-40 years old. Data was collected through questionnaire measuring the requisite constructs and was analyzed using the Structure Equation Model (SEM) technique. The analysis results show that product appeal have a significant moderating effect at .05 across products and across consumer buying process. In the symbolic appeal condition model, narcissism has a significant effect on consumer response (p <.001). In the functional appeal condition model, on the other hand, the effect is absent. The results suggest that symbolic appeal could be very meaningful when trying to penetrate the segment of narcissistic consumers.