Warm Glow Versus Cold Facts: Effective Salesperson Communication in Luxury Selling.

Research Question As the sales force is the primary marketing channel for luxuries, salespeople's behavior is critical to the success of luxury firms. Interestingly, the practitioner literature predominantly recommends that salespeople appeal to customers' emotions when selling luxury goods and refrain from rational, factual communication. However, practitioners appear hesitant to accept this recommendation: In a preliminary study, 40% of 245 sales managers concurred that salespeople should appeal to customers' emotions in luxury sales interactions whereas 45% of the managers responded that salespeople should promote functional product information. 15% were undecided. Thus, our primary research question is how salespeople should promote luxury goods to enhance customers' product evaluations: emotionally or informatively? Thereof, three subordinate research questions result: (1) Do luxury products induce a greater need to justify a purchase than non-luxury products? (2) Does informative salesperson communication satisfy customers' need to justify a purchase? (3) Can customers' need to justify be addressed by means other than informative selling communication, that is, by informative advertising? Method and Data To empirically verify these questions we conducted 4 studies. First, we assessed whether the effect of informative and emotional salesperson communication on customers' product value perceptions hinges on the degree of luxury. To test these interactive effects, we collected dyadic data from 145 customer-salesperson interactions in several business-toconsumer industries and conducted a regression analysis. For the following three experiments, we used univariate ANOVAs to compare the experimental groups: In the second study, a scenario experiment with 57 participants, we showed that luxury goods indeed evoke a customer's need to justify. The following simulated sales experiment with 194 students verified that customers' need to justify the purchase moderates the relationship between salesperson communication and perceived product value. Finally, we included type of advertisement (informative vs. emotional) as a further potential moderator of the salesperson communication-perceived product value linkage. In a scenario experiment with 310 customers, we examined whether an informative advertisement may address customers' need to justify and hence affect the link between salesperson communication and customers' perceived product value. Summary of Findings The results of our studies confirm our general prediction that in the luxury context, informative salesperson communication is more effective than emotional communication in increasing customers' product value perceptions. More specifically, we found empirical support for our argument that when shopping for luxuries, customers develop a need to rationalize their purchase decisions to themselves and others. This need to justify may be addressed through salespeople's informative communication. Furthermore, the positive effect of informative salesperson communication on luxury customers' product value perceptions is particularly pronounced for emotional advertising, whereas it is less pronounced for informative advertising. Thus, customers' need to justify luxury purchase decisions might be satisfied not only by informative salesperson communication, but by informative advertisements prior to the sales encounter. Key Contributions By conceptualizing and verifying the psychological mechanism underlying luxury purchase decisions, we add insight to the marketing and sales literature as well as practice in several ways: First, our findings contribute to marketing research as we elucidate the role of salesperson communication in a luxury sales context while prior research neglected to empirically investigate this topic. Second, our results contribute to research on customer behavior in luxury contexts by identifying customers' need to justify luxury purchase decisions. Third, we contribute to sales practice as salespeople in a luxury context should argue informatively rather than emotionally, as informative arguments satisfy luxury customers' need to justify the purchase, thereby improving their product value perceptions. Further, our results provide guidance for the strategic alignment of advertising and personal selling as informative advertising may be used to satisfy luxury customers' need to justify and be followed by emotional communication during the sales encounter. Thus, our study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of customers' luxury purchase decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]