After reporting these examples, University of North Texas and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers explored how news of AI’s role in luxury design influences prospective purchasers. The answer, they found, depended on the degree to which the item’s luxuriousness was marketed to provide functional versus emotional benefits. When the functional predominates, such as with the transportation from a BMW, discovering AI has been used increases the value judgments and purchase intentions. When the emotional predominates, such as with fashion, shopper assessments of value and purchase intentions drop after discovery that AI has been employed in the design process.
The explanation is that the emotional appeal of luxury design arises from association with the essence of the celebrated creativity of a human designer. When that human starts depending on a statistical algorithm to make design decisions, the brand essence is cheapened. However, if the marketer shows how AI usage improved functionality, the luxury item’s appeal is maintained or improved among consumers who value performance competence.
The researchers suggest that marketers stay aware of risks in advertising that AI has been used in design of an offering. One aspect of this concerns a group of people who buy luxury items only occasionally but, according to marketing studies, are an important source of luxury sales growth. These excursionist luxury consumers are generally younger than currently habitual luxury consumers. Since we might expect them to be more conversant with AI usage, we might also expect them to be more receptive to, or even appreciative of, AI in item design. The researchers found no evidence of this. For all consumers and all luxury items, the researchers recommend increasing the appeal of AI use by highlighting its contribution to design functionality.
Danger of interference with luxury brand essence is also seen in a study which revealed a glaring exception to a consumer psychology truth. The accepted wisdom is that shoppers are drawn to personalizing purchases. Personalization allows a closer fit to the usage characteristics and better opportunities to express one’s identity. But researchers at University of Wisconsin, Bocconi University, and WU Vienna University of Economics and Business found that with luxury items, people pay for the designated designer’s expertise and associated status. They can be repelled by offers to customize.
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Satisfy Desires for Luxury
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