In the context of the consumption of luxury goods, WOM generation seems to be an important way for individuals to express their identity. It has long been implied that luxury goods should be “conspicuous” because, generally, individuals are motivated to consume particular goods to communicate their social identity (cf. Belk, 1988; Berger & Health 2007). However, once individuals send positive messages about a luxury good, that item may be adopted by others whom they dislike. Thus, individuals may use moderation in generating positive WOM and prevent use of their favorite luxury brands from trickling down (Berger & Ward, 2010).
In this regard, recent research has examined the effects of need-for-uniqueness (NFU) on consumers’ intention to generate word-of-mouth (WOM) and suggested that high-NFU consumers are unwilling to generate (positive) WOM because WOM results in the adoption of the product and would harm the consumers’ unique image (Cheema & Kaikati, 2010). However, they have focused on only one (avoidance-of-similarity) of the three types of NFU: avoidance of similarity (AS), unpopular choice counter-conformity (UCC), and creative choice counter-conformity (CCC) (Tian, Bearden, & Hunter, 2001). The purpose of this study is to examine how different types of NFU affect consumers’ willingness to generate WOM, considering the moderating role of product domain in the relationship between NFU and WOM.
We examined the effects of types of NFU and product domain on positive WOM generation using a 3 (WOM sender type: high-AS/high-UCC/high-CCC consumers) × 2 (product domain: more identity-relevant, luxury vs. less identity-relevant, ordinary goods) between-subjects experimental design. The participants were 80 university students. We selected a high-quality coat as a luxury item and a high-end flash drive as an ordinary product. The former was represented as more identity-related than the latter.
The results of ANOVA showed that three types of NFU have different effects on consumer’ willingness to generate positive WOM. High-AS consumers, as well as high-UCC consumers, are more unwilling to generate positive WOM, whereas high-CCC consumers are more willing to generate WOM; moreover, these effects are more pronounced when the consumers were referencing a more identity-relevant, luxury good.
The implications of this study may help firms understand the factors that elicit or prevent WOM generation.

• Akinori Ono(Keio University, Tokyo, Japan)
• Mai Kikumori(Ritsumeikan University, Osaka, Japan)
• Haoying Wang(Keio University, Tokyo, Japan)