Since there are intimate relationships between customers and customer equity, this study aims to explore the effects of covert and overt narcissistic consumers on luxury brands’ customer equity. The authors confirm the significance of the previous qualitative study on the two types of narcissists in regard to luxury consumption and customer equity by using quantitative methods. Narcissism basically means a self-loving tendency in one’s mind. People with narcissism overly respect themselves and act in an egotistical way(Lasch, 1980). Some scholars state that there are distinctions in narcissists in that they can be either overt or covert. Covert narcissists are hypersensitive, feel inferiority, pursue social power and honor, crave compliments, have strong jealousy, feel dissatisfaction with work and society, have fragile egos, and a likelihood of conscience contamination. People with covert narcissism also try to avoid damage both physically and emotionally. Overt narcissists pursue social success, lack depth, ignore and devalue others, have strong aspirations, and passion for ethics, social politics, and aesthetic issues. They believe in their own grandiosity, which causes direct expression of exhibitionism, self-importance, and a preoccupation with getting the attention and admiration from others(Hendin & Cheek, 1997; Park & Kang, 2013; SALMAN AKHTAR & Thomson Jr, 1982).

The luxury consumption has been pertinent to those aged around forties to fifties in the upper class. Recently, luxury product market became wide and is varying in age segments. Young consumers’ luxury consumption shows a rapid growth worldwide. Despite the global financial crisis, advanced information technology and globalized marketing strategies accelerate luxury consumption rate in vast. This phenomenon of luxury consumption is critically relevant to consumer social psychology. While people have various relationships with others in their own societies, they carry out impression management for themselves. Consumers try to identify themselves with goods, services, and images of brands or products. More importantly, congruency between their ideal images of themselves and consuming objects plays an important role in luxury consumption in recent years.