Invoking social comparison and vanity in advertising

Abstract

Vanity appeals and social comparison in advertising can be an effective means of driving purchase behaviour, particularly for luxury fashion products. Consequently, this research investigates how vanity and social comparison impact consumers’ purchase intentions for luxury fashion products by exploring the relationship between these constructs while accounting for the impact of self-consciousness. An online experimental design was adopted for the research and structural equation modelling using partial least squares analysis was employed to determine the significance of the relationships and interaction effects. The results show that vanity appeals impact the way in which products are evaluated and that upward social comparison negatively impacts self-esteem. Product evaluations arising from vanity appeals were found to correspond to favourable purchase intensions. However, the same was not found for self-esteem. Moreover, self-presentational behaviour was identified as only occurring for consumers high in public self-consciousness.