The Astounding Reason Customers Buy That They Keep a Secret

Join over 80,000 people and subscribe here for further thought-leading LinkedIn Newsletters of? ‘Why Customers Buy’.

Listen to the podcast:

The Astounding Reason Customers Buy That They Keep a Secret

Have you ever bought something and thought about how you would look to others for doing so? If so, you participated in conspicuous consumption. It is a surprisingly common motivator in many areas, but few customers would tell you about it. They might even keep it from your intentionally.?

One of our podcast listeners asked us about conspicuous consumption and whether it influences their customers' buying decisions. We discussed this concept on the podcast, and I thought I would share it here, too, because it could be the surprising reason why customers buy that they would never be able to tell you—or even keep a secret.?

Watch Colin talking about this on YouTube:

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here to see all the latest videos!

So, some of you might be wondering what conspicuous consumption is. The phrase dates back to 1899. An American economist Thorstein Veblen wrote?A Theory of the Leisure Class,?and in it, he describes how some people, mostly the wealthy, buy stuff so other people see them owning it.?

Today, way more of us are engaged in some form of conspicuous consumption. At least in part, we buy and use items so that other people see us doing it.

Some Purchases Are More Conspicuous Than Others

Certain classes of goods are more conspicuous by nature. Cars, for example, tend to be more visible. People see you arriving in your car or getting in your vehicle. Alternatively, they might see your keychain with your branded car fob. Maybe they saw your post on social media.?

Clothing is also very conspicuous. You buy and wear these items—from designer shoes with red bottoms to specific plaid scarfs to jeans with cool stitching or prominent labels on the pocket—so other people know you have them.

My sister-in-law spends an awful lot of money on handbags. I haven't got a bloody clue about what bags she may have, nor can I tell if they are $20 or $2,000. So, in this case, they are not conspicuous to me. However, my wife does.

However, I am not immune to this behavior. I have a fancy Montblanc pen. However, if you don't know what that is, you will probably only notice that I have a black pen.?

When you notice that you are buying something so that other people will notice, ask yourself the following:

• What are you buying conspicuously?
• Why this item?
• Who do you want to see it?

Not all conspicuous consumption is the same, nor is there only one reason people buy something for others to notice. Other things are at work, too. For example, some pen aficionados might say a Montblanc pen writes better than a less expensive pen. Other people might like how the expensive makes them feel. Both are perfectly valid reasons to buy something expensive and are not conspicuous consumptive reasons.

Also, people are not only conspicuous about how wealthy they are, as Veblen suggested initially. There are other things you conspicuously consume. People can communicate their values, too. For example, ten years ago, driving a Prius sent a signal about the driver’s concern for the environment.

Coolness is another thing you can signal about, particularly in concert wear. Trendy bands are one thing, but obscure bands are even more conspicuous. For example, only a few people might know about a particular band on your shirt, but those that do are part of an exclusive club.?They are part of your tribe, so to speak.

Remember in high school, the people carrying a basketball even though they weren't on a court? Or a skateboard, even when they weren't riding it? These were also signals.?

Branding’s Connection with Conspicuous Consumption

Brands participate in it to a certain extent, too. They encourage it in some cases.?

For example, some luxury handbag brands increase the logo size on their rather-expensive but still accessible (to more people) bags and then reduce the size on their even more expensive versions few people can afford. If you need to show off the logo, buy the less expensive bag with the big logos all over it. Then, everyone knows you could buy the bag, which was expensive. However, the extremely wealthy don't need?everyone?to know who made their bag; only those in the know. So, those bags’ logos could be smaller and more discrete. This example demonstrates that people often communicate to different audiences and that brands segment their customers by product offerings.

While I don't think we could collapse conspicuous consumption into branding as if they're equivalent, they overlap significantly. One of the values you get from a brand is that it can communicate something to other people about you. However, when you like showing people what it says about you, it's also conspicuous consumption.?

As you probably know, I love Apple products. Part of that is because of the functional qualities of Apple and because I trust them to make well-designed products that are easy to use and reliable. However, I also see myself as an Apple person, which means I like the association.?

Few brands can be mainstream and cool at the same time. Usually, as more and more people use a brand, it becomes less shiny and less remarkable. Typically, being cool means only cool people use it.?

Apple is an exception to this situation. Apple is sleek and high-end, but I am neither. However, even though I buy and use Apple products (conspicuously, I might add), their stock hasn't tanked yet.

To oversimplify the concept of a brand, let's imagine a pie chart with three sections. First, there is the functional value of the brand, then the self-communication part, and finally, the conspicuous consumption section. The size of those pie pieces will differ depending on the brand, but all three are usually there.?

So, branding managers have to consider whether they are implementing something in the branding that allows some source of value for all three of those parts of the pie.?

So, What Should One Do With This Concept?

Regarding our podcast listener, we decided that to answer the question as to whether conspicuous consumption matters to their organization, they should consider the following.?

1. What is your product category? Is it one that people would use to communicate some message to others? Should it be?
2. What are the sources of value for your brand? Is it the experience? If so, recognize that experiences are more sharable through social media than they have ever been before. So, if it isn't the experience, could it be, and how could you encourage that?

In some cases, the answer might be no. People consume some things in private, and they do not want to be associated with the product. For example, a product related to colon health opened an online forum for people who used it to talk about their colon health. It didn't work; no one wanted to talk about using it or discuss their colon health with other people.?

If it is, give those people a way to demonstrate their consumption. For example, the latest iPhone will have a yellow version. They haven't had one for a while (or ever?), so people who get the yellow phone will be able to signal they have the latest phone.?

Also, consider which audience with which people want to communicate. Are they speaking broadly to everybody, or are they narrowcasting where they only want to share with certain people? Whoever it is, try to facilitate that message through your offering.

So, there you have it. We sometimes buy things because we want other people to notice that we can afford it, or that we care about the environment, or that we have a penchant for the written word. If you think your product can help communicate these types of messages to others, make sure that you facilitate that for your customers. Otherwise, they might choose to communicate the same thing by conspicuously consuming competition’s product instead.

Colin has conducted numerous educational workshops to inspire and motivate your team. He prides himself on making this fun, humorous, and practical. Speak to Colin and find out more. Click here !