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This study sets out to examine the causal relationships among consumers' need for uniqueness, brand perceptions, and purchase intention of a US apparel brand among Japanese Generation Y consumers.

A self‐administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 175 students enrolled at two Japanese metropolitan universities. A structural equation model using correlation matrix with maximum likelihood was estimated using LISREL 8.53.

Japanese consumers' need for uniqueness consisted of avoidance of similarity, unpopular choice and creative choice. The consumers' need for uniqueness was negatively related to the perceived quality, whereas the creative choice was positively related to the emotional value in perceptions of the US apparel brand. The perceived quality decreased purchase intention, while the emotional value increased purchase intention.

This study was limited to students at two Japanese metropolitan universities and to one US apparel brand.

Consumer need for uniqueness may be considered when developing merchandising and marketing strategies for the Generation Y consumer cohort in domestic and international markets. A focus on emotional values can be successful in creating and maintaining a brand relationship with the focal consumer market.

Few, if any, studies exist that investigate Japanese Generation Y consumers' need for uniqueness and its relationship to brand perceptions. This study addresses perception of a foreign brand and purchase intention related to consumers' need for uniqueness.

Since the store mix and product offerings of many regional shopping malls are very similar, often the primary discriminator between many of these centres is merely location. Making the choice to shop at a regional shopping mall other than the one nearest to one′s place of residence, therefore, does not appear to be a logical choice in many instances. Such behaviour, however, appears to be relatively common. It would appear, therefore, that regional shopping mall choice may not always be based solely on the offerings and location of the available shopping alternatives. Appears to provide support for the hypothesis that regional shopping mall choice can be an avenue for expression of an individual′s need for uniqueness. Suggests that outshopping activity as it relates to choice of regional shopping mall, may, at least in part, be prompted by the personal uniqueness which can be experienced by choosing to patronize regional shopping malls other than the one which is nearest to one′s place of residence.

There is a significant growth in the consumption of new luxury fashion brands in developing price-sensitive markets like India. Not only does this growth demonstrate how the “new” luxury brands have become a success, but is also illustrative of the perception and practice of style and status among the middle classes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the consumer’s attitude for buying a branded product entails the need for uniqueness and self-monitoring. It also contends that gender and age moderate the consumer’s attitude.

This study employed a self-monitored survey to collect the data from the customers of new luxury fashion retail brand stores in Chennai, India for empirical validation of the model. Data collected from 394 new luxury brands shoppers were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The need for uniqueness and self-monitoring had significant positive influences on social-adjustive attitude and value-expressive attitude. However, the relationship between self-monitoring and value-expressive attitude was weak when compared to other relationships. Significant differences were seen in the strengths of the relationships between gender and age.

New luxury is significantly different from traditional luxury. Analyses regarding age group, gender and attitude can provide unique understanding related to new luxury trends, especially in a price sensitive and emerging market like India. This would help managers in segmenting the market based on consumer demographics, and devise strategies based on their characteristics to influence their attitudes and other behavioural patterns.

This paper aims to provide a valid insight into consumers' minds while considering word of mouth (WOM), brand image and uniqueness as independent variables while considering the tourism industry as the primary stakeholder.

The study adopts qualitative research methods and data collected from 1,033 respondents using convenience sampling methodology. The data are collected from different tourists spots in China and Pakistan. The PROCESS macro was utilized in this study using SPSS version 25.0 to inspect the impacts by using Model 4 and the conditional effects indirectly by utilizing Model 14.

Customer's intimacy, search for novel and unexplored destinations highlight WOM interactions and perceived service value. Service value, interactional justice and professional attitude of hotel management mediated all the given relationships significantly. The brand image does not mediate any significant associations. Perceived service value and brand image predict customer's loyalty, and WOM is the direct measure of their intentions, and these variables are market trend indicators. A tourist's response toward different destinations is described in this study with comparative analysis of Chinese and Pakistani tourists. The study results showed a significantly positive relationship between hotel management professional behavior, customer's loyalty, customer's intimacy and WOM.

The recruited population might not be represented as the broader and larger visitor population, resulting in restricting establishing tactics. Moreover, this study's results provide significant insight into a tourism industry, hence providing a chance to manage customer loyalty better.

This study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge and provides remarkable insight from the managerial perspective. Interactional justice results in significant value for hotel management directors and top management, front desk staff and operatives and front level employees and managers. Consumer sensitivity of fairness in interpersonal dealings calls for behavioral changes in frontline employees, especially those directly dealing with hotel visitors. Hotel staff and management should formulate a system to deal with the demands and needs of visitors. It should describe the rights and obligations of visitors and ensure that each customer is treated equally and with respect. Customers should be motivated to read the survey questionnaires kept in their rooms and offer their views on the services provided. This strategy might increase the customers' sense of empowerment and leading to notions of fairness in individual encounters.

This study provides an insight into the customer's minds while considering essential variables that include WOM, brand image, perceived service value and uniqueness.

Chinese face refers to reputation, others’ respect or compliance which is gained through self-representation and role-playing. The purpose of this paper is to identify and distinguish the four dimensions of face construct: personal identity-face, family identity-face, friend identity-face and occupational identity-face. Based on this, the authors discuss and investigate the influence of four different face dimensions on a consumer’s need for uniqueness (CNFU).

This research uses a questionnaire survey method and convenience samples. Subjects are students from a university in Wuhan operated directly under the Ministry of Education. A total of 730 questionnaires were distributed mainly in libraries and study rooms. After eliminating invalid questionnaires, 690 questionnaires were obtained. In sum, 44.1 percent research subjects are males, and 59 percent of them are undergraduate samples; 92.5 percent subjects’ monthly disposable consumption was less than 2,000 yuan.

The result shows that the influence paths and directions are different. Specifically, personal identity-face and family identity-face restrain CNFU through promoting interdependent self-construal, and friend identity-face and occupational identity-face facilitate CNFU through enhancing the consumer’s susceptibility to normative influence.

These findings are useful for clarify contemporary Chinese individuality-seeking consumption and conformity consumption behavior, and will shed light on form strategic practices, such as brand positioning and product communication.

Whereas research on brand value co-creation is being conducted from a number of different perspectives, the psycho-social mechanisms that motivate consumers towards brand value co-creation have room for theory development. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on brand value co-creation in luxury consumption by analysing the role of a number of psychological constructs that impact consumers’ proclivity towards brand value co-creation.

The data for this study were collected through a large-scale questionnaire-based design and were evaluated using a multivariate statistical analysis technique.

The results show that the need for autonomy, the need for belonging and the need for uniqueness mediate the relation between consumers’ self-concept and proclivity towards brand value co-creation. The findings indicate that luxury brand managers need to develop a critical mix of co-creational strategies in a way in which the brand harmoniously satisfies a need for relational identity co-creation while also providing varied heterogenous interactions.

This research has been conducted in an emerging market of Asia, thus providing insights into what motivates co-creation in an under-researched but lucrative market segment. The Socio-Economic Class A of emergent countries has an inelastic purchasing power and disposable income to consume luxury brands. Only by understanding the underlying purchase motivations of these consumers can brand managers effectively benefit from their co-creation endeavours.

While there has been a growing interest in the field of Metaverse-related research, its impact on vulnerable segments of the population, particularly those with special needs, is yet to be fully examined. This research develops the underlying scant theoretical knowledge related to the attachment of people with disabilities to the Metaverse and its effects on their need for uniqueness and acceptance of disability, and hence their sense of inclusivity and overall well-being.

The study adopted a quantitative approach using an Internet-based survey. The sample size consisted of 530 Metaverse users with a physical disability in the USA. The proposed model integrates virtual place attachment alongside disabled consumers' need for uniqueness, and acceptance of their physical disability. SPSS and LISREL were utilized for data analysis and SEM.

The study underscores the complexity of the interplay between virtual place attachment, disability acceptance and the need for uniqueness among physically disabled users in the Metaverse. It investigates how the attachment to virtual spaces by people with disability influence their psychological well-being.

This research adds to the interactive marketing and disabled consumer psychology literature exploring the theoretical and practical implications from an attachment and need for uniqueness theory perspectives.

Previous research on luxury consumption has focused on conspicuous consumption; however, research on consumers' self-conceptual mechanism in inconspicuous luxury consumption context is scarce. The present study aims to investigate various self-concepts and their mechanisms for inconspicuous and conspicuous luxury consumption.

An experiment with 215 participants from online survey website was conducted, and the hypotheses were tested using PROCESS Macro 3.4.

The study findings are as follows. Materialistic consumers' preference between inconspicuous and conspicuous luxury products is dependent on distinctive self-conceptual mechanism. More specifically, materialistic consumers with independent self-construal prefer inconspicuous luxury brands because of high need for uniqueness, whereas non-materialistic consumers with interdependent self-construal prefer conspicuous luxury products because of high self-monitoring.

The present study uniquely shows conditions (moderated mediation) that the link between need for uniqueness (self-monitoring) and luxury consumption is stronger for those with independent (interdependent) self-construal than for those with interdependent (independent) self-construal. The present results extend and help better understanding of mechanisms and conditions of conspicuous and inconspicuous luxury consumption.

Marketers are advised to design and produce unique vs popular luxury brands depending on consumer's motives and different self-concepts.

This research contributes to extant literature by distinguishing between conspicuous and inconspicuous luxury consumption with two different mechanisms (need for uniqueness and self-monitoring). The present study further demonstrates that the two mechanisms are strongly sustained differently depending on consumer's levels of self-construal.

This paper aims to examine the effects of both transient and chronic loneliness on consumers’ variety-seeking (VS) behavior and to identify the various underlying mechanisms involved.

Four studies were adopted to clarify how transient and chronic loneliness affect consumers’ VS behavior.

Both transient and chronic loneliness promote consumers’ VS behavior. More importantly, the effect of transient loneliness on VS behavior is driven by perceived loss of control, whereas the effect of chronic loneliness on VS behavior is driven by need for uniqueness and sensation-seeking.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to explore the differential roles of transient and chronic loneliness on VS behavior, which may open new avenues for future research. First, future research could investigate moderators that influence the impacts of transient and chronic loneliness on VS behavior. Second, future research could examine different participant populations and use cognitive neuroscience techniques to further verify the differential roles of these two types of loneliness on VS behavior.

This research contributes to marketing practice by providing practical guidance on how to effectively design different marketing strategies to promote VS for consumers with different types of loneliness. For consumers with transient loneliness, marketers can benefit from a concerted focus on improving consumers’ sense of control. Yet, for consumers with chronic loneliness, marketing strategies that improve consumers’ need for uniqueness will be more effective.

This research contributes to the literature on loneliness and consumer behavior, which has largely overlooked the distinct roles of different types of loneliness (i.e. transient vs chronic loneliness) in influencing consumer behavior. Specifically, this paper conducted a comparative analysis of the impacts of transient and chronic loneliness on consumers’ VS behavior and proposed that transient and chronic loneliness promote consumers’ VS behavior through divergent underlying mechanisms.

This study aims to introduce the duration of uniqueness, an important dimension of unique products. It studies how choices between products with long versus short duration of uniqueness are influenced by the interaction between pressure and consumers’ need for uniqueness (NFU).

This research uses a multi-method study approach. A pilot field-study tested the novelty and importance of the research by asking retail professionals to predict the choice of a hypothetical consumer. A retrospective study assessed the importance of duration of uniqueness in unique product choices, by asking consumers about a real and recent unique product purchase. Four additional experimental studies directly tested hypotheses by manipulating pressure and by measuring or manipulating uniqueness motivations.

The pilot field-study showed the novelty and relevance of this research for professionals. Study 1 revealed that, retrospectively, uniqueness duration was considered important for the choice of unique products, by high-NFU consumers under pressure. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that pressure increases the tendency of high-NFU, but not low-NFU, consumers to choose products with long over short uniqueness duration. Study 4 provided initial evidence for the process behind the effect. Study 5 showed that considerations of uniqueness duration when choosing mediated the effects.

The results of the pilot field-study and retrospective study might be affected by recall bias or lay theories. The findings need to be replicated with other sources of pressure and uniqueness. This calls for further research.

Results are important for companies marketing unique products and they suggest that pressure-based marketing appeals can be used strategically to increase sales of products with long uniqueness duration but decrease sales of products with short uniqueness duration. Although the research provides these guidelines, managers should consider the ethical implications of pressure strategies.

This is the first attempt to empirically investigate the duration of uniqueness. Although extant research has examined choices between products with different degrees of uniqueness, this research studies choice of products with similar degrees of uniqueness, but different uniqueness duration. Thus, this research adds to the scarce literature studying the duration of symbolic benefits. Moreover, although pressure and NFU frequently co-exist in uniqueness consumption settings, this study is the first to study their joint effects.