The paper “Customization in Luxury Brands: Can Valentino Get Personal?” demonstrates that consumers’ customization preferences differ for mainstream and luxury brands. Brand managers should allow consumers to make fewer design decisions for luxury versus mainstream brands in order to preserve the signal value created by the designer. The research helps luxury brand managers to carefully calibrate the extent of customization offered, by identifying the sweet spot on the design freedom continuum which allows the consumer-designer to imbue the product with enough self-essence while, at the same time, assuring that enough designer essence is maintained. The paper has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, one of the leading journals in the field.

Reference:

Moreau, C. P., Prandelli, E., Schreier, M., & Hieke, S. (2020). Customization in Luxury Brands: Can Valentino Get Personal?. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(5), 937-947.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022243720943191