The Impact of Need for Uniqueness on Word of Mouth

Abstract

The report suggests that consumers who score highly on the avoidance of similarity dimension of consumers' need for uniqueness (CNFU) are less likely to engage in positive word-of-mouth (WOM) for publicly consumed products they own, as others may then purchase them and ultimately reduce their uniqueness. A new model is developed based on all three dimensions of CNFU (avoidance of similarity, creative choice counterconformity, and unpopular choice counterconformity) that tests for a relationship between these dimensions and consumers' positive WOM engagement for high- versus low-involvement products along with across gender. The survey was administered to 1000 consumers and the research findings suggest that a negative relationship was established for the avoidance of similarity dimension, a positive relationship for the creative choice counterconformity dimension, and no relationship for the unpopular choice counterconformity dimension with positive WOM engagement for high-involvement, publicly consumed products. Further the results did not differ between genders.

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