Luxury Brands Should Act Cold and Distant

Luxury brands perform better with a hint of arrogance.

If we sense that luxury brands are superior, we desire them more strongly to boost our status and self-worth.

Avoid Smiling in Brand Photography

Smiling reduces the appeal of luxury brands (Zhu, Zhou, Wu, & Wang, 2022).

Remain Aloof on Social Media

Luxury brands are more appealing when they ignore comments on social media. Researchers recommend selective engagement (e.g., infrequent replies, only interact with celebrities; Park, Im, & Kim, 2020).

Here are tweets from luxury accounts. Most of them are showing celebrities wearing the brand:

Avoid Emojis or Exclamations

Friendliness backfires for luxury brands (Li & Shin, 2022).

Lower the Temperature in Luxury Stores

We describe unfriendly people as “cold” because social distance is intertwined with physical warmth in our brain (see The Tangled Mind). Interestingly, customers prefer luxury brands in cold environments because of this neural wiring (Park & Hadi, 2020).

• Chu, X. Y., Chang, C. T., & Lee, A. Y. (2021). Values created from far and near: Influence of spatial distance on brand evaluation. Journal of Marketing, 85(6), 162-175.
• Li, Y., & Shin, H. (2022). Should a luxury Brand's Chatbot use emoticons? Impact on brand status. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
• Park, J., & Hadi, R. (2020). Shivering for status: When cold temperatures increase product evaluation. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(2), 314-328.
• Park, M., Im, H., & Kim, H. Y. (2020). “You are too friendly!” The negative effects of social media marketing on value perceptions of luxury fashion brands. Journal of Business Research, 117, 529-542.
• Zhu, H., Zhou, Y., Wu, Y., & Wang, X. (2022). To smile or not to smile: The role of facial expression valence on mundane and luxury products premiumness. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 65, 102861.