TY - JOUR
T1 - The flip side of vanity sizing
T2 - How consumers respond to and compensate for larger than expected clothing sizes
AU - Hoegg, JoAndrea
AU - Scott, Maura L.
AU - Ketcham, Andrea
AU - Dahl, Darren W.
N1 - Funding Information:
First authorship is shared by the first and second authors. Third authorship is shared by the third and fourth authors. The authors are grateful to the editor, associate editor, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful guidance. They would also like to express appreciation to Shalina Bhagat for her assistance with the studies. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from a MSI-ACR Shopper Marketing Grant.
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - Vanity sizing has become a popular retail trend and recent work shows it has a favorable impact on consumers. However, as the current research demonstrates, significant variations in sizing standards across retailers mean that consumers are as likely to encounter larger sizes as they are smaller, "vanity" sizes when shopping, highlighting the importance of understanding how consumers react to this potential threat in the marketplace. Across five studies we demonstrate that larger sizes result in negative evaluations of clothing and show that these effects are driven by consumers' appearance self-esteem. Importantly, we also find that instead of unilaterally lowering purchase intent as one might assume, larger sizes can actually increase spending, as consumers engage in compensatory consumption to help repair their damaged self-esteem. In so doing, this research reveals a dynamic and complex relationship between consumers and sizing labels, where shopping can serve to build, strengthen, threaten, and/or repair appearance self-esteem.
AB - Vanity sizing has become a popular retail trend and recent work shows it has a favorable impact on consumers. However, as the current research demonstrates, significant variations in sizing standards across retailers mean that consumers are as likely to encounter larger sizes as they are smaller, "vanity" sizes when shopping, highlighting the importance of understanding how consumers react to this potential threat in the marketplace. Across five studies we demonstrate that larger sizes result in negative evaluations of clothing and show that these effects are driven by consumers' appearance self-esteem. Importantly, we also find that instead of unilaterally lowering purchase intent as one might assume, larger sizes can actually increase spending, as consumers engage in compensatory consumption to help repair their damaged self-esteem. In so doing, this research reveals a dynamic and complex relationship between consumers and sizing labels, where shopping can serve to build, strengthen, threaten, and/or repair appearance self-esteem.
KW - Appearance
KW - Compensatory consumption
KW - Self-esteem
KW - Vanity sizing
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcps.2013.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jcps.2013.07.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84892374305
SN - 1057-7408
VL - 24
SP - 70
EP - 78
JO - Journal of Consumer Psychology
JF - Journal of Consumer Psychology
IS - 1
ER -