Consumer desire for personalisation of products and services: cultural antecedents and consequences for customer evaluations

In order to satisfy customers, marketers increasingly provide customers with the means to personalise their products and services. Based on the social identity approach and international consumer data, this article explores the antecedents and consequences of consumer desires for internal personalisation (perceiving a distinctive identity) and external personalisation (communicating a distinctive identity) of products and services. In terms of antecedents, the results show that desire for (both internal and external) personalisation tends to be influenced negatively by age and positively by both individualism (vs. collectivism) and uncertainty avoidance. In terms of consequences, the results indicate that desire for personalisation moderates the formation of affective, but not cognitive, customer satisfaction. Moreover, desire for personalisation enhances the relative importance of perceived usage benefits, compared with physical performance, in customer evaluations of products and services. These results have important implications for the design and marketing of products and services.