Are innovative consumers emotional and prestigiously sensitive to price?

Understanding the consumer’s tendency to adopt new products is an
ever-present essential for successful marketing campaigns. This paper presents
the findings from two empirical studies that investigate the relationship between
consumer innovativeness, price-prestige sensitivity, and need for emotion.
A questionnaire survey was used to collect data in both studies from a sample
of 668 respondents in two cities in England. The findings show that consumer
innovativeness is determined by an individual’s sensitivity to price and their
need for emotion. While innovative consumers are sensitive in relating price
to prestige, this dispositional relationship varies across products. Furthermore,
the findings suggest that enjoyment, which facilitates emotional openness and
receptivity, influences innovative consumers to take the emotional route, besides
the price-prestige route, to the adoption of new products. These findings have a
number of important implications for marketers, particularly for the success of
marketing campaigns targeted at innovative consumers who find enjoyment in
using new products and are prestigiously sensitive to price.