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December 11, 2014 For Clerks in Luxury Stores in Emerging Markets, There's No Harm in Arrogance Consumers in China who imagined being treated arrogantly by service employees in an upscale store retained a favorable "implicit," or nonconscious, attitude toward the store brand even though their explicit view of it was unfavorable: 5.08 for implicit feelings versus 2.11 for explicit, on a 1-to-7 scale. Their implicit feelings mattered, because their purchase intentions toward the brand had a significantly higher correlation with their implicit than with their explicit attitudes, says a team led by Xuehua Wang of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Thus employees in luxury stores in emerging markets needn't display hospitality when customers enter; although an arrogant attitude may produce explicit negative feelings toward the brand, it won't prevent customers from purchasing, the researchers say. SOURCE: Does Service Employee Arrogance Discourage Sales of Luxury Brands in Emerging Economies?

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