The Phase 2 Interview Results - part 3


Coming back to the main focus of this study, people’s motivations to purchase mass customised products, the interviews were used to explore this in more detail. It was found in the questionnaires that the motives identified by Zinkhan et al. (1999) a decade earlier in their U.S.-based study are also relevant in this European study. However, the order of relevance of these motives was found to be different. As the uniqueness motive ranked highest in the questionnaires and affiliation lowest, and Zinkhan et al.’s findings (1999) showed a high need for affiliation and a lower need for uniqueness, I assumed that the products that the studies focused on were the major reason for the different outcomes. Zinkhan et al. explored the creation of a personal website, whereas the cartoon in the questionnaire of my study was showing a customised T-shirt. This assumption was confirmed by the interview findings. The participants were asked:
1. In connection to a customised product such as a T-shirt, would they value the uniqueness and would they personalise to show that they belong to a certain social group. Affiliation was not significant here and most participants considered the uniqueness of a product as very important, which was connected to the fact that it was co-created.
2. This part was relating to the creation of a personal website and participants were asked, if they would do it to express their individuality and for social interaction. In the contrary the uniqueness motive was not important here, but similarly to Zinkhan et al.’s result affiliation turned out to be quite important, in particular for social networking sites.
Furthermore, it appeared that the need for uniqueness and the affiliation motive showed signs of being connected to the age of the participants for products such as T-shirts. The importance of belonging to a social group as well as the non-commercial customisation of products was more important for the participants when they were teenagers.

The need for affiliation generally had a very low outcome in the questionnaire phase of this study, which was a major difference to Zinkhan et al.’s research (1999). However, the need for affiliation came up at a different stage in the questionnaires as salesperson interaction and as anonymity in the buying process. This was investigated further in the interviews. The anonymity of the buyer was not found to have a big influence on the participants, but the salesperson interaction was again found to be important. Irish females appeared more optimistic about buying online, which they also did more frequently than non-Irish females. The enquiry on salesperson advice also showed that Irish females had a more negative opinion of sales staff compared to non-Irish females. Therefore, affiliation as salesperson interaction was found to be more significant for non-Irish females, but not as much as in the questionnaires. It was emphasized in the literature review that customer relationship management is important for Mass Customisation (F. Piller “The Importance of Customer Centricity” 2004). Future research should therefore be undertaken into the affiliation motive and the influence of salesperson interaction as a motivation for people to buy mass customised products online or in a shop.

More results will follow in the next blog.