The product is me: Hyper-personalized consumer goods as unconventional luxury

This study explores hyper-personalized wellness products (e.g., facial serum, custom-prepared meals, vitamins) as unconventional luxury products. Hyper-personalized consumer goods are those in which a consumer's genetic composition, or DNA, is used in the manufacturing process. Given that hyper-personalized products emphasize high quality and uniqueness and garner premium prices, this study conceptualizes these products as representing contemporary, unconventional luxury. Three studies empirically demonstrate the extent to which consumers allocate price premiums to three different hyper-personalized consumer products in terms of functionally compared with a mass-produced equivalent. The results reveal that consumers believe that hyper-personalized products are worth premium prices, regardless of their desire to own these products. Whether hyper-personalized products are truly more beneficial to consumer well-being than their mass-produced counterparts remains unknown however. The article concludes with theoretical and research implications, as well as research directives.