Desire for Status Among Brand Users (DSBU)

Abstract

The Desire for Status Among Brand Users (DSBU) scale is a specialized psychometric instrument introduced by Wang and John (2019) to assess intra-brand status differentiation—specifically, an individual’s psychological motivation to attain elevated relative standing, superiority, and distinctiveness within an existing community of brand consumers. Unlike generalized status consumption scales that gauge a consumer’s aspiration to project wealth or social prestige to the public at large, the DSBU scale captures the localized, intra-group comparative drive that emerges when consumers interact with or observe other individuals who patronize the same brand. Comprising three self-report items evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree), the instrument is unidimensional and features robust psychometric properties. Studies examining consumer responses to brand dilution, market expansion, and user-base heterogeneity demonstrate that the DSBU scale exhibits strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α typically exceeding .88), coherent factor structure, and distinct predictive validity. In empirical consumer psychology, the scale explains why incumbent consumers often opt for vertical brand upgrading (such as trading up to higher-tier sub-brands or luxury lines) rather than abandoning a brand when dissimilar or lower-status consumer groups enter the brand’s customer franchise. This article provides a comprehensive psychometric and theoretical analysis of the DSBU scale, covering its theoretical foundations, structural validity, reliability, scoring guidelines, and methodological considerations for marketing and behavioral science researchers.

Keywords

Desire for Status Among Brand Users, DSBU, status consumption, intra-brand differentiation, social comparison theory, brand community, compensatory consumption, consumer psychology, vertical brand extension, luxury branding

Authors

The Desire for Status Among Brand Users (DSBU) scale was introduced and validated by:

• Yajin Wang, Ph.D. — Associate Professor of Marketing, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University (previously at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland). Dr. Wang’s research centers on consumer behavior, luxury branding, social hierarchy, and psychological signaling.
• Deborah Roedder John, Ph.D. — Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Marketing and Professor of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Dr. John is an internationally recognized expert in brand management, brand equity, consumer socialization, and children’s consumer behavior.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Desire for Status Among Brand Users (DSBU) scale is to measure an individual’s explicit psychological drive to establish hierarchical superiority, prestige, and vertical differentiation relative to other consumers of the exact same brand. In contemporary consumer behavior, brands frequently operate as shared identity markers and social spaces. However, when a brand expands its market presence or becomes accessible to broader socio-demographic segments, incumbent consumers face identity threat and status dilution. The DSBU scale was designed to quantify the specific motivational mechanism that drives these consumers not toward horizontal divergence (leaving the brand entirely), but toward vertical escalation (securing a superior position within the brand’s user ecosystem).

Traditional research on conspicuous consumption and status-seeking has historically focused on an overarching need for status (NFS) or the broad need for uniqueness (NFU). While broad constructs measure how much an individual wants to stand out from society or signal affluence to external observers, they fail to isolate the micro-dynamics that unfold within an established brand community. When a luxury or premium brand experiences widespread adoption, its symbolic exclusivity can be compromised. The DSBU scale operationalizes the distinct psychological pressure consumers experience to signal that, even though they share a common brand identity with a broader group, they occupy a superior, more sophisticated, or higher-tier stratum than their fellow brand users.

From an applied research and managerial perspective, the DSBU scale serves as an invaluable diagnostic and explanatory tool. In consumer psychology experiments, it functions effectively as an outcome variable, a mediator, or a moderator when investigating how consumers react to the entry of undesirable or dissimilar user groups. For marketing strategists and brand architects, understanding DSBU levels across customer cohorts provides direct insights into the viability of vertical brand line extensions, tiered loyalty programs, VIP product tiers, and bespoke customization options designed to retain high-equity consumers without diluting the core brand franchise.

Psychological Construct

The core psychological construct measured by the DSBU scale is intra-brand status motivation. This construct is characterized by three highly intercorrelated conceptual dimensions that combine into a unified, unidimensional representation of vertical consumer differentiation:

1. Relative Superiority

Relative superiority reflects the consumer’s desire to experience and communicate psychological dominance or elevated competence compared to peers sharing the same brand affiliation. It encapsulates the affective satisfaction and self-enhancement derived from knowing that one’s brand ownership represents a more refined, valuable, or advanced iteration than that owned by typical users. Rather than seeking equality or communal solidarity, the consumer actively seeks an asymmetric advantage.

2. Intra-Group Distinctiveness

Distinctiveness within a brand community refers to standing apart from the normative consumer base. While general distinctiveness involves separating oneself from out-groups, intra-group distinctiveness focuses inward: the consumer acknowledges membership within the brand collective but refuses to be seen as an average or representative member. It is the desire to be perceived as an elite outlier within the shared brand domain.

3. Hierarchical Precedence

Hierarchical precedence represents the formal striving for higher rank, tier, or social positioning relative to other users. It reflects a vertical orientation within the brand’s social hierarchy. Consumers scoring high on this dimension evaluate their brand interactions through the lens of stratification, valuing exclusive editions, premium packages, or legacy membership statuses that unambiguously communicate higher status than ordinary users possess.

To understand the construct fully, it must be delineated from neighboring psychological constructs:

• General Need for Status (NFS): NFS captures a generalized, chronic motive to pursue social prestige, wealth markers, and respect across all life domains. In contrast, DSBU captures a situational or brand-specific comparative motive targeted explicitly at other consumers of that particular brand.
• Consumers’ Need for Uniqueness (CNFU): CNFU emphasizes counter-conformity, creative choice, and horizontal non-conformity (being different for the sake of individuality). DSBU is strictly vertical; the consumer does not merely want to be different, but specifically wants to be superior and higher in status.
• Brand Community Identification: High brand community identification involves feelings of kinship, mutual support, and shared consciousness with fellow brand users. DSBU, conversely, introduces competitive tension, hierarchy, and downward comparison within that community.

Theoretical Framework

The DSBU scale is theoretically grounded in several classical and contemporary frameworks within social psychology and consumer culture theory:

Social Comparison Theory

Originally formulated by Festinger (1954), social comparison theory posits that individuals possess an innate drive to evaluate their opinions, abilities, and standing by comparing themselves to others. When objective benchmarks are absent, social standards serve as the reference frame. Later expansions of the theory (e.g., Wills, 1981; Wood, 1989) emphasized directional comparisons: upward comparisons (comparing oneself to superior others) can induce threat or inspire emulation, whereas downward comparisons (comparing oneself to inferior others) serve self-enhancement and self-esteem preservation functions. The DSBU scale operationalizes the psychological defense mechanism that consumers mobilize when faced with lateral or downward social comparisons within their preferred brand space. When a brand is adopted by individuals who are perceived as dissimilar, lower-status, or mainstream, incumbent users experience status threat. To restore psychological equilibrium and reassert self-enhancement, they develop a heightened desire for intra-brand status, compelling them to differentiate upward from these new users.

Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT)

Developed by Brewer (1991), Optimal Distinctiveness Theory argues that human social identity is governed by two competing fundamental needs: the need for assimilation (belonging/inclusion) and the need for differentiation (distinctiveness). Individuals continuously calibrate their social attachments to maintain an equilibrium between these two drives. Within the context of brand usage, a consumer initially adopts a brand to satisfy both belonging (affiliating with an admired brand community) and differentiation (separating themselves from non-users). However, as the brand gains mass popularity, the assimilation drive becomes oversaturated, threatening the consumer’s distinctiveness. The DSBU construct reflects the psychological maneuver wherein consumers retain their group membership (remaining with the overarching brand) while satisfying their differentiation drive through vertical stratification (elevating themselves above typical brand users).

Costly Signaling Theory and Conspicuous Consumption

Rooted in Thorstein Veblen’s (1899) treatise on conspicuous consumption and modern evolutionary biology’s costly signaling paradigm (Zahavi, 1975), status signaling relies on traits or signals that are difficult to fake, costly to acquire, and visibly unambiguous. When basic brand ownership becomes accessible to the masses—rendering the baseline signal noisy or cheap—consumers motivated by DSBU require subtler, more exclusive, and more costly signals within the brand’s hierarchy (e.g., high-end sub-lines, limited editions, bespoke features) to effectively communicate their rank to discerning peers.

Validity

The empirical validity of the DSBU scale was established through rigorous experimental and psychometric testing across multiple studies conducted by Wang and John (2019), notably in their Studies 3 and 4 involving competitive brand evaluation scenarios.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity was demonstrated by examining the scale’s behavior under theoretically predicted conditions of identity threat and user-base changes. In laboratory experiments, exposure to brand advertisements featuring dissimilar brand users (e.g., non-aspirational, lower-status, or culturally divergent user profiles) significantly elevated participants’ scores on the DSBU scale relative to control conditions featuring similar or neutral brand users. Convergent validity is evidenced by high inter-item correlations ($r > .70, p < .001$) and strong average variance extracted (AVE) metrics that consistently exceed the standard .50 threshold, demonstrating that the three items converge robustly on the underlying intra-brand status construct.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was established against related consumer dispositions, such as general status consumption (Eastman et al., 1999), need for uniqueness (Tian et al., 2001), and overall brand attitude. Statistical testing using the Fornell-Larcker criterion confirmed that the square root of the AVE for the DSBU construct was substantially higher than its bivariate correlations with external constructs. While generalized status consumption reflects an outward, societal orientation, DSBU specifically accounts for intra-community dynamics, confirming that it represents an independent, distinct psychological phenomenon.

Predictive and Nomological Validity

The DSBU scale exhibits exceptional predictive validity in explaining behavioral intentions. In the empirical studies presented by Wang and John (2019), DSBU was shown to statistically mediate the relationship between exposure to dissimilar brand users and the consumer’s decision to “upgrade” (i.e., trading up to a more expensive, higher-tier model of the same brand). While conventional marketing intuition suggested that brand dilution leads to customer abandonment (churn), mediation analyses using bootstrapping techniques revealed that high DSBU scores specifically channel consumers’ compensatory reactions into purchasing higher-tier products within the same brand family. Thus, the scale successfully predicts real-world choices such as willingness to pay premium prices, adoption of vertical extensions, and active disassociation from standard-tier users.

Reliability

The DSBU scale demonstrates high internal consistency reliability across diverse experimental samples. In the original validation studies by Wang and John (2019):

• In Study 3, which examined university student consumers evaluating upscale consumer electronics and apparel brands under conditions of brand user dissimilarity, the scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency, yielding a Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$) of .89.
• In Study 4, replicating the experimental paradigm with an expanded sample size and alternative product categories, the scale again displayed high reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha reported at .91.

Inter-item correlations across the three items consistently fall in the range of $.72$ to $.84$, indicating that each item makes a balanced contribution to the construct without introducing excessive redundancy. Composite reliability (CR) values across confirmatory models routinely exceed $.90$, confirming that the scale is free from significant random measurement error and possesses adequate precision for both basic and applied research settings.

Factor Analysis

Both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have confirmed the unidimensional structure of the DSBU scale:

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Principal Axis Factoring and Principal Component Analysis on the three items consistently yield a single underlying factor with an eigenvalue substantially exceeding the Kaiser-Guttman criterion of 1.0 (typically ranging from 2.35 to 2.55). This single factor accounts for more than 78% to 85% of the total variance across the indicators. All three items demonstrate robust factor loadings well above the conventional .70 benchmark:

• “I want to feel superior to other [brand] users”: Loading typically ≥ .86
• “I want to stand apart from other [brand] users”: Loading typically ≥ .82
• “I want to have higher status than other [brand] users”: Loading typically ≥ .91

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Model Fit

Because a three-indicator one-factor model is saturated (just-identified) with zero degrees of freedom ($df = 0$), structural equation modeling evaluations often incorporate the scale within a broader measurement model alongside related latent variables (such as brand attachment, perceived user dissimilarity, and willingness to upgrade). In these broader models, the DSBU construct exhibits outstanding measurement properties:

• Standardized Factor Loadings ($lambda$): All indicators load significantly ($p < .001$) with values exceeding .80.
• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): $> .98$
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): $> .97$
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): $< .05$
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): $< .03$

These fit indices affirm that the three-item instrument reliably captures a cohesive, single-dimensional latent construct.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Desire for Status Among Brand Users (DSBU)
• Authors: Yajin Wang and Deborah Roedder John (2019)
• Construct Assessed: Intra-brand status differentiation and desire for vertical superiority relative to peers using the same brand
• Format: Paper-and-pencil or computer-administered self-report questionnaire
• Item Count: 3 items
• Target Population: Adult and adolescent consumers; brand community members; owners or prospective buyers of commercial brands
• Administration Time: Approximately 1 minute
• Response Scale: 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)
• Scoring Directions: None of the items are reverse-coded. Responses to the 3 items are summed and averaged to compute an overall composite DSBU index. Higher scores indicate a greater psychological motivation to achieve higher status, superiority, and vertical distinctiveness relative to other users of the specified brand.
• Item Customization: In empirical studies, the placeholder [brand] is replaced with the focal brand name being evaluated (e.g., Apple, BMW, Nike, Lululemon).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Desire for Status Among Brand Users scale was published in 2019 in the Journal of Marketing Research. The instrument is accessible for scholarly, non-commercial research and educational applications under academic fair-use guidelines, provided appropriate attribution is given to the authors (Wang & John, 2019). Commercial organizations, consulting entities, or practitioners seeking to integrate the scale into proprietary market research software or commercial consumer tracking studies should consult the publication copyright policies of the American Marketing Association (AMA) or contact the primary authors directly for licensing inquiries.

References

• Berger, J., & Heath, C. (2007). Where consumers diverge from others: Identity signaling and product domains. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(2), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1086/519142
• Brewer, M. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17(5), 475–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167291175001
• Eastman, J. K., Goldsmith, R. E., & Flynn, L. R. (1999). Status consumption in consumer behavior: Scale development and validation. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 7(3), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.1999.11501839
• Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202
• Han, Y. J., Nunes, J. C., & Drèze, X. (2010). Signaling status with luxury goods: The role of brand prominence. Journal of Marketing, 74(4), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.74.4.015
• Tian, K. T., Bearden, W. O., & Hunter, G. L. (2001). Consumers’ need for uniqueness: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(1), 50–66. https://doi.org/10.1086/321947
• Wang, Y., & John, D. R. (2019). Up, up, and away: Upgrading as a response to dissimilar brand users. Journal of Marketing Research, 56(1), 142–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243718820571
• Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90(2), 245–271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.90.2.245

Items of the Scale