Luxury brand experiences and relationship quality for Millennials: The role of self-expansion

Abstract

Luxury brands, with their capacity to provide multi-dimensional experiences, serve as resources to enrich consumers' sense of self, a process known as self-expansion, which is a strong motivational factor for developing a relationship and strengthening identification with a brand. Self-expansion appears particularly attractive for Millennials, who are at a stage of life when they seek out opportunities for self-exploration. This study examines the impact of luxury brand experiences using a sample of 264 Millennials and demonstrates how such experiences strengthen relationship quality and consumer-brand identification through self-expansion and highlights the moderating role of novelty-seeking. These findings contribute to research on luxury brands by shedding new light on consumers' motivations related to broadening their sense of selves. Luxury brands offer more than mere conspicuous or hedonic benefits; they can also represent opportunities to enlarge an individual's perspective and self-content, in contrast to some criticism of luxury consumption on moral grounds.