Status consumption: Does it matter for Brazilian young adults?

Abstract

The changes in consumption behavior of Brazilians are the scope of many studies in the last years. However, some common managerial assumptions, as an example, that Brazilian young adults used to have status consumption, do not have enough empirical studies to explain or support these generalizations. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate the Brazilian young adults’ status consumption behavior. So, we outlined a multimethod research, through a survey with 548 Brazilian young adults and a confirmatory focus group with eight young adults. The results show that: (1) Brazilian young adults do not like to be recognize as status consumers, even though they are; (2) The consumption-oriented to gain status is not related to goods, but to experiences; and, (3) The motivations driving young adults to have status consumption in Brazil are high social recognition function and, consumption driven by a tangible component (quality) and an intangible component (brand).