The impact of brand equity, status consumption, and brand trust on purchase intention of luxury brands

Abstract

The ever-increasing prominence of social media platforms demonstrates the level of engagement of Indian luxury consumers. This study aims to determine the influence of social media marketing activities, brand equity, trust, and status consumption on luxury brand purchase intentions in the Indian luxury market. 453 responses were obtained from the top four metropolitan cities of India, i.e., Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, via snowball sampling method. The researchers have used structural equation modeling to assess the causal relationships between constructs. The results concluded that social media marketing activities and brand equity positively affect the purchase intention of luxury brands, which is more significant in India, while status consumption and brand trust are found to impact purchase intention in case of Indian shoppers. Researchers have proposed a research model that leads to managerial and theoretical implications. Luxury brand managers must focus on social media marketing activity, status consumption, and brand equity, leading to luxury brand consumption. The study investigates the factors affecting purchase intention of luxury brands and a comparative study in the Indian context that is not much analyzed. The constructs were carefully chosen to meet the requirements of the study. The survey method delivers an inclusive yet summarizing depiction of the literature and implications to luxury brand managers and future researchers.