Luxury Consumer Behavior Research Articles

Research on the Impact of Social Media on Luxury Consumer Behavior

A luxury brand needs to decide based on its own positioning whether to retail only on its official website to maintain brand tonality, or to sell some or all of its products on aggregated platforms like Farfetch. We can analyze this from the perspective of "Place" within the 4P framework. In the past, people generally believed that they would not purchase expensive items online, preferring instead to enjoy personalized customer service and tactile shopping experiences in physical stores. However, this perception has shifted in recent years. While e-commerce only accounts for 4% of luxury sales, it represents just one aspect of digital opportunities. This paper depicted that brands need to weigh the pros and cons based on their own positioning, target consumers, and market strategies to choose the most suitable sales channel. Whether retailing only on the official website or selling on aggregated platforms, brands must ensure a quality shopping experience while maintaining their uniqueness and tonality.

The Effects of Brand-self Connection on the Willingness to Pay a Price Premium: A New Look at the Consumerbrand Relationship in the Chinese Luxury Market

Exploring brand-self connection as a tool for driving profitability is gaining traction among scholars and industry professionals. This study introduces and validates a conceptual model aimed at discerning the influence of brand-self connection on luxury consumers willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium. Based on survey data from 270 Chinese luxury consumers and analysis via SPSS 27.0, the results reveal that brand-self connection not only directly augments consumers WTP a price premium but also exerts an indirect influence through the mediating roles of brand experience and brand loyalty. Interestingly, though brand-related social media engagement emerges as a moderating factor in this relationship, its impact remains marginal within the luxury market context. Together, these findings illuminate the complex nuances of luxury consumer behavior, enriching brand management, consumer-brand relationships, and pricing strategy. Practitioners can harness these insights for strategic decision-making in the luxury market arena.

Silent Luxury or Revenge Consumption? Reimagining the World of Luxury and Consumer Purchase Intentions Post-Covid 19

COVID-19 not only sent a health shockwave to the world but also disrupted global economies. Major shifts in luxury consumer behavior emerged as a result of the pandemic. This study aims to empirically investigate luxury purchase patterns in a post-COVID-19 world for different cultural, ethnic, and gender segments. It employs a quantitative survey with a sample of 262 participants to examine whether consumers prefer revenge or silent luxury, in-store or online channels. Results exhibit that high power distance and more masculine consumers favor revenge luxury while low power distance and more feminine ones prefer silent luxury consumption. Females and non-binary genders also exhibit higher purchase intentions for silent, more sustainable luxury consumption than males. Collectivistic, African American consumers are more inclined towards in-store luxury channels than their Non-Hispanic White counterparts. The study findings have several pertinent corporate and managerial implications as the US$1.52 trillion world of luxury is reimagined post-COVID-19.

Lovemarks Drivers Effect on Luxury Fashion Brands Emotional Attachment

This research endeavors to investigate the effect of lovemarks on luxury fashion consumer decision-making in Egypt, examining its implications on the international competitive posture of Egyptian luxury firms. It seeks to bridge a significant research gap in the understanding of luxury consumer behavior in Egypt, particularly against the backdrop of global luxury market transformations. The study's objectives encompass the analysis of critical lovemarks drivers effecting luxury purchases and the exploration of the interplay between love and respect in the emotional attachment between consumers and brands. Employing a positivist epistemological approach, this research utilizes a deductive methodology within a cross-sectional framework, underpinned by quantitative data analysis from 440 luxury brand consumers. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire, informed by non-probability judgmental sampling based on socio-economic and lifestyle criteria, elucidates consumer perspectives. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) identifies intimacy, sensuality, and mystery as pivotal in nurturing brand love, while trust, performance, and reputation predominantly foster brand respect. Notably, intimacy emerges as the most influential factor in developing brand love, underscoring the value of personal brand-consumer connections. From an academic standpoint, this study contributes to the scholarly dialogue on luxury consumer behavior, with a special focus on the Egyptian milieu. In practical terms, it provides luxury brands with strategic insights for intensifying marketing approaches through emotional engagement and narrative construction. These insights are crucial for stakeholders in luxury brands, offering a strategic framework to enhance investment decision-making and bolster consumer loyalty in a culturally varied market.

That’s so Gucci: a comparison of cultural values and the influence of perceived values on luxury goods attitudes and purchase intention among Korean and Dutch millennials

Millennials’ increasing interest in luxury goods is extensively changing the luxury landscape. This cross-cultural study obtains a deeper understanding of which value perceptions influence South Korean and Dutch millennial consumers’ purchase intentions for luxury goods. To reflect trends and the characteristics of millennials, this study analyzes four perceived values associated with luxury goods: investment, functional, individual, and social values. The findings reveal similarities and differences in the effect of the four perceived values on attitudes and purchase intention for luxury goods among Korean and Dutch millennials. Four dimensions of individualism versus collectivism (horizontal individualism, vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism, and vertical collectivism) are discussed by comparing cultural differences across the two countries. The results of this study contribute to the fields of luxury goods consumption, luxury consumer behavior, luxury goods marketing, and millennial consumer behavior.

Luxury as a Sustainable Service: A Push–Pull–Mooring Perspective

With the rapidly changing global landscape on sustainability, the luxury industry is now embracing circularity in consumption. Similarly, consumers are also evolving and changing the way they consume luxury by shifting from ownership-based models to access-based models. To uncover the underlying notions of sustainability in luxury, this conceptual article proposes the luxury as a sustainable service (LaSS) framework. It analyses consumers’ adoption of access-based, second-hand and co-ownership-based luxury models that are sustainable in their core. The study also attempts to advance the push–pull–mooring (PPM) theory by grounding the LaSS framework that further substantiates why consumers shift (or not) towards sustainable luxury. We identify push factors (voluntary conscious lifestyle, social norms, emotions of gratitude), pull factors (pro-environment behaviour, mindful consumption, warm glow) and mooring factors (materialism, social status, hedonic values, sunk cost) that play a key role in the transition of consumers towards adoption of LaSS. The LaSS framework has immense scope of being empirically tested and deeply fathom the fast-changing luxury consumer behaviour in a nuanced manner. Luxury practitioners can refer to the LaSS framework to formulate better strategies for consumers who are ready to adopt a sustainable luxury consumption regime.

The consumer behavior of luxury goods: a review and research agenda

ABSTRACT The paper presents a systematic review examining the various factors of consumer behavior towards luxury goods and synthesizes studies. Searches in prominent databases were conducted to pool the studies. Two hundred and two studies were identified and were catalogued in terms of study type, themes and analysis details. Results provide a summary of the perspectives in which behavior towards luxury goods has been studied in the past. This paper presents the determinants of luxury buying behavior, and synthesizes those antecedents into four major factors: individual factors; psychological factors; cultural and social factors; factors related to luxury goods. A new model for the relationship between these antecedents and luxury consumer behavior is also developed. Subsequently, a research agenda is developed for future research.

Factors Affecting Sustainable Luxury Purchase Behavior: A Conceptual Framework

In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in the luxury realm as consumers are increasingly inclined toward sustainable orientation. Yet, very few studies have been performed in this domain to gain an in-depth understanding about sustainable luxury consumer behavior. This study is based upon an extensive review of literature and aims to fill this gap by classifying various factors pertaining to sustainable luxury purchase intention into four broad categories, namely, culture, self-oriented (personal) values, others-oriented (social) values and economic value. Going further, an integrated conceptual framework based on dual theoretical framework of theory of planned behavior (TPB) and Schwartz’s value theory is proposed in the study to provide a holistic view about the key determinants of sustainable luxury fashion consumption.

A value co-creation model in brand tribes: the effect of luxury cruise consumers’ power perception

Given that power is often considered a psychological construct, it is important to examine whether and how group processes related to brand tribalism promote consumer power, and investigate the effects of power on consumers’ value-co-creation behaviors in the luxury cruise industry. To test a conceptual model that explores these complementary phenomena, structural equation modeling analyses are performed with data gleaned from luxury cruise passengers. Analysis results found that brand tribalism positively affects the formation of perceived power among luxury cruise passengers. In addition, luxury cruise passengers’ engagement in activities that co-create value is largely dependent on their power perception. This study contributes to the theoretical development of luxury consumer behavior research, and managerial implications are also discussed based on the findings.

I wear Prada, because I want to.

: Previous studies on luxury consumption indicated that women may use luxury consumption as a self-promotion strategy during within-sex competitions, as these luxuries improve their advantages against same sex rivals for mates. Many of these studies rely on costly signalling and intra-sexual competition theory, and they suggest female intra-sexual competition in a mate attraction context triggers women’s spending on luxury products. The focus of this paper is to understand the gender-related motivations, specifically for female consumers in the luxury market and to compare and contrast the new findings with the previous studies. The finding of this study demonstrates other motives in female luxury consumer behaviour rather than relationship, self-enhancement and competition.

Effect of religiosity on luxury consumer behavior: the case of the Tunisian Muslim

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the effects of religiosity on attitude and personal orientation toward luxury brands and on purchase and repurchase intentions. Determining the effects of religiosity on the consumers’ behavior toward luxury has proved to be a crucial matter. As far as the authors know, academic research on this topic is almost non-existent. This is an exploratory study at the level of the direct effects of religiosity. Following a literature review, a model was constructed to represent the various interrelationships between the variables investigated in this research.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study was conducted among 227 individuals having varying levels of religiosity. The authors verified, before, that those interviewed have purchased a luxury brand.FindingsThe findings show that religiosity does not hinder the consumption of luxury brands. Indeed, the authors detected a positive relationship between attitude and personal orientation toward luxury brands and the level of religiosity. The effect of religiosity on attitude and personal orientation is stronger for persons having higher incomes. Moreover, this effect is slight more marked among women.Research limitations/implicationsJust as for all other research work, it is important to identify the limitations of this study. The authors need only to acknowledge its exploratory nature for these relationships to be identified as preliminary ones and as the first elements of proof rather than as a conclusive demonstration. This research suffers from certain other limitations, especially concerning its convenience sampling and the fact that it covered only a limited geographical area, namely, the capital, Tunis, and its adjacent suburbs.Practical implicationsThis research has shown that whatever the level of religiosity, its effect is stronger among persons having a high income. Therefore, Muslims, whatever their religiosity, can be a target for marketers and luxury brand.Social implicationsIslam is not against luxury brand but against ostentation.Originality/valueIt is the first research, as the authors know, that study the relationship between religiosity and consumer luxury behavior, especially among Muslims.

Understanding consumer behavior regarding luxury fashion goods in India based on the theory of planned behavior

PurposeEven though the Indian luxury market is predicted to grow as much as the Chinese one over the coming years, limited research has been conducted on luxury consumer behavior. The purpose of this study is to examine the purchasing behavior for luxury fashion goods using the framework of the theory of planned behavior.Design/methodology/approachA total of 257 respondents were included after distributing a structured questionnaire by surveying real luxury consumers in Delhi. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results of the study indicated that subjective norm was the most important determinant of the purchasing intentions for luxury fashion goods, followed by attitude. Perceived behavioral control was not found to have a significant relationship with purchasing intentions, but it showed a strong positive relationship with actual purchasing behavior.Originality/valueThis study provides new theoretical insights regarding luxury consumer behavior in India. It explains the motivating factors behind purchasing intentions for luxury goods among Indian consumers. The findings of the study will provide great help to global luxury companies in formulating their penetration and expansion strategies in the Indian market.

The role of provenance in luxury textile brands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role that provenance holds within the luxury textiles market. It defines similarities and differences in the perception and acceptance of provenance as a key strategy for luxury textile brands in the USA and the UK. Its purpose is to establish a framework of identifiable communication strategies for future growth of the luxury brand sector. Design/methodology/approach – The study consisted of adopting an ethnographic approach to define the role of provenance within luxury brands in the USA and the UK. Attention was focused on textile heritage labels in the USA and in Scotland, to gain insight into how historic artisanship impacts the perception of luxury and authenticity by the consumer. Interviews with key strategists were conducted, and a comparison of the discussions disseminated. Findings – The narrative behind a product, its authenticity and provenance, are key drivers in luxury textile brands, with the perception of quality of utmost importance. Long-standing companies have interwoven provenances with their spiritual birthplaces, people and environment which can be leveraged in product introductions and branding. Practical implications – The paper provides a framework of key features of provenance to inform practitioners on dilemmas such as de-localization, re-localization and transcendence within the luxury brand sector. Originality/value – The paper furthers academic research by investigating contemporary issues in luxury consumer behaviour; specifically in relation to the perception of provenance. While research focuses on Western luxury textile brands and consumers, it provides reference criteria and recommendations to luxury brand strategists that can be adopted and adapted for different fields and geographic locations.

Luxury Consumer Behavior in Malaysia: Loud Brands vs.Quiet Brands

This paper investigates the relationship between social factors, personality factors, and the consumers’ purchase intention of loud and quiet luxury brands in the context of Malaysia. In particular, this study aims to obtain insights into the consumers’ intention of purchasing two types of luxury brands: loud (having conspicuous logos and signatures that are not clear or eye-catching) and quiet (having discrete logos and badges that are not clearly embalmed or easily noticeable). A survey questionnaire was administered to 190 participants from different walks of life. The results of data analysis revealed that Malaysian consumers were brand conscious. The findings suggest that the loud luxury buyers intend to impress others by following fashion and new trends, whereas the quiet luxury buyers prefer to feel a sense of accomplishment and social recognition through having finer possessions in life. At the end, the implications for brand managers are discussed, and recommendations for future research are offered.

Fashion marketing of luxury brands: Recent research issues and contributions

This introduction briefly summarizes each of the fifteen articles included in this special issue on fashion marketing of luxury brands and provides a rationale for the inclusion of each article. The articles are grouped by topic—luxury status/values, luxury consumer behavior, luxury brand management, and luxury brand counterfeiting—even though many of the articles include information relevant to at least one other topic. With authors representing thirteen different countries (and probably more if country of origin were to be considered), this issue on marketing of luxury brands is truly international in scope.

Uncovering the relationships between aspirations and luxury brand preference

PurposeThis paper seeks to test the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations on luxury brand preference. The objective is to help luxury marketers better understand and anticipate the psychological needs of their customers.Design/methodology/approachBased on a thorough review of the literature, a series of hypotheses are derived and tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The final sample consists of a total of 615 participants.FindingsThe main findings show that aspirations can affect luxury brand preference depending on the type of aspirations: positive for extrinsic aspirations and negative for intrinsic ones. The findings also suggest that intrinsic aspirations play a more substantial role in luxury consumer behavior than had been previously thought.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that luxury marketers should take into consideration the duality of intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations when designing marketing campaigns. Particularly, focusing advertising campaigns on extrinsic values seems restrictive and discards consumers who are intrinsically motivated.Originality/valueAspirations are important in social psychology research because they have a strong influence on individuals' behavior. However, little research has been done in marketing to assess the potential effects of aspirations on consumer behavior, especially within the context of luxury goods.