Consumer meaning making: the meaning of luxury brands in a democratised luxury world (original) (raw)

The new wave of luxury: the meaning and value of luxury to the contemporary consumer

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 2019

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore what luxury represents to contemporary consumers in their own life contexts. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods qualitative approach was adopted that comprised individual, personal interviews and focused interviews with small groups. Findings The study contributes to the field of luxury research by highlighting consumers’ interpretations of luxury as highly subjective, relative and contextual; showing that according to consumers, luxury relates to both consumption and non-consumption contexts; illustrating the value of luxury as a multidimensional construct in both contexts; and demonstrating how luxury may relate to a consumer’s desire to be meaningful and genuine, thereby generating prudential value. In these cases, luxury is closely linked to consumers’ perceptions of meaningfulness and well-being. Practical implications For marketing managers, the findings suggest that the wave of new luxury – seeking meaningfulness – may...

Consumers’ Experiences of Luxury – Interpreting the Luxuriousness of a Brand

2015

Despite the concept of luxury has been an object of growing research interest, the lack of a clear conception of luxury is still evident. Luxury has received different meanings at different times, in different contexts and among different people. This dissertation seeks to contribute to the literature by providing insight into what constitutes luxury and how it is determined by consumers. This research challenge is scrutinized in three articles approaching the luxury concept from the symbolic interaction perspective, in order to offer understanding about the terms and elements through which consumers interpret the luxuriousness of a brand.

Reality or Relativity: Understanding The Context and The Concept of Luxury Branding & Marketing

Luxury branding and marketing is a new ball-game altogether, both from the perspective of the marketer as well as the consumer. Luxury brands have always been seen as a fascinating space and luxury brand marketing as one of the most complicated areas to develop strategies and marketing mix. Consumer‟s perception of value is changing and their concept of luxury is metamorphosing. It therefore becomes imperative to view it form both angles that is in relation to and isolation from the „regular‟ goods and their marketing strategies. Over time LUXURY meant different things to people in different cultures. It is a conceptual and symbolic dimension mainly irrational and engages strong and intense multi-sensory emotions of consumers. It is also a culture and a philosophy and therefore requires deep understanding of the brand and its profile, before the adoption of business practices because its particulars and marketing mix strategies are fundamentally different from other types (regular) of goods and services. As quoted by Philip Kotler “Luxury is above all a world of brands”. The luxury brands go beyond the object, they are built from the reputation of its creations. It is crucial to listen to the client although consumer‟s attitudes and behaviors towards luxury are ambivalent and for them the most important characteristics are: quality of goods, self indulgence, and ancestral heritage. This paper identifies several key factors for luxury brand success by analyzing its marketing mix and how luxury goods are different from regular goods and then go on to explore some facets and trends of the luxury goods as well as their market and consumers, impact of internet technologies, and Intellectual Property violations. Considering that the luxury concept has shifted to the „new‟ meaning, we look into that aspect to understand the key drivers for luxury brands in today‟s context, as well as in the future.

Luxury brand meaning meaning making

The nature of luxury is constantly changing and this makes it difficult to formulate a universal definition of luxury brands . The current paper aims to enrich the understanding of luxury brand meaning from a consumer perspective . In particular, this paper investigates consumers' perceptions of luxury brands based on the extent to which they associate various attributes to luxury brands . A large-scale survey in the Flemish part of Belgium reveals three facets of luxury brand meaning: an expressive facet that refers to the exclusivity of luxury brands, an impressive-functional facet that refers to premium quality and an impressiveemotional facet that refers to extraordinary aesthetic aspects . In addition, the current study distinguishes three consumer segments (i .e . impressive, expressive and mixed segment) that differ from each other for the importance they attach to these facets of luxury brand meaning . The impressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with both impressive-functional and impressive-emotional facets, while the expressive segment associates luxury brand meaning with the expressive facet, rather than with impressive facets . The third segment, mixed group, thinks both expressive and impressive facets of luxury brand meaning need to be present before a brand can be categorised as luxury brand . In addition, the current study extends previous segmentations by providing a detailed profile of the segments .

Doing more with less: toward a parsimonious approach to examining brand luxury

Proceedings of the Australian and New …, 2010

Research relevant to the creation and development of luxury brands is a growing area in the literature. Previous studies have, however, used both many different dimensions of luxury as well as different approaches to luxury, resulting in a lack of clarity with respect to what defines a luxury brand. This paper focuses specifically on this key issue. A meta-analytical approach is utilised to carefully examine the dimensions and relationships underlying the luxury brand. The findings make important contributions to both clarifying the confusion shown in previous luxury brand research and to potentially reducing the vast number of luxury dimensions and approaches previously used-providing a useful framework for further research in this area.

Constructing luxury brands: exploring the role of consumer discourse

European Journal of Marketing, 2013

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to offer a discursive perspective on luxury brand consumption.Design/methodology/approachDiscourse analysis is used to examine how consumers construct their luxury brand consumption amidst countervailing cultural discourses in the market (Thompson and Haytko). Consumer discourse is generated through in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews.FindingsIn the context of countervailing discourses that challenge the notion of luxury (e.g. “masstige”, “chav” and “bling”), respondents construct an ostensibly distinct and stable version of luxury expressing its subjective, experiential, moral and artistic constructs. Analysis demonstrates how these four themes operate at a linguistic‐textual level to delineate important cultural categories and boundaries around luxury. Luxury brand discourse operates strategic juxtapositions between normatively positive (ideal) and normatively negative (problematic) categories, which are paradoxically interdependent.Research limita...

Luxury Brands A study of consumers' motivation to purchase luxury brands

The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' motives for buying luxury brands. The underlying motivation for why consumers buy luxury branded products is a field that is still lacking former research. The main objective of my research in this thesis was thus to provide new, interesting discoveries to the phenomenon luxury and purchasing motives. The assigned problem was to identify the associations that consumers have with a luxury fashion, brand and compare them with their associations with a non-luxury fashion brand, to better understand their preferences towards luxury. I have looked into different factors that can influence the consumers' behaviour, such as their explicit and implicit self-esteem, as well as the relationship between themselves and the brands.

Consumer Attitude towards Luxury : A Review on Luxury Value Perceptions

2015

The luxury brand market went through a dramatic transformation in terms of its identity and focus. This transformation has marked a significant change in how consumers define and perceive luxury. Luxury has evolved from a “traditional luxury” targeted at the most affluent consumers to a “new luxury” that focuses on a wider range of consumers. New luxury consumers buy luxury products for different reasons than those of the wealthiest group. Understanding various hidden reasons behind luxury consumption is crucial to develop a conceptualization of luxury brands and perception of values. This study discusses relevant literature on consumer attitudes, consumption motives and luxury perceptions. Discussions of this study serve as groundwork for further research in this area.