GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEIVED LUXURY VALUES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON LUXURY FASHION BRANDS

Nurfareena Zahari,Fang Liu 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2014 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2014 No.4

Despite the recent economic downturn, the worldwide sales of luxury fashion brands have increased. The luxury fashion market may have become more profitable and yet, at the same time, more competitive. The relationship between consumers and a luxury fashion brand is the type of relation that starts with an affinity towards a particular brand name and is manifested through the purchase of the goods (Okonkwo 2007).Luxury consumption generally involves purchasing luxury products and brands which can symbolise luxury values to an individual. Even though luxury consumption has always been associated with prestige-seeking behaviour, it goes beyond that. Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands and goods that are able to fulfil their own functional and emotional values or, specifically, perceived luxury values. Advertising is essential in selling luxury brands and most luxury brands are willing to invest in advertising. One of the main objectives of luxury brand advertising is to help consumers develop a good understanding of the perceived values that luxury brands can offer as compared to non-luxury brands. Only after perceived luxury values are well understood, will consumers be persuaded to purchase the brands. Luxury fashion brands are one of the most profitable and fastest-growing luxury sectors, yet at the same time most researchers tend to agree that the value perceptions associated with luxury fashion brands are poorly understood and under-investigated. Values in general can be regarded as beliefs that guide the selection or evaluation of desirable behaviours or end states (Schultz & Zelezny 1999). Luxury values explain why consumers desire and purchase one luxury brand rather than another. This is because luxury values associated with a specific luxury fashion brand influences consumers’ preference over another brand. There is a wealth of models for perceived luxury values and many researchers have attempted to measure perceived luxury values. Previous research has revealed that luxury values may consist of multiple dimensions. For example, luxury values may involve exclusivity, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand identity (Phau & Prendergast 2000). Vigneron & Johnson (2004) proposed five perceived luxury values which comprise conspicuous value, uniqueness value, quality value, hedonic value, and extended self-value. Subsequent to the study done by Vigneron & Johnson (2004), Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels (2007) extended and summarised nine perceived luxury values in relation to luxury fashion brand consumption which are: price value, usability value, quality value, uniqueness value, self-identity value, hedonic value, materialistic value, conspicuousness value and prestige value.Gender, in particular, has not been carefully examined in the luxury context. Since many luxury fashion brands are purchased as gifts for the opposite gender, good understandings of the gender differences in perceptions towards key luxury values becomes essential in this luxury market. Extended from Wiedmann et al.’s study (2007) and using a two (male and female endorser) by two (male and female consumer) factorial and quasi-experimental design, this study examines the impact of gender on consumer responses to seven key luxury values, including the appearance, quality, uniqueness, materialistic, hedonic, conspicuous, and prestige value. The sample included more than three hundred young consumers in Australia. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the validity and reliability of each value construct. T-tests were conducted to examine the difference between the male and female consumers with regards to each of the luxury value. The study found that, when exposed to the male-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have significant different perceptions towards only three key luxury values including appearance, hedonic and prestige value. However, when exposed to the female-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have different perceptions on all of the key values examined except the materialistic and quality value. The results reveal that gender is a key consideration in luxury brand marketing, particularly in the context of new luxury brand advertising. On one hand, the same advertisement may lead to different consumer perceptions on the luxury values of the advertised brand. On the other hand, some key perceived values (such as quality or materialistic) may not be influenced by gender (neither the gender of the endorser or the consumer). The findings of this study are important as they enable luxury marketers to understand the impact of gender in luxury brand marketing. The implications go beyond luxury fashion brands to other sectors of the luxury market.

CLIMBING THE RUNGS OF LUXURY BRAND’S LADDER AND SOCIAL STATUS

Thao Nguyen,George Balabanis 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2014 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2014 No.7

Luxury industry is one of the fastest growing fields in marketing research in which many studies have examined how consumers' background affects their preference for luxury products and luxury brands. Classical theories focused on the affluent social classes and their tendency to consume luxury products to consciously or unconsciously signal their wealth. Other studies argued that the internalised culture developed during the socialisation years may influence one’s tastes and preferences for luxuries. Whereas, “costly signal theory” and “affirmation resource theory” suggest that luxury consumption extends beyond the traditional symbolic value of luxury brands and the habituated taste consumption drivers. Despite the wealth of current theoretical approaches, there is little research on the context of status rankings of luxuries and luxury brands. Thus, main objective of the present study is to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework that links consumption of at different rungs of the luxury brand ladder to a number of variables that may act as moderators which will be defined below. The key predictors are economic resources, cultural capital, perceived social status and desired status. The dependent variable is consumption of luxury brands at different rungs in the luxury ladder. A number of hypotheses are proposed and empirically tested. The dependent variable was measured by survey data collected from a sample of US consumers. The results confirm that the frequency of luxury brand purchases is significantly and positively related to consumers’ economic resources and desire for status. The hierarchy of luxury brands consumed is driven by consumers’ economic resources, cultural capital and desire for social status. Regardless of economic resources and perceived social status, consumers with high desire for social status are more likely to buy brands which represent high level of luxury. Likewise, people with higher cultural capital would buy higher luxury grading brands regardless of their economic capabilities. Moreover, results showed that perceived social status is negatively correlated with preferences for higher tier luxury brands of cars. In particular, desire for social status seems to moderates the effect of perceived social status on the hierarchy of brand of luxury car preferences. Desire for status combined with high perceived social status leads to higher preference for higher tier luxury products. It can be concluded that economic resources are responsible for the frequency people buy luxury brands, whereas cultural capital is responsible for the luxury hierarchy of the consumed brands. Frequent consumption of luxury brands reflects one’s economic status whereas the grade of luxury brands his/her cultural status. However, desire for status seems to be a key variable as it affects both frequency and the ranks of luxury brands purchased. This is an important variable as desire for status is not related with neither the actual social status (i.e., economic resources and cultural capital) nor perceived social status.

백화점 이용고객의 명품브랜드 선호도 유형에 따른 구매행태 분석

손종원,나승화 한국유통과학회 2013 유통과학연구 Vol.11 No.10

Purpose - With the increase in fervor to purchase luxury brands,new social problems have arisen,such as excessive preoccupation with luxury brands and high preference for forged luxury goods. Therefore, the issues related to luxury brands, termed “Luxury Syndrome,” have emerged as an area of great interest for researchers and practitioners. However, previous studies neglect to categorize this preference for luxury brands. Therefore, this study aims to identify the different purchasing behaviors of consumers using the types of luxury brands preferences as parameters. Research design, data, and methodology - This study arranges a causal relationship model assuming that purchase behaviors positively (+) affect typified preference for luxury brands and purchase intentions. We administered a questionnaire survey to the purchasers who bought luxury brands from department stores to secure additional data necessary to verify the hypotheses in this study. We then processed the data using SPSS 19.0. We further analyzed the basic data using frequency and descriptive statistical analysis, and verified the measurement tools through feasibility and reliability analyses. Moreover, this study uses multiple regression analysis to verify the hypotheses. Further, this study tests the path effect between luxury brand purchase attitude and purchase behavior,with non-intrinsic preference and intrinsic preference as the mediating variables. Results - Based on the results, the impact of tendencies of conspicuous consumption and self-monitoring on non-intrinsic preference was significantly positive (+), while the impact of tendencies of pursuit of a reference group, conspicuous consumption, and self-monitoring on intrinsic preference and purchase intentions was significantly positive (+). Further, non-intrinsic and intrinsic preferences positively (+) influence purchase intentions and the impact of non-intrinsic preference took an absolute portion. However, the tendency of dependence on brands negatively (-) impacts purchase intentions. The results showed that self-monitoring and conspicuous consumption tendencies have greater effect on purchase intention, which is mediated by non-intrinsic preference. In contrast, reference group following tendency has a greater effect on purchase intention, which is mediated by intrinsic preference. Conclusions - Based on the results, the study verifies that the consumption of luxury brands in Korea has not yet entered the settlingperiod. The tendency for conspicuous consumption and the tendency for pursuit of the reference group were relatively important aspects for the consumers who prefer luxury brands non-intrinsically and intrinsically, respectively. Especially, it was found that the purchase intentions for forged brands originate from the tendency to depend on brands. Based on these findings, this study suggests the measures to develop and mature the luxury brands market, and reinforce marketing performance at the three levels, that is, government, distributors, and manufacturers. The luxury brands manufacturers should devote themselves to the production and design of products to catch the attention of mature consumers of luxury brands. The luxury brands distributors should then raise the level of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for opinion leaders. Finally, the Government should prepare effective policies for the development of luxury brands and provide a variety of economic support.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEIVED LUXURY VALUES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON LUXURY FASHION BRANDS

Nurfareena Zahari,Fang Liu 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2014 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2014 No.7

Despite the recent economic downturn, the worldwide sales of luxury fashion brands have increased. The luxury fashion market may have become more profitable and yet, at the same time, more competitive. The relationship between consumers and a luxury fashion brand is the type of relation that starts with an affinity towards a particular brand name and is manifested through the purchase of the goods (Okonkwo 2007).Luxury consumption generally involves purchasing luxury products and brands which can symbolise luxury values to an individual. Even though luxury consumption has always been associated with prestige-seeking behaviour, it goes beyond that. Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands and goods that are able to fulfil their own functional and emotional values or, specifically, perceived luxury values. Advertising is essential in selling luxury brands and most luxury brands are willing to invest in advertising. One of the main objectives of luxury brand advertising is to help consumers develop a good understanding of the perceived values that luxury brands can offer as compared to non-luxury brands. Only after perceived luxury values are well understood, will consumers be persuaded to purchase the brands. Luxury fashion brands are one of the most profitable and fastest-growing luxury sectors, yet at the same time most researchers tend to agree that the value perceptions associated with luxury fashion brands are poorly understood and under-investigated. Values in general can be regarded as beliefs that guide the selection or evaluation of desirable behaviours or end states (Schultz & Zelezny 1999). Luxury values explain why consumers desire and purchase one luxury brand rather than another. This is because luxury values associated with a specific luxury fashion brand influences consumers’ preference over another brand. There is a wealth of models for perceived luxury values and many researchers have attempted to measure perceived luxury values. Previous research has revealed that luxury values may consist of multiple dimensions. For example, luxury values may involve exclusivity, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand identity (Phau & Prendergast 2000). Vigneron & Johnson (2004) proposed five perceived luxury values which comprise conspicuous value, uniqueness value, quality value, hedonic value, and extended self-value. Subsequent to the study done by Vigneron & Johnson (2004), Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels (2007) extended and summarised nine perceived luxury values in relation to luxury fashion brand consumption which are: price value, usability value, quality value, uniqueness value, self-identity value, hedonic value, materialistic value, conspicuousness value and prestige value.Gender, in particular, has not been carefully examined in the luxury context. Since many luxury fashion brands are purchased as gifts for the opposite gender, good understandings of the gender differences in perceptions towards key luxury values becomes essential in this luxury market. Extended from Wiedmann et al.’s study (2007) and using a two (male and female endorser) by two (male and female consumer) factorial and quasi-experimental design, this study examines the impact of gender on consumer responses to seven key luxury values, including the appearance, quality, uniqueness, materialistic, hedonic, conspicuous, and prestige value. The sample included more than three hundred young consumers in Australia. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the validity and reliability of each value construct. T-tests were conducted to examine the difference between the male and female consumers with regards to each of the luxury value. The study found that, when exposed to the male-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have significant different perceptions towards only three key luxury values including appearance, hedonic and prestige value. However, when exposed to the female-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have different perceptions on all of the key values examined except the materialistic and quality value. The results reveal that gender is a key consideration in luxury brand marketing, particularly in the context of new luxury brand advertising. On one hand, the same advertisement may lead to different consumer perceptions on the luxury values of the advertised brand. On the other hand, some key perceived values (such as quality or materialistic) may not be influenced by gender (neither the gender of the endorser or the consumer). The findings of this study are important as they enable luxury marketers to understand the impact of gender in luxury brand marketing. The implications go beyond luxury fashion brands to other sectors of the luxury market.

CAN’T HELP FALLING IN LOVE: HOW LUXURY BRANDS GENERATE CONSUMER AFFECT IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Jan-Frederik Gräve,Marius Johnen,Sina Kaltenbach,Timo Mandler 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Introduction Today, many luxury brands use social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube to communicate with their target consumers worldwide. Previous research has shown that engaging consumers in social media can lead to increase commitment and loyalty (e.g., Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2016; Wirtz et al., 2013), purchase intentions (e.g., Beukeboom, Kerkhof, & de Vries, 2015; Kim & Ko, 2010) and sales (e.g., Kumar et al., 2016). Although researchers have investigated the role of social media marketing for luxury brands at an aggregate level (e.g., Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko, 2012), little is known about the success drivers of luxury brand communication at a more granular level. Therefore, our study aims to identify the characteristics of luxury brand posts that elicit positive consumer affect. Specifically, we examine the effect of different luxury appeals (e.g., conspiciousness, uniqueness, quality), alongside other brand post characteristics (e.g., vividness, call-to-action, informative/entertaining content) on consumers‟ affective reactions (“Love”) towards a luxury brand post. For this purpose, we draw on field data from Facebook that comprises 2,343 individidual brand posts published by 18 leading luxury brands between 1st January 2017 and 30th June 2017. Our study contributes to literature on luxury brand communication in at least three ways: First, from a theoretical perspective, we are shedding the first light on the relevance of different luxury appeals for generating consumer engagement in social media. Methodologically, we further introduce a novel measure of consumer engagement termed Love-Ratio (short, LoveR), which is based on Facebook‟s new “reactions”-feature that was introduced in 2016. Finally, from a managerial point of view, our insights that help managers of luxury brands to „engineer“ emotionally engaging social media content that contributes to strong consumer-brand relationships. Literature Review Conceptual BackgroundLiterature provides initial empirical evidence for the general advantageousness of social media activities for luxury brands (Godey et al., 2016; Kim & Ko 2010, 2012). Importantly, these studies commonly examine consumers‟ overall assessment of a brand‟s social media activities, i.e. whether a brand‟s (entire) social media presence “enables information sharing with others” (interaction) or “offers customized information search” (customization; Kim & Ko, 2012, p. 1483). Therefore, it constitutes an aggregate measure of a brand‟s social media presence as a whole, and is not concerned with the specifics of the individual interactions between a brand and consumers (post as the unit of analysis). Recent research, however, clearly indicates that the extent to which consumers interact with a brand in social media (e.g., liking, sharing, or commenting) depends on the characteristics of a given brand post (e.g., De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012; Sabate, Berbegal-Mirabent, Canabate, & Lebherz, 2014; Schultz, 2017). Most studies in this regard examined correlations between certain characteristics (e.g., use of photos, videos, and/or links, post length and timing) and different measures of consumer engagement or post popularity (i.e., number of likes, comments, or shares).5) These studies provide useful insights into several “hard” criteria that determine consumer interactions with brand posts. However, due to the tremendous coding efforts required, only few studies have also considered “soft” criteria, such as the appeal – i.e., “the overall theme of a post” (Wagner, Baccarella, & Voigt, 2017, p. 2) – that is communicated within a post. To extend knowledge in the field of luxury brand communication in social media, we are adopting a similar approach by (1) proposing a comprehensive set of luxury-specific appeals that may be communicated within brand posts and (2) empirically investigating their effectiveness in evoking positive consumer affect. Conceptual Background Based on a synthesis of prior work (e.g., Vigneron & Johnson, 2004) we propose a set of six distinct luxury appeals that can be communicated via social media posts: 1. Conspicuousness: Conspicuous consumption refers to the consumption of goods or services with the intention of social status improvement and communication to others (Eastman, Goldsmith, & Flynn, 1999). It involves high levels of self-monitoring and a status-signaling mentality (Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009), aimed at presenting oneself by means of a product that is recognized and highly regarded by others. The general aim is to express a brand„s capability to enable a person to become the center of attention and stand out of the crowd by conveying a high social status (Phau & Prendergast, 2000). 2. Uniqueness: Uniqueness refers to the quality of being particularly special due to sheer rarity or remarkable characteristics. Brands express their uniqueness by highlighting their products‟ (a) excellent craftmanship, (b) innovativeness, or (c) their exclusiveness in terms of consumption. Examples for uniqueness through craftmanship include creative product designs, the use of rare materials or ingredients (e.g., diamonds in the context of jewelry), or even tailor-made/personalized products (e.g., configuration of a car; inscription of personal initials onto fashion items). The general aim is to distinguish a product from others, rendering it extraordinary and remarkable. The same can be accomplished through innovation, since a pioneering product is by definition unique in that it has certain features that distinguish it from any other existing competing product. Furthermore, uniqueness can be achieved through exclusiveness of consumption. One method to create contrived rarity is a limitation of the quantity of products manufactured (e.g., limited editions; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). 3. Quality: Luxury brands are generally expected to deliver high quality products and services (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Indicators that can be used in the communication of quality include specific materials (e.g., cashmere, gemstones) or performance data (e.g., power, top speed) that convey a high standard of (instrinsic) quality. 4. Hedonism: In general, the term hedonism refers to the pursuit of pleasure in the sense of sensual self-indulgence. Luxury brands commonly offer emotional and sensual benefits that can be experienced by and transferred to consumers in a consumption situation (Moore & Lee, 2012). Communication aimed at conveying hedonism commonly neglects utilitarian (i.e., functional) aspects of the product of interest and, instead, emphasizes the emotional experience associated with the consumption of that product or service (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004), e.g., pleasure, joy, self-reward, love, passion, or excitement (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). 5. Extended Self: The term extended self describes the definition of a person‟s selfconcept by his/her personal possessions. In other words, consumers use products (or services) to define who they are. For example, wearing luxury fashion items enables a person to associate himself/herself with characteristics of the brand, and vice versa (Vigneron & Johnson, 2004). Brand communication reflecting this appeal attempts to suggest that the consumption of a product or service helps them to establish, reinforce, and express an aspired personality trait, such as elegance, confidence, success, or power. 6. Heritage: Many luxury brands have a long history and rich tradition. Communication efforts that intend to convey a brand‟s rich heritage either showcase a brand‟s founder as a person, elaborate on the founder‟s or company‟s history, or highlight a traditional, iconic product which has made the brand what it is today. Data and Method To investigate the effectiveness of these luxury appeals in evoking positive consumer affect, we conducted an empirical analysis using field data from Facebook. We compiled a set of 18 luxury brands from different categories, including fashion, cars, cosmetics, and champagne. For this set of brands, we extracted all brand posts (mostly photos and videos) that were published between 1st January and 30th June 2017, yielding 2,343 individual posts that constitute our unit of analysis. We enriched the raw data by manually coding all brand posts in terms of the luxury appeals of interest, following a two step-procedure. First, we developed a detailed codebook that defines each luxury appeal, provides a list of relevant indicators, and further illustrates each luxury appeal with the help of exemplary brand posts. Using the codebook we instructed two independent coders to code the absence (0) or presence (1) of each luxury appeal within a given post. The inter-rater reliabilities were satisfactory for all luxury appeals, ranging from .79 to .91. We further requested the coders to capture other content characteristics and controls that potentially affect consumer interactions with brand posts, e.g., Vividness, Calls-to-Action, Entertaining vs. Informative Content, Visibility of the Brand, and Type of Endorser. Instead of examining conventional measures of consumer engagement, such as likes, comments, or shares, we introduce a new measure of consumer affect that we label “Love-Ratio” or, short, LoveR. This measure is based on Facebook‟s new class of user reactions that enable users to indicate their feelings about certain posts, such as “Love” or “Anger”. LoveR represents the amount of “Love”-reactions relative to all reactions toward a given brand post. Thus, it reflects an aggregate measure of users‟ positive affect towards a brand post. We consider LoveR an important extension of commonly investigated outcomes such as Likes or Shares, which are considered “fairly low-level form[s] of engagement” (Stephen, Sciandra, & Inman, 2015, p. 20). Consumer affect, by contrast, is generally considered a “chief motivator of behavior” (O‟Cass & Frost, 2002, p. 73) and a “mediating factor in the purchase process” (Schiffman, Bendall, Watson, & Kanuk, 1997, p. 361), therefore representing a useful proxy of consumer attitudes. Model estimation Given the nested structure of the data (i.e., posts are nested within brand pages), we use hierarchical linear modeling (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) with random intercepts to analyze the data. We specify the proposed luxury appeals (Conspiciousness, Uniqueness, Quality, Hedonism, Extended Self, and Heritage) alongside additional content characteristics, and brand dummies as predictors of LoveR. After estimating the direct effects, we stepwise include interaction terms to test potential moderating effects of Vividness and Entertainment. The results suggest that three of the six luxury appeals evoke positive consumer affect. The strongest driver of LoveR is Quality (β = .978, p < .001), followed by Hedonism (β = .479, p < .05) and Heritage (β = .451, p < .01). Conspiciousness and Uniqueness, by contrast, are not significantly related to consumers‟ affective reactions towards brand posts. Furthermore, the use of an appeal that communicates Extended Self even decreases LoveR (β = -.530, p < .10), although the effect is only marginally significant. To further contextualize these main effects, we included additional interaction terms involving Vividness and Entertainment. We find (a) that the effect of Hedonism on LoveR is further enhanced by the use of videos (relative to photos and other less vivid types of media; interaction effect: β = 1.023, p < .05, conditional effect of Hedonism for vivid content β = .934, p < .01,) and (b) that the effect of Heritage on LoveR tends to be larger when it is communicated in an entertaining rather than informative style (interaction effect: β = .753, p = .001; conditional effect of Heritage for entertaining style: β = .660, p < .001). Conclusions Our study sheds light onto the effectiveness of luxury brands‟ communication in social media in terms of generating positive consumer affect. Our results based on an analysis of 2,343 individual luxury brand posts in Facebook show that only certain luxury appeals can trigger consumers‟ “Love”-reactions towards a brand post. Specifically, we find that brand posts that convey Quality, Hedonism, and Heritage appeals increase the likelihood of a brand post being “loved“, whereas Conspiciousness and Uniqueness exert no influence at all. Posts which communicate an Extended Self may even decrease favorable affective reactions by users. The effects of Hedonism and Heritage are further enhanced by the use of videos or entertaining content, respectively. These findings have direct implications for the marketing communications of luxury brands. From a content perspective, marketers should develop and run media content that (a) emphasizes hedonic consumption motives (as reflected by Hedonism) rather than status-signaling motives (as reflected by Conspiciousness), preferably using rich media such as videos; (b) educates consumers about the history and values of a brand, preferably in an informative rather than entertaining way; and (c) reinforces a brand‟s quality claim.

CLIMBING THE RUNGS OF LUXURY BRAND’S LADDER AND SOCIAL STATUS

Thao Nguyen,George Balabanis 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2014 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2014 No.11

Luxury industry is one of the fastest growing fields in marketing research in which many studies have examined how consumers' background affects their preference for luxury products and luxury brands. Classical theories focused on the affluent social classes and their tendency to consume luxury products to consciously or unconsciously signal their wealth. Other studies argued that the internalised culture developed during the socialisation years may influence one’s tastes and preferences for luxuries. Whereas, “costly signal theory” and “affirmation resource theory” suggest that luxury consumption extends beyond the traditional symbolic value of luxury brands and the habituated taste consumption drivers. Despite the wealth of current theoretical approaches, there is little research on the context of status rankings of luxuries and luxury brands. Thus, main objective of the present study is to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework that links consumption of at different rungs of the luxury brand ladder to a number of variables that may act as moderators which will be defined below. The key predictors are economic resources, cultural capital, perceived social status and desired status. The dependent variable is consumption of luxury brands at different rungs in the luxury ladder. A number of hypotheses are proposed and empirically tested. The dependent variable was measured by survey data collected from a sample of US consumers. The results confirm that the frequency of luxury brand purchases is significantly and positively related to consumers’ economic resources and desire for status. The hierarchy of luxury brands consumed is driven by consumers’ economic resources, cultural capital and desire for social status. Regardless of economic resources and perceived social status, consumers with high desire for social status are more likely to buy brands which represent high level of luxury. Likewise, people with higher cultural capital would buy higher luxury grading brands regardless of their economic capabilities. Moreover, results showed that perceived social status is negatively correlated with preferences for higher tier luxury brands of cars. In particular, desire for social status seems to moderates the effect of perceived social status on the hierarchy of brand of luxury car preferences. Desire for status combined with high perceived social status leads to higher preference for higher tier luxury products. It can be concluded that economic resources are responsible for the frequency people buy luxury brands, whereas cultural capital is responsible for the luxury hierarchy of the consumed brands. Frequent consumption of luxury brands reflects one’s economic status whereas the grade of luxury brands his/her cultural status. However, desire for status seems to be a key variable as it affects both frequency and the ranks of luxury brands purchased. This is an important variable as desire for status is not related with neither the actual social status (i.e., economic resources and cultural capital) nor perceived social status.

個人的奢侈品價値與時尙品牌消費的關系: 美國人口特征差異的探索性分析

( Hye Young Kim ),( Jeong Ju Yoo ),( Doo Young Choi ),( Ji Eun Kim ),( K. P. Johnson ) 한국마케팅과학회 2011 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing Vol.2 No.3

Researchers have focused on the explanation that consumers buy luxury brands ``to impress others`` (Tsai, 2005; O``Cass & Frost, 2002; Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2009). Marketers have designed branding strategies that reflect the idea that consumer purchasing is affected by an internal drive to create a favorable social image (Tsai, 2005). However, researchers exploring customer perceptions of and motives for purchasing luxury brands have suggested that socially-oriented motives are insufficient explanations for luxury brand consumption (Wiedmann et al., 2009). These researchers stress that personally- oriented motives have been overlooked in the marketing management of luxury brands. Additionally, empirical research focusing on personal motives is comparatively scarce (Tsai, 2005; Wiedmann et al., 2009). Our study attempted to address this research void by identifying personal luxury values U.S. consumers` associated with their fashion brand consumption. Specific research questions examined were: RQ1: What demographic characteristics are related to personal luxury values? RQ2: What personal luxury values are related to consumers` intentions to purchase luxury fashion brands? A range of motivators can underlie luxury brand consumption. First, some consumers may seek self-directed pleasure from consuming luxury brands and thus their purchase objective has little to do with pleasing peers or social groups (Tsai, 2005). These consumers often buy luxury brands to experience bliss or contentment. Second, self-gift giving could be an important motive that underlies luxury brand consumption. O`Cass and Frost (2002) found that some consumers purchase luxury products as gifts for themselves. Third, a consumer`s self-concept could affect luxury brand consumption. Recently, Wiedmann et al. (2009) confirmed that consumers` perceived congruity of a luxury brand with their self-image or intended self-image is an important variable for segmenting luxury consumers. Building on this fact, consumers may use luxury brands to integrate symbolic meaning into their own identities or they may use the brands to support and develop those identities (e.g., self-completion). Finally, Wiedmann et al. (2009) found that some consumers engaged in luxury brand consumption as a form of self-actualization or life-enrichment. Data were collected using a web survey tool with the help of a marketing research company. Participants were US consumers (n=316) who had purchased a luxury fashion brand in the past three years. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted on 14 personal luxury value items. Items with factor loadings greater than .60 were retained. Two cross-loaded items were dropped resulting in four factors that accounted for 71.1% of the total variance. Item loadings ranged from .64 to .90. Each of the factors had an eigenvalue greater than one. Factor 1 was labeled life enrichment (α=.81) and included four items (e.g., Self-actualization is an important motivator for my luxury fashion brand consumption.). Factor 2 was labeled self-gifting (α=.80) and included three items (e.g., Reward for hard work or that I feel I have earned or am entitled to is an important motivator for my luxury fashion brand consumption.). Factor 3 was labeled self-identity (α=.73) and included three items (e.g., I never buy a luxury fashion brand inconsistent with the characteristics with which I describe myself.). Factor 4 was labeled self-directed pleasure (α=.74) and included two items (e.g., I can enjoy luxury fashion brands entirely on my own terms no matter what others may feel about them.). To answer RQ1, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was employed using income as a covariate. Age (Multivariate F=7.75, p<.001) had the most significant relationship to self-gift giving and life enrichment luxury values. Education (Multivariate F=3.07, p<.05) had a significant relationship with self-identity. Further univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on age indicated that younger respondents (18-30 years old) showed higher levels of self-gifting (F=25.08, p<.001) and life enrichment (F=18.40, p<.001) values than older consumers (51 or older). ANCOVA analysis on education also revealed that those with a four-year college degree or higher had a higher level of the self-identity value than who did not have a four-year college degree (F=4.69, pp<.05). No main effects were found for gender. However, an interaction effect between gender and education (F=2.76, p<.05) was found for the self-identity value (F=4.29, p<.05). Male respondents with a four-year college degree had a higher level of the self-identity value than females and males who did not have a four-year college degree and females who had at least a four year college degree. No other significant interaction effects were found. Regarding RQ2, the results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the following three personal luxury values were significantly related to respondents` intention to purchase luxury fashion brands: self-directed pleasure (β=.25, p<.001), self-gifting (β=.20, p<.001), and self-identity (β=.11, p<.05). By understanding what personal luxury values are sought by American consumers, global luxury fashion marketers could be in a better position: (a) to formulate and implement effective advertising, publicity, special events and personal selling strategies as well as mechanisms of consumer relationship management, and (b) execute marketing programs and activities to build brand images that appeal to and motivate American consumers to purchase.

Investigating the Modified BLI Using Korean Luxury Consumers

JieunKim ( 김지은 ) 아시아.유럽미래학회 2021 유라시아연구 Vol.18 No.1

The luxury brand is one of the best quality and performance brands within the product category. Consumer preferences, purchasing and use of luxury brands are often motivated by perceptions of luxuriousness and attractiveness. The brands’ luxuriousness offers psychological benefits (e.g., enhancing self-image, providing status) that contribute to meeting critical needs. Vigneron and Johnson (2004) suggested that if you can measure your brand’s luxuriousness, you can manage it, thus, create better ideas to manage them. With that reason, they developed the Brand Luxury Index (BLI) to provide a tool to estimate the amount of perceived luxuriousness consumers associated with a brand. Their measurements included five elements: conspicuousness, uniqueness, quality, extended self, and hedonism. However, the BLI received considerable criticism, including issues of applicability beyond business students and issues of discriminatory and integrated validity. In 2015, Kim and Johnson revised the original BLI in order to improve validity of the BLI measurement scale and increase the understanding of the words used in the original scale. As a result, the modified BLI was developed through FGI and factor analysis method and it includes five dimensions (i.e., quality, extended-self, hedonism, accessibility, and tradition), but the content of these dimensions differs from the original BLI conceptualization (i.e., conspicuousness, uniqueness, quality, hedonism, extended-self). The modified BLI was developed in USA using responses from USA residents and the data that was collected pretty long ago, thus, this research goal was to investigate whether the modified BLI scale works with Korea participants and in these days (in 2021) as well. The data was collected using the Google Online Survey tool, while the Survey participants were gathered a snow bowling method. A cyber university students whose major is fashion were mostly employed, and their ages and education levels vary widely. The age group, occupation group, and education level vary as follows. The average age of the survey participants was 37 years old. Most of them are women (77% female and 23% male), and the largest number of education levels were currently four-year college students or graduates, accounting for 59%. Since the questions in the questionnaire should indicate their perception of a certain brand, they were asked to answer each question for three brands. Two brands (Louis Vuitton, Coach) were assigned by the researcher, and the rest of the brands were asked by the person who participated in the survey to select and answer their favorite brands(X-brand). As a result of the study, in this study, it was found that the five factors (14 items) included in “Modified BLI” could not properly evaluate the characteristics of luxury brands recognized by Korean consumers. Using answers to three brands (X-brand, Louis Vuitton, Coach), each brand data was put into the above model and analyzed by CFA, but all three data were not acceptable in the above model (modified BLI). In other words, it can be interpreted that the “Modified BLI” model (5 factors, 14 items) was not suitable for the Korean survey data collected in 2021 Consequently, this research revealed that the five dimensions(14 items) included in the modified BLI scale can no longer consistently access the features of luxury goods recognized by at least Korean luxury consumers. The modified BLI model(5 dimensions with 14 items) did not fit with the new data collected from Korean participants in 2021. All the model fits with the data regarding the three brands(X-brand, Louis Vuitton, Coach) were not acceptable. This newly modified BLI in 2021 (I would like to call it “BLI version 3”) had three major differences from the previously modified BLI. At first, “highly regarded vs. well regarded” which was belongs to the “Extended Self” was removed, This results seem to indicate that the idea of openly showing brand logos may show one’s social power, the act of doing so isn’t something worth deserving respect. The second surprising fact is that the state of being handmade is not perceived for its influence on the quality for products, but the state of being handmade itself provides a means for uniqueness and therefore comes as pleasure of consumption to consumers. While handicrafts used to be understood in the same context as quality goods when the modified version of BLI was developed in 2015, Lastly, the most interesting and dramatic change I would like to emphasize is that when researchers conducted FGI for modifying BLI around ten years ago, people did not forget to mention “timeless” or “classic” when referring to the characteristics of luxury goods. However, today, what people want from luxury goods and what companies of such products hope to pursue is innovation and leading trends and changes. There is very low covariance between other items of BLI and “timeless vs. high fashion”, which means that they are absolutely liking, quality, and exclusive, but “high fashion” instead of “Timeless”. Therefore, this “timeless vs. high fashion” item was removed because it didn’t fit for explaining recent luxury characteristics. Conclusively, luxury brand directors should not forget the fact that consumers need to perceive their brands as highly innovative and the new. Like other studies, this study has its limitations. First, responses to the modified BLI items and perception of luxury can be influenced by participants’ brand experience. More than 90% of the respondents said they had experience buying a luxury brand, but not knowing the type of experience (e.g. positive or negative) had limitations in interpreting the results. Second, most of the people who responded to this research are more interested in fashion than the average person. Therefore, it can be said that the results of this research have both advantages and disadvantages. Because they are interested in fashion, it may have reflected the current trend of the fashion market better, but on the contrary, there may be limitations in representing the position of general consumers. Therefore, it seems that if you conduct research on various subjects in other countries as a future research, you will be able to confirm the usefulness of the BLI(3^rd version) discovered this time. 럭셔리 브랜드는 제품 범주 내에서 최고의 품질 및 성능 브랜드이다. 소비자의 선호도나 럭셔리 브랜드에 대한 구매 및 사용은 브랜드의 럭셔리함(Luxuriousness)에 대한 소비자의 인식에 의해 크게 영향을 받는다. Vigneron and Johnson은 2004년에 브랜드에 대해 소비자가 느끼는 럭셔리함 (Luxuriousness)에 대한 “정도”를 측정할 수 있다면, 소비자의 인식을 체계적으로 관리가 가능함으로써 소비자의 브랜드 이미지를 브랜디 디렉터가 원하는 방향으로 이끌수 있도록 하는데 도움이 될 것이라고 주장하였다. 이러한 이유로 그들은 브랜드가 가진 럭셔리함(Luxuriousness)에 대한 정도를 측정하기 위한 도구를 제공하고자 브랜드 럭셔리 지수(BLI: Brand Luxuriousness Index)를 개발하였다. 그들이 개발한 BLI 측정도구에는 다음 5가지의 요인을 포함하였다: 눈에 띄는 것(Conspicuousness), 독특함(Uniqueness), 품질(Quality), 확장된 자아(Extended Self), 그리고 쾌락주의(Hedonism). 그러나 이들이 개발한 BLI는 다른 나라에서 실제로 활용하기에는 측정도구의 타당성과 신뢰성에 대한 의심을 일으키는 연구결과가 나옴으로써 비판을 받은바 있었다. 2015년에 Kim과 Johnson은 BLI 측정도구의 신뢰도 등 유효성을 만족시키고, 원래의 BLI척도에서 사용된 단어에 대한 이해도를 높이기 위해 원래의 BLI를 수정하였다. 수정된 BLI는 FGI 및 요인 분석 방법을 통해 개발되었으며, 5가지 요인 (품질, 확장된 자아, 쾌락주의, 접근성, 전통)을 포함하지만 이러한 요인의 내용은 원래 BLI 요인들과는 다른 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구의 주된 목적은 Kim과 Johnson이 개발한 “수정된 BLI” 가 럭셔리 브랜드에 대한 한국 소비자의 인식을 충분히 평가할 수 있는지 연구하는 것이었다. 즉, “수정된 BLI”가 시간이 지나고, 소비자의 국적이 다른 사람에게도 타당성과 신뢰성을 가진 측정도구인지를 알아보고자 하는 것이 본 연구의 목적이다. 본 연구를 위하여 연구자는 스노우 볼링(snow bowling) 방식으로 서베이 참여자를 구하였으며, 패션학과 학생들을 중심으로 그들의 주변 지인들이 서베이에 참여하였으며, 총 153개의 설문답변을 모을 수 있었다. 서베이에 참여한 사람들의 교육수준과 연령대(20대∼50대), 직업은 상당히 다양하였으며, 평균 연령은 37세, 가장 많은 교육수준은 4년제 대학 재학생 또는 졸업생(59%)이었다. 성별로 보면, 여성이 77%, 남성은 23%였다. 설문지에 있는 문항들은 어떤 특정 브랜드에 대한 그들의 인식을 표기해야하는 것이므로, 3가지 브랜드에 대해서 각 질문에 응답하도록 하였다. 두 개의 브랜드(Louis Vuitton, Coach)는 연구자가 지정하여 주었으며, 나머지 브랜드는 설문에 참여한 사람이 본인이 좋아하는 브랜드를 정하여 답변하도록 하였다. 이렇게 한 이유는 본인이 좋아하는 브랜드에 대한 인식과 비교적 값비싸다고 여겨지면서 대중적인 Louis Vuitton과 비교적 저렴한 가격대의 대중적인 브랜드인 Coach에 대한 소비자의 인식을 측정하는데 문제가 없어야 측정도구의 신뢰도와 타당성이 더욱 확실하게 검증이 될 것이라 판단되었기 때문이다. 연구 결과, 본 연구에서는 “수정된 BLI” 에 포함된 5개의 요인(14개 항목)이 한국소비자가 인식하는 럭셔리 브랜드의 특징을 제대로 평가할 수 없음을 발견하였다. 3개의 브랜드(X-brand, Louis Vuitton, Coach)에 대한 답변을 활용하여 각 브랜드별 데이터를 위 모델에 넣고 CFA를 하여 분석하였으나, 3가지 데이터 모두 위의 모델(수정된 BLI)에서는 수용이 불가능하였다. 다시말하면, “수정된 BLI” 모델 (5요인, 14개 항목)은 2021년 한국 서베이 데이터와는 적합하지 않았다고 해석할수 있다. 이 연구의 결과로 지난번 수정된 BLI가 또 한번 수정되지 않을 수 없었다. 이렇게 이번에 또다시 수정된 BLI (”BLI 버전 3”이라고 부름)는 이전에 수정된 BLI와 세가지 주요 차이점이 있음이 밝혀졌으며, 이러한 발견은 최근의 소비 트렌드와 일맥상통함 또한 알 수 있었다. 우선 “확장된 자아(Extended Self)”에 속했던 “Highly regarded vs. Well regarded” 아이템이 CFA 분석 과정에서 제거되었다. 이러한 결과는 명품 소비가 대중화되었으며, 명품은 이제 극도로 돈이 많은 사람만이 구매할 수가 있는 상품이 아니며, 동시에 특별한 지위를 가진 사람에게만 제공되는 것도 아니라는 인식에서 비롯된 것으로 보인다. 희소성이라는 개념이 사라지고, 다양한 유통구조로 인해 우리가 일반적으로 일컫는 럭셔리 브랜드를 저렴한 가격대로 구매가 가능하기 때문인 것으로 판단된다. 두번째 놀라운 사실은 지난번 모델에서는 “품질(Quality)”을 평가하기 위한 아이템이었던 “Hand crafted vs. Mass produced”가 이제는 더이상 브랜드의 품질을 인식하는 부분이 아니고 수작업 상태 자체가 소비자에게 즐거움(“Hedonism”)을 제공하는 수단이 되었다는 사실이다. CFA를 수행하고, 모델핏을 향상시키는 과정에서 위 “Hand crafted vs. Mass produced”아이템은 삭제되기는 하였지만, 삭제되기 전까지 단계까지 보았을 때에 위 내용을 추측할 수 있었다. 마지막으로 가장 흥미롭고 극적인 변화는 연구원들이 약 10년 전 BLI를 수정하기 위해 포커스 그룹 인터뷰를 수행했을 때 사람들이 명품의 특성을 언급할 때 “변함없는(Timeless)” 또는 “클래식(Classic)”이라는 표현을 늘 제시한 바 있었다. 그러나 이번 연구 결과를 본 결과 최근 사람들이 명품에서 원하는 것은 혁신성과 트렌드를 선도한다는 점인 것으로 보인다. 이번 연구에서 얻은 데이터 분석과정에서는 BLI의 다른 아이템들과“Timeless vs. High fashion”사이에는 매우 낮은 공분산이 있음을 발견하였다. 즉, 최근 한국 소비자들은 브랜드 자체를 좋아하고, 품질도 좋고, 정말 독특하다고 평가하는 등, 전체적으로 매우 럭셔리하다고 느끼는 경우인데도 불구하고, 10년 전에 럭셔리 브랜드의 특징으로 자주 언급되었던 “변함없는(Timeless)”이라는 인식보다는 “하이패션(High fashion)”으로 인식한다는 뜻을 의미한다. 따라서 “Timeless vs. High fashion”아이템은 최근의 명품 특성을 설명하기에 적합하지 않아 삭제되었다. 결론적으로 럭셔리 브랜드 디렉터 혹은 매니저는 소비자로 하여금 자신들의 브랜드를 매우 혁신적이고 트렌드를 선도하는 브랜드로 인식할 수 있도록 하게 해야한다는 사실을 잊지 않아야 할 것이다.

명품 화장품 브랜드 자산구성 요소에 관한 연구

박정원(Park Jung-Won) 한복문화학회 2008 韓服文化 Vol.11 No.3

In Korea, luxury goods refer to high-priced exported brands due to the influence of the luxury goods syndrome. Many researches on luxury fashion goods have continued to be made. Cosmetics have been researched as part of luxury fashion goods. As high-priced functional cosmetics have been lately popular in line with the well-being syndrome, a variety of luxury cosmetic brands have been popular. New cosmetic brands have been launched rapidly. Consumers have favorably reacted to the new products of their preferred brands. This immensely affects increase in sales. Under these circumstances, the detailed research of luxury cosmetic brands needs to be made. Competition between overseas luxury brands and domestic ones have become to be fierce, and the import of new cosmetic brands have been actively performed. The luxury cosmetic brands of Korea should occupy the cosmetics market by using their strong brand equities. In this study, the analyses of why only a few luxury cosmetics are recognized as luxury goods and of what brand equities luxury cosmetics companies have were performed. I hope that this study will be a good research material for launching the luxury cosmetic brands of Korea.

SHOPPING EXPERIENCES AND LUXURY BRANDS: CONSUMER RESPONSE TO HOLISTIC BRAND CUES ACROSS MULTIPLE RETAIL SETTINGS

Manuela Valta,Donata Vianelli 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2015 Global Fashion Management Conference Vol.2015 No.06

Over the past decades, researchers devoted considerable attention to the impact of store environments on shopping behavior (e.g. Baker et al., 2002; Kotler, 1973; Turley & Milliman, 2000). More recent, practitioners and academics alike have argued that a greater challenge for brands is the creation and enhancement of compelling shopping experiences along, and beyond, the entire path-to-purchase (Interbrand, 2014; Shankar et al., 2011). In a luxury brand context, where the shopping experience is a significant motivator for purchases (Yoon, 2013), the interaction of multiple retail environments greatly affect consumer behavior towards the brands. Accordingly, brand experiences is created at both ends of the marketing supply chain, by brand manufacturers and retailers. Yet, although research has developed fruitful areas for new perspectives on the relationships between manufacturers and retailers (Ganesan et al., 2009), the vast majority of existing research predominantly focuses on consumer response to brand experiences with respect to manufacturer cues (Dolbec & Chebat, 2013; Tynan et al., 2010), store cues (Baker et al., 2002), or retail settings (Möller & Herm, 2013). The evolving business world needs to implement more comprehensive and holistic approaches (Choi et al., 2014), where integrated strategies must emerge. The objective of this study is to present an explanation of luxury brand experiences across manufacturer and retailer’s settings. By overviewing the literature on the interaction between brand management, store atmospherics, and consumer behavior, and applying qualitative methods, the authors provide relevant insights for academics and practitioners toward a more comprehensive understanding of the luxury brand experience. Customer experience and luxury brands In the field of contemporary marketing, customer experience has been defined as a construct which “encompasses the total experience and may involve multiple retail channels” (Verhoef et al., 2009, p. 32). It includes the search, purchase, consumption, and after-sale phases of the experience. In a holistic brand perspective, this definition enlightens the key role of luxury brands in delivering the same brand promise and brand message across each connection between the consumer and the brand. Among the characteristics of luxury brands, consumers are willing to pursue luxury products as these products provide psychological benefits rather than functional benefits (Kapferer, 1997). Further, luxury brands are associated with status, wealth, exclusion, and pride (McFerran et al., 2014). As result, strong experiences with luxury brands derive when consumers develop deep emotional bonds with brands (Grisaffe & Nguyen, 2011). From a marketing perspective, consumers that develop deep emotional relationships with a brand have a lot of positive and strong associations (Yoo et al., 2000), such as the perception of the brand uniqueness and inimitability, and loyalty to the brand. However, when it comes to analyze the brand experience, research confers a conceptually different meaning from other brand constructs. According to Brakus et al. (2009), brand experience has distinct dimensions from evaluative, affective, and associative brand constructs, such as brand attachment, brand attitudes, customer delight, and brand personality. The concept of brand experience encompasses multiple dimensions, which refer to the sensorial, affective, intellectual, and behavioral sphere (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2009). More specifically, the intrinsic concept of luxury brands as hedonic products with high symbolic value, holistically incorporate manufactures and retailers in fulfilling these various dimensions of brand experience. By assuring consistency across the manufacturer and retailer’s settings of the luxury brand, customer experiences evoke the exclusivity of the brand and transfer the authenticity of the brand message. From a consumer’s perspective, consumers reach brand authenticity when they perceive both the internal consistency, which focuses on maintaining the luxury brand standard and style, honoring its heritage, preserving its essence, and avoiding its exploitation, and the external consistency, which pertains to appearances and claims of the brand (Choi et al., 2014). Similarly, consumers tend to perceive the exclusivity of the luxury brand when they encounter consistent experiences across multiple brand touch points. Accordingly, in the experiential view, the principle of consistency and contiguity proposes that sensations, imagery, feelings, pleasures, and other symbolic or hedonic components are paired together to create mutually evocative consumer response (Holbrook & Hirschmann, 1982). The integration between the marketing and consumer’s perspectives suggests that luxury brands create and maintain powerful customer experiences when there is consistency across the manufacturer and retailer’s environments. However, in the landscape of luxury brand management, the conceptualization of customer experience requires the understanding of how consumers respond to luxury brand messages. This investigation is particularly important when examining brand experiences emerged in the manufacturer versus retailer physical environment. Existing literature on brand experiences, retail atmospherics, and luxury brands cannot fill the gap we address. Prior studies aiming to investigate the brand experience have analyzed the phenomenon of this construct from a theoretical perspective (Verhoef et al., 2009), case study analysis (Payne et al., 2009), or focused only on the direct relationship between manufacturer and consumer (e.g. Dolbec et al., 2013; Kim, 2009). For example, Dolbec et al. (2013) have studied in-store brand experiences on consumer response to flaghship vs. brand stores, and highlighted how their study suffers from not considering the continuity between current, previous and future experiences. Regarding the impact of store atmospherics and retailer’s settings on customer experiences (e.g. Baker et al. 2002; Bloch, 1995), research has found that specific combinations of atmospherics elements influences consumers’ perceptions about merchandise, service quality, and the overall store image. More recently, Möller & Herm (2013) showed how retail settings may shape consumers interpretation and evaluation of the brand, and in-store bodily experiences transfer a metaphoric message to customers’ perceptions of the brand. However, the authors empirically tested a mono-brand fashion retail store, and stressed the importance of examining the interaction between brand and store personalities in transferring meaning “from the product to the retailer and the other way around” (Möller & Herm, 2013, p. 8). The retail landscape has dramatically changed the dynamics of consumer-brand interactions in the physical encounter. The main challenge of these interactions concerns the effective integration of multichannel brand experiences into an exciting, emotionally engaging, and coherent brand experience. However, in-depth studies on consumer perceptions to these multi-environment experiences have not yet emerged. In this paper, we aim to fill that gap. By addressing the attention to the customer’s sphere, we specifically investigate how consumers perceive luxury brands in relation to brand experiences across various retail settings. Method and studies Owing to the lack of relevant research, this study applies a direct qualitative and exploratory approach to develop deep insights of consumers response to luxury brand experiences in different retail settings (Creswell, 2012). Two sequential studies investigate consumer cues of brand experiences across various environments. Study 1 provides the identification of luxury brand elements that are pivotal in the creation of exciting shopping experiences. In study 1, respondents named a luxury brand which they had frequently experienced in the last year, and to which they felt being in a deep relationship across multiple retail touch points of the brand. Respondents were asked about what elements of the brand they were more engaged to. The authors imposed no constraints on the elicitation. Following the categorization of luxury brands (Jackson, 2004) which comprehends fashion, perfumes and cosmetics, wines and spirits, and watches and luxury, respondents chose whatever brand they wanted. One of the authors provided the instructions to respondents. This study includes in the first sample a variety of 35 consumers from various age (20 to 65 years old consumers), as well as various education levels. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and evaluated with content analysis, following quality criteria of Kassarjian (1977). The luxury brand elements emerged from Study 1 were used in Study 2 as thematic basis for investigating how these elements provide exciting experiences across multiple retail setting of the luxury brand. The same interviewer of Study 1 undertook in-depth interviews with eight of the above respondents, two from each consumer profile identified in line with the hedonic profiles of Arnold & Reynolds (2003). Each interview discussion lasted between 30 and 45 minutes, was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The text was analyzed by the authors following the generalized sequence of steps of data reduction and transformation, data display and conclusion drawing/verification (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The code development followed thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998), and coding was multivariate within subjects. With multiple ideas per respondent, we extracted a large list of properties. We sorted thematic elements into logically related clusters and assigned representative headers. The authors now describe results regarding respondents’ perceptions of luxury brand experiences in multiple retail environments. Results and discussion Consumers identified a wide range of experience factors that they seek in luxury brands, and highlighted how the brand and retail environment fulfill these expectations. They considered the brand evocation to exclusivity and authenticity as the primary reason for purchasing luxury brands. One of the respondents stated: “I buy brand X because it is a nice and deeply authentic brand to have. When I use the brand X I feel I am wearing something very exclusive. And I feel exclusive”. Regarding experiencing luxury brands in the stores, respondents stressed the importance of “finding the same brand appealing in the monobrand store as well across retailers’ stores”, and added that when they did not perceive this coherence of message they often switched to other brands in the purchasing stage. Another determinant element of holistic experiences concerns the products presentation of the brand in various settings, which has to be very similar and related across the brand touch points. Respondents explained to feel confused when they visit one store and encounter “colorful display with a charming presentation of the brand Y in the store of retailer 1”, while finding in store of retailer 2 “black and white displays and an awful presentation for the brand Y”. Concerning the specific impact of the retailer’s environment on luxury experiences, we identified that the overall store setting of the retailer influences the luxury brand even when consumers do not experience the brand in the specific. For example, one respondent highlighted that “If I have to buy brand Z, I never go to retailer 3. I know that brand Z does not feel luxury at all in retailer 3 because of its very old fashioned store”. This study shows how consumers respond to luxury brand strategies across manufacturer and retailer’s brand setting. By providing deep insights on their relationship with luxury brands, consumers contributed to understand key elements for living consistent luxury brand experiences. They stresses the pivotal role of a coherent brand exclusivity. This is an evident implication to motivate consumers in purchasing the luxury brands. Retailers can also make important considerations from our study. They must create more appealing and overall exciting store images. By enhancing luxury experiences in the store, retailers can leverage opportunities of stronger connection with consumers. Simultaneously, brand manufacturers can build upon retailers enhanced in-store experience to magnify the holistic luxury brand experience. Finally, this study is one of the first explorations concerning the cross-effect of brand experiences and store atmospherics. In an empirical context, the authors investigate the conceptualization of consumer experiences in a multichannel view, and provide relevant contributions to analyze the brand and the environment as interdependent elements. Further research may test empirically our findings on the interaction between luxury brands and multi-retail experiences.