The role of intangible attributes of luxury brands for signalling status: A systematic literature review

Previously, signalling status had been primarily studied from the conspicuousness of luxury brands, including high prices and prominent designs. However, less attention has been directed toward other elements of brands that could be strategically managed in order to enable consumers signalling status. This study synthesizes the literature using a framework based on four intangible attributes of luxury brands: user profile, purchase usage, personality and values and heritage. The topics studied under each of the four intangible attributes were analysed using a systematic approach. Based on the interconnectedness of the topics studied, this review proposes that the intangible attributes used as a framework may have a synergistic interaction, in contrast with the current perspective that considers them as independently and equally relevant for consumers signalling status. It also reports the psychological function of these intangible attributes and supports the notion that consumers use luxury brands either to routinely affirm their status within a group or to enhance that status. This review contributes to the literature on luxury and signalling by considering luxury consumption as a social process. A functional perspective on the intangible attributes of luxury brands provides the basis for some insightful directions to advance this field of research.     

Marketing luxury services beyond affluence in the new normal: Insights from fine dining during the coronavirus pandemic

The market for luxury is no longer exclusive to the affluent society and the prevalence of conspicuous consumption among the mass society is a testament to the rise of mass prestige (masstige). Of particular interest in this study is fine dining, a luxury service that consumers pursue and enjoy in the hospitality industry. Though many studies on luxury goods avail, few studies have investigated luxury services such as fine dining, with little insights on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its consumption. We argue that research in this direction is important given the unprecedented impact that the pandemic has had on humanity and the need to respond to potential changes in customer expectations for luxury services such as fine dining in a post-pandemic era. Hence, in this study, we investigate the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction with fine dining using a Delphi study to acquire and examine field data from customers who continue to dine in fine-dining restaurants during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that fine diners place an emphasis on food quality (sensory experience, satiety value, menu selection), hygiene, and price when evaluating their satisfaction of the fine-dining experience during the pandemic, which significantly influences their future recommendation of the fine-dining restaurant to others. No significant differences in customer behavior based on income were observed, thereby lending credence and support to the idea of masstige marketing.     

A strategic framework for technological innovations in support of the customer experience: A focus on luxury retailers

Luxury organizations have traditionally resisted technology, as they perceived it to be antithetical to the values of luxury. Recently, however, competitive and market pressures, compounded by the global pandemic, have prompted luxury organizations to utilize significant technological innovations to enhance their customer experience, mostly on an ad hoc basis. Across four case studies in the luxury fashion retail sector, we conduct 12 interviews with managers. This paper advances a framework that encourages luxury organizations to consider technological innovation in retailing from a strategic point of view. Such a view involves contemplating questions regarding what technology type to adopt (radical vs. incremental) and when the best timing is to adopt the technology (pioneering vs. following technological leaps). The framework identifies four retailer roles that emerge from the innovation process: facilitator, enabler, explorer, and initiator. Each role comprises a different set of risks, resource implications, and expected returns.     

The Eureka moment in understanding luxury brand purchases! A non-linear fsQCA-ANN approach

Although substantial research has been conducted to understand the luxury brand consumption at a global level, especially in the Western market, far less attention has been dedicated to the identification of factors driving such purchases in the Asia-Pacific region. This gap is addressed in the present study, which draws upon the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) and complexity theory (CT) to identify the non-linear causal pathways pertaining to Chinese consumers’ luxury brand purchase intention. An online survey was conducted with a sample of Chinese consumers to gather data related to their attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, self-congruity, power distance beliefs, and gender. An asymmetrical-based approach was adopted by combining fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with artificial neural network (ANN) analysis. The fsQCA results showed that there are seven solutions (i.e., various combinations of causal antecedents) that can facilitate the formation of luxury brand purchase intention, four of which are gender-specific. After completing the fsQCA, the ANN analysis was conducted to rank the causal conditions in terms of their importance, indicating that attitude and subjective norms are the most relevant antecedents. The present study contributes to the existing luxury branding literature by reevaluating and extending the well-established TPB with new variables and new research lens (i.e., asymmetric thinking). More specifically, this study represents the pioneering effort to apply set theoretic approach in understanding luxury goods consumption, thereby yielding more insightful results that reflect the complexity of reality, and thus advance the findings yielded by past studies that relied on variance-based methods.     

The role of art infusion in enhancing pro-environmental luxury brand advertising

Underpinned by art infusion theory, this present research examines the effect of art infusion on brand attitudes under different brand conditions (i.e. pro-environmental luxury brands and luxury brands) in advertising. Across two experimental studies, this research offers empirical evidence to a moderated mediation model, such that when an advertisement features an artwork (vs. no-artwork), consumers will perceive lower levels of incompatibility between luxury and sustainability, leading to a more favorable brand attitude toward the pro-environmental luxury brand. However, such differences will not occur among consumers evaluating an ordinary luxury brand. The findings of this research broaden the current body of knowledge related to the art infusion effect and provide important implications for marketers in their advertising strategy. Furthermore, these findings suggest that art infusion may be the solution to the dilemma facing sustainable luxury brands since luxury and sustainability are often perceived as incongruent concepts.     

Factors that influence manufacturer and store brand behavioral loyalty

This study examines the factors that are linked to consumer goods brands having unusually high or low behavioral loyalty, after controlling for the association between brand size and loyalty that occurs due to the ‘double jeopardy’ effect. Behavioral, or repeat-purchase loyalty is measured as the brand's average share of category requirements (in volume) among its buyers over a 12-month period. We examine a range of factors that theory or past evidence suggests are associated with higher or lower behavioral loyalty, including brand type (store brand/manufacturer brand), price level, promotion intensity, as well as average brand volume per occasion and pack size. Using extensive US panel purchasing data, we find that store brands exhibit relatively higher behavioral loyalty than manufacturer brands. We explain the theory behind this result. We also find that the brand's average pack size and volume bought per occasion has a markedly positive association with behavioral loyalty. Finally, we find that the effect of low price on excess loyalty is moderated via a positive association with average volume purchase per occasion. These findings add to the body of knowledge relating to patterns in behavioral brand loyalty for both manufacturer and store brands, as well as the marketing-mix factors that influence it.     

Don’t put all your green eggs in one basket: Examining environmentally friendly sub-branding strategies

Although marketers are increasingly developing strategies to promote environmentally-friendly images for their brands, little is known about green brand architecture strategies. The current study examines two sub-branding strategies and finds that when green products are dispersed across several sub-brands (vs. concentrated within one sub-brand), consumers are more likely to infer that the overall parent brand is environmentally friendly. The sincerity of the company’s sustainability efforts is found to mediate the effects of the sub-branding strategy on consumers’ eco-friendly beliefs of the parent brand. Specifically, consumers associate dispersed strategy (vs. concentrated strategy) with intrinsic motive (vs. extrinsic motive) of the company’s sustainability policy. As a result, dispersed strategy instead of concentrated strategy promotes spillover effects of sustainability to the parent brand, demonstrating the impact of brand structure on spillover to the parent brand equity. Managerial implications are discussed related to the automobile company’s sub-branding strategy.     

To smile or not to smile: The role of facial expression valence on mundane and luxury products premiumness

A smile is an essential professional requirement for sales assistant and endorser as a means to give a stunning impression and to please customers. However, luxury brands, engrained as consumption symbols to create social distance, tend to act oppositely: they prefer endorsers and sales assistants in a neutral face rather than a smiley face. The purpose of this study is to investigate how and why facial expressions valence impact luxury product price estimation. A pilot study and three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. We first test whether neutral faces combined with luxury goods can make the customer feel distant. Then we conducted an imagination task to assess whether the interaction between the facial expressions of sales assistants and product type affects product valuations. Further, we adopted an experiment to explore the proposed mechanism, social distance. The results show that commercial models and sales assistants' neutral facial expressions increase perceived social distance, further enhancing the valuations of luxury goods. In contrast, they estimated mundane products higher when they saw a smiley face than a neutral or a negative face. These findings contribute to the literature on the impact of facial expressions in advertising and services for luxury and mundane products. Our findings have potential implications for brands to manage their images and convey their value through employees’ facial expressions according to brand positioning.     

When goliaths win and davids lose: The moderating role of perceived risk in brand biography effects

Brand biographies trace a brand's evolution to position it as an underdog (i.e., passion and determination that lead to success despite limited resources) or a topdog (i.e., success based on abundance of resources) brand. This study examines how consumers’ risk perceptions associated with brand choice influence brand biography effects. It demonstrates that when perceived risk associated with brand choice is low, consumers process brand biographies narratively, experience greater narrative transportation into underdog (vs. topdog) brand biographies, and evaluate the underdog brand more favorably. When perceived risk associated with brand choice is high, consumers respond more positively to topdog (vs. underdog) brand biographies, due to topdog brands’ greater perceived ability to reduce risk. The topdog effect observed at higher levels of perceived risk reverses, however, when consumers have the opportunity to process the brand biography before receiving high risk information, as this allows for narrative transportation into the brand biography. This study contributes to research on moderators of brand biography effects and suggests that perceived risk should play a role in marketers’ decision to emphasize underdog or topdog characteristics in brand biographies.