Consumer Behavior Towards Luxury Products: An Essay.

Definition of Luxury Products

Discuss about the Marketing Consumer Behaviour for Luxury Products.

Luxury is a requirement that initiates where requirement ends. Luxury products are considered privilege to possess. The time has changed rapidly and the luxury good market has grown significantly, the luxury products have become more affordable for the consumer of the middle class. Furthermore, the role of Industrial Revolution is huge in carrying in more wealth, for these luxury products have become more attainable for all customers. It has been found in the United Kingdom that more than 50% customers have enhanced towards the purchasing of the products who have features of luxury. Wang, (n.d), stated that the consumer behaviour towards purchasing of luxury products is increased due to social and business factors. There are number of products that are measured under luxury products and make the market size undeterminable. The varieties of luxury products come under automobiles, fashion, accessories, food and jewellery. Homes and cars are some of the emerging features of luxury that are consumed by consumers. The role of important moments and events keep the huge importance in influencing the life of the individuals. These moments and events can involve economy, superstars, icons, wars and technology that have the ability to influence the perceptions and values of the individuals. This paper will elaborate the consumer behavior towards luxury products in the literature review section. It will be supported by various authors to make it more reliable. At last, the conclusion will be drawn from analysis of the arguments of various authors on the consumer behaviour towards the purchasing of luxury products.

According to the Srinivasan, Srivastava & Bhanot, (2014). it is not easy to define “luxury” word in-depth manner because what is luxury for someone is just simple for others. In relation to economic, the objects of luxury can be defined to be those, whose quality as well as prices are considered as the highest in the entire market. It has been criticized by Brodie, Ilic, Juric & Hollebeek, (2013) that the price cannot be considered only to show the importance of luxury products, but the price degree of difference between luxury products and products with comparable functions. As per the theory of customer surplus, the main aim of consumers spending on goods or services for attaining utility so that they get efficient services without any issues. It has been observed that the customers are really based on their usefulness for services and goods bought desired to decide the amount of money paid. However, the real price of goods on the market is frequently not in line in comparison of subjective desire.

Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior towards Purchasing of Luxury Products

In the 21st century, the consumptions of luxury products have become so popular even though the fact that there are a few numbers of companies regarding luxury products (Tong, Su & Xu, 2017). It has been analyzed that there have been a number of luxury brands made in the entire world over the last decades. The role of globalization is huge in providing the luxury products of one country to another and this is driven with the help of development of industries, new trades, economy and communication (Soh, Rezaei & Gu, 2017). For instance, there is a number of famous Japanese luxury brands in the country of Europe and there are an addiction of Asians to European luxury brands, apart from that there are luxury brands of European that take use of Chinese silk in the form of raw materials in their productions.

There is a huge importance of consumer buying behavior and as per Islam, Sheikh, Hameed, Khan & Azam, (2018), the stimulus-responses model is being used in the form of the basic framework in customer buying behavior. There are major three elements in this framework such as marketing stimuli, environmental stimuli and buyer responses.

It has been defined by this model that how environmental and  marketing stimuli go through the black box of buyers, which subsequently make various kinds of responses. This model can be connected to the luxury brand characteristics and factors that influence the customer behavior. This model is helpful to know about the elements which are most suitable at the time of defining buying behavior, so that the model can define according to the discussion around buying behavior of the customers and luxury goods.

As per Boundless (2015), the marketing stimuli entail the product, place, price, and promotion where luxury goods need to contradict to regular marketing rules. On the other hand, it has been stated by Arora (2013), that 4ps of marketing is rather more elastic while in 8ps of marketing the price of luxury goods are not elastic. The environmental stimuli are related to the buying behavior of customers which entails economical technological, cultural and political factors. These factors are liable to attract a number of customers towards purchasing. It is considered as the more relevant factor in the discussion of luxury goods.

According to Perreau (2013), the social status and role are a major factor that has noteworthy influences on buying behavior, considerably the social status is considered as the signal through buying luxury goods. The social component of the buyer characteristics is highly apparent. Customers want to relate to a group and be identified. It has been analyzed that the perception is a most vital aspect of the relations of buying behavior because when awareness about the products and services can increase the selling in the markets. It has been found that young people are more aware of the luxury products which entail perfumes, leather goods, accessories, fashion and clothes. It has been observed that influencing buying decisions of customers to develop into possible if correct perceptions of customers about the related product are attained (Mukherjee, Satija, Goyal, Mantrala & Zou, 2012). It shows that the perception of a product through customers influences a lot on their purchasing behaviors and certainly on the advantages and aims of the organization.

Types of Luxury Products in the Market

It has been indicated by the (Yi, Yuan & Kumah, 2013), that attitude is a large haul that force to purchase luxury products. State of mind has the capability to assume a basic component when a purchaser buys something from the business. There are two kinds of nature such as negative and positive towards the luxury products. It has been found that rich person has the positive disposition regarding the excessiveness products. Luxury products show the extra care and quality in comparison of normal products that is why the rate of this products and services are higher in comparison of normal products. It has been analyzed that people prefer luxury products for getting high quality services and the rich people are willing to pay for high quality services and products (Zain, Perry & Quinn, 2018). There is an example of hospitality industry where it has been observed that there are many kinds of hotels and restaurant services available. These services are distinguished as per the category of the hotels in which five stars hotel such as Marriott, the mark hotel, Hotel President Wilson and many more have higher prices of their room and services while 3 star hotels have a lower price in comparison of other hotels. People prefer luxurious hotels to get all facilities at one place where they can get spa, gym, restaurant, sports activities, swimming and many more things at one place.

It has been cleared that the kind of luxury product one purchases is dependent on the different needs and priority of the individual personal. There are various determinants which can influence the intentions of buying luxury products which can be social factors, demographic factors, personal factors, cultural factors and marketing mix factors. It has been stated by Yi, Yuan & Kumah, (2013). that there are two kinds of luxury products that is an old luxury and new luxury products. New luxury can be distinguished into three broad types such as accessible super premium, old luxury brand extensions and mass prestige. Accessible super premium products can be afforded by medium class because the prices of products under this category are almost near the top of their category. Old luxury brand extensions are lower price of goods and the price of the products are lower in comparison to their code product range. Mass prestige is the subtype of new luxury which is positioned between mass and class (Islam, Sheikh, Hameed, Khan & Azam, 2018). However, they want a premium over the daily usage products, but the price of these products are below super premium which makes it more affordable for this segment of the population.

According to there are various factors that may influence the consumer behavior towards purchasing of products and goods. These factors are demographic, motivation, cultural factors and brand equity that influence consumer behavior on luxury goods (Zhang & Benyoucef, 2016).

The demographic factors entail gender, age, occupation and income that have positive terms with the consumer behavior on luxury goods purchasing. According to the Abdolvand and  Reihani,(2013),  age is a vital component that affects the consumer behavior. Age is the factor that can bring the huge change in the lifestyle of the people and with it, their requirements and values are also influenced. Young people are eager to spend more on their lifestyle. Srinivasan, D., Srivastava, D. and Bhanot, (2014), argued that the growing age brings understanding in the people and their expenses on these kinds of things such as luxury products start to shrink. It has been found from the study of Achabou &Dekhili, (2013), in their study define that in European countries, the level of purchase of luxury brands pursues a bell-shaped curve.  It has been observed that the people between 25 and 34 years group purchase luxury products in Italy while 35 to 49 age group purchase the luxury products for the three different countries that are the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It has been found in the study of Shukla, (2008), that educated people prefer brands or luxury products in accommodations, living standards, and jewelry, perfumes, clothing and daily consumption things. It has been found from this article that two major criteria for brand association and psychological background considerably influence the consumptions behavior of luxury products among youth.

Motivation factor is entailed personal and interpersonal components. It has been observed that the level of motivation influences the buying behavior of customers. There are various people all over the world and each person has different biological needs, social needs, psychological needs etc. According to the Petersen, Kushwaha & Kumar, (2015), consumer motivation can be differentiated into the interpersonal insight motivation, involving the uniqueness, personal motivation, bandwagon, conspicuous. In the context of conspicuous, it can be said that the luxury products are higher designed; there are various countries such as China, United Kingdom, UAE and US which are at the show off stage (Bian, Haque & Smith, 2015). The people of these countries are tripping over each other endeavoring to acquire the symbols of wealth and showing the people in more conspicuous manner. the products under this component are more expensive.

Uniqueness is able to increase the one’s self-image along with the social image. There are various companies that produce unique items and due to a speciality in that product, it becomes the part of rare and unique which affect on demand of customers. It has been defined by Srinivasan, Srivastava & Bhanot, (2014), that bandwagon motivation has represented the consumers who buy luxury products because they want to maintain the social status with a specific group. It has been observed that people purchase luxury products and services to link themselves to similar kind of people. Furthermore, the education of the prosperous or wealthy lifestyle is affected and copied in reality by buying these luxury products that are televised (Chen, Teng, Liu & Zhu, 2015).  

Cultural factor has impacted the consumer behavior towards the luxury products. Fundamentally, culture is the component of each company and is considered as the major reason of the individual who wants and behavior. There are various kinds of culture all over the world that may influence the purchasing behavior of the consumers; therefore it is essential for the sellers of the luxury products to be very careful in the process of analysis of the culture of various groups of different countries. There are various countries such as India, China, Malaysia and many other that follow the trends of exchanging gifts. Gifting is essential in these countries to make a better relationship in which relatives buy gifts for every occasions and festival. It has been observed that Asians often buy luxury goods for different occasions for families and relatives to show off the wealth and status of the family (Schultz & Jain, 2018). According to the collectivist culture, the society of China highlights the harmonious interpersonal relationships. The role of exchanging gifts is huge in the society of Asian countries as it facilitates to maintain and enlarge the relationship.

This factor includes the brand loyalty, brand awareness perceived quality and brand associations. It has been found in the context of brand loyalty that it is considered as the attachment that has a consumer has to a brand. It is vital for the brand loyalty that customer should be associated with the company for a long time. The role of the quality of the products and services are highlighted for developing the usage of luxury brands and consumer brand loyalty towards the luxury brands. On the other hand according to Huang & Sarigöllü (2014), brand awareness is considered as the ability of the customer to identify and recall the brand as revealed by their capability to recognize the brand under various conditions and to connect the brand logo, name and symbol. The role of brand awareness is wide to increase the number of potential customers as it has a significant part in the consumer’s decision-making process.  It has been suggested by Previte, Russell?Bennett & Parkinson, (2015), that consumers might link luxury products with higher quality, which may lead to a perceived value for a brand. The brand association defines that the entire things include the imagination of the customer, features of the products and the uses about brand in the mind and the personality and symbols. It is considered as the most adapted factor of brand equity (Gürhan-Canli, Hayran & Sarial-Abi, 2016).

According to the report of Deloitte, it has been found that the customers are spending on luxury goods increasingly. It has been considered by the Deloitte survey that China, Russia, and the UAE are emerging luxury markets. It has been analyzed that the sale of luxury products are fallen under major six products of watches, cosmetics and fragrances, bags and accessories, shoes, clothes and jewelry. Along with that, it has been analyzed that more than half of luxury products are made by customers who are traveling where 31% of people buy luxury products from foreign markets and 16% of people buy luxury products at the airport (Deloitte, 2017). Luxuries are not only in products and services rather it covers the person as well. There are various persons such as artists, Designers, Stylist, musicians, architects, rich person, actors, athletes, bloggers, YouTubers, politicians and many more who consider as the top influence of the luxury world. It has been found that there were some strongest performers that raised the ratio of profit significantly. Brazilian Fashion Company has grown up by approx 55% whereas Gitanjali Gems jewelers of India’s sales increased by 43%, and many more companies which sales are increased due to branded products (Deloitte, 2017).

It has been analyzed that the impact of social status, culture, demographic, motivation and other factors are shown but other factors of consumer behavior have not been considered (Srinivasan, Srivastava & Bhanot, 2014).  It has been focused by Zhang & Benyoucef, (2016), that various demographic factors are studied by this research including the age, education and income but depth understanding about these factors are lacked under this research which could be fulfilled by taking various viewpoints of different authors. The motivation factors have been considered under this research but it can be elaborated in sufficient manner by defining the impact of various demographic factors on consumer behavior. High value of luxury goods have been defined which illustrate symbolic and experimental values in the viewpoints of owners but there is a lack of details about the income factors on the purchase of luxury brands. Achabou &Dekhili, (2013), defined the conceptual framework of consumer behaviour towards purchasing of luxury goods in which four parts has been divided with cultural factors, motivation factors, brand equity and demographic factors but there is a gap of designing the reason that why a consumer should move towards the purchasing of branded products. Stimulus-response model has been defined by Giovannini, Xu & Thomas, (2015). with showing various factors of consumer decision making process but it should involve some examples of the brand for making clear understanding about the different products however the area of brands have been elaborated in an effective manner.

Conclusion

In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that consumer behavior has a significant role in purchasing of branded or luxury products. This paper has described luxury goods by endeavoring to response why luxury goods are vital for the people and why they prefer luxury goods. There are numerous factors that impact the decision-making process of consumers for purchasing branded products. Many luxury products and services display a higher quality of products from other brands. In such cases, luxury goods can be considered as a noteworthy investment for people purchasing them. The stimulus-response model has been reflecting in the context of consumer decision-making process. It showed the importance to know more regarding the components which are considered as the suitable at the time of explaining the buying behavior. The conceptual framework of consumer behavior has been elaborated in-depth manner by entailing various factors such as demographic factors, brand equity, motivation and cultural factors. The gap analysis section has defined the lacking point during the research which could be covered for making it more efficient research.

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