The determinantes of attitudes towards luxury : moderated by saving and luxury

Abstract

The luxury segment is one of the fastest growing and most profitable segments, yet it is largely understudied. In order to maximize their potential, luxury brands must have a clear understanding of the attitudes and perceptions their potential clients have, especially how their marketing tactics affect the attitudes and purchase intention of the their potential buyers. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the effects advertising copy has on attitudes and purchase intention in the luxury market. Previous studies have shown that brands have priming effects on consumers, whereas, slogans have a reverse priming effect. A luxury brand will induce a consumer to spend more, whereas, a non-luxury brand will not induce spending. Slogans exert a reverse effect, a slogan aimed at luxury induces thriftiness, whereas, a slogan that implies saving will induce the consumer to spend more. Thus, this study aims to show whether a savings or luxury message, in the form of a message and not a slogan, affects the shopping habits of individuals in the luxury sector. This would be particularly interesting for the luxury sector, since messages found in advertisements can more easily be changed in comparison to slogans. In addition, the messages can be altered and tailored for specific audiences, whereas a slogan tends to be the same for all audiences. The group investigated for this study was selected via social networking sites and the author’s network of family and friends. Due to the author’s Canadian heritage and current living conditions, the participants were from Portugal and Canada. A sample T test revealed no significant differences between Canadian and Portuguese participants. An empirical analysis with a quantitative and descriptive methodology was used. The questionnaire was distributed to 133 participants. Since luxury can be a subjective term, participants were asked to think of a luxury product and associate the statements/questions in the questionnaire to their chosen product. In conclusion, the results of this study were mixed. It was found that the savings message had no effect on purchase intention or on the overall luxury perception of consumers. However, the luxury message had a positive impact on purchase intention and the overall luxury perception. In accordance with the literature review the luxury message should have had a negative effect on purchase intention. Furthermore, this study found that unique experience, symbolic value, luxury message, and other directed symbolic value all have a positive influence on purchase intention. Moreover, it was found that luxury message, vanity-physical and social influence, have a positive effect on overall luxury perception. In other words, a luxury brand that wants to increase sales should focus on unique experiences offered by the brand; symbolic value and other directed symbolic value as well as a luxury message to consumers. If a brand wishes to increase their overall perception among consumers they should focus on physical vanity, social influence and a luxury message.