The Devil Wears Prada or Zara: A Revelation into Customer Perceived Value of Luxury and Mass Fashion Brands

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Fashion Marketing / 1권 / 3호 / 129 ~ 141페이지
· 저자명 : Alison E. Lloyd, Sherriff T.K. Luk

초록

Emerging countries such as China are fuelling the rapidgrowth of luxury brands. With China expected to overtakeJapan as the world’s largest luxury goods market, practitionersare keen to uncover the luxury buying behavior of thiseminent group. Hong Kong is a renowned haven for luxurygoods and attracts the bulk of Chinese luxury shoppers. Inspite of the optimistic outlook, the luxury goods market isfacing a multitude of challenges including changing clientele,fierce competition from other luxury brands and even rivalryfrom fast fashion retailers. These forces result in an increasingcrowded luxury market and consumers becoming more astutein their tastes.
The intensity of these forces is compelling luxury retailersto embrace customer perceived value (CPV) as a strategicimperative to achieve customer loyalty and create competitiveadvantage. However, extant research on customer perceivedvalue in the luxury retail context is scarce and current modelsof CPV lack important retail components. With the prolificgrowth of this market, unveiling the drivers of luxuryconsumption is imperative. Therefore this study addresses animportant gap in the literature by investigating the drivers ofluxury fashion CPV and examines whether they differ from theCPV drivers of mass fashion. Few studies have incorporated amass versus class perspective, however with the prevalence ofluxury dilution, understanding service evaluation at both levelsis crucial.
Focus groups with mainland Chinese were conducted touncover important attributes of luxury brands and develop alist of luxury and mass fashion brands for use in collectingsurvey data. Findings highlighted the tendency of Chineseshoppers to judge luxury mainly on extrinsic attributes. Asubsequent small scale survey (n=138) affirmed the importanceof attributes such as use top quality materials, a prestigiousbrand image and ability of the luxury good to enhance one’ssocial image. Conversely attributes such as brand heritage andexpensive were deemed less important features of luxury goods. The next stage of the study sampled luxury (n=282)and mass fashion (n=240) shoppers to gather data forhypotheses testing. Multigroup analysis showed significantdifferences between the two shopper groups and subsequentanalysis was carried out on each group separately.
The findings of the study show some differences in theCPV drivers between luxury and mass, with price, lowerperceived risk and service quality being the top drivers ofCPV in the luxury context implying the dominance offunctional attributes in retail evaluation. The importance oflower perceived risk comes as no surprise given the numerousinstances of deceptive counterfeit products in China. Howeverdrivers pertaining to experiential needs failed to exertsignificant effects on luxury shoppers’ CPV. The findingsimply that purchase of luxury fashion items by Chineseshoppers appears to be for the fulfillment of functional andsocial needs rather than experiential needs. Conversely, in themass fashion context, price, service quality and product qualityare the top drivers of CPV. The importance of these elementsprovides useful insight for retailers considering a masstigestrategy.
The implications of the findings signal luxury consumptionis important in fulfilling social needs such as expressing statusand wealth; hence retailers should set prices to adequatelyreflect the prestige level of goods. To appeal to luxuryconsumers who want the newest and most fashionable item,and have little concern about the price tag, luxury retailers canpush more exclusive items to boost the rarity features of thebrand. The desire to communicate status means retailers shouldselect fashion items that ostentatiously display the logo orbrand name in such markets.
The study presents several avenues for further investigationincluding the exploration of luxury consumption behavioracross different Chinese cities, and across cultures in light ofpossible social attitudes in explaining motivations. Lastly,future research may consider the presence of potentialmoderators such as materialism on luxury goods consumption.
Taken together, these future explorations will illuminate luxurybuyer behavior and provide retailers with insight whenformulating strategies to serve emerging markets.

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