Consumer Attitude Towards Luxury Brands: An Empirical Study

--Preeti Tak and Ashish Pareek

The buying pattern among Indian consumers has witnessed dramatic change over the past decade. Higher income has enhanced consumer buying power. As a result, consumers are readily adopting global luxury brands at a much faster pace. Indian consumers are attracted towards acquiring luxury brands and purchasing these brands has become a prestige symbol. Luxury brands are helpful in communicating one's uniqueness, fashion style and individuality in social circles. This study analyzes the impact of dimensions of consumers’ need for uniqueness and fashion consciousness on the attitude towards luxury brands. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. To test the hypotheses, correlation and regression analyses were employed. The findings suggest that the dimensions of consumers’ need for uniqueness and fashion consciousness positively influence their attitude towards luxury brands. The paper concludes with a discussion on the future directions of study.

© 2016 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

The Impact of Consumer Personality Traits on Luxury Brand Market: An Empirical Study on Closet Consumers

--Shweta Kastiya

The market for luxury brands is expanding rapidly in India, thanks to economic deregulation, rapid GDP growth, increasing consumption, and a growing young and upper middle-class working population, who can be classified as closet consumers. Closet consumers are those who have not been born wealthy and are just experimenting with luxury, as yet with a middle-class and conservative mindset. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of consumer personality traits on preferences towards luxury brand market segments. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), 16 selected luxury consumer personality traits have been reduced to five major factors, namely, modernity, eccentricity, sincerity, competence and excitement. The findings show that some consumer personality traits are significantly related to preferences towards particular luxury brand market segments. The results offer marketers a basic framework for the development of a luxury brand personality.

© 2016 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Leveraging Luxury Brands: Prevailing Trends and Research Challenges

--Henrik Uggla

This conceptual paper revolves around trends and research challenges in luxury brand management for the future. Four broad research trends are identified and discussed. First of these is the issue of country cannibalization at the strategic and tactical level. Second, is the issue of make-and-buy brand portfolios, revolving around how brands can be acquired from the market and internalized with the portfolio, and how brand managers think in relation to this. Thirdly, the issue of luxury partner branding is discussed in relation to modifier and modified brands, and their relation towards and between each other. Finally, the issue of old brand extensions is developed and discussed in depth.

© 2016 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Employer Branding: The Solution to Create Talented Workforce

--Deepti Verma and Anees Ahmad

Employers have recognized the relevance of employer branding in attracting, engaging and retaining talent. Previous research has suggested that employer branding is helpful in creating a better image of an organization in the minds of the existing or target employees. This study identifies the dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding and examines their perceived importance levels. For this purpose, data were collected through a survey of 180 employees of private professional education institutions in Agra, Uttar Pradesh. This research identifies six dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding, namely, social value, interest value, economic value, holistic value, cooperation value, and working environment. Social value and interest value are perceived to be the most important and least important dimensions respectively. The paper concludes with implications for colleges aiming to attract and maintain talent. Directions for future research are also suggested.

© 2016 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

The Role of Consumer Perceived Fit in Brand Extension Acceptability

--S J Evangeline and V R Ragel

Brand extension forms an important part of marketing strategy for many companies. Brand extension reduces the risk of launching a new brand in the marketplace by leveraging on familiarity and consumer acceptance of an established brand. This study empirically examines the significance of ‘perceived fit’ in deciding ‘Consumer Acceptability of Brand Extension’ (CAOBE) in relation to ‘Kist’ brand, through the measurement of ‘product category fit’ and ‘brand level fit’ that cover the fit construct. Data has been collected from a convenience sample of 200 ‘Kist’ brand consumers through a closed-ended questionnaire in Manmunai North Divisional Secretariat Area, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The data has been analyzed and evaluated through univariate and bivariate techniques. Regression analysis has been used for testing the hypothesis. The results reveal that the target consumers perceive high level of fit between the parent brand and its extensions, and that the extensions achieve a high level of consumer acceptance. Regression analysis also indicates the successful role of consumer perceived fit in deciding brand extension success.

© 2016 IUP. All Rights Reserved.