Search results

Based on their size, disposable income, and purchasing power, generation Y (Gen Y) consumers are viewed as the Holy Grail for marketers. Conversely, some of this group's behavior disturbs public policy officials, particularly when dealing with issues such as poor financial planning, bulimia and anorexia nervosa. The key question for both marketers and policy makers is what is the best way to understand the Gen Y segment? The vanity concept is used in this study as a way to understand the Gen Y consumer segment. The purpose of this paper is to examine vanity perceptions (cross‐nationally and by gender) as well as social and business implications with vanity.

Key research expectations are proposed that are related to cross‐cultural and gender differences on vanity perceptions. A sample of approximately 125 Gen Y consumers in two eastern and two western cultures was used to find support for the research expectations. Statistical results are reported.

The results clearly show that both gender and country have an impact on vanity perceptions. Concern for both physical appearance and professional achievement are higher in eastern cultures as compared to western cultures. Both males and females are highly concerned about physical appearance and professional achievements. However, self‐assessment of physical appearance and professional achievement are significantly lower among females as compared to males.

In future studies it would be interesting to study differences among other countries and consumer groups.

The results of this study provide evidence to marketers that vanity appeals can resonate well with Gen Y especially those in China and India. For consumer protection advocates, results offer insights about the extent to which importance of vanity is likely to increase, especially in countries that embrace globalization.

So far, no study has applied the vanity scale to understand the Gen Y segment, despite the financial power of this group in purchasing both desirable and undesirable products; nor has any study examined whether vanity perceptions vary cross‐nationally, especially between economically developed western cultures and developing economies with large populations representing eastern cultures.

There has been substantial research on luxury globally, but there is a dearth of studies empirically investigating the key relationships affecting luxury consumption. The aim of this paper is to consider the role of consumer vanity and brand consciousness and to set their relationships in context of luxury consumption.

To measure consumer vanity, brand consciousness, attitude towards luxury brands and purchase intentions, pre-established scale items were adopted. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed through luxury exhibitions and festivals in major cities of India. A sample of n = 342 luxury consumers was analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings support that brand consciousness is mediating the relationship between consumer vanity and luxury consumption. Luxury consumers are primarily driven by achievement vanity. They are likely to evaluate luxury brands based on their price, fame and their ability to portray their professional achievements. They incur unreasonable costs to acquire the expensive, famous and prestigious luxury brands and conspicuously consume them to display their success and accomplishments.

The study provides an in-depth explanation of how consumer vanity is leading to consumption of luxury brands. The marketers may benefit by focussing on promotion of their brand's symbols and logos than on specific product features.

This is the first empirical examination understanding the mediating effect of brand consciousness as a mediator between consumer vanity and luxury consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of brand prominence on willingness to buy luxury brands. It also aims to investigate the direct and moderating roles of luxury brand values, social influence and vanity on willingness to buy luxury brands.

A convenience sampling method was employed. Survey questionnaires were distributed by mall intercept to quasi-random samples in downtown Perth, Western Australia for completion and return. The return yielded 779 usable questionnaires, the data from which were analysed using SPSS 22.

The findings support the influence of brand prominence on purchase intention for luxury brands. It has also been found that social influence has a significant influence on physical vanity and willingness to buy luxury brands. However, some relationships with and isolations from the earlier studies have been identified.

This study provides some meaningful insights for marketing managers regarding brands prominence that they can use in better understanding the consumers’ intention to buy luxury products. A luxury goods manufacturer may want to be cautious to not over popularize its trademark for short-term gains. There must be a delicate balance between the uses of prominent and subtle signals in luxury branding in order to maintain value as a prestigious label.

Previous studies have mainly focused on the antecedents of willingness to buy luxury brands, whereas this paper incorporates the construct of brand prominence, adding new insights into the construct.

This paper aims to examine the importance and concept of idol attachment, model its antecedents and moderators and assess its influence on human brand loyalty.

This paper includes two studies. In Study 1, survey questionnaires were distributed by mall intercept to quasi-random samples across Australia and Taiwan for completion and return. The return yielded 1,135 and 736 usable questionnaires, respectively, from which the data were analysed using LISREL structural equation modelling software. In Study 2, an experiment was used to examine whether idol attractiveness is likely to positively moderate the relationship between vanity traits and attachment.

The results suggest that achievement vanity, variety seeking and peer norms have a positive impact on the phenomenon of idol attachment, which in turn positively affects human brand loyalty. Contradicting previous studies, the physical appearance of vanity was not found to be associated with idol attachment. However, the results of the experiment show that idol attractiveness has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between vanity traits and human brand attachment.

The findings suggest that idol attachment is more complex than previously understood. The constructs chosen in this research represent an initial step but other variables such as liking, involvement, affective commitment and brand love are not taken into account. Future research models should therefore include such variables.

The findings contain many practical lessons for planners of marketing strategy for the music industry in an international context.

Two existing theories of psychology are integrated with the concept of idol attachment to explain human brand loyalty in an international context.

There has been considerable research into the global phenomenon of luxury brand consumption, but relatively few studies have empirically explored key relationships influencing purchase intention. This research aims to consider the respective roles of social context, individual perception, and vanity, and to set these relationships within a broader theoretical context of the literature on possession and consumer identity.

The empirical study consisted of a large‐scale survey conducted among Chinese luxury brand consumers in Taiwan. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression.

The findings support the influence of the social context on purchase intention for luxury brands. There was weaker support for the role of perception. The experiential and functional aspects of luxury brand purchase were positively correlated with purchase intention, but symbolic value was not. Physical and achievement vanity had a positive impact on purchase intention while only achievement vanity had a moderating effect on perception.

This study offers new empirical support for the proposition that vanity has a role in luxury brand purchase intention and thereby shades both theoretical and managerial understanding of luxury brand consumption. It also suggests that symbolic value, which is highly influential in western conceptualizations of luxury brand meaning, needs to be re‐evaluated in the context of Chinese consumers.

This study offers new empirical findings which contribute to a re‐conceptualization of the antecedents of purchase intention in the area of luxury brand consumption. In particular, the study provides evidence of the roles of social context, perception and vanity in a Chinese consumption context to inform the primarily western models of luxury brand purchase intention.

Luxury fashion brands harness the power of Instagram and fashionistas for strategic brand management. This study aims to test interaction effects among luxury brand posts’ Instagram source type (brand versus fashionista), visual image type (product-centric versus consumer-centric) and consumers’ characteristics (vanity, opinion leadership and fashion consciousness) on brand recognition and trust.

A quantitative 2 (source type: brand versus fashionista) × 2 (branded visual image type: product-centric luxury versus consumer-centric luxury) between-subjects online experiment (N males = 195 and N females = 182) was conducted by recruiting participants from MTurk.

Logistic regression analyses indicated two-way interaction effects between sources and visual images on brand recognition. Brand recognition was higher for product-centric images when the source was the fashionista, whereas brand recognition was equivalent regardless of the image type when the source was the brand. Logistic regression and multiple regression analyses revealed the moderating effects of sources and visual images on the association between consumer traits and branding outcomes.

Meticulously choosing effective methods of showcasing branded content and persuasive luxury visual image strategies via Instagram is more important for fashionistas than for established brands in increasing brand recognition. Instagram fashionistas are more effective in increasing females’ brand trust through delivering product-centric visual images when targeting women with high vanity, opinion leadership and fashion consciousness. Brands as the Instagram profile source are more persuasive in increasing males’ brand trust through delivering product-centric visual images when targeting men with high vanity.

This experiment provides theoretical discussions and empirical findings about social media influencer marketing and managerial implications for Instagram-based luxury branding. This research revolves around the overarching theme of the interactive effects of multifaceted branded contents and market segments in social media influencer marketing environments.

With retailers selling products to and even opening stores for metrosexuals, they are now well recognised in many western countries; however, market sizing, measurement and understanding their psychology remain understudied. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and operationalise the metrosexual lifestyle and examine a number of its psychological correlates.

Using a survey with two samples, a scale is developed to measure metrosexuality and validated using structural equation modelling.

Metrosexuality was found to have three dimensions: trendiness, concern with appearance, and use of grooming practices, while its antecedents of gender-identity confusion and narcissism are mediated by masculinity and vanity. Metrosexuality is associated with lower levels of masculinity, but not with increased femininity and is slightly associated with homosexual orientation.

One of the theoretical implications of the new metrosexuality scale is that it may be incorporated in the general theories of lifestyle and consumption, extended self-concept as well as aesthetic motivations of consumption.

On a practical level, a scale to measure their metrosexuality can be used to help retailers to measure and track the size for forecasting and targeting purposes as well as allowing retailers to better design environments and products for this market.

No study has previously attempted to devise a scale to measure metrosexuality nor seek to establish if there is any psychological substance behind the media hype by looking quantitatively at its psychological antecedents. This study is the first to define, measure and validate a scale for metrosexuality and contributes to an understanding of individuals who are an increasing part of society.

China is undergoing a radical change as the forces of industrialization and modernization transform its society. Money is taking on an increasingly important role, particularly among young Chinese, as the Western ideals of individualism and hedonism thrive. The goal of this research is to understand attitudes towards money in China and how these attitudes affect elements of consumer behavior such as materialism and vanity.

The paper uses a well‐accepted scale (with several dimensions) to explore attitudes towards money. Research questions examine how the dimensions of attitudes towards money affect materialism and achievement vanity. The sample comprises 127 young Chinese consumers. Statistical results based on confirmatory factor analysis as well as path analysis are reported.

The findings clearly show that attitudes towards money in China are not monolithic; instead there are variations among young Chinese. Materialism is affected by the power‐prestige and anxiety dimensions, but unaffected by the distrust dimension of money attitudes. Achievement vanity is affected by the power‐prestige dimension of money attitudes.

Future research could examine other developing countries and other generational consumer segments. Another future research topic is to develop a comprehensive model of money attitudes, materialism, vanity, compulsive buying, and their possible antecedents or moderators.

These findings offer insight into the mindset of young Chinese. Beliefs that money permits one to attain not only status and possessions, but also power and control over others are contributing to increased materialism and expressions of vanity among young Chinese. For marketers, the results imply that positioning products based on the possession of money and the use of this money to indulge hedonism may resonate well with young Chinese consumers. However, some of the relationships we found may cause concern to ethicists and consumer watchdogs because of the associated problems of compulsive buying and other problems which are prevalent in consumer societies.

So far, no study has examined whether money attitudes drive materialism and achievement vanity, especially among younger consumers in developing countries such as China.

A recent marketing trend is sending short message service (SMS) apparel advertisements to capture young adult consumers’ attention. These targeted consumers are reluctant to view SMS advertisements due to perceived irrelevant advertising content. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer vanity trait and perceived SMS apparel advertising values for 291 college-aged Generation Y consumers (aged between 18 and 24) from the USA.

The study opted for a quantitative, correlational design to investigate the relationships among vanity traits and perceived SMS apparel advertising values. An internet-based survey collected vanity trait attributes, perceived SMS apparel advertising values, and demographics from the participant. Correlation and multiple regression analyses tested the degree of association and measured the strength of predictive relationships among the said variables.

Empirical findings of this study reveal a positive, predictive relationship between vanity traits and perceived SMS apparel advertising values. Symbols of success is the most dominant vanity trait for males and ethnic minorities.

Excluded from the present study was investigating the relationship between personality and consumer vanity trait. Personality evolves with the individual’s worldview and lived experience. It would be interesting to explore achievement-vanity through the consumers’ life story.

Consumer adoption and abandonment of the latest fashion trends can occur quickly. The timing of an SMS apparel advertising campaign and advertising content relevancy are critical to initiate the targeted consumers’ interest.

This paper sheds some lights on the contribution of psychological predispositions to apparel consumption-related situations for consumers.

Brand hate as a distinct phenomenon of consumer negativity has attracted considerable research attention in recent years. However, scant attention has been paid to explain the underlying mechanism of brand hate. Therefore, the present study aims to unveil how brand hate stirs in embarrassing situations and what repercussions it ignites that deteriorate the consumer–brand relationship.

The present study follows a mixed-method research design by conducting in-depth interviews with 16 consumers and then collecting three waves of time-lagged data from 217 respondents of two different countries. The reliability and validity have been established through confirmatory factor analysis, and hypotheses were analyzed using structural equation modeling and moderated-mediated models.

The results of both qualitative and quantitative investigations reveal that brand embarrassment instigates brand hate, and brand hate leads to brand detachment. Brand hate also mediates the relationship between brand embarrassment and brand detachment. Consumer vanity enhances the strength of brand embarrassment's effects on brand hate. This relationship further depicts the moderated mediation pattern as consumers with high vanity traits express extreme emotions of hate and detachment from the embarrassing brands. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the moderating role of consumer vanity is more pronounced among young consumers.

The study marks an initial attempt to explain the whole process of brand hate by incorporating brand embarrassment, brand detachment, consumer vanity and age in an integrated moderated mediation model. The study enhances brand managers' understanding of the severity of the consequences of embarrassing situations and devising preventive strategies.