The Roles of Consumers Need for Uniqueness and Status Consumption in Haute Couture Luxury Brands

Abstract A vast body of knowledge exists regarding the attitudes involved in the consumption of luxury brands. The purchase of products for their symbolic and social value rather than for their inherent utility is now widely recognised as a significant determinant of consumer behaviour (Mason, 1992). With changes in industry trends, gaps in knowledge are created. Thus, it is important to examine luxury brands in relation to uniqueness. Moreover, whether consumers need for uniqueness is in fact a need for status in this younger emerging market (Clark, Zboja, and Goldsmith, 2007). The Australian Generation Y market is a dynamic and extremely competitive environment (Phau and Leng 2008). It encompasses 26% of the adult population (Khoo and Conisbee 2008) with the benefit of offering a market segment open to generalisations. Thanks to a decrease in the affordability of the housing market the average disposable income has increased and as a result Generation Y has enormous spending potential. In 2015 Generation Y will have the largest share of the consumer market and is set to dominate retail trade (Khoo and Conisbee, 2008). However, limited research has been conducted using the Australian Generation Y market in regards to their attitudes towards uniqueness and luxury brands. According to Phau and Cheong (2009) consumers between the ages of 30–50 years have been the prime market for luxury goods. The importance of adult consumers has been explored in depth, but there has been less attention given to the emergence of symbolic consumption in young people. This study examines the causal relationships among consumers’ need for uniqueness, brand perceptions (brand judgements and emotional value), and purchase intentions of an haute couture luxury apparel brand and it’s ready to wear range among Australian Generation Y status and non-status consumers. This research will allow further examination of how Australian Generation Y consumers’ need for uniqueness influences product acquisition behaviour concluding with how marketers and practitioners could use this to effectively target this young consumer market. Haute Couture is the prestigious front for French creative fashion (recently a number of fashion houses outside Paris have been afforded membership) and original design and refers to “wildly expensive garments made to measure for an elite cadre of the world’s ultra rich…where designers unleash their creativity, using the finest materials and techniques” (Barchfield July 15, 2009, 3) Haute couture creates the illusion through brand association that accessories, (bags, scarf’s, sunglasses etc.) are as exclusive as the couture products at the premium end of the range. Couture generates high levels of publicity, which funnel down into sales in the ready to wear and mass production stages (Catry, 2003). A self-administered pen and paper questionnaire was developed for the study, which utilised a non-probability convenience sample of Australian Generation Y consumers. The survey instrument took approximately 10 minutes to complete and used existing scales with strong reliabilities to measure the five main constructs on a seven-point scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Data was collected from students studying in a large Metropolitan University in Western Australia. A total of 259 usable questionnaires were analysed. Data analysis was conducted using factor analysis and multiple and step-wise regression analysis. It was found that consumers’ need for uniqueness has three dimensions, creative choice counter-conformity, unpopular choice counter-conformity and avoidance of similarity, in the concept of a hatue couture brand. The effect of consumers’ need for uniqueness, status consumption and brand perceptions was tested in relation to purchase intentions. It was found that brand judgements had the strongest most significant effect on purchase intentions. The three dimensions of consumers’ need for uniqueness, creative choice counter-conformity, unpopular choice counter-conformity and avoidance of similarity were found to have differing relationships with purchase intentions. Only creative choice counter-conformity was found to have a significant relationship with purchase intentions through brand perceptions. The paper adds knowledge to the field of consumers’ need for uniqueness and status consumption and provides an insight into Australian Generation Y consumers’ purchasing intentions toward an haute couture luxury apparel brand and offers a number of significant contributions. Theoretically, it introduces theoretical underpinnings from branding, psychology and consumer behaviour to develop a framework in which to examine insights from existing fashion literature in a new light. This study focuses on Australian Generation Y consumers’ purchase intentions of a luxury apparel brand and it is subsequently found that deviations exist between Australian Generation Y consumers and Generation Y consumers previously studied (Northern Asia and the United States) (O’Cass and Choy, 2008; Park, Rabolt, and Jeon, 2008; Knight and Kim, 2007). Furthermore, only creative choice counter-conformity is found to be a significant predictor of purchase intentions of luxury apparel. This proposes a new way of thought in regards to uniqueness seeking consumers’ attitudes towards products with an exclusive and customisation approach, illustrating that consumers’ place a level of sameness with a well-recognised luxury brand regardless of the exclusive, one-of-a-kind designs the premium end of the brand portrays. Managerially, the study supports the belief that exposure to a recognised luxury apparel brand can prompt brand judgements and emotional responses in status seeking consumers. This can be seen throughout hypothesis 2 in the significant difference in the results of status seeking consumers’ as compared to that of uniqueness seeking consumers. Although the findings of this research are market specific, they have important implications for general fashion consumption research. This research demonstrated the value of the consumers’ need for uniqueness and the status consumption scales in explaining fashion adoption behavior especially pertaining to luxury apparel.