regarded as “buying to impress others” or based on the inter-personal aspects (Berry 1994; Leibenstein, 1950; Mason, 1992), many research studies suggest that luxury also has a strong personal and hedonic component. In the study of Wiedmann, Henngs and Siebels (2009), they pointed out that there are other aspects of motives for luxury consumption. Hedonism and perfectionism or buying luxury to “please oneself” (Dubois & Laurent, 1994), and situational conditions (e.g. economic, societal, and political factors) must also be considered (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999, 2004). A summary of literature on luxury perception scales and measurement across five studies (Table 1) demonstrated that based on the two major dimensions of luxury perceptions, “inter-personal orientation” and “personal orientation”, related scales and measures (Vigneron & Johnson 2004; Kapferer, 1998; Dubois, Laurent & Czellar 2001;Wiedmann, Henngs and Siebels 2009; Wang, Sun and Song, 2010) have been developed to predict the factors describing luxury brands. Table 1 Measuring perceptions of luxury brand: review of factors describing luxury brands across five studies Vigneron & Johnson (1999, 2004) Kapferer (1998) Dubois, Laurent & Czellar (2001) Wiedman, Hennigs & Siebels (2009) Wang, Sun, Song (2010) Conspicuousness Elitist Extremely expensive Its price Conspicuous Elitist Very high price Differentiate from others Materialistic Prestige Value in Social Networks Other People’s Impression Feel Successful Increase I want other people to know that I own Self-
expensive luxuries Uniqueness Exclusiveness Its uniqueness Scarcity Uniqueness Uniqueness Usable __ Quality Craftsman Best quality Beauty of object Excellence of products Not Rather like luxury Excellent quality Good taste Quality Made of Good Materials High Quality & Worth the Money perceptions Hedonism Its creativity Its sensuality Its magic Pleasure Aesthetics and polysensuality Makes life beautiful Self-Identity Self-Gift Giving Extravagance Life Enrichment Exciting Experience Feel Different When I am depressed, I buy luxuries to make feel better Extended- self Successful Refined people Reveal who you are Pleasing Few people own Self-Directed Pleasure Better Service Luxury Consumption Culture Chinese culture has played an important role in the consumption of luxury brands. Traditionally, Confucius’ face concept explains why Chinese consumers value luxury brands which they believe will bring respects and prestige. China is regarded as a
Figure 1: Luxury Consumption of Mainland Chinese versus Hong Kong Chinese Hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: China mainland female consumers rate higher on “Face/ Status” Oriented Values than “Personal/Self Satisfaction” Oriented Value Hypothesis 2: Hong Kong female consumers rate higher on “Personal/Self-satisfactory” Oriented Value than “Face/Status” Oriented Value Hypothesis 3: China mainland female consumers are expected to rate higher on “Face/Status” Oriented Value than their Hong Kong counterpart. Hypothesis 4: Hong Kong Female consumers are expected to rate higher on “Personal/Self-satisfaction” Oriented than their China mainland counterpart. Hypothesis 5: China mainland female consumers who are rated high on “Face/Status” Oriented Value is expected to have higher purchase of luxury items than Hong Kong female consumers who are rated high on “Face/Status” Oriented Value Hypothesis 6: Hong Kong Female consumers who are rated higher on Oriented Value is expected to have higher purchase of luxury items than female consumers who are rated high on “Personal/Self-satisfaction” Oriented Value
Z-value Conclusion Face/Status Oriented Value Group China (26.2%) HK (53.1%) 2.508592** p2>p1 Self-satisfaction Oriented Value Group China (14.3%) HK (46.7%) 3.348637** p2>p1