Materialism Among Consumers Materialism refers to ‘the importance a person places on possessions and their acquisition as a necessary or desirable form of conduct to reach desired end states, including happiness’ (B.Zhang, J.H Kim 2013). In other word, materialism is the belief about the importance of possessions in life by emphasizing on the ability to own material objects in terms of the type and quantity of the purchased products, focusing on the value placed on the acquisition of material objects (Kamolwan T. and Wiwatchai J, 2010). They feel that those luxury brands can boost their status by consuming luxury products publicly and possessing visible wealth (Liao and Wang, 2009). As consumers consider luxury brands as status-oriented possessions,
“When luxury products are scarce, an enduring product is perceived as more socially responsible than an ephemeral one, which leads to more positive attitudes toward the enduring product” (Janssen, C., et al. (2013). The catch-22 of responsible luxury: effects of luxury product characteristics on consumers’ perception of fit with corporate social responsibility). Such scandals have led to the creation of new organizations, like Fashion Revolution, which aim is to denounce the disrespectful behaviors of fashion brands. Fashion Revolution launched the movement #whomademyclothes as well as a fashion transparency index (Fashion Revolution, 2017 impact, retrieved here: http://fashionrevolution.org/about/2017-impact/).
Literature review Luxury associates with extraordinary pricing. It indicates that price, satisfactory, distinctiveness, and enjoy have an impact on prime value (Allsop, 2004) From the market sphere, it illustrates that the customers are eager to pay unnecessary money for the brand. That means, economically, the assortation could be differentiated from the perspective of luxury, and take it as a way to measure what consumers’ desire is. (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004). From the business respect, marketers observe from a consumer perspective to find out what consumers prefer to buy, and the reasons they are willing to consume for the extra fees, time, and wishes.
For example, developing nations or poor people may hunt for companies in grey markets or products with lower tag price. They even seek social enterprises to have products at lower cost [13]. Oppositely, rich people may afford to pay extra for the desired goods or services from the specific company. However, relative prices also have a big part in changing the buying decisions of the people
There are many unfamiliar brand names and alternatives available in the market place. Consumers may prefer to trust major famous brand names. These prestigious brand names and their images attract consumers to purchase the brand and bring about repeat purchasing behavior and reduce price related switching behaviors (Cadogan and Foster, 2000). Furthermore, brand personality provides links to the brand’s emotional and self-expressive benefits for differentiation. This is important for brands, which have only minor physical differences and consumed in a social setting where the brand can create a visible image about the consumer itself.
This is influential to hotels’ competitive advantages in price and services, which is a variable factor of reducing the customers’ sensitivity to the price. For instance, the probability of a hotel results in suppliers around associations. In order to meet the individuals’ buffet need, a great amount suppliers ought to choose higher quality of catering, meanwhile; has a lower cost than other suppliers. Employees in a hotel chain are another main supplier, which provide services and goods. They can affect the attractiveness and profitability of hotels by increasing their wages, which results in a higher industry cost and lower profit
Customers do not want to switch to purchase different brands, as such they hold some bargaining power to drive the demand. In the luxury industry, it is possible that existing companies or new designers could enter internationally. However, the brand positioning serve as a serious barrier to create awareness due to customer loyalty and acceptability of the brand. In this case, threat of new entrants is relatively low. Luxury products are not easily substitute as it is not an ordinary goods but the threat can derive from imitation.
During this stage, consumers search for information to make judgement about the alternatives so that the feeling of uncertainty reduced (Zikmund & Amico, 2001). In information search, consumers start to collect information from various types of sources such as personal sources, commercial sources, experiential sources, and public sources to eliminate consideration in certain brands (Kotler & Armstrong, 1993). After that, the consumer’s awareness and knowledge about features and brands of products increases as sufficient information is collected from different information sources. According to Kotler and Armstrong (1993), personal sources include family and friends are considered the most effective sources because it helps consumers to evaluate the products whereas commercial sources such as advertising, salespeople and displays generally inform the consumers about the products. Then, the information obtained is carefully analysed and utilized by consumers to determine their
Lately, corporate social responsibilities (CSR) has progressively come to be viewed as a decent vital advertising apparatus. There are two purposes behind this developing hobby in CSR. From one perspective, consumers are requesting from firms something more than a top quality item at a low cost, and they incline toward brands that are socially rumored at the point when assessing comparable items. Then again, a firm may acquire aggressive preferences by concentrating on non-financial components. CSR could be an advantage for building a better brand image and making consumers' inspirational disposition so it is an imperative wellspring of competitive advantages (Porter & Kramer, 2006).
The power of an industry’s important buyer groups based upon conditions regarding its market situation and the relative importance of its buying from the industry as compared with its whole business. Customers have low bargaining power related to price when they shop at luxury stores and reluctant to seek for options, because of such a limited alternative. Poh Kong has gained intense pricing power. Its raising gross margins indicate that it passes on its greater input costs to its customers. Poh Kong customers may not get the exclusivity of the Poh Kong brand although they are free to shift to any other