Abstract
An understanding of the consumer groups is important for the luxury fashion industry to expand in this harsh business situation.
This study examined influencing factors that affect Hong Kong consumers’ attitude towards symbolic consumption in luxury fashion good.
Data was collected in Hong Kong and online. A total of 100 respondents were included of both sexes, within 18-67 years old and a variety of occupations, religious status and education background. Convenience Sampling will be chosen.
1. Introduction
An understanding of the consumer groups is essential for the luxury fashion industry to survive in an ever-changing business situation, together with ever-rising production and operation costs, and extremely keen competition,
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What is more important, those researches seldom talked about the factors of personal values affecting the symbolic consumption of luxury fashion. Hence, this study tries to fill the gap by examining the impact of personal background, values and social recognition of the local consumers. It is observed and generally agreed the purchasing intention of Hong Kong people is, to a certain extent, affected by other’s thought and what is accepted in society. These factors will be studied to see if they are really influential and determinant, and will be further examined in case …show more content…
Research Quesiton
To fulfill the aim and purpose of this study, the author has formulated the research question, basing on the background and problem statement as the following:
To determine the factors affecting the consumption behaviors of Hong Kong people in purchasing luxury fashion
3. Hypothesis
Based on the literature review and in conformity with the research questions, the following hypotheses were generated.
Indending consumers will make their purchase decisions because they believe:
H1. Luxury goods are exclusive goods of high quality and craftmanship.
H2. Luxury goods can bring them reputation and gain recognisibility of wealth, social status and prestige. Luxury goods reflect the rank and position of a person in a company/organisation.
H3. Luxury goods can help building up outstanding image among peers.
H4. Luxury goods can show they have good taste and can enabe a person to define oneself as one wishes.
H5. Luxury goods can enhance their confidence and raise their self-esteem.
H6. Consumption of luxury goods will be affected by a number of other factors such as their income level, age, gender, religious status, job nature, education attainment and
Analyzing the contents of my luxuries, I can see that seven out of the fourteen things are ideas or concepts that I do to impress others. These activities include: social media, hanging out with friends, working out, haircuts every couple weeks, brushing my teeth, going to parties, and studying/getting good grades. All of these activities, despite who I am trying to impress, portray that I need to start focusing more on activities that make me happier rather than trying to impress others. If I did not care about what people thought of me, my luxuries list would be at least half it’s size. This means that to make my life simpler than it is, I need to stop caring what society thinks about me.
As for my rhetorical analysis, it covers a wide range of audience: managers and employees who work in fast fashion retail stores, which include all customers who shopping there. And it also can be the market research analyst, people who study or interested in the business management or marketing, etc. Since the target audience are my classmates, their level of education is bachelor or above. But I think they can be classified as non-specialist rather than executive or something else. All of them are still studying about business in different majors as a student, which may not have many chances to work as a manager in the retail stores, or to do the deeply research project about how products be storage or manage in retail stores.
It is difficult to imagine what it would be like living in media driven world that isn't going at a million miles per second. People often just blame the media and advertisers for tugging people in different directions, telling them who or what they should aspire to be to acquire a luxurious lifestyle. Criticizing advertisers for the scrutiny we face is easier than admitting we all want the gourmet meals and high end vehicles because it makes us feel good about being able to experience a luxurious life. James B. Twitchell's piece "The Allure of Luxury" focuses on how we, the middle class consumers who crave luxury, play along with advertisers and marketers in the chase of a luxurious lifestyle, and how it can be a good thing. His historical
Mandeville justified this. Hume distinguished innocent luxury from good luxury. And supported innocent luxury for the national industries’ prosperity. Steuart encouraged luxury in common citizens in the first stages of both national and international trade, but he did not include luxury that decreases the vitality of people and the productive power they have. In this debate, innocent luxury was accepted as favorable, and it represented the phenomenon of a civilized and polished society, and is an indication of the quality of effective demand (book online page
When launching a new product or service, a company needs to develop the key group of customers in which they are targeting. There are many steps in identifying the target market; one of these steps is to look at past marketing plans in a company and collect information to produce a customer profile. This profile is important because “it influences the objectives, creation of the communications message and the channels and media mix being selected” (Gbadamosi and others, 2013, p. 275). When this profile is solidified, the appropriate methods to make a successful marketing plan can take action to launch the new product or service. Nordstrom’s Treasure & Bond, is a new clothing line by the leading fashion specialists, targeting 18-30 year
This seems quite odd as the concept of luxury is tied to rarity and exclusivity. This has put a question mark on the sustainability in the growth of Louis Vuitton, for how long it will be maintained. But it is to be noted that the growth in revenue due to more
Victoria Secret was profitable enough in their first year, for the company to open four more physical locations, as well as a mail order catalogue. Although Roy Raymond’s policy was initially profitable, but as we will discuss in the later parts of this paper, it also had its downsides that almost led to the bankruptcy of Victoria Secret. Today, Victoria Secret is a multi billion dollar conglomerate with more than a thousand stores in more than 180 countries generating an annual income of over five billion. 2. PESTEL ANALYSIS The external environment of a company can affect everything from company policies, finances, sales, targeted customers and can be a deciding factor in whether the company remains for another season.
The target market of louis Vuitton in divided into two key segments, the wealthy middle aged women from 35 to 54 years old is the first segment while the fashionable young female adults from the age 18 to 34 years old who have income saved to buy one wishes. Average customer of Louis Vuitton are high level & social class people who are into fashion and very conscious as well. High social status is achieved by owning such products from Louis Vuitton. Demographic Segmentation Louis Vuitton has used Demographic segmentation to segment the market.
Giorgio Armani: By having brand ambassadors who symbolize an elite group, it is apparent that the product range too caters to a class with a good amount of disposable income. It would probably involve itself in more endorsements by people who can trigger an aspirational lifestyle. Moreover it would also actively involved in diversification. d. Yves Saint Laurent: This caters to the everyday needs of an urban, fashion conscious and bold woman.
Fashion is more common in current society than in the ancient tribes or peasant communities. Modern society is an open one where class differences are not as severe as in primitive society. Its urban and mobile class structure allows people to develop its own personality taste and implement its new course. The modern world is more open-minded to differences and consequently places few restraints on the cycle of fashion. Our principles of judgment have also changed.
This will reduce the cost of production while also keep the quality of the product intact. The less costly products will help broaden the consumer group. On the other hand, for the high income bracket, produce absolute artisan-made products which will be exclusive and hence also cater to the class and position conscious customers since they will be using the artisan made products and hence the limited edition ones. Louis Vuitton is focusing mainly on women. It should launch product lines for other consumer segments too, like for men and
The brands set different prices of its product base on design, size and heritage. This is due to brand loyalty that each brand possesses by each luxury group. Particularly put extensive brand portfolio to cover different customer segments. As such, the brand is niche in the market leading to rivalry of the competitors in this industry to
Driving forces provide a framework to decide where and how to exercise market leadership. In this case, globalization is one of the main driving force that affect the fashion industry. Gap was recognized as a must have brand. However, through the years it has been losing competitive advantage due to the continual change. During the last years, Gap has been facing struggles because of its clothing design and faltered misjudgment fashion trend.
As a rule, most scholars start by proposing their own definition to luxury. Aerin Lauder states Luxury as “Anything that feels special. It can be a moment, it can be a walk on the beach, it could be a kiss from your child, or it could be a beautiful picture frame, a special fragrance. I think luxury doesn't necessarily have to mean expensive.” Michael Kors however finds true luxury in caviar or a day with no meetings, no appointments and no
In contrast, there are high luxury brands too, for instance, Hermes, Chanel, Gucci. According to Business Insider UK, “Prada, Gucci, and LVMH all seem to be stumbling, with revenues flat or in decline”. It means these kinds of brand’s sales are decreasing year by year. The reason why that sales are decreasing is incidence of fast fashion brands. In fact, fast fashion is popular and most people want to buy it, but luxury brand has so high quality