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,
• Underlying the concept of luxury, there is the notion of exclusivity. A luxury product should be rare and slightly difficult to acquire. It should of course be available, but give the feeling that the purchaser is “in the know,” can identify what makes it so different from other products or other brands, and can demonstrate that he or she has better taste and is more sophisticated than the standard customer. • An obvious characteristic of a luxury object is its quality. It should be better looking.
Companies are now focusing on such of a group that are mostly small, but are highly influential, those are known as brand evangelist, and they embrace the brand in every possible way, publicize their highly positive experience to other consumers and eventually discourage other to try competitors brands (McConnel, & Huba 2003) .Brand evangelism is basically amalgamate of brand adoption and brand advocacy, which is defined as the active behavioral and vocal support of a brand including actions such as purchasing the brand, disseminating positive brand referrals, and convincing others about a focal brand by disparaging competing brands (Matzler et al. 2007). With a paradigm shift from 4Ps Marketing to Relationship marketing, a number of researcher have emphasized on adopting relationship marketing techniques (Gummesson 1994; Vargo, & Lusch 2004). Researcher fined that the positive or negative word of mouth marketing can change the consumer’s perception about the product (Becerra & Badrinarayanan., 2013). Defined that satisfied consumer become evangelist and do always positive word of mouth and recommending the brand to others to use (Rashid & Ahmad, 2014).
It usually means adding value for which the consumer is willing to pay extra. The main factor differentiating a brand is nothing but luxury. Advantages Lets discuss few advantages of pricing .The following are advantages of using the premium pricing method: Entry barrier. If a company is strong enough to establish itself as a brand then it becomes very difficult for the competitors to come and interfere in the market. High profit margin.
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.
As we have seen that now a day’s competitive global market is increasing & growing rapidly and the companies are focusing to distinct and separate themselves from their competitors in order to survive in a market and also take advantage of growth and opportunities. There is only one way that create a difference with your competitors is to build and creation of strong brand and try to rise your company’s profitability and try to reduce their marketing costs. Brand equity (BE) is observed as a critical and significant concept in both business practice and research on consumer behavior. We have seen that most of the Companies can achieve competitive advantage through successful brands. In a world of increasingly homogeneous products only strong
A research conducted by Anmol Randhawa and Javeed Ahmed Khan showed that a celebrity endorsement has both positive and negative impact on the consumer’s decision making. It enhances the brand’s value and creates awareness of the brand’s products among consumers. Advertisements featuring celebrity endorsed products influence a consumer to purchase that product rather than the non-celebrity endorsed products. (Randhawa and Khan, 2014) The negative impact is frequent changes of celebrity endorsers reduces the buying decisions of customers. Also, the research output conveyed that consumers think that the quality of celebrity endorsed products are not good which is the main reason for declining the brand’s products.
CHAPTER – III CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY 3.1 Introduction Brand loyalty implies that consumer have a good attitude towards a particular brand over other competing brands. Brand loyal consumers may be willing to pay more for a brand because they perceive some unique value in the brand that no alternative can provide (Oliver1993) . Brand loyalty, long a central construct in marketing, is a measure of the attachment that a customer has to a brand. It reflects how likely a customer will be to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a changes, either in price or in product features. As brand loyalty increase, the vulnerability of the customer base to competitive action is reduced.
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).
A low price usually means an inferior good in the consumers eyes as they compare your good to a competitor. Consequently, prices too high will make the costs outweigh the benefits in customers eyes, and they will therefore value their money over your product. Be sure to examine competitors pricing and price accordingly. Place: Placement or distribution is a very important part of the product mix definition. You have to position and distribute the product in a place that is accessible to potential buyers.