Luxury Brand Assets

Luxury goods consumption is being a trend in these years. Sales growth rate of Luxury goods industry is twice than global economy growth at lease. Luxury goods consumption occurs not only in Europe or America, those mature markets, but also in the new developing countries, such as China, India, and Russia. In a nutshell, there were two turns in the trend of the development of the luxury goods market which went through four stages in the geographical distribution: from European markets a century ago, to the United States market after the Second World War, to the Japanese market since the 1970s, and China, India, Russia-based emerging markets nowadays. At the same time, China has become the most important market of luxury goods in the world. A new consumption culture and behavior is being building up.After a delicate literature review and focus group discussion, the consumption motivation and brand value has been revealed. 77 ideas have been got from focus group discussion to form item pools. After judgmental panel screening and pretesting, eight variables, 27 sentences formed main questionnaire. The survey has beed conducted through face to face interview and email, and outcomes 220 valid sample data at the end.The study illustrates that there are five factors significantly impact on Chinese customer-based brand equity elicited by luxuries, which are brand image, uniqueness, aesthetics, perceived quality, and premium. Product market outcome brand equity is formed by three factors, which are brand extension, price premium, and repeat purchase. The study also demonstrates there is a positive relationship between CBBE and PMOBE under a unique China background. 14 hypotheses of 15 are proved very positive.The conclusions drawn from the study are discussed briefly in terms of the CBBE and PMOBE relationship for luxury brand, Chinese consumer segment profile, the unique point in China luxury market, and Chinese luxury brand building and marketing strategies.The contribution of the study shows on three aspects. First, developing Luxury Goods Brand Equity Drivers Model to introduce the brand value forming process in a consistent and integrated way. Second, demonstrating the relationship between consumer-based brand equity and product market outcome brand equity. Third, conducting an explorary research towards Chinese luxury goods consumer under unique China background. The Luxury Goods Brand Equity Scale helps luxury brand marketer to review and trace their own brand value performance. Further more, it helps luxury brand marketers to make comparison between their own brand value and competitive brands to maintain their competitive advantages.