Research On The Purchase Motivation And Mechanism Of Luxury Brand Loyalty Of Middle Class In China

The concept of luxury has already surmounted the past people’s perspective that the luxuryconsumption means corruption, unfairness, waste and decay. The luxury brand consumption hasactually become the powerful impetus of the social structure upgrading and the economicdevelopment. In the process of globalization, luxury goods consumption culture spread fromEurope, the United States and other developed countries to emerging Asian markets. To someextent, the luxury becomes the necessities reflecting the welfare improvement and economicincreasement. The economic development and social consumption of our country is being in suchan upgrading process. According to the official report of the World Luxury Association, in theglobal economic recession, the Chineses total consumption of luxury goods in2009is still as highas$9.4billion accounting for27.5%of the global market share. China becomes the second largestmarket of luxury beyond the United States for the first time. In2010, the domestic luxury sales seta new record of$12billion. Some expert predicted that the Chinese luxury sales were expected toreach$27billion after5years and China would overtake Japan to be the world’s largest trade andconsumption center of luxury goods.At present, China’s luxury brand consumers have accounted for13%of the total population.Among them, the middle class has become the main force of luxury consumption. This groupgrew up in the process of economic development in China, received higher education and alsoaccepted the baptism of western and Chinese culture’s collision. Such background make theirinterpretation of the luxury brand has begun to shift from the irrational state to a rational state.Their consumption psychology has been increasingly matured, gradually transforming fromblindly worshiping luxury the brands’ symbolic value to aspiring the modest luxury through thereasonable decision-making. China’s middle class are the first generation of luxury real lovers.Therefore the in-depth systematic research on their consumption motivations means a lot tounderstanding the main consumption force’s psychology and behavior, which can not only supplythe luxury brand purchase motivation related theoretical gap, but also lay a theoretical foundationfor further exploration of this group’s brand loyalty’s formation mechanism. The results will guideChinese consumers to scientifically and reasonably consume luxury brands and provide scientificsuggestions to the sustainable development of China’s luxury economy. So based on the review of relevant theories in the existing literatures, the study summarizedthe typical luxury brand consumption motivations in the background of Multidisciplinarycombination of psychology, sociology, economics and marketing. At the same time this studybuilt the luxury brand consumption motivations model of the Chinese middle-class with theanalysis of depth interview cases, which is supported by332empirical data. Then, based on aboveresults this research built the transmission mechanism of the middle-class’ luxury brand loyaltywith attitude functional value as mediator from the attitude functional theory perspective, whichcould not be separated from review of existing brand loyalty related theory and analysis of depthinterview cases from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Changchun, in orderto open the black box of the formation mechanism of luxury brand loyalty of Chinesemiddle-class. And then the theoretical hypothesises in the mechanism were empirical tested by835questionnaires data from online (online survey) data and offline (traditional man-access suvey)data. Finally, the empirical results of this study were analyzed and interpretated, aiming at givingthe prospective and extensible interpretation of the existing luxuy brand related theory andsummarizing valuable managerial implications to the luxury brand managers and practitioners.Conforming to the rigorous scientific research paradigm, the following conclusions weregotten through systemic and detailed work.First, China’s middle class’ luxury brand consumption motivation model is based on theinteraction of Subjective self and objective self. Their purchase motivations can be divided intotwo categories. One is social oriented motivation pursuiting symbolic value of luxury brands andthe other oen is personal oriented motivation seeking the modest luxury. Social orientedmotivations include conspicuous motivation, bandwagon motivation and uniqueness motivation.Personal oriented motivations include quality assurance motivation, self-pleasure motivation andself-gift motivation.Second, the attitude plays different functions because of different purchase motivations.Generally if the middle class purchase luxury brands based on social oriented motivations, theirattitude tend to play social function. Specifically, luxury consumers with conspicuous motives orbandwagon motivation have self-presentaion attitude value and those with uniqueness motivationhave self-expression value. If the middle class purchase luxury brands based on personal orientedmotivation, their attitude to luxury brands tend to play emotional function.Third, the middle class with different attitudes towards luxury brands have differences in theperformance of luxury brand loyalty. Some with high self-presentattion attitude value have strongintention to recommend to others and to repurchase, but they have little interest in luxury brandknowledge. And some with high self-expression attitude value have more brand knowledge, alsoare pleasure to recommend their favorit luxury brand to other consumers and have more stable repurchase behavior. Those with high emotional function attitude value not only want to learn theluxury brand knowledge, but also engage in word-of-mouth and repurchase behavior. At the sametime middle-class consumers with differently functional attitude value have differences in thedegree of luxury brand loyalty.Fourth, middle-class consumers with different purchase motivations will behave differentllyin brand loyalty. Functional attitude value as a more stable psychological variable than motivationcan give a reasonable explaination to these differences. Functional attitude can be taken as animportant explanatory variable of the middle class’ luxury brand loyalty formation mechanism andbridge purchase motivation to brand loyalty.Due to the late development of Chinese luxury goods economy, the luxury related research isstill a new subject. This thesis research on this hot issues, choose the special group of the middleclass as the object and have following innovation points.First, this thesis researches on the luxury brand not luxury or luxury goods, which enhanceand deepen the previous related theory. Luxury is a kind of intangible ideas or a lifestyle, theluxury good is a tangible entity of luxury concept and the luxury brand is the summary andpromotion of luxury concept. Although the scholars didn’t distinguish between luxury brand andluxury, their research significanceis are quietly difference. This research emphasies the luxurybrand’s research value and all the research problems focus on the brand level.Second, this study first proposes the luxury brand purchase motivation model of the middleclass in China background. The majority of existing researches tried to find a universal conclusionon luxury brand purchase motivation without subdividing consumer groups. Although somescholars began to study special buying motivation of different consumer segments, few paidattention to the middle class. Researches on this main consumption group’s purchasing motivationare still not enough. Some scholars had carried out Logical discussion on their luxuryconsumption, but they didn’t have the empirical test. This study is the first to propose a luxurybrand purchase motivation model of middle-class reflecting the special group’s consumptionpsychology and behavior characteristics.Third, this is the first study that gives the in-depth analysis of the relationship between thepurchase motivation and luxury brand loyalty from the perspective of attitude functional theory.The functional attitude value is taken as an intermediary variable in the luxury brand loyalty’sformation mechanism of the middle-class. Previous researches on luxury brand were not deepenough. Most of them just focused on the result that consumers with different purchasemotivations behaved differently on luxury brand loyalty, however the real reason why thesedifferences existed were not explained. Attitude functional theory is a new perspective to give ascientific and reasonable interpretation of these differences and exploration on the formation mechanism of the middle class’ luxury brand loyalty. Successfully applying the psychologyconcept to interpret consumer behavior in the marketing field will broaden the future research onluxury brand consumption.