Rational Consumption Or Face Consumption

With the improvement of residents' income and material living standard,the strong consumption power of Chinese consumers has been released.After solving survivability needs,that is,the problem of "lizi",consumers are paying more attention to the "face" problem.Face seeking is the social need for people to transfer their status and wealth to outside world.As a consumption in public space,automobile is not only a "use commodity" but also a typical "symbolic commodity".Especially under the Chinese consumer culture dominated by "face",the dual nature of automobile consumption is particularly prominent.This paper starts with automobile consumption,taking "SUV Boom" as a typical example.Based on motivation rationality defined from the perspective of consumer value,this paper theoretically analyzes two motives of SUV consumption choice: based on rational motivation of functional value(use value),SUV has a significant advantage in good road trafficability caused by high ground separation,which is irreplaceable by car;based on irrational motivation of social value(symbol value),relative to same-class car,the shape advantage of "big" and "stylish" and price conspicuous effect of SUV are in line with the pursuit of "face" by Chinese residents.So far,this paper puts forward "road construction status" as a rational factor,based on the micro-data of the national passenger vehicle registration,to identify the motivation of Chinese residents' choice on automobile purchase behind the "SUV Boom".About the conclusion,first of all,the choice of Chinese residents in automobile purchase behind the "SUV Boom" shows overall rationality,that is,the worse the road construction status,the higher the market share of the SUV,this result remains stable after controlling other influencing factors.Secondly,the heterogeneity test for different levels of SUV consumption choice motivation show that the consumption choice of micro-small SUV is still based on the rational demand for the functional value of road trafficability;while consumption choice of large and medium-sized SUV is affected by regional road conditions to some extent,but purchasing power is the main driving force,consumers may more pursue the social value embodied in the "big" and "style" of car purchase.Finally,the robustness test shows that in the same prefecture-level city,compared with the consumers in the municipal district,the county(county-level city)consumers' choice of SUV is more affected by the road construction status of the city,which further verifies the rational demand of SUV consumption choice of Chinese residents.This paper provides a basis for understanding the differences in consumption characteristics of Chinese residents at different stages of development: in areas where economic development and infrastructure construction are relatively backward,SUV consumption is still dominated by functional demand;while in areas where economic development and infrastructure construction are developed,SUV consumption may enter the stage of social value preference,and the purchasing power is more effective.Therefore,this paper proposes that in the context of promoting energy-saving car purchase in the country,we should implement differentiated automobile consumption policies according to the consumption characteristics of different regions at different stages of development,and reasonably guide consumers to purchase energy-saving cars.