Consumer behaviour in the luxury industry

: getting a grasp on consumers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Abstract

To our knowledge, previous studies have mostly focused on understanding reasons that lead to the purchase of luxury products, not focusing on characterizing consumers and understanding the similarities and differences on their decision-making processes. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to provide a better understanding of luxury consumers, identifying luxury consumption beliefs and motivations and characterizing possible different profiles of the global consumer of luxury goods. To perform this analysis, first a literature review was done in order to understand what could be the drivers that lead someone to need or desire a luxury good. The outcome was a conceptual framework for luxury consumption that enables the reader to understand that there are two main orientations that a consumer can pursue when buying a luxury good: A personal and/or a social one. After this hypothesis, a cluster analysis was performed in order to find homogeneous groups of consumers that would have similar behaviours. In the end, three clusters were originated, enabling to define three different profiles of consumers and their motivations when buying luxury products. Despite the limitations and necessary steps in future research, the primary contribution of this thesis was to develop a framework for luxury consumption, integrating personal and social orientation drivers, in order to characterize and identify relevant behavioural patterns across different segments of customers in the market, enabling luxury brands to better understand their customers and their characteristics to create more efficient marketing strategies.

Date of Award	Jun 2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Coelho do Vale (Supervisor)