When symbolism overtakes quality: Materialists consumers disregard product quality when faced with luxury brands

Abstract

a b s t r a c tConsumers use extrinsic and intrinsic cues to set preferences and make purchase decisions. However, the extent to which luxury-related extrinsic cues determine consumer preferences and whether the relative weighting of extrinsic vs. intrinsic cues depends on consumers' values is still unclear. We investigated how luxury vs. non-luxury brands affect consumer preferences, and how this impact is moderated by consumers' materialistic values. Results from Experiment 1 showed that materialistic and non-materialistic participants similarly appreciated products with luxurious brands. However, compared with non-materialistic participants, materialistic participants devaluated products that were tagged as non-luxurious brands. In Experiment 2, we investigated how product quality interacts with brands and whether materialistic values moderated this interaction. Materialistic participants paid more attention to brand-related cues than to qualityrelated cues, whereas non-materialistic participants considered these cues similarly. Taken together, the results of these two studies suggest that materialism influences the way extrinsic (i.e., brand) and intrinsic (i.e., quality) information is combined during product evaluation. These results highlight the importance of materialism in consumer decision-making, especially in the context of luxury consumption.

Associating a product with a luxury brand label modulates neural reward processing and favors choices in materialistic individuals

“…When it comes to choices and purchase decisions, previous studies suggest that individual characteristics of the consumer may lead to increased interest and attention toward brands 24 . More specifically, materialism is positively related to brand connection 24 , brand dependence 25 and leads to higher consideration of luxury brands 26 .…”

“Dior, J’adore”: The role of contextual information of luxury on emotional responses to perfumes

“…This perception of higher status elicited favorable treatment in social interactions, as it would be expected by the global concept of luxury. Manipulating luxury using brands' names or logos has also been demonstrated as powerful enough to differentiate materialistic vs. non materialistic populations (Audrin, Brosch, Chanal, and Sander, 2017) or to influence social rejection and life satisfaction perception (Jiang, Gao, Huang, DeWall, and Zhou, 2014). Brands' name and logos manipulation is also associated with measurable differential activations in reward as well as self-centered cognitions related areas in the brain (e.g., Schaefer, 2009;Schaefer and Rotte, 2007 for a review).…”

Análisis bibliométrico de los efectos veblen, bandwagon, snob, hedónico y de perfeccionismo

“…Se refiere al papel que juega la calidad, ya que se ha demostrado que la compra de productos de prestigio está motivada por la calidad [24], [25] y un bajo nivel de calidad jugaría un papel negativo sobre la percepción del lujo de un bien [15]. Se ha encontrado también que los consumidores menos materialistas tienen más en cuenta la calidad que la marca a la hora de comprar estos productos [24]; Finalmente, la calidad se considera un factor importante a la hora de evaluar servicios de lujo [26].…”