ABSTRACT
By definition, luxury has value due to a perception of scarcity (Kapferer, 2015) and the prestigious sign-value (Baudrillard, 1998) it elicits. As Shukla (2011) delineates, luxury products are “conducive to pleasure and comfort, are difficult to obtain, and bring the owner esteem, apart from functional utility” (p. 243). They are products that allow consumers to capture their dreams and that hold psychological benefits such as social recognition and self-esteem (Chandon, Laurent, & Valette-Florence, 2016). They include goods, services, and experiences that Berry (1994) classifies into four categories: substance (e.g. food and drink), shelter (e.g. hotels), clothing and accessories (e.g. haut couture fashions, jewelry, perfume), and leisure (e.g. travel, entertainment, prestigious sports, and events). However, how one separates luxury products from ordinary items is difficult, and perhaps best viewed on a continuum (Tynan, McKechnie, & Chhuon, 2010). Luxury is thus a subjective, relative and dynamic concept, especially in today’s consumer landscape. Products that were once considered luxury are now becoming readily available as the market expands through mass produced prestige products (masstige), counterfeit products, brand extensions, growth in emerging economies, and an increased involvement of consumers in procuring luxury sales (prosumerism). A hyper-connected market is eroding the key attribute of luxury—exclusivity. Digital, online channels are expanding access to goods. Fashion bloggers are spreading awareness and acculturating masses on how luxury should be consumed. The sharing economy is eroding the ability of price points to constrict acquisition. Luxury has become democratized (Chandon et al., 2016; Kapferer, 2015). What Veblen (2009) once ascribed to be the exclusive right of the leisure class, Goffman (1951) labeled as a status symbol, and Bourdieu (1984) positioned as the visible enactments of the elite’s symbolic and cultural capital, is now available to consumers across socioeconomic categories. Luxury is being shaped by an iterative interplay between producers and an increasingly empowered base of 381consumers. Consequently, luxury is a function not only of a brand manager’s ability to adopt “abundant rarity” strategies (Kapferer, 2015), and to align and deliver high-quality, aesthetically and hedonically pleasing products to predetermined, segmented consumer groups; it is also a concept influenced by consumers’ co-creation of value and desire to reshape value propositions for their own expressive purposes (Tynan et al., 2010).
