Abstract
Research relevant to the creation and development of luxury brands is a growing area of interest and importance to branding practitioners and scholars. The issue here is that it is difficult to move forward when current brand luxury theory resembles a patchwork of definitions, methods and metrics. To add clarity, delineate brand luxury from other similar terms and concepts, and improve brand luxury knowledge, this article probes brand luxury through seven lenses. The findings enable brand luxury practice and theory to move forward on the basis of scientific merit. The results delineate brand luxury from competing terms such as brand status and prestigious brands – enabling practitioners and academics to precisely determine the extent to which luxury contributes to a brand, resolve whether or not a brand is a luxury brand, and establish with some accuracy the net worth of the brand luxury market.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alleres, D. (2003) Competing Marketing Strategies of Luxury Fashion Companies. Adapted, translated and cited in Bruce, M. and Kratz, C. New York: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Aiello, G. et al (2009) An international perspective on brand luxury and country-of-origin effect. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 323–337.
Atwal, G. and Williams, A. (2009) Luxury brand marketing – The experience is everything. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 338–346.
Batada, A. and Chandra, A. (2003) Shifting the Lens: Utilizing a Multiple Method Approach to Explore Perceptions of Stress and Coping among Urban African American Adolescents. Baltimore, MD: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, November.
Berry, C.J. (1994) The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Berthon, P., Pitt, L., Parent, M. and Berthon, J.-P. (2009) Aesthetics and ephemerality: Observing and preserving the luxury brand. California Management Review 52 (1): 45–66.
Beverland, M. (2004) Uncovering ‘theories-in-use’: Building luxury wine brands. European Journal of Marketing 38 (4): 446–466.
Beverland, M.B . (2005) Crafting brand authencity: The case of luxury wines. Journal of Management Studies 42: 1003–1029.
Cailleux, H., Mignot, C. and Kapferer, J.N. (2009) Is CRM for luxury brands. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 406–412.
Catry, B. (2003) The great pretenders: The magic of luxury goods. Business Strategy Review 14 (3): 7–11.
Chadha, R. and Husband, P. (2006) The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury . London: Nicholas Brealey International.
Chen, K.J. and Liu, C.M. (2004) Positive brand extension trial and choice of parent brand. Journal of Product and Brand Management 13 (1): 25–36.
Chevalier, M. and Mazzalovo, G. (2008) Luxury Brand Management: A World of Privilege. Singapore: Wiley and Sons.
Christodoulides, G., Michaelidou, N. and Li, C.H. (2009) Measuring perceived brand luxury: An evaluation of the BLI scale. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 395–405.
Clarke, I. and Owens, M. (2000) Trademark rights in gray markets. International Marketing Review 17 (3): 272–288.
de Chernatony, L. and Dall'olmo Riley, F. (1998) Modelling the components of the brand. European Journal of Marketing 32 (11/12): 1076–1090.
Dubois, B., Czellar, S. and Laurent, G. (2005) Consumer segments based on attitudes towards luxury: Empirical evidence from twenty countries. Marketing Letters 16 (2): 115–128.
Dubois, B. and Duquesne, P. (1993) The market for luxury goods: Income versus culture. European Journal of Marketing 27 (1): 35–44.
Dubois, B. and Laurent, G. (1996) The functions of luxury: A situational approach to excursionism. In: K.P. Corfman and J.G. Lynch Jr. (eds.) Advances in Consumer Research Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, Vol. 23. pp. 470–477.
Dubois, B., Laurent, G. and Czellar, S. (2001) Consumer rapport to luxury: Analysing complex and ambivalent attitudes. Working paper 736, HEC School of Management, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
Dubois, B. and Paternault, C. (1995) Observations: Understanding the world of international luxury brands: The ‘dream formula’. Journal of Advertising Research 35 (4): 69–76.
Dumoulin, D. (2007) What is today’s definition of luxury? Admap (March): 27–30.
Eastman, J.K., Goldsmith, R.E. and Flynn, L.R. (1999) Status consumption in consumer behaviour: Scale development and validation. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 7 (3): 41–51.
Fernie, J., Moore, C., Lawrie, A. and Hallsworth, A. (2008) The internationalisation of the high fashion brand: The case of central London. Journal of Product and Brand Management 6 (3): 151–162.
Fionda, A.M. and Moore, C.M. (2009) The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 347–363.
Gao, L., Norton, M.J.T., Zhang, Z.-M. and To, C.K.-M. (2008) Potential niche markets for luxury fashion goods in China. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 13 (4): 514–526.
Gistri, G., Romani, S., Pace, S., Gabrielli, V. and Grappi, S. (2009) Consumption practices of counterfeit luxury goods in the Italian context. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 364–374.
Godey, B., Lagier, J. and Pederzoli, D.A. (2009) A measurement scale of ‘Aesthetic style' applied to luxury goods stores. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management 37: 527–537.
Gutsatz, M. (2001) Le sage et le createur: elements pour une analyse des strategies des marquees de luxe. Decisions Marketing 23: 23–33.
Hagtvedt, H. and Patrick, V.M. (2009) The broad embrace of luxury: Hedonic potential as a driver of brand extendibility. Journal of Consumer Psychology 19 (4): 608–618.
Han, Y.J., Nunes, J.C. and Dreze, X. (2010) Signalling status with luxury goods: The role of brand prominence. Journal of Marketing 74 (July): 15–30.
Hieke, S. (2010) Effects of counterfeits on the image of luxury brands: An empirical study from the customer perspective. Journal of Brand Management 18: 159–173.
Hirschman, E.C. and Holbrook, M.B. (1982) Hedonic consumption: Emerging concepts, methods and propositions. Journal of Marketing 46 (Summer): 92–101.
Husic, M. and Cicic, M. (2009) Luxury consumption factors. Journal of Fashion Marketing Management 13 (2): 231–245.
Jackson, T. (2004) International Retail Marketing. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Juggessur, J. and Cohen, G. (2009) Is fashion promoting counterfeit brands? Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 383–394.
Kapferer, J.-N. (1997) Managing luxury brands. Journal of Brand Management 4: 251–260.
Kapferer, J.N. and Bastien, V. (2009) The specificity of luxury management: Turning marketing upside down. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 311–322.
Kapferer, J.N. and Bastien, V. (2010) The Luxury Strategy: Break the Rules of Marketing to Build Luxury Brands. London: Kogan-Page.
Keller, K.L. (2009) Managing the growth trade-off: Challenges and opportunities in luxury branding. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 290–301.
Kemp, S. (1998) Perceiving luxury and necessity. Journal of Economic Psychology 19 (5): 591–606.
Kim, G., Kim, A. and Sohn, S.Y. (2009) Conjoint analysis for luxury brand outlet malls in Korea with consideration of customer lifetime value. Expert Systems with Applications 36: 922–932.
Lageat, T., Czellar, S. and Laurent, G. (2003) Engineering hedonic attributes to generate perceptions of luxury: Consumer perception of an everyday sound. Marketing Letters 14 (2): 97–109.
Miller, R.K. (2010) Most desirable luxury brands (section 36.1) citedin in Retail Business Market Research Handbook, 12th edn. MarketResearch.com; pp. 182–183.
Moore, C.M. and Birtwistle, G. (2004) The Burberry business model: Creating an international luxury fashion brand. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 32 (8): 412–422.
Moreno, J.F., Smith, D.G., Parker, S., Clayton-Pederson, A.R. and Teraguchi, D.H. (2006) Using Multiple Lenses: An Examination of the Economic and Racial/ethnic Diversity of College Students. San Francisco, CA: The James Irvine Foundation.
Nobbs, K., Birtwistle, G. and Fiorito, S. (2008) Burberry; The Accessible Luxury Brand, 8th European Association for Education and Research in Consumer Distribution Conference, London: EAERCD.
Nueno, J.L. and Quelch, J.A. (1998) The mass marketing of luxury. Business Horizons 41 (6): 61–68.
O'Cass, A. and Choy, E. (2008) Studying Chinese generation Y consumers’ involvement in fashion clothing and perceived brand status. Journal of Product and Brand Management 17 (5): 341–352.
Okonkwo, U. (2007) Luxury Fashion Branding: Trends, Tactics, Techniques. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Park, H.J., Rabolt, N.J. and Kyung, S.J. (2008) Purchasing global luxury brands among young Korean consumers. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 12 (2): 244–259.
Prendergast, G. and Wong, C. (2003) Parental influence on the purchase of luxury brands of infant apparel: An exploratory study in Hong Kong. Journal of Consumer Marketing 20: 157–169.
Phau, I. and Min, T. (2009) Devil wears (counterfeit) Prada: A study of antecedents and outcomes of attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands. Journal of Consumer Marketing 26 (1): 15–27.
Phau, I. and Prendergast, G. (2000) Conceptualizing the country of origin of brand. Journal of Marketing Communications 6 (3): 159–170.
Prahalad, C.K. and Ramaswamy, V. (2004) Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation. Journal of Interactive Marketing 18 (3): 5–14.
Quelch, J.A. (2004) Marketing the premium product. Business Horizons 30 (3): 38–45.
Shipman, A. (2004) Lauding the leisure class: Symbolic content and conspicuous consumption. Review of Social Economy 62 (3): 277–289.
Silverstein, M. and Fiske, N. (2007) Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods and How Companies Create Them. New York: Portfolio.
Solomon, M.R. and Buchanan, B. (1991) A role-theoretic approach to product symbolism: Mapping a consumption constellation. Journal of Business Research 22 (2): 95–109.
Truong, Y., McColl, R. and Kitchen, P.J. (2009) New luxury brand positioning and the emergence of masstige brands. Journal of Brand Management 16 (5/6): 375–382.
Tsai, S.P. (2005) Impact of personal orientation on luxury-brand purchase value: An international investigation, International. Journal of Marketing Research 47 (4): 429–454.
Twitchell, J.B. (2002) Living it Up: America's Love Affair with Luxury. New York: Columbia University Press.
Tynan, C., McKechnie, S. and Chhuon, C. (2010) Co-creating value for luxury brands. Journal of Business Research 63 (11): 1156–1163.
van Kempen, L. (2004) Are the poor willing to pay a premium for designer labels? A field experiment in Bolivia. Oxford Development Studies 32 (2): 205–223.
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2008) Service-dominant logic: Continuing the evolution. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science 36 (1): 1–10.
Vickers, J.S. and Renand, F. (2003) The marketing of luxury goods: An exploratory study – Three conceptual dimensions. Journal of Marketing Review 3 (4): 459–478.
Vigneron, F. and Johnson, L.W. (1999) A review and a conceptual framework of prestige seeking consumer behaviour. Academy of Marketing Science Review 1: 1–15.
Vigneron, F. and Johnson, L.W. (2004) Measuring perceptions of brand luxury. Journal of Brand Management 11 (6): 484–506.
Wetlaufer, S. (2004) The perfect paradox of star brands: An interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH. Harvard Business Review 79 (9): 117.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
1spent many years as a practicing marketer before moving into academia and studying brands. Most of Karen's work is in the area of brand-image, brand value and brand luxury and much of it from a consumer's perspective. Aside from branding research, Karen also has a keen interest in market research and multiple methods of data collection. Karen is still active in industry research conducting studies about branding in the wine industry, event management and marketing communications.
2career spans some 30 years in senior positions in industry, academia and as a consultant to major multinational firms. He has published more than 70 professional and trade articles in such publications as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Retailing, and Contemporary Psychology, among others.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Miller, K., Mills, M. Probing brand luxury: A multiple lens approach. J Brand Manag 20, 41–51 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2011.64
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2011.64