Consumer Perceptions of Luxury Brands: An Owner-Based Perspective

ABSTRACT
To deepen theoretical and practical understanding of consumers’ perceptions of luxury
brands, prior marketing literature has investigated the financial, functional, individual, and
social dimensions of the luxury value construct. However, it has not considered the owners of
luxury brands or detailed the moderated effects of luxury value on related attitudinal
outcomes. To address this gap, this study draws on an existing second-order conceptualization
of luxury value to introduce and empirically examine an extended conceptualization of the
owner-based luxury value (OBLV) construct. The study draws on brand equity theory to offer
a conceptual model of the attitudinal outcomes of OBLV in terms of brand loyalty, brand
attachment, brand community behavior, and brand engagement. Using unique data from 452
actual owners of three luxury brands (Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Prada), the authors confirm
the predicted attitudinal outcomes of OBLV and reveal moderating effects of awareness of
counterfeit existence. Their findings provide new insights and implications for luxury brand
research and luxury brand managers. The research provides a richer understanding of OBLV
and yields important managerial insights into how to influence luxury-seeking consumers’
perceptions of, and attitudes to, luxury products.
Keywords: brand management; consumer behavior; counterfeits; luxury brands; owner-based
luxury value