luxury goods. The source of the attachment of consumers to luxury goods is
the role of luxury brands as symbols of personal and social identity.
Consumers offer their trust and loyalty to luxury brands with the under-
standing that the brand will deliver its promises and exceed their expecta-
tions. These expectations include the fulfilment of both functional and
symbolic needs. The functional needs are the tangible and practical benefits
of a product such as the time-keeping function of a wristwatch. The symbolic
needs involve intangible benefits linked with the emotional and psychologi-
cal dimensions of the consumer. These include fulfilling ego and self-esteem
needs, reinforcing social status and projecting a self-image. The self-image
extends from the consumer’s true-self, that is who they truly are; their ideal-
self, that is who they would like to be and their social-self, that is who they
would like others to think they are. Although both tangible and intangible
benefits are derived from luxury brands, the principal value of luxury brands
to consumers is the intangible benefit. The intangible level brings the brand-
ing aspect of luxury goods into prominence and is reflected in consumer pref-
erences and the decision-making process. It is also on the intangible level that
the relationship between consumers and luxury brands moves from logic and
functionality to what has been interpreted as irrationality. Now let’s take a
look at the ‘rational’ consumer decision-making process and compare it with
the decision-making process of the purchase of luxury goods.The consumer purchase-decision process
In their 2004 book titled Consumer Behaviour, Leon Schiffman and Leslie
Kanuk define the term as the behaviour that consumers display in searching
for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that
they expect to satisfy their needs. This means, in other words, how consumers
make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money and effort) on
consumption-related items (products and services). Further scrutiny of this
definition shows the following aspects of the behaviour of consumers,
presented in their hierarchy of influence:1 What they buy (Products and Services)
2 Why they buy (Needs, Wants, Desires)
3 When they buy (Convenience)
4 Where they buy (Location)
5 How they buy (Channel)
6 How often they buy (Frequency)
7 How often they use the products (Relevance)
8 How they evaluate the products (After-Purchase)
9 How they dispose of the products (Durability)
10 How they decide future purchase (Loyalty)62
luxury fashion branding