Exploring Causal Attributions in the context of Luxury Consumption

Abstract

Creating and managing luxury brands is a rewarding yet challenging pursuit for marketers newlinetoday. It is rewarding because of the immense business opportunities that emerges from the newlineever increasing number of people who may be termed rich and also due the underpenetrated and growing markets like India and China. The challenges in tapping this newlineattractive opportunity arises from the specificities associated with luxury, due to which, most newlineclassical marketing theories need to be reimagined and reframed in the context of luxury newlinemanagement. newlineExtant literature indicates that a prominent specificity of luxury stems from the value that newlinesuch brands deliver on the basis of their ability to signal status and thus create social newlinestratification. Social stratification is achieved through market shielding - which is the newlinestrategy of bestowing exclusivity for the target segments by creating a reluctant exclusion of newlinethe non-targeted segments. The sense of exclusivity is dependent on the reluctance of the newlinenon-targeted at being excluded. The reluctance in turn is created only when the non-targeted newlinesegments aspire to cross-over to the other side of the shield. A brand is perceived to be newlineaspirational only when there are positive attitudes associated with it and an important newlineantecedent for attitude formation is the causal attributions towards its consumption. newlineThe above discussion traces the sequential relationship between a luxury brand s value newlinedimensions and the causal attributions made towards its consumption. It may thus be argued newlinethat an exploration of the causal attributions made by non-targeted segments towards the newlineconsumption of luxury would provide valuable insights for luxury marketers to create newlineaspirations. newlineUsing Kelley s Covariation model of causal attributions as the theoretical backdrop, the newlineresearch explores causal attributions made towards luxury consumption through an newlineexperiment where information on consensus, distinctiveness and consistency was newlinemanipulated and its effects on causal attributions was measured along the person, entity, newlineperson-entity and occasion dimensions. The experiment was conducted for two different newlinegroups where the first group was exposed to consumption of a luxury car (where cars are newlineconsidered to be a familial possession) and the second to the consumption of a luxury watch newline(where watches are perceived as an individual possession). Perceptions and attitudes towards newlineA.ii newlinethe luxury brands used in the experiment were measured prior to the manipulations and were newlinepost-facto correlated to the causal attributions. newlineThe results of the experiment provide insights on the relationship between information newlinecombinations and causal attributions. It also provides evidence of causal attributions being newlineimpacted by the product category, where attributions towards products considered as familial newlinepossessions are distinct from those made towards personal possessions. newlineThe post-fact correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between aspirations for newlinethe brand and the causal attributions towards its consumption. While the impact of newlineinformation and product category provided important insights on the antecedents of newlineattribution, it is the correlations established between aspirations and attributions that provide newlinethe evidence of the consequences of attribution. newlineThe theoretical implications of this research are two-fold. The first is with regards to newlineemphasizing the need for reconstructing classical marketing theories in the context of luxury, newlineespecially from the perspective of causal attributions. Secondly, an analysis of attributions newlinemade towards cars (family possession) and watches (individual possession) indicate that there newlineis a clear distinction in the way these product categories are perceived thus adding to a new newlinedimension to research on luxury. newlineThe research also has significant managerial implications. Having established that the newlineinformation on consensus, distinctiveness and consistency impacts causal attributions, and newlinefurther, that attributions are correlated to the attitudes towards the brand, the research newlinefindings provide key insights for crafting communication strategies get the desired causal newlineattribution for luxury brands. newline