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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser

Luxury values and experience as drivers for consumers to recommend

and pay more
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro a,n, Cristiano Mineiro Branco de Arajo b
a
Instituto Universitrio de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (BRU/UNIDE), Department of Marketing, Operations and General Management, Avenue
Foras Armadas (D422), 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
b
University of Aveiro, Department of Economy, Management and Industrial Engineering, Campus of Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The study aims to analyse how individual and social luxury values affect the customers' attitude, behavioural
Received 15 September 2013 control and subjective norms and how these variables and past experience inuence the intentions to
Received in revised form recommend and pay more for luxury clothing in the Brazilian market. Respondents were surveyed in the
7 October 2013
So Paulo area of Brazil through a panel sample and using an online survey during April and May 2012.
Accepted 20 November 2013
The ndings suggest that individual values inuence intentions positively. Social values have a positive
Available online 12 December 2013
inuence on subjective norms and a negative inuence on behavioural control. Past experience does not
Keywords: inuence intentions signicantly. Extend the theory of planned behaviour introducing luxury values as
Individual luxury values external variables and past experience as a direct antecedent of intentions to pay more and to recommend
Social luxury values
the luxury brand.
Brazilian luxury clothes
& 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Past experience
Intention to pay more
Recommendation luxury brand to others

1. Introduction experience inuence the intention to recommend and pay more

Luxury goods have always been associated with exclusiveness,
wealth and power, and have been identied with satisfying desires
which are not essential. In practical terms, luxury is associated
with sumptuousness, ostentation, extravagance, superuity, frivo-
lity, appearance and material power, or then again with indul-
gence, easy living and opulence. It implies "good taste" and allows
its users to differentiate themselves from others.
Throughout the literature several authors have studied beha-
vioural intentions (e.g., Ajzen, 1991; Hansen and Jensen, 2009;
Jang and Namkung, 2009; Van der Heijden et al., 2003) and
worked on these issues in some luxury sectors (e.g., Hofstra and
Kent, 2009; Kort et al., 2006; Lawry et al., 2010). However, there is
a gap when revising literature, that is, the effect of luxury values
(individual and social) and also the effect of past experience on
behavioural intentions. Therefore, this study extends the Theory of
Planned Behaviour (TPB) and aims (i) to analyse how individual
and social luxury values affect customers' attitude, behavioural
control and subjective norms and (ii) how these variables and past
for luxury clothing in the Brazilian market.
In the literature, luxury corresponds to the expression of desires
and emotions (Allrs, 2008). Perhaps few categories of consumption
are as interesting, from an academic standpoint, as luxury products.
After all, these objects best exemplify individual subjectivity and the
inuence of culture on the human being (D'angelo, 2004; Twitchell,
2002), assisting in the multidisciplinary approach to research in
the area.
The luxury clothes market represents about 1% of the total luxury
market in Brazil (Carozzi, 2004) and continues to grow. In fact, the
average consumer purchase of luxury goods in Brazil is three to ve
times higher than the average consumer in the world (Carozzi,
2004). For that reason, the city of So Paulo was selected to carry out
this market research. In this connection, the article is structured as
follows. After this introduction, the next sections describe the
conceptual background, methodology and results. Finally, the con-
clusions and implications are presented.
2. Conceptual background and hypotheses

2.1. Concept of luxury

n
Corresponding author. Tel.: 351 21 790 3000, 351 96 290 62 08;
fax: 351 217 964 710.
E-mail addresses: sandramloureiro@netcabo.pt,
The term luxury comes from the Latin luxus, which means excess,
sandra.loureiro@iscte.pt (S.M.C. Loureiro), abundance, extravagant life (Danziger, 2005, p. 17). Etymologically,
crismineirobranco@hotmail.com (C.M.B. Arajo). luxury has the same origin as light. The root of both words in Latin

0969-6989/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2013.11.007
 Author's personal copy
S.M.C. Loureiro, C.M.B. Arajo / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400
is lux, which means exactly light (Braga, 2004). According to
Lipovetsky (1980), luxury means lying outside the pathways of the
trend, following its own route, and imposing its own rules. More-
over, luxury objects are those that provide pleasure (Li et al., 2012) and
would, therefore, be linked with desires, comfort and individuality
(Lawry et al., 2010). Kemp (1998) notes that the perception of luxury
changes from one society to the next. Although, luxury is viewed as a
subjective concept, we can say that luxury corresponds best to the
expression of desires and emotions (Allrs, 2008).
2.2. Brazilian luxury clothes market
According to Kepferer and Bastien (2009, p. 38), luxury is for the
fashion industry as fashion is for luxury. The luxury clothes market
represents about 1% of the total luxury market in Brazil (Carozzi,
2004), a relatively low percentage compared to that of developed
countries. However, it seems that the average consumer of luxury
goods in Brazil purchases three to ve times more than the average
consumer in the world (Carozzi, 2004). This is due to increased
family income, especially in So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte
and Braslia (Carvalho and Mesquita, 2010).
2.3. Individual and social luxury values
Individual values have often been described as a boost for
luxury consumption (Lawry et al., 2010). According to Wiedmann
et al. (2009), individual values comprise materialism, hedonism
and self-identity. Materialism is described as the degree to which
possessions play an important role in the lives of individuals
(Lawry et al., 2010). More materialistic consumers are more likely
to have positive attitudes towards acquisition and attribute high
priority to material goods. Materialism inuences the perspective
of power (Rucker et al., 2011). Thus, in general, people who have
more money can spend more and thus satisfy their needs and
wants to a greater extent.
Luxury consumption also involves emotional aspects such as
sensory pleasure, aesthetic beauty and emotion (Wiedmann et al.,
2009). Thus, hedonism is connected to personal rewards and
compliance (Zarantonello and Schmitt, 2010; Lawry et al., 2010;
Dubois et al., 2005). Hedonism describes the perceived subjective
utility and property achieved from the purchase and consumption
of a luxury brand. Hedonistic values are activated during sensory
gratication from luxury goods (Lawry et al., 2010).
Finally, the consumer uses self-identity values to assess the
perceived level of perfect congruence between luxury goods and
their self-image or desired self-image (Lawry et al., 2010; Wiedmann
et al., 2009). Self-identity refers to an internal aspect of private
individuals in terms of perception.
Nevertheless, individual values are directly linked to lifestyle.
This, in turn, is a term from the eld of psychology. Lifestyle covers
cultural afliation, social status, family background, personality,
motivation, cognition and marketing stimuli (Li et al., 2012). Social
value refers to people's desire to own a particular brand of luxury
fashion. Consumers can use luxury clothing brands to assert their
professional position or demonstrate their social status (Li et al.,
2012), or even to classify or differentiate themselves from others
(Li et al., 2012). In this context, social values are linked to personal
issues, wants and desires (Kanagaretnam et al., 2009), demon-
strating social position and status. Thus, some consumers may buy
luxury goods mostly to impress others, (Lawry et al., 2010). In this
case, social values are closely linked to what others say and reect
the participation of the community and society in general (exter-
nalization of the image).
Following Wiedmann et al. (2009), we can mention that visibility
or conspicuousness and prestige are two values that can signicantly
affect the evaluation and willingness to buy a luxury brand product.
395
In this context, if the fashion industry is just an industry concerned
with "conspicuous consumption", the consumer's decision to buy a
luxury product depends not only on product functionality, but also
(and especially) on social "needs" such as prestige (Kort et al., 2006).
In short, the social values associated with luxury clothes refer to the
utility perceived by individuals when they purchase a product and
the feeling of recognition within their social group.
2.4. Theory of planned behaviour
The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is based on the Theory of
Reasoned Action (TRA), which states that human beliefs inuence
attitudes and shape behavioural intentions. Ajzen (1991) extended the
TRA adding perceived behaviour control. The core factor of the TPB is
the individual's intention to perform a given behaviour, that is, the
intentions are assumed to capture the motivational factors that
inuence a behaviour; they are indications of how hard people are
willing to try, of how much of an effort they are planning to exert, in
order to perform the behaviour (Ajzen, 1991, p. 181). The key lies in
the idea that the stronger the intention to engage in a specic beha-
viour, the more likely the individual performs that same behaviour
(Suntornpithug and Khamalah, 2010).
TPB highlights three independent variables of intention: The rst,
the attitude towards the behaviour, refers to the degree to which a
person has a favourable or unfavourable evaluation or appraisal of the
behaviour in question (Ajzen, 1991, p. 188); the second variable is the
subjective norm that focuses on perceived social pressure to carry out
or not carry out the behaviour; the third is the degree of perceived
behavioural control, which refers to the perceived ease or difculty of
performing the behaviour and it is assumed to reect past experience
as well as anticipated impediments and obstacles (Ajzen, 1991, p.
188). Here, the key is, the more favourable the attitude and subjective
norm with respect to behaviour, and the greater the perceived
behavioural control, the stronger should be an individual's intention
to perform the behaviour under consideration (Ajzen, 1991, p. 188). In
the current study behavioural intention comprises two components,
recommend the brand to others and pay more for the same product,
as proposed by Zeithaml et al. (1996) and Loureiro and Kastenholz
(2011).
Solomon et al. (2006, p. 113) point out that a value can be
dened as a belief about some desirable end-state that transcends
specic situations and guides selection of behaviour. Beliefs are
considered as determinants of attitude, behavioural control and
subjective norms (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Therefore, we may
infer that individual and social values can be regarded as inuencing
the three main variables of TPB, that is, attitude, behavioural control
and subjective norms (see Fig. 1). Thus:
H1. Individual luxury values have a positive impact on attitude
(H1a), behavioural control (H1b) and subjective norms (H1c).
H2. Social luxury values have a positive impact on attitude (H2a),
behavioural control (H2b) and subjective norms (H2c).
H3. Attitude (H3a), behavioural control (H3b) and subjective
norms (H3c) have a positive impact on intentions.
2.5. Past experience
The literature provides studies about consumer experience with
the brandbrand experience (e.g., Brakus et al., 2009; Ha and Perks,
2005; Kim and Sullivan, 1998; Morrison and Crane, 2007; Mosley,
2007; Schmitt, 2009), but we did not nd studies related to consumer
behaviour regarding luxury products. Current literature suggests that
past experience is represented by stimuli related to the brand, the
store and the product. Consumer experiences are multidimensional
 Author's personal copy
396 S.M.C. Loureiro, C.M.B. Arajo / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400
Fig. 1. Proposed conceptual model.
and include hedonic dimensions such as feelings, fantasies and fun.
Brakus et al. (2009) commented that the experience is conceptualized
as sensations, feelings, cognitions and behavioural responses evoked
by the brand. These experiences can be evaluated in four dimensions:
sensory, affective, intellectual and behavioural. So we can say that
experiences are related to the intimate nature of each consumer and
this can explain why some consumers are faithful to a premium brand
(Broillet et al., 2009; Kepferer and Bastien, 2009) and are loyal when
using its products (Clifton and Simmons, 2003; Ferreira, 2010).
In fact, past experience can inuence consumer behaviour inten-
tions. Evidence appears in studies related to e-commerce, where past
experience is a signicant predictor of consumer behaviour (Klein,
1998). Similarly, Liang and Huang (1998) found that the consumer's
experience has a moderating effect on internet shopping (Shim et al.,
2001). Positive experiences with the brand can result in emotional
bonds (e.g., Brakus et al., 2009). Over time, these experiences affect
long-term consumer behaviour, the satisfaction experienced being
stored in the memory, which generates an internal stimulation
towards the bond and loyalty (Zarantonello and Schmitt, 2010). A
brand's loyal consumers tend to buy more products from that brand
(Schiffman et al., 2008, p. 10) and they become less sensitive to price
and pay less attention to competitors' advertising (Dubois and
Czellar, 2002). Therefore, we formulated the hypothesis:
H4:. Past experience has a positive impact on intentions.
3. Methodology
Data collection was conducted over two months, in April and May
2012. Respondents were contacted in the So Paulo area of Brazil
through a panel sample and using an online survey (we provided a
brief explanation of the concept of luxury based on Wiedmann et al.
(2009)). Only participants who had already purchased a luxury brand
could complete the online questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained a section with socio-demographic
variables and the items of the latent variables. Attitude was
measured based on Suntornpithug and Khamalah (2010) and Zhan
and He (2011) (see Table 1). The items for subjective norms were
based on Bearden et al. (1989), Suntornpithug and Khamalah (2010)
and Zhan and He (2011). Regarding perceived behavioural control,
this was based on Suntornpithug and Khamalah (2010). The inten-
tions (word-of-mouth and pay more) were measured based on
Zeithaml et al. (1996) and Loureiro and Kastenholz (2011). With
regard to social and individual values, the items were from
Wiedmann et al. (2009). Finally, past experience was measured
using one question: in the last 12 months, how many times have
you purchased luxury clothes? Respondents rated all measures on a
5-point Likert-type scale. However, before data collection, a pilot
sample of 6 personally interviewed consumers was used to ensure
that the wording of the questionnaire was clear.
More than 200 people answered the questionnaire, of which
192 gave complete responses. The sample was characterized
mainly by female participants (68%), and the remaining 32% were
male. Regarding age, most of the sample was comprised of people
aged 2534 years (52%), followed by individuals aged 1524 (15%).
Finally, most respondents came from the middle-upper class and
upper-class. When asked to mention the brand that participants
appreciate and buy, the most frequently bought brands were
Chanel, Tommy Hilger, Calvin Klein and Louis Vuitton.
4. Results
The model proposed in the current study has formative con-
structs. Thus, in order to test the model we used the repeated
indicators method (Chin et al., 2003; Kleijnen et al., 2007) and we
chose the PLS approach because it avoids two problems: inadmis-
sible solutions and factor indeterminacy (Fornell and Bookstein,
1982). In this vein, rst the suitability of the measures was assessed
by evaluating the reliability of the individual measures, and the
convergent (see Table 1) and discriminant validity of the constructs
(Hulland, 1999). The measures also demonstrate that the convergent
validity (see Table 2) as the average variance of manifest variables
extracted by constructs (AVE) was at least 0.5; this indicates that
more variance was explained rather than unexplained by the
variables associated with a given construct. Table 1 shows that the
lowest value of AVE is 0.548, higher than the minimum value of 0.5.
Regarding past experience, on average participants had already
bought luxury products 2 times.
The measures have discriminant validity (see Table 3) since the
square root of AVE is greater than the correlation between the
construct and other constructs in the model (Fornell and Larcker,
1981).
Then, the structural model was appraised (see Fig. 2). In Fig. 2,
hypotheses H1 (1a 0.670, po0.001; 1b 0.576, po0.001; 1c
0.218, po0.01) and H3 (3a 0.237, po0.01; 3b 0.385, po0.001;
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S.M.C. Loureiro, C.M.B. Arajo / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400 397

Table 1
The latent variables, items, and source.

Latent variable Item Source

Individual luxury values My life would be better if I owned certain things I don't have Adapted from Wiedmann et al. (2009)
I'd be happier if I could afford to buy more products of luxury of this brand
Materialistic It sometimes bothers me quite a bit that I can't afford to buy
all the things I'd like
I have all the things I really need to enjoy life
Self-identity I never buy a luxury brand inconsistent with the characteristics with which I describe
myself
The luxury brands I buy must match what and who I really am
My choice of luxury brands depends on whether they reect how I see myself but not
how others see me
Self-gift Purchasing of product luxury brands can be seen as giving me gifts to celebrate an
occasion that I believe signicant to me
On the whole, I may regard product of luxury brands as gifts I buy for treating myself
When in a bad mood, I may buy clothes of luxury brands as self-given gifts for alleviating
the emotional burden
Reward for hard work or that I feel I have earned or am entitled to is an important
motivator for my luxury consumption
To me, luxury consumption is a way to reduce stress
Extravagance I enjoy spending money on things that aren't practical
I usually buy only the things I need
Buying things gives me a lot of pleasure
Self directed pleasure Clothes of luxury brands are one of the sources for my own pleasure without regard to
the feelings of others
I can enjoy products of luxury brands entirely on my own terms no matter what others
may feel about them
Life enrichment For me as a luxury clothes consumer, cultural development is an important motivator by
buy
Purchasing clothes of luxury brands provides deeper meaning in my life
Self-actualization is an important motivator for my luxury consumption
Luxury consumption enhances the quality of my life

Social luxury values
Prestige relations and status-
conspicuousness
I like to know what brands and products make good impressions on others Adapted from Wiedmann et al. (2009)
I usually keep up with style changes by watching what others buy
Before purchasing a product of luxury it is important to know what brands or products to
buy to make good impressions on others
I want to know what kind of person buys the products luxury of this brand before
purchasing it
Before purchasing a product of luxury it is important to know what others think
of people who use certain brands or products of this brand
I tend to pay attention to what others are buying
Before purchasing a product of this brand it is important to know what my friends think
of different brands or products
I actively avoid using products that are not in style
If I were to buy something expensive, I would worry about what others would think of
me
Social standing is an important motivator for my luxury consumption
For me as a luxury consumer, share experiences with friends are
an important motivator
I often refer my friends to help in choosing the best alternative available from a product
category that mark
My friends and I tend to buy the same brands

Attitude I buy clothes from this brand because I have many benets (e.g., quality, Based on Suntornpithug and Khamalah
designer, is fashion, status, etc..) (2010)
Luxury clothes of this brand satisfy my needs and Zhan and He (2011)
This luxury brand helps to show my social status
In general, I am happy with the clothes of this luxury brand

Subjective norms When buying luxury clothes, I usually buy this brand, since others will approve Based on Bearden et al. (1989),
If I want to be like someone, I often try to buy the same brands that they buy Suntornpithug
I often identify with other people by purchasing the same brands they and Khamalah (2010) and Zhan and He
purchase (2011).
I would love to shop for luxury products from this brand because others
think I should do it

Perceived behavioural I feel condent about choosing this brand when I do search for luxury products Based on Suntornpithug and Khamalah
control I clearly know the right things to do (not confused) during the process of buying (2010)
a brand of luxury clothing
I feel comfortable during the process of buying a luxury product of this brand
I feel I have total control over my personal information during the purchase of this brand

Intentions I will speak well about this brand to other people Based on Zeithaml et al. (1996) and Loureiro
I will recommend the clothes of this brand if someone asks for my advice and Kastenholz (2011)
I will encourage my friends and relatives to buy clothes of this brand
I prefer to pay a bigger price for this brand than for others brands for the advantages
that I received when I use the clothes
I would buy continually even if the price increases
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398 S.M.C. Loureiro, C.M.B. Arajo / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400

3c0.283, po0.001) are fully supported. Hypothesis H2 (2a  Stone-Geisser Criterion) is used for evaluating the structural
0.163, NS; 2b 0.213, po0.01; 2c 0.553, po0.001) is partially model, the cross-validated redundancy (Chin, 1998). If the rela-
supported. Hypothesis H4 (4 0.080, NS) is not supported. tions in the model have predictive relevance, then Q2 4 0 (Fornell
In Fig. 2, R2 indicates the amount of variance explained by the and Cha, 1994). Therefore, all values of Q2 are positive, so the
exogenous variables (Barclay et al., 1995). Q2 (chi-squared of the relations in the model have predictive relevance. The model also
demonstrated a good level of predictive power (R2) as the
modelled constructs explained 52% of the variance in intentions.
Table 2 The global t measure (GoF) for PLS path modelling proposed by
Measurement results. Tenenhaus et al. (2005) and R2 revealed a good t with the
collected data sets.
Construct Mean AVEn Composite reliability

Intentions 3.5 0.657 0.851

Attitude 4.0 0.788 0.882
B. control 4.0 0.803 0.891 5. Discussion, conclusions and implications
Extravagance 2.8 0.627 0.789
Self-gift 3.4 0.742 0.852
As far as we know from the literature review, this study is the
Life-enrich. 2.7 0.548 0.784
Materialism 3.1 0.736 0.893 rst attempt to analyse the effect of individual and social luxury
S. Norm 2.2 0.667 0.800 values as external variables of TPB and explore past experience as
Pleasure 3.5 0.646 0.782 acting on intentions. Therefore, the major ndings of this study are
Prestige-relations 1.7 0.616 0.865 as follows: individual luxury values are important predictors of
Self-identity 3.9 0.641 0.781
attitude, behavioural control and subjective norms. In contrast,
P. Status-C. 2.6 0.816 0.899
social values seem to have only a positive and signicant inuence
AVE average variance extracted. on subjective norms and a negative impact on behavioural control.

Table 3
Discriminant validity analysis.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1 Intentions 0.810
2 Attitude 0.593 0.888
3 Control 0.624 0.724 0.896
4 Extravagance 0.280 0.209 0.187 0.792
5 Self- gift 0.569 0.612 0.433 0.318 0.861
6 Life-Enrich 0.505 0.487 0.387 0.419 0.536 0.740
7 Materialism 0.393 0.294 0.193 0.445 0.419 0.460 0.858
8 S. Norm 0.413 0.217 0.173 0.254 0.370 0.491 0.420 0.817
9 P. Experience 0.256 0.196 0.231 0.243 0.322 0.288 0.102 0.142 1.000
10 Pleasure 0.365 0.470 0.435 0.289 0.439 0.384 0.288 0.085 0.197 0.804
11 Prestige-relations 0.160 0.043  0.036 0.203 0.221 0.338 0.342 0.615 0.013  0.043 0.785
12 Self-ident. 0.372 0.407 0.430 0.136 0.305 0.317 0.160 0.100 0.109 0.425  0.086 0.800
13 P. status 0.328 0.248 0.168 0.420 0.353 0.550 0.509 0.492 0.190 0.234 0.508 0.099 0.903

Diagonal elements in the correlation of constructs matrix are the square root of AVE. For adequate discriminant validity, diagonal elements should be greater than
corresponding off-diagonal elements.

Fig. 2. Structural results.

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S.M.C. Loureiro, C.M.B. Arajo / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2014) 394400
Therefore, cosmopolitan luxury consumers (at least in the So
Paulo area) need to be self-identied with a certain luxury brand,
feel pleasure, extravagance, a self-gift, life-enrichment and to give
signicance to materialism to have a positive attitude towards
purchasing a luxury brand of clothing, have perceived control of the
purchase process and feel accepted by their own social group. The
prestige and status provided by luxury clothes helps luxury consumers
to be approved by others, but could also contribute to a lack of
condence during the buying process. Luxury values are revealed to
be more important than past experience in creating intentions.
Strong social luxury values can create a feeling of not being in
control. Consumers more dependent on others' opinions have less
condence in their own abilities during the purchase process and
less condence in their selected brand.
Notwithstanding, cosmopolitan consumers who tend to watch
what others buy are interested in making a good impression on
others, are concerned with what their friends think about products
and brands, and social standing is an important motivator for their
luxury consumption. They are more inuenced by subjective norms
and want to be identied with people who wear the same brands
and have the same social status.
Social orientation in consumer motives and the desire to impress
others through prestige or status lead consumers to pay more for such
luxury brands (Eastman et al., 1997) in order to be part of a reference
group. Past research had also noticed that consumers are highly
affected by personal values to buy certain products and brands to
create a good image (e.g., Bushman, 1993). However, the current study
goes further and gives a rst empirical look at how strong the effect of
luxury values and past experience could be on intentions. Thus,
individual values are stronger predictors of a positive attitude towards
luxury clothing brands and generating self-condence in the buying
process than social values. Indirectly, individual values inuence the
intention to pay more and positive word-of-mouth through a favour-
able attitude and perceived behavioural control. The path from social
values to intention, mediated by subjective norms, is less strong. Here
we showed that the strength of self-identication with the luxury
brand identity, the rooting of materialism and the value of self-
enjoyment are the key factors. The true experience of a luxury brand
could only be important in inuencing the intention to recommend
and pay more if the experience leads to reinforcement, internalization
and justication of individual values.
Regarding managerial implications, luxury brand owners, man-
agers and sellers should be aware of these ndings. A close connection
with the cosmopolitan consumer (especially in regions, like So Paulo
area, where consumer income is growing), empathy and the ability to
provide condence and emotional support during the buying process
could subsequently contribute to reducing doubt and reinforcing the
consumers' condence in a brand. A marketing communication
promoting luxury brand clothes as gifts for consumers' self-enrich-
ment, improving self-esteem and presenting the symbolic and experi-
ential benets of wearing luxury brands would be appropriate to
engage and retain consumers of luxury brands. These recommenda-
tions are especially important in Latin culture, where it has a certain
cult of the body in relation to others.
This study has limitations. The sample was collected in the So
Paulo area, which may limit generalization of the ndings. Never-
theless, the sample of a particular group of luxury fashion consumers
is considered appropriate by previous researchers. Jain (1987) points
out that it is useful to use groups of consumers instead of countries
as a basis for identifying international segments. According to Dawar
and Parker (1994), within a segment and regarding a particular
product category, such as luxury clothes, consumer behaviours do
not tend to vary across cultures or countries.
The use of qualitative methodology could help towards better
adaptation of the items of the questionnaire in order to be more
accurate in capturing consumers' perceptions. Finally, it would be pos-
399
sible to consider other dimensions of luxury values and other beliefs to
analyse their effect on attitude, subjective norms and behavioural
control (e.g., functional and nancial value).
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