Chinese Outbound Tourists’ Luxury Consumption

2016 ◽  
pp. 283-296
Keyword(s):  
Luxury Consumption

How Consumers’ Political Ideology and Status-Maintenance Goals Interact to Shape Their Desire for Luxury Goods

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 132-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeehye Christine Kim ◽  
Brian Park ◽  
David Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽  
Luxury Brands ◽  
Luxury Consumption ◽  
Luxury Goods ◽  
Conservative Ideology ◽  
The Status ◽  
Maintenance Goals

This research distinguishes between the goal of maintaining status and advancing status and investigates how consumers’ political ideology triggers sensitivity to a status-maintenance (vs. status-advancement) goal, subsequently altering luxury consumption. Because conservative political ideology increases the preference for social stability, the authors propose that conservatives (vs. liberals) are more sensitive to status maintenance (but not status advancement) and thus exhibit a greater desire for luxury goods when the status-maintenance goal is activated. Six studies assessing status maintenance using sociodemographic characteristics (Studies 1, 2, and 3a) and controlled manipulations, including ad framing (Study 3b) and semantic priming (Studies 4 and 5), provide support for this proposition. The studies show that the effect is specific to status maintenance and does not occur (1) in the absence of a status goal or (2) when the status-advancement goal (a focus on increasing status) is activated. Overall, the findings reveal that conservatives’ desire for luxury goods stems from the goal of maintaining status and offer insights into how luxury brands can effectively tailor their communications to audiences with a conservative ideology.

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