Prestige Brands or Luxury Brands ? An Exploratory Inquiry on Consumer Perceptions

TLDR

Prestige derives from unique human accomplishment inherent to a brand, whereas luxury stems from refinement, aesthetics, and a sumptuous lifestyle. The study investigates the relationship between prestige and luxury through interpretative analysis of in-depth consumer interviews and concludes with managerial insights and future research directions. Researchers conducted an interpretative analysis of in-depth consumer interviews to examine how prestige and luxury concepts are applied to brands. Results show that prestige can be achieved independently of luxury across many categories, yet consumers symbolically equate luxury with brand prestige.

Abstract

An interpretative analysis of in-depth consumer interviews explores the relationship between the concepts of and as applied to brands. Prestige is based on unique human accomplishment inherent to the brand whereas luxury referts to benefit stemming from refinement, aesthetics and a sumptuous lifestyle. Results indicate that prestige can be achieved independently of luxury in many categories. At a symbolic level, consumers can interpret luxury as the symbol of brand prestige. A discussion of managerial insights and future research directions ends the paper.