Parental influence on the purchase of luxury brands of infant apparel: an exploratory study in Hong Kong

TLDR

The study examines how parents buying luxury infant apparel are influenced by buying roles, conspicuous consumption motives, and materialism. Surveying 134 mothers revealed that parents purchase luxury infant apparel mainly for its quality and design, that spending level is unrelated to social consumption motives but correlates with materialism, and that marketers should highlight quality, design, and materialistic values to position these products as a source of happiness rather than social status.

Abstract

With a focus on the purchasing behaviour of parents buying luxury brands of infant apparel, this paper considers the concepts of buying roles, conspicuous consumption/social consumption motivation, and materialism. A survey of 134 mothers who had purchased luxury brands of clothing for their infants found that parents are motivated by the good quality and design associated with the luxury brands. The relationship between the amount of money spent by parents on luxury brands of infant apparel and social consumption motivation was not significant. However, interviewees who spent more on luxury clothing brands for their infants were determined to be more materialistic. It is thus recommended that marketers should emphasise the good quality and design of their luxury brands of infant apparel. In addition, marketers should promote the materialistic values of purchasing luxury brands of infant apparel, showing that buying luxury brands of infant apparel may be a route to happiness, rather than being a route for impressing others.