"Luxury brands and customer Psychology"!

   Women all around the world are seen carrying luxurious branded bags, but why is there just so much significance placed on carrying branded bags? Well, in today’s society most people have become fashion conscious, designer clothes and clothing are fully fashioned and patterned according to the latest trends. They are made with high quality material which gives them durability. Fashion designers accessorize their products with bags, women and men handbags, purses and wallets along with their own personal style that creates a fashion statement. So it can be said that, many of us carry branded products in order to stand out in the crowd and uphold a social status in the society for prominence.

   However we can classify that there are different types of luxury-good consumers and their respective needs. Not every on the street can be found wearing Gucci, Prada or carrying Louis Vuitton bags. An article in the latest issue of ‘Journal of Marketing’ examines consumer psychology of luxurious brand names. Amongst us there is a set of people who are ‘patricians’; these are wealthy consumers who pay a premium for unnoticeably branded goods, such products which do not have outer logos. These are recognized by others within their own elite groups. Furthermore there are those people the ‘parvenus’, who desire status and use “loud” luxury goods to differentiate themselves from the masses while associating themselves with patricians and other parvenus. These people are conspicuous and prefer buying Chanel or Louis Vuitton.

   In order to be like the patricians, there is another group of people in our society who are the ‘poseurs’. Many of them crave luxury brand candies, however since they cannot afford them, they buy imitation products to follow the wealthy and thus become a party of the chic society! Then there is a major set of people in the society, ‘the proletariats’. These set of non-affluent consumers, however disassociate themselves from luxurious brands and neither favor it. The above categorization, thus gives me an idea about how consumers all around the world have become so aware with brands, how dependant we all have become on designer brands. The above mentioned brand prominence is a fantastic study to disclose such exact results. I think many people nowadays fall under one of those categories, and it's interesting to know there's something that drives a person towards buying luxury goods. However, "Parvenus" would apply to many shoppers in the Gulf!!