The role of brand prominence and extravagance of product design in luxury brand building: What drives consumers' preferences for loud versus quiet luxury?

摘要

This paper provides a comprehensive perspective on loud luxury product design, which so far has been limited to the concept of brand prominence. Drawing on insights from a qualitative study and conceptual considerations, the current research introduces a new luxury product design element-design extravagance. Furthermore, a field study and a large-scale survey of high-income individuals are conducted to explore the role consumers' personality traits extraversion and openness to experience and personal motives (need for status and need for uniqueness) play in shaping consumer responses to two important luxury product design elements (brand prominence and design extravagance). The results suggest that the personality trait extraversion promotes consumers' desire for status, which then leads consumers to favor extravagantly designed and logo-laden brands. Openness to experience, on the other hand, correlates with a desire for uniqueness and lies behind a penchant for design extravagance. Finally, the theoretical implications of this idea for future luxury research are discussed, along with its practical implications for luxury marketing.