A PREDICTIVE MODEL OF CONSUMER-LUXURY BRAND RELATIONSHIPS

While research on consumer-brand relationships has matured over the past decades this variable has yet to be operationalized in the consumer-luxury brand field and, while extensively used, a parsimonious definition of what constitutes a luxury brand has not been developed. This paper intends to provide a definition of the luxury brand and examine a predictive model to better understand the consumer-luxury brand relationship, which describes its product characteristics and behavioural components. A survey was conducted in Europe (i.e., Portugal) and featured 16 well known luxury brands from the Best Global Brands 2013 as well as trade industry information concerning the luxury Portuguese market. A sample of 381 luxury brand consumers was selected in a random manner by surveyors in two major cities in Portugal. This study employs factor analyses in a two-stage process (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) and structural equation modelling techniques. This study examines a predictive model of the consumer-luxury brand relationship between four main characteristics (quality, price, aesthetics, rarity and uniqueness) of luxury products and psychological bond of consumers (brand commitment, brand intimacy, brand self-connection, brand partner-quality and satisfaction). The results of this study find that the quality, aesthetics, and rarity and uniqueness of products are positively associated with brand commitment, brand-intimacy, self-connection, partner-quality, and satisfaction while the three latent variables representing the consumer-luxury brand relationship play an important role in strengthening the consumer-luxury brand relationship.