Influencer advertising is a rapidly emerging strategy that is revolutionizing the way brands leverage influencers to promote products and engage customers. However, extant research has not fully ...addressed the impact of influencer advertising on luxury brands. In this research, we examine whether influencer advertising can have an impact on purchase decisions for luxury consumers, based on the different types of influencers (mega vs. micro). Using three experimental studies, we explore the impact of influencer advertising on purchase decisions involving luxury consumers. Our research examines how the congruity between the influencer type and the degree of conspicuity in the advertisement contributes to the purchase decision, and demonstrates evidence that luxury brand consumers are heterogeneous in their needs, wants, and desires. In doing so, we provide actionable long-term strategies to managers and practitioners, along with future research directions to academicians.
Luxury brands are conduits of attractiveness, desirability, and status and their demand has not been impacted by economic recessions or calamities like the pandemic. Over the years, consumers have ...purchased luxury brands to engage in conspicuous consumption in order to demonstrate elite status and wealth. Recent research on luxury brands has also generated alternate forms of luxury consumption, notably inconspicuous consumption and inconspicuous minimalism. The digital era poses significant challenges and opportunities to luxury retailers. This article explores the various types of luxury consumption and the trends that exist in digital marketing which luxury advertisers can effectively leverage such as counterfeit brands, virtual reality, augmented reality, phygital, and luxury democratization. These strategies can help luxury advertisers prepare better for engaging customers, involving them throughout different stages of the purchase decision, and bolstering sales and revenues.
Omnichannel retailing has revolutionized the way retailers create strategies for engaging customers in making purchase decisions. Phygital is a new-age transformative form of omnichannel retailing ...that emphasizes combining the physical and digital elements, with a particular focus on the human touch to satisfy social and symbolic consumer needs. Extant research has not fully addressed the role of phygital in luxury fashion retail. We explore the research question regarding how human interactions with experienced salespeople add value to the phygital experience. In doing so, we contribute to the luxury marketing literature by addressing the research gap by elucidating the role of phygital functionality in enhancing rapport building, social engagement, and developing trust and commitment, which results in a seamless customer experience, along with enhanced loyalty and patronage. Through 18 in-depth qualitative research interviews conducted with luxury retail managers and senior retail leaders, we provide guidelines to managers and practitioners at retail firms, to create actionable growth-oriented strategies focused on leveraging phygital capabilities.
The rapid industrialization and growth across the world have fostered the consumption of luxury fashion brands. Electronic word-of- mouth on social media (eWOM) is fast becoming an effective and ...germane strategy to engage luxury consumers through posting pictures, sharing reviews, and communicating information on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Extant research has not examined the antecedents and drivers that lead to eWOM behavior. We leverage self-congruity theory and through its focal lens, our study addresses this research gap through a survey conducted with 453 consumers in Mexico, Latin America's fastest growing market. Our results indicate that need for status, susceptibility to normative influence, and luxury brand involvement, moderated by authentic pride and social media influencers lead to eWOM behavior on social media. We also demonstrate that luxury brand involvement and susceptibility to normative influence mediate the relationship between need for status and eWOM behavior on social media. The study provides important implications to managers and researchers by suggesting long-term actionable strategies for growth that can help luxury firms develop a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals and competitors.
Product-harm crises can negatively affect a firm's corporate image, reputation, and credibility. This research investigates antecedents and factors that can impact the extent to which frontline ...employees will be supportive of their organization when the firm faces such a crisis. Leveraging social exchange theory and its focus on reciprocal exchanges, we theorize and test processes using regression models, which shed light on how managers can solicit employee support during crises situations by providing the frontline employees with ethical and supportive working conditions. To offer convergent validity across multiple methodologies, we also test the influence of experimental effects of the relative severity of a crisis and whether a firm was quick or slow in its response on frontline employee support. Furthermore, our research demonstrates that the firm's strengths in corporate social responsibility, the employees' organizational citizenship behavior, and employee organizational identification serially mediate the supportive relationship, which provides a unique contribution to the marketing literature. Finally, we provide managerial implications to further enhance frontline employee support.
•Extant research on minimalism views consumers as homogeneous and not heterogeneous.•The antecedents and motives of minimalistic consumption are identified.•The research gap is addressed through ...developing a consumer typology.•Firms can design strategies to satisfy the unique goals for each consumer segment.
Minimalistic consumption has received increased attention during the last few years with a substantial segment of consumers having adopted this notion. Minimalism highlights subjective well-being, happiness, and increased quality of life. Despite minimalism gaining significance, we know little about minimalistic consumption, its various forms, its antecedents, and its impact on consumer behavior. Extant literature does not offer a clear or concise conceptualization of minimalism in consumption or the potential strategies to identify, target, and engage minimalistic consumers. This has been a major deterrent in advancing research on minimalistic consumption. This article provides a conceptualization of minimalism and offers a typology of consumers that engage in minimalistic consumption based on two dimensions: the conditional susceptibility and goal orientation of consumers. It presents a framework of brand engagement strategies for each type of consumer and shows how firms can potentially benefit in terms of sales, profitability, and customer relationships by engaging with minimalistic consumers.
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