Dimensions of Luxury Brand Personality: Scale Development and Validation

Both the marketing industry and academia have been paying more attention to the growth and potential of the luxury market. This research developed a theoretical framework for understanding the dimensions of luxury brand personality and a reliable and valid scale that measures these dimensions. When 30 luxury brands, ranging from fashion to automobile and retail, were assessed on a set of diverse personality attributes, six dimensions representing luxury brand personality were identified: Excitement, Sincerity, Sophistication, Professionalism, Attractiveness, and Materialism. Findings indicate that while three dimensions, Sincerity, Excitement, and Sophistication, share similar qualities with those identified in Aaker's (1997) scale for general brand personality, the other three dimensions, Professionalism, Attractiveness, and Materialism, reflect meanings unique and specific to luxury brands. Altogether, the results of this research hold the notion that luxury brands serving as consumption symbols provide both utilitarian benefits and symbolic meanings to contemporary consumers.

[1]  Adam J. Berinsky,et al.  Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk , 2012, Political Analysis.

[2]  Michael D. Buhrmester,et al.  Amazon's Mechanical Turk , 2011, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[3]  Sejung Marina Choi,et al.  “I won't leave you although you disappoint me”: The interplay between satisfaction, investment, and alternatives in determining consumer–brand relationship commitment , 2010 .

[4]  Yongjun Sung,et al.  Effects of brand personality on brand trust and brand affect , 2010 .

[5]  Anne Marie Doherty,et al.  Flagship stores as a market entry method: the perspective of luxury fashion retailing , 2010 .

[6]  M. Geuens,et al.  A new measure of brand personality , 2009 .

[7]  Christopher M. Moore,et al.  The anatomy of the luxury fashion brand , 2009 .

[8]  Sankar Sen,et al.  Why Do Consumers Buy Counterfeit Luxury Brands? , 2009 .

[9]  Alistair Williams,et al.  Luxury brand marketing – The experience is everything! , 2009 .

[10]  Nina Michaelidou,et al.  Measuring perceived brand luxury: An evaluation of the BLI scale , 2009 .

[11]  Kevin Lane Keller.  Managing the growth tradeoff: Challenges and opportunities in luxury branding , 2009 .

[12]  Yann Truong,et al.  New luxury brand positioning and the emergence of Masstige brands , 2009 .

[13]  Gérald Mazzalovo,et al.  Luxury Brand Management: A World of Privilege , 2008 .

[14]  Alan C.B. Tse,et al.  Developing a scale for stakeholder orientation , 2007 .

[15]  I. Phau,et al.  Extending symbolic brands using their personality: examining antecedents and implications towards brand image fit and brand dilution , 2007 .

[16]  P. Chang,et al.  Building consumer–brand relationship: A cross‐cultural experiential view , 2006 .

[17]  The ‘HUGO BOSS’ connection: Achieving global brand consistency across countries , 2005 .

[18]  Sandor Czellar,et al.  Consumer Segments Based on Attitudes Toward Luxury: Empirical Evidence from Twenty Countries , 2005 .

[19]  Spencer F. Tinkham,et al.  Brand Personality Structures in the United States and Korea: Common and Culture-Specific Factors , 2005 .

[20]  Christopher M. Moore,et al.  The Burberry business model: creating an international luxury fashion brand , 2004 .

[21]  L. Johnson,et al.  Measuring perceptions of brand luxury , 2004 .

[22]  Kuang-Jung Chen,et al.  Positive brand extension trial and choice of parent brand , 2004 .

[23]  Jennifer Edson Escalas,et al.  You Are What They Eat: The Influence of Reference Groups on Consumers’ Connections to Brands , 2003 .

[24]  J. Kapferer,et al.  Do brand personality scales really measure brand personality? , 2003 .

[25]  Judy A. Siguaw,et al.  A re-examination of the generalizability of the Aaker brand personality measurement framework , 2003 .

[26]  Aron O'Cass,et al.  Toward understanding the young consumer's brand associations and ethnocentrism in the lion's port , 2002 .

[27]  John O'Shaughnessy,et al.  Marketing, the consumer society and hedonism , 2002 .

[28]  V. Benet‐Martínez,et al.  Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: a study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constructs. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[29]  G. Davies,et al.  The Personification Metaphor as a Measurement Approach for Corporate Reputation , 2001 .

[30]  Claudio Barbaranelli,et al.  Brand personality: How to make the metaphor fit? , 2001 .

[31]  Kelly Tepper Tian,et al.  Consumers' Need for Uniqueness: Scale Development and Validation , 2001 .

[32]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[33]  S. Fournier,et al.  Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research , 1998 .

[34]  John A. Quelch,et al.  The mass marketing of luxury , 1998 .

[35]  S. Kemp.  Perceiving luxury and necessity , 1998 .

[36]  J. Aaker,et al.  Dimensions of Brand Personality , 1997 .

[37]  R. Elliott.  Existential consumption and irrational desire , 1997 .

[38]  B. Douglas Bernheim,et al.  Veblen Effects in a Theory of Conspicuous Consumption , 1996 .

[39]  Tim Lang,et al.  The Unmanageable Consumer: Contemporary Consumption and its Fragmentation , 1995 .

[40]  Susan Fournier,et al.  A Brand As a Character, a Partner and a Person: Three Perspectives on the Question of Brand Personality , 1995 .

[41]  Marsha L. Richins.  Valuing Things: The Public and Private Meanings of Possessions , 1994 .

[42]  E. Hirschman.  Consumers and Their Animal Companions , 1994 .

[43]  Christopher J. Berry.  The Idea of Luxury: The de-moralisation of luxury , 1994 .

[44]  Robert R. McCrae,et al.  Openness to Experience as a Basic Dimension of Personality , 1993 .

[45]  Bernard Dubois,et al.  The Market for Luxury Goods: Income versus Culture , 1993 .

[46]  Kevin Lane Keller.  Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity , 1993 .

[47]  John C. Groth,et al.  The exclusive value principle: the basis for prestige racing , 1993 .

[48]  H. Dittmar.  The social psychology of material possessions: To have is to be , 1992 .

[49]  Rick H. Hoyle,et al.  Interpersonal attraction and descriptions of the traits of others: Ideal similarity, self similarity, and liking , 1990 .

[50]  Danielle Allérès.  Luxe... : stratégies, marketing , 1990 .

[51]  E. Higgins,et al.  Self-discrepancy: a theory relating self and affect. , 1987, Psychological review.

[52]  Grant Mccracken.  Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods , 1986 .

[53]  Russell W. Belk,et al.  Three Scales to Measure Constructs Related to Materialism: Reliability, Validity, and Relationships to Measures of Happiness , 1984 .

[54]  M. R. Solomon.  The Role of Products as Social Stimuli: A Symbolic Interactionism Perspective , 1983 .

[55]  M. Sirgy,et al.  Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Critical Review , 1982 .

[56]  E. Hirschman,et al.  Hedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts, Methods and Propositions , 1982 .

[57]  M. Csíkszentmihályi,et al.  The meaning of things: Coding categories and definitions , 1981 .

[58]  F. Saussure,et al.  Course in General Linguistics , 1960 .

[59]  T. Veblen.  The Theory of the Leisure Class , 1901 .