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The abstractness of luxury

Author

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  • Hansen, Jochim
  • Wänke, Michaela

Abstract

The purchase of luxury goods is relatively exclusive, limited, and often merely hypothetical. Thus, luxury goods may be perceived as more psychologically distant than ordinary goods. Based on the link between psychological distance and abstract mental representation, we hypothesized and found in three studies that both consumers and advertisers describe luxury products in more abstract language than they describe ordinary products, and that abstract product descriptions are perceived as more luxurious than concrete product descriptions.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansen, Jochim & Wänke, Michaela, 2011. "The abstractness of luxury," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 789-796.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:5:p:789-796
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2011.05.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. DUBOIS, Bernard & LAURENT, Gilles & CZELLAR, Sandor, 2001. "Consumer rapport to luxury : Analyzing complex and ambivalent attitudes," HEC Research Papers Series 736, HEC Paris.
    2. Nueno, Jose Luis & Quelch, John A., 1998. "The mass marketing of luxury," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 61-68.
    3. Kemp, Simon, 1998. "Perceiving luxury and necessity," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 591-606, October.
    4. Anthony D. Miyazaki & Dhruv Grewal & Ronald C. Goodstein, 2005. "The Effect of Multiple Extrinsic Cues on Quality Perceptions: A Matter of Consistency," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 146-153, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kim, Kyuha & Lee, Sungmi & Choi, Yung Kyun, 2019. "Image proximity in advertising appeals: Spatial distance and product types," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 490-497.
    2. Das, Manish & Jebarajakirthy, Dr Charles, 2020. "Impact of acculturation to western culture (AWC) on western fashion luxury consumption among Gen-Y consumers in the Asia-Pacific region," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
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    7. Choi, Yung Kyun & Seo, Yuri & Wagner, Udo & Yoon, Sukki, 2020. "Matching luxury brand appeals with attitude functions on social media across cultures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 520-528.
    8. Dongho Yoo & Jung-Ae Kim & Sun-Jae Doh, 2018. "The Dual Processing of Donation Size in Cause-Related Marketing (CRM): The Moderating Roles of Construal Level and Emoticons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    9. Lidan Xu & Ravi Mehta, 2022. "Technology devalues luxury? Exploring consumer responses to AI-designed luxury products," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 1135-1152, November.
    10. Francesco Massara & Daniele Porcheddu & Robert D. Melara, 2019. "Luxury brands pursuing lifestyle positioning: effects on willingness to pay," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(3), pages 291-303, May.
    11. Abhishek Pathak & Gemma Calvert & Carlos Velasco, 2017. "Evaluating the impact of early- and late-acquired phonemes on the luxury appeal of brand names," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 522-545, November.
    12. Park, Sangchul & Kim, Sanghoon & Ahn, Sungsook, 2023. "The role of consumers' construal level in art-infusion-type effect on retail product evaluation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Joëlle Vanhamme & Adam Lindgreen & Gülen Sarial-Abi, 2023. "Luxury Ethical Consumers: Who Are They?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 805-838, March.
    14. Zhu, Hong & Zhou, Yayu & Wu, Yening & Wang, Xin, 2022. "To smile or not to smile: The role of facial expression valence on mundane and luxury products premiumness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Han Ma & Hannah K. Bradshaw & Narayan Janakiraman & Sarah E. Hill, 2019. "Spending as protection: the need for safety increases preference for luxury products," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 45-56, March.
    16. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    17. Wang, Haizhong & Liu, Di, 2020. "The differentiated impact of perceived brand competence type on brand extension evaluation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 400-410.
    18. Sirui Li & Ying Liu & Jing Su & Litao Duan & Hui Fu, 2024. "Men resist men: streamer-consumer gender match for advertising the functional benefits of heterogeneously priced utilitarian products," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Christodoulides, George & Athwal, Navdeep & Boukis, Achilleas & Semaan, Rania W., 2021. "New forms of luxury consumption in the sharing economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 89-99.
    20. Cesare Amatulli & Matteo De Angelis & Carmela Donato, 2019. "Communicating the luxury dream: The moderating role of brand prominence on the effect of abstract versus concrete language on consumer responses," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(4), pages 91-108.
    21. Savadori, Lucia & Mittone, Luigi, 2015. "Temporal distance reduces the attractiveness of p-bets compared to $-bets," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 26-38.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Luxury; Language; Abstractness; Construal level theory; Linguistic category model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

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