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Omni-luxury: The Ubiquitous Delivery of Prestige and Hedonic Value

1. Introduction

At the beginning of the millennium, luxury researchers and practitioners were irreverent

to the notion of e-commerce websites and digital experiences. They were concerned that

technology would democratize the luxury market and lead to brand dilution, counterfeiting and

the undermining of exclusivity (Okonkwo, 2009). To date, there has been an immense change of

tides and a significant number of luxury brands have since built digital platforms and e-

commerce websites. In 2016, online luxury sales comprised 8% of the global revenue generated

from personal luxury goods, and the share of online sales is expected to increase five-fold over

the next decade (Achille et al., 2018). Similarly, marketing researchers have begun to realize that

the doomsday scenarios that accompanied the concept of luxury e-commerce are mythological

(Tynan, McKechnie, & Celine, 2010). Yet, what will be the next step? Now that research and

practice have begun to catch up with each other, it seems logical to consider how luxury brands

can incorporate technology into physical stores, in addition to websites. That is, an increasing

number of marketing research studies have begun to focus on luxury e-commerce (e.g., Geertz &

Veg-Sala, 2011; Atwal & Williams, 2009; Kapferer & Bastien, 2009), but fewer by comparison

have considered how omnichannel technologies can be added to bricks-and-mortar luxury

retailing. In order to address this gap, the current study sets out to examine luxury shopping and

in-store mobile use within an omnichannel setting.

Omnichannel technologies are often referred to as bricks-and-clicks experiences, or the

convergence of physical and digital experiences through ubiquitous platforms at retail stores. In

the future, omnichannel ecosystems may integrate several forms of digital and emerging media

including smartphones, smart fashion, wearables or VR glasses. For example, Bluetooth, QR

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code and RFID scanning technologies can enable customers via their smartphones to upload

photos to social media, make the store searchable, receive personalized greetings, interact with

QR codes or product demonstrations. Building on this concept, the main premise of the current

paper is that omnichannel technologies can be leveraged to fuel the pleasure-seeking and status-

enhancing attributes of luxury consumption. Specifically, the interactive features of in-store

mobile apps and services can enhance the sensory experience of shopping at a luxury store, while

also giving the customers an opportunity to signal their status as insiders and loyal customers to

sales personnel.

2. Literature Review and Hypotheses

2.1 Prestige-Seeking

For the purposes of the current study, prestige-seeking is a form of impression

management, wherein people signal their status and outwardly project a desired image to their

social worlds with luxury goods, symbols, or logos. According to research on prestige-seeking

consumer behavior, individuals typically project a desired image to improve their social ranking

and seek the acceptance of others (Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006; Vigneron & Johnson, 1999).

However, consumers do not solely purchase luxury goods to climb social ladders or seek status,

but they also derive pleasure, excitement and allure from purchasing and acquiring luxury goods

(Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2009; Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2009; Dubois, Zellar & Laurent,

2005). Along with this logic, Vignernon and Johnson (1999) suggest that the emotive and

affective states stemming from luxury brand experiences often increase prestige-seeking because

impression management is inherently self-gratifying and ego-driven. Hence, the following

hypothesis can be supported:

H1: Hedonic value is positively related to prestige-seeking.

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Prior findings have further demonstrated that hedonic value is not only integral to luxury

consumption, but it underscores various forms of experiential consumption such as smartphones,

gaming, and virtual reality. Smartphone apps and mobile commerce have been shown to increase

consumers’ senses of fun, affect, pleasure and self-gratification (Li, Dong, & Chen, 2012).

Likewise, hedonic factors such as media richness, positive affect and aesthetically pleasing

smartphone designs can trigger intrinsically fun, mobile user experiences (Cyr, Head, & Ivanov,

2006; Bruner & Kumar, 2005). This leads to the following hypothesis:

H2: Hedonic value is positively related to in-store mobile use.

2.2 Conspicuous Consumption

Traditionally, conspicuous consumption has been seen as the inevitable outcome from

status signaling, due to the self-monitoring and susceptibility to interpersonal influence that

comprise prestige-seeking (O’Cass & McEwen, 2004). By contrast, more recent findings suggest

that status signaling can be rather inconspicuous. For example, Berger and Ward (2010) found

that wealthy consumers buy luxury products with smaller logos and more inconspicuous symbols

than non-wealthy consumers in order to feel like luxury insiders and to signal to important others

that they are “in the know.” As discussed with Pierre Bourdieu’s (1984) Theory of Distinction,

this is an example of cultural capital or embodied dispositions, tastes and practices that people

enact in order to maintain a sense of cultural elitism (Sallaz & Zavisca, 2007). Thus, the action of

taking out a mobile phone and using it to scan labels for product information or sending photos

to important others is another way for a luxury consumer to enact his or her cultural capital

within a store environment. By doing so, they can effectively illustrate their popularity to the

salesperson or signal their good tastes. At the same time, prestige-seeking should mediate the

effect of hedonic value on in-store mobile use. The sociality of the store environment will lead
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customers to value status signaling over self-gratification and seeking pleasure (Vignernon &

Johnson, 1999). As a result, the following hypotheses can be supported:

H3: Prestige-seeking is positively related to in-store mobile use.

H4: Prestige-seeking will mediate the positive association between hedonic value and in-

store mobile use.

3. Data Collection and Research Methods

SurveyMonkey Audience was used in order to recruit an international panel of 7,433

respondents for the current study. 47.4% were from the United States, 19.3% were from the

United Kingdom, 18.6% were from Germany, and 14.7% were from France. In order to

participate in the study, participants had to purchase at least one piece of apparel during the past

month. The apparel category was chosen since there are fewer geographical restrictions

associated with it when compared to the automotive or hospitality categories, for example. On

average, the respondents were 44 to 54 years old and earned $45,000 to $60,00 per annum. The

gender distribution was 36.3% male and 63.7% female. The respondents were given an online

survey instrument consisting of 16 items primarily drawn from pre-validated scales within the

marketing literature and all were measured on a seven-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to
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strongly agree). Prestige-seeking and hedonic value were adapted from the “Prestige Value in

Social Networks” and “Hedonic Value (Self-gift giving)” dimensions of Wiedmann, Hennigs

and Siebels (2009) Luxury Value Perceptions framework. The researcher developed the in-store

mobile use (BI) measure by interviewing a CIO of a global, on-demand and omnichannel service

provider. Based on the interview results, the following items seemed to closely reflect the

omnichannel capabilities of luxury retailers:

• I would use my mobile device in store to obtain product information and reviews by
scanning labels/tags.

• I would use my mobile device in store to recommend/review products by uploading

photos to social media.

4. Results and Discussion

Structural equation modeling (Lavaan “R” Package) was used to analyze the data and test

the hypothesized relationships. First, a confirmatory factor analysis (Kline, 1998) was conducted

to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement items. Five items were dropped due to

factor dual loadings or factor loadings < .60 (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Afterwards, the

average variance extracted from each latent construct was found to be greater than the

corresponding squared interconstruct correlation, which conveys an acceptable level of

discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). As expected, the model fit was good: χ2 (30) =

1253.41; CFI = .98, TLI = .92, RMSEA = .074; GFI = .98, SRMR = .018, nnfi = .97 (Hu &

Bentler, 1999). Then, an SEM path analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses.

All the hypotheses were fully supported except H4. Hedonic value is positively related to

prestige-seeking and in-store mobile use, lending support to H1 (β = .81, t = 53.98***) and H2 (β

= .26, t = 15.27***). Prestige-seeking is positively related to in-store mobile use, too, thereby

supporting H3 (β = .45, t = 28.79***). Prestige-seeking, nevertheless, suppressed rather than

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mediated the association between hedonic value and in-store mobile use (β = .36, t = 24.89***). A

suppression effect indicates that the suppressor variable (prestige-seeking) is constitutive of the

independent variable (hedonic value), and it represents a codependency between both variables

(MacKinnon, Krull & Lockwood, 2000). In other words, prestige-seeking seems to enhance or

intensify the association between hedonic value and in-store mobile use. A possible explanation

is that hedonic value remains an integral and tangible aspect of prestige-seeking, even when a

luxury consumer is shopping and likely to be under social pressure. Through in-store mobile use,

a customer signals to the salesperson that she is in-the-know while continuing to derive pleasure

from both the personal shopping experience and mobile phone use.

5. Conclusions

Hedonic value and prestige-seeking both contribute significantly to in-store mobile use,

thereby demonstrating that luxury consumers can use in-store mobile apps and services to

elevate the hedonic-driven and status-laden aspects of luxury shopping. Therefore, luxury brands

should offer in-store mobile apps and services that invoke senses of privilege, VIP status and

elite group membership in customers. At the same time, hedonic value and self-gratification are

pivotal to in-store mobile use, and managers should ensure that the same apps contribute to the

sensory and aesthetic experience of shopping at luxury stores. Some of the possible limitations of

the study include that actual behavior was not measured and the study only included apparel

consumers. In the future, it will be important to consider running this study with an experimental

design and to incorporate additional product categories in addition to personal luxury goods.
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