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Austerity to materialism and brand consciousness: luxury consumption in India
Nikita Sharda, Anil Kumar Bhat,
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Luxury
Austerity to materialism and consumption
brand consciousness: luxury in India

consumption in India
Nikita Sharda and Anil Kumar Bhat 223
Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani,
Received 7 March 2017
Pilani, India Revised 1 July 2017
11 October 2017
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23 November 2017
Abstract Accepted 20 January 2018
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of materialism and brand consciousness in
determining the luxury consumption among the young Indian consumers.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to measure materialism, brand consciousness, attitude toward
luxury brands and purchase intention, pre-established scale items were used to design the self-administered
questionnaire. A valid sample of 342 respondents was collected through mall intercepts, in-store intercepts,
luxury brands exhibitions and festivals and international airports. The relationship was tested using
regression analysis.
Findings – The findings support that the materialism and brand consciousness are positively related to the
luxury consumption in India and play an important role in predicting the behavior of the young
luxury buyers. The Indian youth is buying expensive luxury brands as symbols of status success and wealth
in order to fulfill their materialistic goals. The desire to own and possess the well-known and expensive
brand names demonstrates the importance the consumers attach to the social and symbolic value of the
luxury brands.
Practical implications – The study reveals that the young Indian luxury buyers choose to buy brands that
are most advertised. Creative advertisements enhancing luxury brands’ symbolic and social value can be
effective. The study has implications for the international luxury brands, as they are expensive, well known
and famous among the global consumers.
Originality/value – The key contribution of the study is the establishment of materialism and brand
consciousness as important antecedents in the development of attitude toward luxury brands among the
young Indian consumers.
Keywords Luxury consumption, Social value, Materialism, Luxury consumers, Symbolic value,
Brand consciousness
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The growth of the Indian luxury market indicates changing Indian luxury consumers.
There is also an increase in the number of high net worth households (HNHs) at a
compounded annual growth rate of 16 percent in the last five years. The major portion of the
income of HNHs is allocated to the non-discretionary expenses and nearly half of the HNH’s
population is below 40 years (Kotak Wealth Management, 2016). This signals that the
presence of young spendthrift consumer base with increased disposable income is driving
the luxury consumption in India. The Indian luxury market once considered as
impenetrable has become an attractive destination for the marketers (Das, 2015).
Engagement in lavish lifestyles and aspirations to join their western counterparts by
owning and possessing internationally famous brands to maintain their global consumption
standards have resulted in the rise of luxury consumption in India.
India’s consumption story has shown a sharp contradiction in relation to its recent past.
A few decades ago, however, Gandhi’s philosophy permeated the Indian society. Of the
Journal of Fashion Marketing and
many vows he took, Aparigraha (non-possession) focused on the minimal consumption and Management
his famous insight that “The world has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for Vol. 22 No. 2, 2018
pp. 223-239
everyone’s greed” reflected a preference for a sustainable lifestyle if not complete disdain © Emerald Publishing Limited
1361-2026
toward materialistic lifestyle. Swadeshi, on the other hand, established that one must buy DOI 10.1108/JFMM-03-2017-0025
 JFMM locally made goods in order to benefit the immediate society (Deats and Jegen, 2005).
22,2 The Indian society embraced simplicity, austerity and frugal lifestyle as a respected social
value (Herstatt and Tiwari, 2016), while excessive luxury and comfort were disregarded.
Another deeply rooted social institution in the Indian society was the rigid caste system,
which defined the inviolable division of labor and occupation. It was a powerful mechanism,
which guided the consumption implying that luxury could only be sought through
224 inheritance. Due to this reason, the luxury could not permeate beyond a particular social
class and was exclusive to the elite, which was used by them to maintain the social distance.
Only the “privileged” class could travel abroad and acquire luxury products.
Across the developed world, industrial development and globalization ushered in
affluence and rise in consumerism. The widespread desire to spend and consume
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non-utilitarian goods signaled the presence of consumer culture also termed as “culture of
consumption” (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986). This consumption-centric orientation is
identified as materialism (Belk, 1985). In India too, the growing aspirations, i.e. the
acquisitive desires and rising income levels have marked a shift in the potential of Indian
luxury consumers to the upper-middle class (KPMG ASSOCHAM, 2014). The growth
prospects of the Indian luxury market are strong (Euromonitor, 2017) and the consumers are
becoming brand conscious (Mukherjee et al., 2012). As a matter of fact, India is ranked third
after Greece as the most brand-conscious country in the world (Nielson, 2008).
Despite the huge shift in the market and change in the consumers of luxury brands, there
is a dearth of research examining the antecedents of luxury consumption in India. India is
one of the fastest growing developing countries in the world but ironically, it has received
scant attention of researchers (Kumar et al., 2009; Tynan et al., 2010; Shukla, 2010).
The tremendous potential of the Indian luxury market demands attention in order to
provide an in-depth understanding of the Indian luxury consumers. To fill this gap, the
study aims to identify the antecedents of attitude toward luxury brands and investigate the
effect of the attitude on the purchase intention of luxury brands.
The study of materialism is considered vital in this research because it has an effect on
consumer values and hence, behavior (Burroughs and Rindfleisch, 2002; Liao and Wang,
2009; Maniu and Zaharie, 2011; Goldsmith and Clark, 2012). Previous studies have also
pointed out the significance of brand consciousness in consumer behavior as it helps in
forming consumers’ self-concept (Solomon, 1983; Keller, 1993) and fosters the process
of socialization (Lachance et al., 2003). The role of these psychological constructs, i.e.
materialism and brand consciousness in the context of Indian luxury consumers has
received limited attention. Hence, the present study intends to fill this gap by considering
materialism and brand consciousness as important precursors of change among the young
Indian luxury consumers. These relationships have been empirically tested using regression
analysis and the results confirm that materialism and brand consciousness are significantly
explaining the luxury consumption among the young Indian consumers. The research
contributes to the literature of luxury brands by addressing the emerging Indian luxury
market. The results of the study also provide important implications to the managers of
luxury by signaling the key determinants of luxury consumption in India.

Literature review
“Luxury is particularly slippery to define” (Cornell, 2002). Nueno and Quelch (1998)
described luxury brands as those whose ratio of functionality to price is low while the ratio
of intangibility and situational utility to price is high. The object is the source of intrinsic
pleasure due to its multi-sensory nature, which distances it from the purely functional world
of constraints, of price-quality ratios, and usage value (Kapferer and Bastien, 2009).
Luxury brands are associated with excellent quality, high price, scarcity, uniqueness,
aesthetics, poly-sensuality, ancestral heritage, personal history and superfluousness
 (Dubois et al., 2001; Kapferer and Bastien, 2009). Apart from the functional values like price Luxury
and quality, luxury brands offer high symbolic, social and emotional value to the consumers consumption
(Vigneron and Johnson, 2004; Kapferer and Bastien, 2009; Wiedmann et al., 2009; Perry and in India
Kyriakaki, 2014; Cheah et al., 2015). The literature suggests that the luxury brands are a
symbolic representation of success, wealth and status (O’Cass and McEwen, 2004;
Wiedmann et al., 2007; Shukla, 2008; Eng and Bogaert, 2010; Zhang and Kim, 2013). Even on
the account of insufficient subjective knowledge about the luxury brands, if they find 225
meaningful symbolic characteristics, they will buy the luxury brand (Shukla, 2008).
Therefore, the luxury brands tend to put more focus on creating symbolic meaning for the
consumers (Heine, 2012).
Also, the consumption of luxury brands benefits the consumers especially during social
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interactions, i.e. they get a favorable treatment from the people on the display of luxury
brands (Nelissen and Meijers, 2011). The consumption of status-laden products as an overt
display of wealth, success, and status is one of the important motivating factors that
influence the consumer behavior. Therefore, materialism as a measure of desire to own
and possess to fulfill external goal pursuits (Richins and Dawson, 1992) and brand
consciousness as a measure of consumer’s preference for famous and expensive brand name
products (Kavkani et al., 2011) have been investigated in this study to understand the luxury
consumption among the Indian youth.

Hypothesis development
Materialism
Since historical times, religions and thought leaders have often criticized materialistic
consumption. Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian Leader has put forth the concept of
Aparigraha, i.e. non-possession, which states that one must acquire only what is necessary
and vital to the survival because the human desires are ever growing and perpetual.
The unbridled consumerism leads to economic disparity and social conflict (Mukherjee and
Ramaswamy, 1994). Also as a concern toward the sustainability, which does not come
naturally, people must focus toward minimal consumption. The spiritual aspect of
non-possession lends an explanation that one attains true happiness when he practices
Aparigraha; he liberates himself from the material attachments of the world. Indian society
embraced frugal lifestyle as a respected social value (Herstatt and Tiwari, 2016) and
excessive luxury and comforts were disdained. The wealthy and the rich during that era
contributed their wealth to the welfare of the community and lived a simpler life. This
trusteeship philosophy of Gandhi inspired many HNIs including JRD Tata, the Founder of
the TATA Group to adopt a non-materialistic lifestyle.
The great desire to spend and consume in order to match the international standards
signals the presence of a culture of consumption. There are indications that Gandhian austerity
seems to have given way to a culture of consumption in India. The consumption-based
orientation is marked as materialism (Belk, 1985).
Materialism is defined as “The importance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions”
(Belk, 1984). He described materialism through possessiveness, non-generosity and envy.
Possessiveness is defined as “the inclination and tendency to retain control or ownership of
one’s possessions.” Belk defined non-generosity as “unwillingness to share possessions with
others, a reluctance to lend or donate possessions to others, and negative attitudes toward
charity.” Envy is described as “a desire for others’ possessions, be they objects, experiences,
or persons.”
According to Richins and Dawson, (1992), materialism “represents a mind-set or
constellation of attitudes regarding the relative importance of acquisition and possession of
objects in one’s life.” They described materialism through acquisition centrality, acquisition
as the pursuit of happiness and possession-defined success. Acquisition centrality explains
 JFMM that materialists cherish their possessions so much that these material possessions serve a
22,2 central meaning to their lives. Acquisition as a pursuit of happiness advances that people
view acquisitions as a means to life satisfaction, well-being, and happiness.
Possession-defined success asserts that a person signals his success and status to himself
and to the society by the means of possessions. Belk views materialism (possessiveness,
non-generosity and envy) as a personality trait while Richins views materialism (acquisition
226 centrality, the role of acquisition in happiness and success) as an important belief/value of
owning and possessing (Ahuvia and Wong, 1995).
The high levels of materialism lead to centralization on possessions and ownership more
than the experiences and interpersonal relationships. Materialists consider possessions as a
means to achieve external goal pursuits like ego enhancement and social status (Ahuvia and
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Wong, 1995). Since materialists view possessions as a mark of happiness and success
(Moschis and Churchill, 1978), they continuously seek to make their lives better through
consumption. Material objects structure their lives and consumption guide their day-to-day
behavior (Bredemeier and Toby, 1960).
The possessions and acquisitions can hold several meanings to the self and to the
society. Consumers possess certain brands and products in order to define their self-identity,
which is otherwise abstract and vague. The possessions also help the consumers to
symbolize their group membership or their desired membership to a particular group
(Belk, 1985) primarily because people judge themselves and others on the basis of
consumption (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986).
More often, the literature has associated materialism with long-term life dissatisfaction
and other negative consequences of materialism like greed, envy, miserliness, self-hatred,
anorexia nervosa and masochism (Belk, 1985; Richins and Dawson, 1992; Burroughs and
Rindfleisch, 2002; Hudders and Pandelaere, 2011). However, materialism may not always be
detrimental. (Rochberg Halton, 1986) described instrumental materialism as harmless in
which possessions are viewed “as essential means for discovering and furthering personal
values and goals of life.” Studies have also highlighted the positive traits of materialism
such as “greater productivity, technological breakthroughs, and again, higher standards of
living […] a strong motivation to succeed and self-sufficiency” (Richins and Dawson, 1992).
Hudders and Pandelaere (2011) posit that even though materialistic pursuits do not lead to
subjective well-being, in the end, it can be rewarding in terms of mitigating negative
emotions in the short term.
Research suggests that people pursue short-term rewards at the expense of long-term
goals (Dittmar and Bond, 2010) because they strongly desire immediate gratification
(O’Donoghue and Rabin, 2000). Luxury consumption may yield immediate gratification,
which is why, the materialists hold a myopic view, ignoring the long-term negative
consequences for self. Materialists own and possess primarily to enhance their social status
in the society (Christopher et al., 2004; Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006). For this reason,
luxury brands may perhaps be particularly engaging to the materialists because of their
ability to signal wealth, success and status. Also, as a matter of fact, materialism can
significantly differ across cultures (Güliz and Belk, 1996; Kilbourne et al., 2005) and the
literature does not provide sufficient evidence of materialism in India. This leads us to our
first hypothesis:
H1. Materialism is positively related to the attitude toward luxury brand in India.

Brand consciousness
The literature defines brand consciousness as an inclination toward buying brand name
products that are famous, well known and highly advertised (Sproles and Kendall, 1986;
Zhang and Kim, 2013). “Brand consciousness is a tendency to buy expensive and
 famous brands. Believing higher price reflects higher quality, they prefer to buy the most Luxury
advertised high-sale products” (Kavkani et al., 2011). consumption
According to Sproles and Kendall (1986), brand consciousness is one of the eight in India
consumers’ decision-making styles. The consumers buy well-known expensive brands
because they perceive expensive brands to be of superior quality (Sproles and Kendall, 1986;
Keller, 1993). The famous brand named products helps the brand-conscious consumers to
form and express their self-concept (Solomon, 1983; Keller, 1993). 227
Apart from that, the well-known brand name products also help the consumers in
socialization process (Lachance et al., 2003). Brand-conscious consumer perceives brands to
be a symbol of status and prestige (Liao and Wang, 2009; Giovannini et al., 2015).
The brand icons carry higher symbolic meanings in India, as historically, Indians have
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been semiotically oriented because of religious icons of Hinduism. The brand images have
special connotations as the society is hierarchical and consumers are status conscious
(Maxwell, 2001). Due to this reason, when the Indian economy opened up in 1991, the
upper-class Indian consumers perceived the foreign brands that entered the Indian market as
rare, exotic and superior (Bullis, 1997). Contrary to Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of
Aparigraha and Swadeshi, the Indian youth today is not guilty of the extravagant
consumption of foreign brands. With the changing times, Indian consumers have become
more brand-conscious and novelty seekers (Lysonski and Durvasula, 2013).
Symbolic values of luxury brands are considered as a prime motivation for purchase
(Esmaeilpour, 2015) and across boundaries, luxury brands are associated with high price,
exclusivity, heritage, experience and high quality (Giovannini et al., 2015; Hassan et al., 2015;
Parrott et al., 2015), they can be of particular interest to the brand-conscious consumers.
Even when the consumers have insufficient knowledge about the brand, the identification of
the symbolic characteristics can lead to the purchase of the luxury brand. Since the luxury
brands hold high symbolic value and they confer status and prestige to the owner, we can
hypothesize that brand consciousness has a positive relationship with the luxury
consumption in India:
H2. Brand consciousness is positively related to the attitude towards luxury brand in India.

Attitude toward luxury brands and Purchase Intention

The theory of reasoned action postulates that there is a direct relationship between the
attitude towards the behavior (ATB) and the behavioral intention (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975;
Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). The relationship of attitude as an important predictor of intention
to perform the behavior is supported by the vast literature (Farley and Ring, 1970; Wilson
et al., 1975; Ryan and Bonfield, 1975; Farley et al., 1976; Reibstein, 1978; Laroche and
Howard, 1980; Laroche and Brisoux, 1989; Sheeran, 2002; Spears and Singh, 2004;
Fitzmaurice, 2005; Schwenk and Möser, 2009). When the ATB is positive, the intention to
perform the behavior is positive (Yoo, 2009; Zhang and Kim, 2013). Thus, we hypothesize
that the attitude toward buying luxury brand is a direct predictor of purchase intention:
H3. Attitude toward buying luxury brands has a positive relationship with purchase
intention of luxury brands (Figure 1).

Methodology
Data collection
The aim of the paper is to understand the luxury consumption among the young Indian
buyers. In order to collect data, luxury brand buyers/users were identified as the respondents
for the study. A self-administrated and structured questionnaire was used to collect
primary data from major cities of India vis-à-vis Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.
 JFMM The study has employed snowball-sampling method for collecting the data. It is a non-
22,2 probability sampling technique, which helped to identify the luxury consumers as
they form a significantly small proportion of the large population. Moreover, it is very difficult
to access this niche segment and motivate them for the participation in the survey
(Heine, 2010). The study has identified luxury festivals and exhibitions to collect the data
wherein their luxury clientele are invited via personal invitation. Apart from this, we have also
228 used luxury consumption scale presenting the list of luxury brands (Heine, 2010) that they
have consumed in the given period. This validated that the participants are genuine luxury
consumers. The data were also collected through luxury mall intercept and luxury brand’s
store intercept because the data collected in real environment settings are truthful in their
responses. Moreover, shop intercepts (exit interviews) capture the recency effect and an
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interview away from the shop might bring only “visualized perception” rather than the real
experience (Sinha et al., 2002). High-end weddings and luxury hotels also served as ideal
settings for data collection. Scheduled appointments with the respondents ensured quality and
accurate responses because of the proper time and attention paid to the survey.
The strength of the study lies in the data collected from the real setting than taking the
student sample. A sample of 450 responses was collected and a final sample of 342 was
retained after discarding the incomplete questionnaires.

Sample characteristics
The sample population lies within the age group of 18-35 years of age with 52 percent female
and 48 percent male. The majority of the luxury users in the sample population were unmarried
(58 percent). About 39 percent of the population has their own business with 10+ employees
and 30 percent are senior officers. Most of them holding a professional postgraduate degree.
The sample represented the young, educated and rich luxury consumers.

Questionnaire and scale development

Pre-existing scale items were used to measure the constructs in the study. The study has
adopted the scale items from Richins and Dawson (1992) and Sproles and Kendall, (1986) to
measure materialism and brand consciousness, respectively. Attitude toward buying luxury
brands was measured using Ajzen’s (1991) scale items. Purchase intention was measured using
the work of Spears and Singh (2004). The scale items of attitude towards buying luxury brands
and purchase intention was modified according to the nature of the study. Likert’s five scales
ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was followed for each of the scale items.
The studies have pointed out the suitability of Cronbach’s α as a measure of internal consistency
and reliability of the scale items (Peterson, 1994; Bonett and Wright, 2015). Therefore, the study
has calculated Cronbach’s α to ascertain the reliability of the scale items. The items used to
measure materialism and brand consciousness showed high inter-corrrelations (Cronbach’s
α ¼ 0.770 and 0.820, respectively). While the Cronbach’s α for attitude toward luxury is 0.850
and purchase intention is 0.861. There is a high internal consistency in all the scale items
in the study as the Cronbach’s α is within the acceptable reliability range (Nunnally, 1978).
Table I presents the Cronbach’s α for all the scale items in the study.

Materialism H1

Attitude toward H3
Purchase
purchasing luxury intention
Figure 1. Brand
Proposed model consciousness H2
 Results Luxury
In the preliminary data analysis, mean values, standard deviation and correlations are consumption
calculated. Attitude toward buying luxury brands has a positive correlation with in India
Materialism (Pearson correlation coefficient, r ¼ 0.38) and brand consciousness (Pearson
correlation coefficient, r ¼ 0.555). Table II shows the descriptive statistics of the
psychological constructs and the attitude toward luxury brands.
According to the literature, regression analysis is considered appropriate when the 229
purpose of the study is to test the strength of the relationships among the variables
(Aiken et al., 1991; Cohen, 2003; Gelman and Hill, 2007). Regression analysis is also a widely
used technique in the field of luxury marketing (Park et al., 2008; Husic and Cicic, 2009; Kang
and Johnson, 2009; Kang and Park-Poaps, 2010; Hung et al., 2011; Jin Gam, 2011). Hence, the
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study has used regression technique to explain the attitude toward luxury brands as a
function of materialism for H1 and brand consciousness for H2. The regression results
supported H1 (R2 ¼ 0.142, p o0.001) which proves that materialism has a positive
relationship with Attitude towards buying luxury brands. The results supported H2
(R2 ¼ 0.306, p o0.001) which proves that brand consciousness has a positive relationship
with attitude towards buying luxury brands. In addition, materialism and brand
consciousness were regressed together upon attitude toward luxury brands, the results
indicate a significant positive relationship (R2 ¼ 0.329, po0.001). The relationship between
attitude towards buying luxury brands and purchase intention was also tested. The results
indicate that there is a significant relationship between the two (R2 ¼ 0.552, p o0.001).
Hence, H1, H2 and H3 are accepted as the relationships are statistically significant.
The results of the analysis are summarized in Table III.

Discussions
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of materialism and brand
consciousness with luxury consumption among the young Indian consumers. As attitudes
and intentions serve as precursors of luxury consumption, we have referred to luxury
consumption to indicate the effect of materialism and brand consciousness on both of these
variables in a general sense. The proposed hypotheses of the study tested this relationship
using regression analysis. All the hypotheses, i.e. H1, H2 and H3 were supported proving
that materialism and brand consciousness are significant predictors of luxury consumption
in India.

Constructs Cronbach’s α Cronbach’s α based on standardized items Number of items

Materialism 0.770 0.784 18

Brand consciousness 0.820 0.862 6
Attitude toward luxury 0.850 0.890 4 Table I.
Purchase intention 0.861 0.878 3 Reliability statistics

Descriptive statistics
Constructs Mean SD 1 2 3

(1) Attitude 0.4996 0.28306 1

(2) Brand Consciousness 0.5046 0.14574 0.555 1 Table II.
(3) Materialism 0.5001 0.15280 0.38 0.428 1 Descriptive statistics
 JFMM Independent variables β t-value p-value
22,2
Attitude toward buying luxury brands
Constant −0.133 −2.569 0.00
Materialism 0.322 3.546 0.00
Brand consciousness 0.933 9.791 0.00
R2 0.333
230 Adjusted R2 0.329
Purchase intention of luxury brands
Constant 0.110 5.046 0.00
Attitude toward buying luxury brands 0.781 20.542 0.00
R2 0.554
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Table III.
Regression results Adjusted R2 0.552

Materialism
The results of the study show that the young Indian population has scored high in materialism
and there is a significant relationship between materialism and luxury consumption of the
young Indian consumers. The results are consistent with the previous studies regarding
the positive relationship between materialism and luxury consumption in other countries
(Eastman et al., 1997; Wong, 1997; Podoshen et al., 2011; Teimourpour and Hanzaee, 2011;
Segal and Podoshen, 2013; Zhang and Kim, 2013; Chan et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2017). However,
this is the first study in the Indian context to establish a positive relationship between
materialism and luxury consumption. This relationship can provide important explanations
for luxury consumption in India.
First, materialists purchase luxury brands because they view these possessions as a
symbolic representation of their self-identity and their actual or desired group membership
(Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006). These materialistic pursuits have a strong association
with the desire for prestige and status (Eastman et al., 1999; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999).
According to Kotak Wealth Management (2016), among the luxury categories, the luxury
consumers in India spend heavily on the apparel, jewelry and accessories. Since these
categories are conspicuous in nature, they aid young consumers to fulfill their need to
display status and wealth. We can perhaps say that the need for status in the society is
driving the material consumption of luxury brands in India.
This relationship can be understood through social consumption motivation, wherein the
consumers not only possess and acquire goods for status but also for other social meanings
conveyed by the product (Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006; Gil et al., 2012).
Second, apart from the status reasons of consumption, the literature suggests a link
between the acquisition of material possessions and low self-esteem of the consumer
(Richins and Dawson, 1992; Kasser, 2002). The desire to elevate the low esteem drives the
conspicuous consumption (Veblen, 2009). Materialists are most concerned about appearing
successful to others. The possession and acquisition of luxury goods supplements for the
low levels of self-esteem (Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006). Thus, the need to recoup the low
self-esteem may perhaps be the other reason that is driving the Indian consumers to buy
luxury brands.
Third, in order to give a concrete representation of the rather vague and abstract
self-identity, people fix their identities by possessing the material objects. It is during the
uncertainty regarding their roles that people fixate on the material objects to provide
external cues so that the others could validate their position (Solomon, 1983). Primarily,
because of the need for certainty, the material possessions are seen as identity fixers rather
than identity makers (Micken and Roberts, 1999). The above literature suggests that the
material consumption of luxury can serve as a means to resist the feelings of uncertainty
 and ambiguity. The quest for meaning in life through possession and acquisition could also Luxury
explain why materialism is leading to luxury consumption. consumption
The relationship of materialism and luxury consumption can also be understood in in India
relation to the post-materialism theory. Post-materialism theory posits that people who have
constantly experienced affluence are more bothered about the subjective issues like concern
for environment than the poorer societies (Dunlap and Mertig, 1997). According to the
theory, developed and wealthy nations exhibit higher levels of post-materialism than their 231
developing counterparts (Abramson and Inglehart, 1995). The theory seems to have
relevance in a developing country like India, as the growth in the upper-middle class has led
to the rise of “nouveau riche” luxury consumers (Gupta, 2016). This new mass interest has
fueled the growth of luxury in India (Amatulli and Guido, 2011). Hence, their recent
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exposure to wealth may perhaps be one of the reasons of materialistic luxury consumption.
In the light of the above discussions, we can perhaps conclude that the young Indian
consumers acquire and possess luxury brands primarily because they confer high social
and symbolic value. Thus, the social dimension may be critical in predicting the purchase of
luxury brands.

Brand consciousness
The empirical evidence provided in the study proves that brand consciousness plays an
important role in predicting the young Indians’ attitude toward luxury consumption and the
purchase of luxury brands.
The findings are consistent with the previous research works, which have highlighted that
Indian consumers are brand consciousness (Mukherjee et al., 2012; Tanksale et al., 2014).
Further, India has been ranked third after Greece and Hong Kong as the most brand-conscious
country in the world (Nielson, 2008).
The longitudinal study conducted by Lysonski and Durvasula (2013) advocates that
with the increasing purchasing power, Indian consumers have become more brand
conscious and novelty seekers. The present literature, however, limits only to establishing
that the Indian consumers are brand conscious. The current research extends to
validating the relationship between the brand consciousness and luxury consumption
among young Indian buyers, which has important implications for luxury brand marketers.
Our study highlights the tendency of Indian consumers to buy the expensive and the
well-known brands and how this brand consciousness is related to the attitude toward luxury
brands supporting an earlier study by Ye et al. (2012) which has advocated that brand
consciousness leads to an enhanced attitude toward brands. The relationship between brand
consciousness and attitude toward luxury brands can be explained as follows.
First, the price has a positive influence on the consumers’ perception of luxury brands, i.e.
perceived quality, perceived conspicuousness and perceived uniqueness (Parguel et al., 2016).
The young Indian luxury buyers use price as criteria to qualify them as luxury brands.
More expensive the brand, more luxurious it is perceived. Apart from that, they also associate
higher price with better quality. These are the important product attributes based on which
the consumers characterize luxury (Dubois et al., 2001). The choice of buying expensive
brands can be explained by the influence of consumers’ price perception on luxury brands
purchase.
Second, the tendency to buy well-known expensive brands also highlights the social
dimension of the luxury consumption in India. Because the essence of being brand conscious
is that consumers use brands that are reflective of their own self (Nan and Heo, 2007), they
are particular about the brand purchase that they make, as they perceive those brand as a
means of self-expression (Belk, 1988). The consumers carrying the luxury brand carry the
band statement alongside. People buy status-laden luxury brands as they confer prestige
and testify their status and success to their environment (Kapferer and Bastien, 2009;
 JFMM Phau et al., 2015). Buying these well-known expensive brands creates value to the young
22,2 Indian consumers when these brands are recognizable by others. The desire to acquire
status prompts the consumers to pay exorbitant prices and the purchase of these
status-laden and high-end labels fulfills the consumers’ social needs (Goldsmith et al., 2010;
Zheng et al., 2012; O’Cass and Siahtiri, 2014; Kim and Johnson, 2015).
These brand-conscious young consumers have a very high level of awareness and
232 knowledge of the luxury brands worldwide. The high brand consciousness of young
consumers can be attributed to the increased exposure of youth to the western lifestyle
through media, boost in travel and tourism, entry of foreign luxury brands in the Indian
market, etc. This explains why the brand consciousness among the young Indian consumers
is driving them to purchase luxury brands.
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The brand consciousness among the Indian consumers provides them a common
expression to signify their status by owning and possessing the luxury brands. The Indian
youth is buying expensive luxury brands as symbols of status, success and wealth in order
to fulfill its materialistic pursuits. Hence, it is primarily the strong desire of the young
Indian luxury consumers to own and possess (materialism) the well-known and expensive
brand names (brand consciousness). This desire to own and possess the well-known and
expensive brand names demonstrates the importance the consumers attach to the social and
symbolic value of the luxury brands. In conclusion, the results of the study indicate that
materialism and brand consciousness are leading the luxury consumption among the young
Indian consumers.

Implications
The findings of this study provide a theoretical contribution to the literature of materialism,
brand consciousness and luxury consumption in India. First, the key contribution of the
study is the establishment of materialism and brand consciousness as important
antecedents in the development of attitude towards luxury brands among the young Indian
consumers. Second, the study has highlighted the social and symbolic dimension of
consumption motivation of luxury brands. Apart from that, the luxury brands communicate
a new identity to the self and to the others also enabling the association to the desired people
or group.
Furthermore, this study indicates that the young luxury buyers choose to buy brands
that are most advertised and since, the highly brand-conscious consumers are more
sensitive to the advertisements than the low brand-conscious consumers (Nan and
Heo, 2007); the luxury marketers can be skillful in highlighting the social and symbolic value
of their luxury brands. As the Indian consumers are willing to own and possess expensive
brands that are well known and well established, the marketers must focus on enhancing
the awareness of the brand through advertisement and marketing efforts.
The results of this study can be of particular interest to the international luxury brands
because they are expensive, apart from that they are well known and famous among the
global consumers. Hence, they are easily perceivable as a luxury by the Indian consumers.
The Indian companies aspiring to position themselves in the luxury domain can also
collaborate with the famous international luxury brands to benefit from their fame. At the
same time, marketers must be wary of excessive publicity to preserve the unique value of
the brands.
The results of the study are consistent with the post-materialism theory, which posits
that poorer societies can be more materialistic because of their recent exposure to the wealth.
This provides important implications for the luxury marketers in other developing
countries. The global luxury marketers may design similar advertising campaigns for such
nations holding high materialistic values. The communication can be strategized in a way,
which can direct the nouveau riche to channelize their newly acquired wealth for pursuing
 their materialistic luxury pursuits. On the other hand, for wealthy nations, luxury marketers Luxury
can focus on more subtle and experience-based utility of the luxury brands. consumption
The results of the study are applicable to a wide range of products because materialism in India
is considered as a belief/value of owning and possessing in general than specific to a
product. It is important that the marketers adopt ethical business practices by keeping the
negative consequences of materialism under consideration while targeting the vulnerable
young consumers. 233
Limitations and future research
There are some limitations of this study. The present research is limited to India. Since, the
study is consistent with the post-materialism theory as the Indian consumers have been
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empirically proved to engage in the materialistic luxury consumption, so, the antecedents
leading to luxury consumption may also differ across countries. More exhaustion might be
needed to establish a sound theoretical underpinning of the relation of materialism and
brand consciousness with luxury consumption in other developed and developing countries.
The research has taken a sample of young luxury consumers of India. Inclusion of other
age groups can provide a comprehensive understanding of the luxury segment as a whole.
Also, the future studies can perform cohort analysis to provide important explanations
regarding materialistic values, brand consciousness and luxury consumption motivation
among different generational cohorts. Apart from that, the use of qualitative techniques
may also supply rich subjective insights regarding the consumer behavior.
The future research can also be directed toward testing the moderating roles of
demographic variables in the relationship. The use of control variables in the further studies
may also provide a thorough explanation of the relationships. The research is limited to the
major cities in India. Since, the market for luxury has shown an upward trend in smaller
cities as well (Garg, 2011; Khare, 2014), the future research must be conducted to understand
the consumers of these cities. The study has only identified materialism and brand
consciousness as predictors of luxury consumption. Future studies can identify other
psychological, personal, social or cultural antecedents of luxury consumption to provide a
comprehensive understanding of the same.

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