Luxury Brand Consumption: A cross cultural comparison of Italian and Dutch millennial consumers

Duin, Simone Lisa Pam (2022) Luxury Brand Consumption: A cross cultural comparison of Italian and Dutch millennial consumers. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

In recent years, the luxury industry has seen massive growth due to millennials’ increasing demand and availability (Brun and Castelli, 2013; Hennigs et al., 2015). Because of this growth, more and more researchers are interested in the luxury industry (Kapferer and Valette-Florence, 2016; Ko, Costello and Taylor, 2019). Most of this research focuses on Baby Boomers and Generation X (Shaari, Hamid and Mabkhot, 2022). However, little is known about millennials’ luxury consumption, even though they are expected to represent 45% of the consumers of luxury brands by 2025 (Dobre et al., 2021). In addition, little research has been done comparing two or more cultures and examining how consumer behaviour is different, even though it has been said that culture may strongly influence consumer behaviour (Ko, Costello and Taylor, 2019). Thus, this shows that there is a gap in the existing literature.

Therefore, this study aims to understand millennials’ consumer behaviour, specifically their luxury consumption, and how their culture affects this. This study is conducted using Dutch and Italian millennials, as little research has been done in Europe (Grotts and Widner Johnson, 2013; Jain, 2020; Shukla and Rosendo-Rios, 2021). Building on the assumptions that both one’s generation and culture strongly affect their consumption behaviour (Assouad and Overby, 2016; Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005; Parment, 2013), this study will investigate these influences using Hofstede’s five dimensions. These dimensions are often used for cross-cultural studies (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005; Venaik, Zhu and Brewer, 2013). The research has taken a qualitative mono-method approach, using six in-depth interviews with Dutch and Italian millennials.

The results suggest that only the level of masculinity and long-term focus influence luxury consumption. Professionals can use this information to alter their marketing strategy according to the cultural score on these dimensions and highlight different aspects of their brand and product to align their products with potential customers better. However, more research needs to be done, including more cultures, to examine whether these results apply on a larger scale.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Supervisors:	Name Email Hurley, David UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Branding H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing > Consumer Behaviour H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > Marketing
Divisions:	School of Business > Master of Science in Marketing
Depositing User:	Tamara Malone
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2023 13:58
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2023 13:58
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/6443

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