۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review

۳- Summary of key research streams

۴- Conclusion and suggestions for future research

References

Abstract

In spite of considerable prior research on luxury branding, no widely accepted definition of “luxury brand” exists. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature in order to: a) summarize the state of knowledge on luxury brand marketing; and b) provide a new and usable definition of a luxury brand. A literature review was conducted with a focus on developing a more useful definition of “luxury brand,” outlining key theoretical perspectives that have been used in this area, and summarizing key research findings. Ko and Megehee’s (2012) framework for understanding consumption of luxury brands is used as the guiding conceptual framework for the review. Directions for future research are provided.

Introduction

The growth of the luxury market worldwide has fueled increased interest among researchers. The luxury market consists of a number of diverse categories and is considerable in size, reaching more than $1 trillion U.S. in 2014 (D’Arpizio, 2014). This market has also experienced tremendous growth, with the total number of consumers tripling in the past twenty years and is forecasted to reach 400 luxury consumers worldwide by 2020 (D’Arpizio & Levato, 2014). A key catalyst of this global phenomenon has been the remarkable increase in luxury consumption in many Asian markets. Moreover, heightened demand in the emerging markets of China, India, and the Middle East has provided much of the growth of the overall luxury market in recent years (Kim & Ko, 2012). While luxury brand marketing historically received only limited attention in the academic literature (Berthon, Pitt, Parent, & Berthon, 2009) recent years have seen a growth of studies on the marketing of luxury products and services. Thus, the time is right to examine the body of the overall literature on luxury brands. As observed by Kuhn (1970), science is inherently a communal activity and advances can only be made by exchanges of knowledge including attempts to consolidate knowledge, and especially theory and findings (Hunt, 2010). To this end, this paper reviews prior definitions and measurement schemes for “luxury brand.” As no widely accepted definition exists, the authors propose a new definition of “luxury brand.” An additional contribution of the paper is to identify the most influential theories in the area and the context in which they have been used. Another intended contribution is to review key research findings with the framework developed by Ko and Megehee (2012) in order to summarize the state of knowledge of luxury brand marketing. Lastly, we outline future research directions.