Motivations for Chinese and Indian consumers to buy luxury brands
type: CreativeWork
description: The growth of the Chinese and Indian economies has lead to a growth for luxury brands in these markets. Luxury brands are finding that there are great opportunities to be had in investing and developing their products for these two markets. However relevant literature discussing the relationship these cultures have with luxury brands is sparse. The aim of this piece of research is two-fold. The first is to uncover what motivations Chinese and Indian consumers have for buying luxury brands. The second is to compare the results and to ascertain to what degree they are similar or different. This will allow both researchers and practitioners to understand these markets better, and to make better-informed strategic decisions accordingly. Using a qualitative procedure, ten self-identified Chinese and Indian expatriates were selected for an in-depth interview to explore the attitudes of different facets of luxury brands in their home countries. The conversations underwent analysis using grounded theory. The data was collated into two sets of cultural data, one reflecting Chinese responses, the other Indian responses. These were analyzed separately to one another, then analyzed using the grounded theory process. Global themes arrived at through analysis were the same for both cultures. The global themes arising in luxury purchase motivation reflect an 'effect' that the respondents believe a luxury brand would have upon the consumer. These effects as communicated by both cultures were: functional value, psychological effects (gained through personal and/or interpersonal effects), and status effects. However the concepts that created the same themes between the two countries showed variation. Luxury brand purchase motivations that emerged as concepts shared between the two cultures included: Quality/Superiority, branding, attracts attention, personal empowerment, image enhancement/creation, and status enhancement and assertion. Luxury brand purchase motivations that were excl…
abstract: The growth of the Chinese and Indian economies has lead to a growth for luxury brands in these markets. Luxury brands are finding that there are great opportunities to be had in investing and developing their products for these two markets. However relevant literature discussing the relationship these cultures have with luxury brands is sparse. The aim of this piece of research is two-fold. The first is to uncover what motivations Chinese and Indian consumers have for buying luxury brands. The second is to compare the results and to ascertain to what degree they are similar or different. This will allow both researchers and practitioners to understand these markets better, and to make better-informed strategic decisions accordingly. Using a qualitative procedure, ten self-identified Chinese and Indian expatriates were selected for an in-depth interview to explore the attitudes of different facets of luxury brands in their home countries. The conversations underwent analysis using grounded theory. The data was collated into two sets of cultural data, one reflecting Chinese responses, the other Indian responses. These were analyzed separately to one another, then analyzed using the grounded theory process. Global themes arrived at through analysis were the same for both cultures. The global themes arising in luxury purchase motivation reflect an 'effect' that the respondents believe a luxury brand would have upon the consumer. These effects as communicated by both cultures were: functional value, psychological effects (gained through personal and/or interpersonal effects), and status effects. However the concepts that created the same themes between the two countries showed variation. Luxury brand purchase motivations that emerged as concepts shared between the two cultures included: Quality/Superiority, branding, attracts attention, personal empowerment, image enhancement/creation, and status enhancement and assertion. Luxury brand purchase motivations that were excl…
author: Heinemann, George
keywords: Qualitative, Interview, India, Purchase motivation, China, High-quality consumer goods
date published: 2008
date modified: 2026-07-27T18:45:47Z
provider: AUT University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: AUT University