Luxury Brands and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Perspective on Consumers' Preferences

Abstract

The recent growth trends of globalization has witnessed prominent growth in luxury brand sales over the recent years. However, the dramatically changing economic environment also leads to hardship for luxury brand companies since it affects the customers’ perception whether their high priced luxury brands are really valuable to purchase. This study aimed to determine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives implemented by the luxury brand organizations on consumers’ purchase intention of such brands. Over 300 customers of luxury brands were surveyed to find out whether CSR initiatives have effect on their purchase intentions. The authors present a taxonomy that assigns consumers to one of the four segments according to their annual household income and value expressive perceptions and it demonstrates each segments’ preference for purchasing luxury brands. Out of four types of consumers after perceiving CSR initiatives implemented by luxury brand companies, affluent consumers show the most significant purchase intention of luxury brands. In addition, affluent consumers with internal value expressive perceptions also show the highest purchase intention of luxury brands. Consumers whose value expressive perceptions are internal oriented pay more attention to CSR initiatives than consumers who are external value expressive perceptions. Further, it showed that overall CSR initiatives have significant influence on their purchase intentions. Thus this study provides valuable insight for the brand managers to design and implement their CSR initiatives and marketing strategies.