KOREASCHOLAR

Following the resurgence of the application of theories of social practices in consumer research, we offer a comprehensive typology of luxury consumption practices. In doing so, we shed light on how personalized meanings of brand luxury are emergent in the private sphere of everyday life, as luxury consumers integrate various materials, meanings, and competencies within their practice performances. The findings provide important insights for both scholars and practitioners in developing a more holistic understanding about the multi-dimensionality and fluidly of luxury brand meanings in the context of contemporary consumer culture. Specifically, we draw attention towards the active and creative role that consumers play in constructing multiple meanings of brand luxury, and illustrate that brand luxury can be appropriated and personalized by consumers in many different ways. This ranges from being considered as a form of financial investment to facilitating an imaginary escape; from being perceived as markers of an affluent lifestyle and a conveyer of social status to emerging as resources for aspirational personalities that assist consumers in their self-transformations. Moreover, we found that consumers are not restricted to preforming only one particular luxury brand consumption practice. They can, and often do engage in different practices of luxury consumption, where each addresses different needs salient to the context of their life themes and situational influences. Finally, we show that different dimensions of luxury brand imaginary can become more or less important, depending on which practices are performed by consumers.

• Yuri Seo(University of Auckland, New Zealand)
• Margo Buchanan-Oliver(Margo Buchanan-Oliver, University of Auckland, New Zealand)