Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands that are able to fulfil their values. Luxury fashion marketers have spent enormously on advertising and adopted sex appeal extensively as their major selling technique. Little empirical evidence, however, has been presented with regards to the effectiveness of using sex appeal in luxury fashion advertising. Consumer responses to sex appeal in luxury brand advertisements are also poorly understood and under-investigated. The massive use of sex appeal in luxury brand advertising suggests the strong need for empirical research to determine the relationship between sex appeal and perceived luxury values. Based on the luxury value framework and adopting a quasi-experimental design, this study examines the influence of sex appeal in advertising on the relationships between attitude towards the advertisement and luxury value perceptions. Results show that the increase of sex appeal level increases the favourability of the advertisement which results in significant changes in luxury value perceptions. The influence of gender is found to be prominent in this study, which highlights the importance of gender consideration when adopting sex appeal strategy for any luxury brand advertising. Implications for luxury brand marketers and advertisers are discussed.

Sex appeal advertising has been widely adopted in luxury fashion marketing and yet little attention has been paid to the impact of sex appeal on perceived luxury values. Using a 2(low/high degree of sex appeal) x 2(male/female ad endorser) x 2(male/female ad viewer) factorial design, this study finds that the use of a high degree of sex appeal in an advertisement significantly improves young consumers’ perceptions of the appearance, quality, uniqueness, and conspicuousness value of a luxury fashion brand. The impact of sex appeal on the self-identity, hedonic, materialistic or prestige value perceptions appear to be insignificant. Gender interacts with the degree of sex appeal on the appearance and quality value only. Implications for luxury brand marketers and advertisers are discussed.

Despite the recent economic downturn, the worldwide sales of luxury fashion brands have increased. The luxury fashion market may have become more profitable and yet, at the same time, more competitive. The relationship between consumers and a luxury fashion brand is the type of relation that starts with an affinity towards a particular brand name and is manifested through the purchase of the goods (Okonkwo 2007).Luxury consumption generally involves purchasing luxury products and brands which can symbolise luxury values to an individual. Even though luxury consumption has always been associated with prestige-seeking behaviour, it goes beyond that. Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands and goods that are able to fulfil their own functional and emotional values or, specifically, perceived luxury values. Advertising is essential in selling luxury brands and most luxury brands are willing to invest in advertising. One of the main objectives of luxury brand advertising is to help consumers develop a good understanding of the perceived values that luxury brands can offer as compared to non-luxury brands. Only after perceived luxury values are well understood, will consumers be persuaded to purchase the brands. Luxury fashion brands are one of the most profitable and fastest-growing luxury sectors, yet at the same time most researchers tend to agree that the value perceptions associated with luxury fashion brands are poorly understood and under-investigated. Values in general can be regarded as beliefs that guide the selection or evaluation of desirable behaviours or end states (Schultz & Zelezny 1999). Luxury values explain why consumers desire and purchase one luxury brand rather than another. This is because luxury values associated with a specific luxury fashion brand influences consumers’ preference over another brand. There is a wealth of models for perceived luxury values and many researchers have attempted to measure perceived luxury values. Previous research has revealed that luxury values may consist of multiple dimensions. For example, luxury values may involve exclusivity, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand identity (Phau & Prendergast 2000). Vigneron & Johnson (2004) proposed five perceived luxury values which comprise conspicuous value, uniqueness value, quality value, hedonic value, and extended self-value. Subsequent to the study done by Vigneron & Johnson (2004), Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels (2007) extended and summarised nine perceived luxury values in relation to luxury fashion brand consumption which are: price value, usability value, quality value, uniqueness value, self-identity value, hedonic value, materialistic value, conspicuousness value and prestige value.Gender, in particular, has not been carefully examined in the luxury context. Since many luxury fashion brands are purchased as gifts for the opposite gender, good understandings of the gender differences in perceptions towards key luxury values becomes essential in this luxury market. Extended from Wiedmann et al.’s study (2007) and using a two (male and female endorser) by two (male and female consumer) factorial and quasi-experimental design, this study examines the impact of gender on consumer responses to seven key luxury values, including the appearance, quality, uniqueness, materialistic, hedonic, conspicuous, and prestige value. The sample included more than three hundred young consumers in Australia. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the validity and reliability of each value construct. T-tests were conducted to examine the difference between the male and female consumers with regards to each of the luxury value. The study found that, when exposed to the male-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have significant different perceptions towards only three key luxury values including appearance, hedonic and prestige value. However, when exposed to the female-endorser advertisement, male and female consumers have different perceptions on all of the key values examined except the materialistic and quality value. The results reveal that gender is a key consideration in luxury brand marketing, particularly in the context of new luxury brand advertising. On one hand, the same advertisement may lead to different consumer perceptions on the luxury values of the advertised brand. On the other hand, some key perceived values (such as quality or materialistic) may not be influenced by gender (neither the gender of the endorser or the consumer). The findings of this study are important as they enable luxury marketers to understand the impact of gender in luxury brand marketing. The implications go beyond luxury fashion brands to other sectors of the luxury market.