In this paper, the authors theorize and investigate empirically how the emerging technological developments of virtual reality convey the potential to augment future experiences of fashion consumption. This study is informed by previous studies that have discussed the role of fashion discourses and technology consumption within consumer experiences. Using the ZMET technique, the authors conducted a field study that empirically explored how virtual reality augments consumer experiences of fashion shows, hereinafter referred to as virtual fashion shows (VFS). Three themes have merged from our analysis: VFS as an agent of democratization, VFS as embodied escapism, and VFS as posthuman liminality. The implications of these findings for fashion consumer research and practice are discussed at the end.

This paper investigates the impact of the scarcity information (Lynn, 1991) of a brand in its originating market on the pre- and post-taste evaluations of an imported food brand. We expect a positive effect of scarcity information on food brand evaluations, mainly based on naïve economic theory and the ‘scarce product is good’ heuristic. Four experimental studies confirmed this expectation. Study 1 shows that pre-taste evaluations and price judgment are higher when a new food brand is scarce (vs. when it is not) in its originating foreign market. Study 2 finds that both pre- and post-taste evaluations are higher in the scarce (vs. non-scarce) information condition. Study 3 supports the effect of the scarcity effect (vs. the popularity effect) and supports the mediating role of perceived scarcity. Study 4 replicated study 3 using a different sample and target food. Finally, a single-paper meta-analysis confirmed the strong effect of scarcity information on the evaluation of a food product. This research has several theoretical and practical implications. First, it can extend our understanding of how a nonfood- related characteristic determines food evaluation and preference (Wansink, 2004). Second, we separate the impact of scarcity information from popularity information on food evaluations. Finally, we extend the role of scarcity information to taste evaluation and suggest that the type of information can differentially influence pre- and post-taste evaluations.

While conspicuous consumption received much attention from marketing scholars, the focus has largely been on what motivates consumers to engage in these types of behaviors rather than on what prevents conspicuous consumption. Yet, psychological research shows that the individuals who purchase conspicuous products may suffer low subjective well-being overall because there are never-ending discrepancies between the actual and ideal self. Simply put, excessive conspicuous consumption can be detrimental for the consumers’ well-being. Accordingly, from the perspective of cause-related marketing, it is equally important (if not more) to understand how such behaviors can be discouraged. Informed by the literature on the self-concept, selfcongruence, and psychological distance, our study addresses this issue by establishing a novel psychological mechanism that discourages consumers to engage in conspicuous behaviors. Specifically, we establish that: Because self-transformation motivation induces individuals to pursue their ideal-self, this will lead them to seek conspicuous products that reflect an ideal-self. On the contrary, because selfexpression motivation induces individuals to pursue their actual-self, this will lead them to seek non-conspicuous products that more closely represent their actual-self. This research provides important insights for cause related marketing campaigns that want to help people to control the purchase of conspicuous products.

On the one hand, organic food consumption has emerged as a rapidly growing consumption trend, juxtaposed against the unsustainability of industrialized food provisions. On the other hand, recent reports highlight that premium food consumption is one of the fastest growing luxury market segments worldwide. This paper draws on the theory of social practices in order investigate how organic food consumption can be understood as an emerging luxury fashion trend, comprised of multiple interrelated ‘nexuses of doings and sayings’ that represent the elements of, and situated within the broader context of consumer culture. In this endeavour, we have conducted a situated investigation of organic food consumption in South Korea. Our findings illustrate that Korean consumers engage in organic food consumption not merely for their superior health benefits or sustainability concerns. Instead, organic consumption conveys three distinct consumption value types – namely, functional (e.g., superior quality), experiential (e.g., feeling better about themselves because they purchase eco-friendly produce), and symbolic (e.g., allows them to convey their social status). Importantly, when these value types are taken together, they closely resemble the value derived from luxury fashion, which lead us to the conclusion that organic food consumption can be conceived as a particular type of luxury fashion trend. The paper concludes with the discussion of theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

There has been an emerging interest in the effective luxury advertising, which has been conducted within and across national borders. Unlike earlier studies on luxury brands that focused on the behavior and opinions of luxury consumers (e.g., luxury motivations, value perceptions, etc.), this nascent stream of research queries an important role that advertising exerts on luxury consumers (Freire, 2014). Informed by these developments, our study examines how luxury brand marketers can design effective social media messages for their consumers. In particular, we draw on recent research in consumer psychology to shed new light on (1) how consumer feelings about the psychological distance of luxury consumption may influence their evaluation of different types of message appeals on social media and their intention to share these messages with others; and (2) we address how this process varies depending on (a) the perceived tie strength between consumers on social media, the functional attitudes of luxury brands, and across different cultural milieus.

Using a range of interpretive methods, including focus-group interviews, in-depth interviews, and structured field observations, this study investigates how shopping experiences within sustainable fashion stores may cause consumers to change their attitudes towards sustainable fashion. Heider’s balance theory was applied to interpret the results, whereby we constructed the maps of individual consumers’ positive and negative associations of concepts, events, and outcomes within consumers’ purchasing decisions about sustainable fashion products. Our findings suggest that there could often be a gap between the consumer’s perception of sustainable fashion and their actual purchase behavior, which creates an ‘imbalanced’ state. However, positive store experiences may persuade consumers to achieve a balance by purchasing sustainable fashion products. The study provides important and theoretical and practical insights for sustainable fashion marketing

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.

This paper draws on the concept of transculturality, shifting our attention beyond religion as a stable belief system toward religion as a field of transcultural practices. Our conceptualization of religion as a field of transcultural practices is empirically grounded in a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with 24 Southeast Asian immigrant consumers living in Auckland, New Zealand. The findings reveal two interrelated sets of transcultural practices through which religion shapes multicultural marketplaces. The first set of practices facilitates entry into multicultural marketplaces, by easing the process of border crossing and enabling social capital development. The second set of practices facilitates mutual entanglement within multicultural marketplaces, by fostering intercultural competency development, sharing of cultural consumption rituals, and enabling the flows of material resources. This paper helps to advance the growing literature on religion and marketing in two ways. First, a transcultural approach moves religion beyond a view of each religious tradition as a bounded system. Instead, religion emerges as an open and dynamic system which is deeply contextualized and whose function morphs to meet the character of the cultural context in which it is embedded. Second, in addition to the present focus on how religion produces differences in marketplace behaviors, this paper also sheds light on the transcultural properties of religion which are held in common across diverse religious traditions. Rather than becoming a dividing force in contemporary multicultural marketplaces, religious fields are also revealed to be hybridized and hybridizing fields of transcultural flows. Overall, in the context of multicultural marketplaces, religion emerges as a key site for the performance of practices which fuel transcultural dynamics.

This study demonstrates how consumers’ implicit self-theory orientations (Entity vs. Incremental) relate to their perceptions of luxury brand appeals (Functional vs. Non-functional). Specifically, our experiments show that the entity theorists are likely to value the hedonic appeal of luxury brands, whereas incremental theorists value their functional appeal. The study provides useful insights for managers for designing advertising messages and their positioning strategies for luxury brands.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, informed by cultural research on branding and active audience media uses, we develop a general tenet that consumers interpret luxury brand meanings to fulfil specific gratifications. Therefore, the consumer-perceived meanings ascribed to brand luxury can be explored as multiple themes of uses and gratifications (U&G’s). Second, we draw on this tenet to investigate a situated emic account of how consumers use luxury brands to gratify their specific needs. Third, we derive several etic concepts around emic themes that comprise higher-order, more abstract conceptual layers of the consumer-perceived brand luxury. Specifically, our interpretive reading of consumer narratives suggests that luxury brand U&G’s are multiple and divergent; however, they are not completely idiosyncratic – that is, these U&G’s can be understood more holistically in relation to how consumers perceive the dominant value(s) that are being gratified from luxury brands, and whether the U&G’s have a personal or social orientation. In so doing, we illustrate that by dialectically iterating between the emic (informants’ points of view) and etic (theoretical) perspectives, we are able to offer a more complete understanding of luxury brand meanings and their emergence in the broader context of daily life.

As luxury brands have become a globalised phenomenon, marked with the appearance of recognizable and standardized platforms worldwide, we ask how their consumption and meanings are shaped by divergent cultural beliefs that permeate contemporary multicultural marketplaces. Cross-cultural luxury branding literature advises luxury brand managers to cultivate coherent brand identities tied to their internal ‘brand DNA’, with the aim to translate this identity into a consistent global brand image. However, this managerial commitment to a standardized approach in international marketing has meant that brand researchers often adopt an ethnocentric perspective on branding, characterized with the tendency to assess marketplaces in terms of their various degrees of ‘glocalization’. Consequently, the literature on cross-cultural luxury branding has largely focused on the effects of global positioning and local cultural influences, paying little attention to the influences of other foreign cultures that may operate within a multicultural marketplace. This paper is concerned with advancing our knowledge about how complex multicultural influences shape luxury brand markets. In particular, focusing on the interplay between local and foreign cultural meanings in a single national market, we demonstrate how the consumption of luxury brands is influenced by multiple, and at times conflicting, cultural beliefs. Luxury brands and cultural meanings are thoroughly intertwined. Throughout history, the idea of luxury has been influenced by various ideological beliefs, providing an “illuminating entrée into a basic political issue, namely, the nature of social order” (Berry, 1994: 6). For instance, since ancient civilisations, such as the Egyptians and Amerindians, luxury goods have been used as the symbol of status and power (Kapferer and Bastien, 2009). In the days of Plato and early Christianity, luxury was also perceived in a pejorative form that signified the corruption of a virtuous manly life; and with the works of Adam Smith, the idea of luxury has become a vindication of commercial society (Berry, 1994). Over the last two decades, we have witnessed unprecedented demand for luxury brands by international consumers in Japan, in East Asia, and now in the BRIC (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and CIVETS countries (i.e., Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa) (Kapferer, 2012). Due to the accelerated flows of consumption meanings, ideologies, and people resulting from global economic forces (Appadurai, 1997), many of these emerging marketplaces are characterized by cross-cutting cultural flows, exhibiting a high degree of inner differentiation and complexity (Craig and Douglas, 2006), mutual entanglement (Robertson, 1992; Welsh, 1999), and interpenetration (Andreasen, 1990). Consequently, there is a growing need to advance our understanding of how increasing multicultural influences shape luxury brand markets. Informed by a cultural branding approach (Bengtsson et al., 2010) and research on multicultural marketplaces (Craig and Douglas, 2006), we address this issue in cross-cultural luxury branding by offering a qualitative inquiry into luxury brand consumption in New Zealand, uncovering the interplay between two distinct cultural beliefs permeating this multicultural market – the local Kiwi ‘tall poppy syndrome’ and the foreign ‘face-saving’ orientation originating from East Asian immigrant cultures. The Kiwi tall poppy syndrome conveys a negative social attitude towards people (the ‘tall poppies’) who are conspicuously successful and whose distinction, rank, or wealth attracts envious notice or hostility (Mouly and Sankaran, 2002). Conversely, the East Asian ‘face-saving’ orientation is concerned with the social image of success that an individual projects in society (Le Monkhouse et al., 2012). We found that not only did these two local and foreign cultural beliefs convey oppositional meanings about luxury brands in New Zealand, but they also prompted consumers to adopt different luxury brand consumption styles. Furthermore, despite being oppositional in nature, our findings suggest that these beliefs could jointly influence individual consumers, adding yet increased complexity to how these individuals consumed luxury brands. In particular, we demonstrate that luxury brand consumers in New Zealand are able to hold multiple and conflicting local and foreign cultural beliefs in tension, emerging as contextual cultural shifters. While the literature on cross-national luxury branding conventionally privileges cross-national methods which tend to de-emphasise the heterogeneity within national luxury markets (Wiedmann et al., 2007), the results of our study suggest the need to consider intercultural diversity at the intra-national level. Indeed, Brewer and Venaik (2012) decry the danger of applying culture-level constructs to the level of the individual. Brubaker (2004) calls this the fallacy of groupism, where we treat ethnic groups as concrete entities instead of seeing group-making as an on-going project. This is echoed by Calhoun (2003: 547) who encourages “avoiding the illusion that plagued much earlier thoughts of ethnicity and nationalism – that there was one basic identity common to all members of a group.” Essentially, when an individual’s cultural identity is reduced to the nationality or the ethnicity that he or she declares on a survey, not only does this overlook the multidimensionality and complexity of cultural influences which shape how they consume luxury brands, but this also misses further opportunities to engage with luxury brand consumers. While some cross-national luxury consumption studies have accommodated a degree of complexity with the consideration of differences between global and local cultures (e.g., Park et al., 2008; Shukla and Purani, 2012), the results of our study show that, within multicultural marketplaces, the level of cultural complexity goes beyond the global-local dichotomy. Rather, the consumption of luxury brands is transculturally constituted and derived from multiple forms of belonging (Calhoun, 2003). In these markets, consumers find themselves negotiating the meanings and consumption styles of luxury brands at the confluence of multiple cultural beliefs. For marketers operating within multicultural markets, this means that nationality, ethnicity, and degree of glocalisation may be less useful bases for segmentation, prompting the consideration of other ways in which to understand and use cultural influences in segmenting, targeting, and positioning luxury brands. In our study, two distinct cultural belief systems, one local and one foreign, shaped luxury brand consumption in New Zealand. Furthermore, these cultural beliefs were not necessarily tied to an individual consumer’s ethnicity. Given these complexities, it may be more useful to consider other bases of segmentation such as the influence of situational factors (Douglas and Craig, 2011) and the relative salience among multiple cultural beliefs. Furthermore, this is the first study to empirically demonstrate the impact of multiculturalism on luxury brand markets, where consumers emerge as contextual cultural shifters. Our findings illustrate that contextual factors in a multicultural marketplace, like a filter, shaped which cultural influences were appropriated by individual consumers in a given consumption situation. Thus, underlying any given luxury brand consumption situation is a complex interplay between multicultural influences, situational norms, and individual factors. This prompts multiple considerations for luxury brand managers. Might it be possible to go a step further and encourage consumers to adopt culturally-constituted consumption styles which fit better with one’s brand positioning? More specifically, by questioning which cultural influences underpinning luxury brands are more dominant for them, consumers could be encouraged to reconsider their personal uses and attitudes towards luxury brands. Further research is required to find out what contexts are likely to tilt consumers’ consideration in favour of one cultural influence over another. If a luxury brand is a status symbol, might it be possible to prime both Western and Asian consumers to switch to status-conspicuous beliefs? For example, what cues and appeals might marketers present to encourage consumers to think in a more face-saving way? If a brand is understated, might it be possible to prime consumers to adhere to cultural beliefs which encourage more discreet styles of consumption? For example, what cues and appeals might marketers present to encourage consumers to consider the tall poppy syndrome? Such research would be particularly useful for marketers who have little room for repositioning their luxury brand image. Finally, rather than a glocal branding approach, which involves cultivating brand identity within the organisation and overcoming local brand image inconsistencies (Matthiesen and Phau, 2005), we posit that managers need to adopt a multicultural branding approach. We envision that such an approach would involve identifying and pursuing opportunities for the development of dynamic brand identities (da Silveira et al., 2011), where luxury brand managers can assume the role of proactive architects of luxury brand cultures which support diverse modes of luxury brand consumption. This carries implications for cross-cultural luxury branding on three levels. At the basic level, a multicultural branding approach involves paying closer attention to the contextual topography of a given marketplace and consumer receptivity to global, local, and foreign cultural beliefs. As our study showed, a luxury brand entering an emergent multicultural market like New Zealand will invariably face consumer resistance due to the influence of the dominant Kiwi ‘tall poppy’ syndrome. However, this is by no means a monolithic discourse; its influence is uneven. Because of greater diversity and intercultural exchange, consumers in cosmopolitan centres such as Auckland are more likely to be receptive to other cultural influences. As such, it would be a logical point of entry for a global luxury brand. This also suggests that, rather than cross-national differences, segmentation based on the prevalence of multiple cultural beliefs and consumption styles in major cities could be a more appropriate strategy for luxury branding. At a more advanced level, luxury brand managers can not only select, but also focus on proactively cultivating the most conducive contexts, where consumers would feel more empowered to appropriate their desired luxury brand consumption styles within a multicultural marketplace. In doing so, marketers will be able to both target the increasing buying power of ethnic consumers by appealing to their foreign consumption styles (Lisanti, 2010), as well as to find a better positioning to the mainstream consumers who are receptive to cultural shifting. For instance, several respondents in our study presented an interesting dynamic between the two cultural influences: on one hand, they have a desire to consume luxury brands in a more conspicuous way due to the influence of face-saving beliefs, but on the other hand, they feel that they must suppress this desire due to the influence of the Kiwi ‘tall poppy’ syndrome. To unlock this hidden market potential, luxury brand marketers would do well to design liminal spaces and retail spectacles (Kozinets et al., 2004). In the same way that the “Coca-Cola Telenovela Club” provided a liminal space in which Latina moms in the US could explore and perform their love of telenovelas (Lisanti 2010), luxury brand managers might design similar liminal spaces and retail spectacles where could safely circumvent the influence of the local tall poppy syndrome. In contrast to the social sanctions on conspicuous consumption in their everyday lives, liminal spaces can provide an immersive space where foreign styles of brand consumption can be affirmed and cultivated. In other words, luxury brand managers can empower consumers to appropriate their desired culturally-constituted meanings and, therefore, to endorse the particular styles of luxury brand consumption within a multicultural marketplace. Finally, at the broader strategic level, rather than cultivating brand identity entirely within the organisation and then communicating this identity to consumers, luxury brand managers can aim to collaborate with the diverse range of consumers in developing a dynamic multicultural brand identity. This strategy would involve incorporating a wider range of cultural meanings and developing the most appropriate brand positioning(s), thereby addressing tensions around the conflicting luxury brand consumption styles within a multicultural marketplace. In line with the cultural branding (Bengtsson et al., 2010) and dynamic brand identity (da Silveira et al., 2013: 31) approaches, the multicultural branding approach should view brand identity as developing over time through “mutually influencing inputs from several social constituents” that include both brand managers and consumers. Moreover, it should focus on more proactively and thoroughly intertwining the on-going social construction of brand meaning with the on-going evolution of multiculturally-informed consumption styles of luxury branding that emerge within a marketplace. In short, by assuming the role of cultural architects, luxury brand marketers must become more aware of the varying sensitivities of consumers to multiple cultural beliefs and practices across a range of contexts, proactively cultivate contexts which enhance their brand receptiveness, and strive to construct multiculturally-informed dynamic brand identities that embed the brand image more deeply within a marketplace and assist consumers in coping with dynamic cultural change.

The first commercial computer game “Pong” was introduced by Atari Corporation in 1973. Now just over three decades, computer games have become one of the most pervasive, profitable, and influential forms of entertainment. In 2013, The Entertainment Software Association reported that the annual sales in the U.S. alone have reached 20.77 billion in 2012, with the average household owning at least one dedicated gaming platform (ESA, 2013). Furthermore, computer games are no longer merely a form of entertainment for young children and male teenagers, as the average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 30 years old and about half of these purchasers are women (ESA, 2013). In addition, there is strong evidence to suggest that contemporary computer games are driving cultural and societal advancements that serve and benefit gamers and non-gamers alike. For instance, computer games have been increasingly used to educate children and adult students (Annetta, 2010; Squire, 2005) and promote civic engagement (Bers, 2010). Moreover, studies report that consumers foster social gatherings and communities around particular games (Williamson and Facer, 2004), develop virtual world economies (Lehdovirta, 2010), engage with computer games as a form of professional sports (Seo, 2013), and find new ways to express their extended self (Belk, 2013). These few observations suggest that the consumption of computer games is becoming increasingly multifaceted and complex, offering consumers new avenues to traverse their real and online experiences. The topic of computer games has been increasingly gaining attention from the marketing and consumer research scholarship. While some early studies addressed the effectiveness of product and brand placement in computer games (Molesworth, 2006), more recent studies focused on understanding the elements of consumer behaviour emerging in digital virtual terrain (Dengeri-Knott and Molesworth, 2010; Lehdovirta, 2010) and the role of storytelling and competitive play in computer game experiences (Buchanan-Oliver and Seo, 2012; Seo, 2013). Given this emerging research interest in marketing and consumer behaviour literature, we call for future research to make significant contribution to our knowledge in this area.