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1. Introduction
Economic factors such as increased disposable income have led to a steady growth in the sales of high-end luxury goods (Truong, 2010). In real terms, people’s incomes are nearly three times higher than 1950, yet regardless of their salary bracket, 60 per cent say they feel similarly deprived as they cannot afford to buy everything they really need (Mintel, 2012). This could be partly due to people now regarding many high-end goods as being essential. Status in today’s society appears to be an important factor within social existence and personal comparison with others affects an individual’s well-being (O’Cass and McEwen, 2004). This can result in “keeping up with the Joneses”, an attempt to inflate the ego by portraying wealth and status with the acquisition and display of goods to impress others, typically known as conspicuous consumption (Veblen, 1934). Conspicuous consumption is becoming more available to the masses resulting in people being increasingly judged through their material lifestyles (Varman and Vikas, 2005).
The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing conspicuous consumption in the context of clothing. Three factors are postulated to influence conspicuousness: public self-consciousness, the concern of appearance and impression (Tunnel, 1984), materialism, the importance of acquiring material possessions (Richins and Dawson, 1992) and self-esteem, judging themselves by worthiness (Rosenberg, 1965). As clearly both the aesthetic and price elements are vitally important to remain competitive in the industry, these influences are examined in relation to the expensive and fashionable characteristics of clothing. By analysing perceptions across these two dimensions, the research examines whether conspicuous purchasing perceptions change depending on the feature of the product. In addition, the relationship between conspicuousness and demographic characteristics and clothing shopping behaviour are also examined. Analysis of these will support marketers in understanding consumers’ clothing motivations and purchasing behaviours in order to promote marketing strategies to increase sales for specific markets.
As a highly visible product, clothing was chosen to study consumers’ usage as garments express personality and values (Phau and Cheong, 2009). The UK clothing market remained relatively robust throughout the recession, growing 13 per cent from 2007 to 2012 to an annual £51 billion turnover benefiting from the constant demand of a quick turnover of new fashion trends (Mintel, 2013). The...