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Introduction
Vanity is a trait existent since the ancient times. History provides an instance of a Roman connoisseur who served his guests a platter of tongues of birds who were trained to speak (Davidson, 1898). Nevertheless, vanity continues to remain a strong human desire only changing its expression with time. Today, it is demonstrated through brand consumption and is also considered to be a manifestation of consumer value orientation (Wang and Waller, 2006). The present-day global market is controlled by commercial products (Arnould, 2010) and the young generation is a keen participator in the global consumer culture (Park et al., 2008; Mady et al., 2011). Marketing scholars advocate that the exposure to global marketing images trigger enhanced vanity levels among the consumers (Workman and Lee, 2013; Lee and Workman, 2014). Therefore, vanity-driven consumers may be sensitive towards brand names, especially in India, one of the fastest growing economies emulating purchasing behaviour of the West (Durvasula and Lysonski, 2008).
Consumer vanity, a psychological construct, is defined as a concern for physical appearance and personal achievement which has a strong influence on individual’s behavioural intentions and guides consumer decision-making (Netemeyer et al., 1995). It is one of the motivations for buying luxury brands and such consumer motives are primarily social than utilitarian because the key characteristic of luxury brands is the conspicuousness, i.e. the ostentatious display to the public (Kapferer and Bastien, 2009). Luxury brands have high quality, craftsmanship, history, excellence, aesthetics, emotional appeal, uniqueness, functional utility and a creative unique lifestyle that is global (Brun and Castelli, 2013). Understanding consumer vanity in the context of luxury consumption is important because the consumers of luxury brands are concerned about their appearance, status and the impression they make on others (Husic and Cicic, 2009).
Another important psychological construct related to luxury consumption is brand consciousness, which is defined as consumers inclination towards buying branded products that are famous, well-known and highly advertised (Sproles and Kendall, 1986; Zhang and Kim, 2013). The brand-conscious consumers perceive expensive brands to be of superior quality (Sproles and Kendall, 1986; Keller, 1993) and symbols of status and prestige (Liao and Wang, 2009; Giovannini et al., 2015). The famous brand named products help the brand-conscious consumers to form and express...