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Introduction
Luxury brands are considered as one of the most profitable and fastest-growing brand segments (Berthon et al., 2009); over the past two decades, the market for luxury goods has more than tripled, from 73 billion EUR in 1994 to 218 billion EUR in 2013 (Bain & Company, 2014). Along with the global appetite for luxury brands and with respect to the serious challenges inherent in luxury brand management such as the risks of brand over-extensions and counterfeiting, the interest of researchers and practitioners in the area of luxury marketing has increased (Shukla and Purani, 2011). In an attempt to satisfy the rising demand for luxury in the era of the “democratisation of luxury” or the “luxurification of society” (Atwal and Williams, 2009; Tsai, 2005; Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2005) without threatening the uniqueness and exclusivity of luxury brands (Tynan et al., 2010), a profound understanding of the luxury concept and its deeper values is essential. However, a concise definition of the concept of luxury is still absent (Christodoulides et al., 2009; Atwal and Williams, 2009; Phau and Prendergast, 2000; Wiedmann et al., 2009). Instead, the definition of luxury is highly subjective, situational contingent and depends on the experience and individual needs of the consumer (Wiedmann et al., 2007). Therefore, successful luxury brands compete today based on a close relationship with customers and their desire for “pleasure and indulgence of the senses through objects or experiences that are more ostentatious than necessary” (Okonkwo, 2010). Consequently, following an integrative understanding of luxury that addresses the multifaceted desires an individual seeks through luxury consumption, the question arises of what are the kind of values and needs considered as important in the consumer’s perspective. Luxury goods have to deliver sufficient value as compensation for the high product price (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993) and in accordance to the customer’s subjective expectations and individual value perceptions (Zhang and Bloemer, 2008). As a key success factor in luxury brand management, the creation and preservation of superior value is strongly related to customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty (Bakanauskas and Jakutis, 2010; Bick, 2009; Cailleux et al., 2009). Recent research gives evidence that the desire for and the consumption of luxury brands involves several dimensions of customer perceived...