Welcome!
Luxury Consumer Behavior
Dr. Satyendra Singh
Professor, Marketing & International Business
University of Winnipeg, CANADA
sites.google.com/view/drsatsingh
# of billionaires in 2025
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Luxury depends on
Wealth
Wealthy > $.5m/year
Affluent > $.2m/year
Status
Income, Education, Occupation
Where do you live?
Quality of residence
…
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Luxury: wealth and status
Discreet
Authentic
French
Small logo
Russians
Emerging
Markets
CIVETS
Niche
Creators
British
Heritage
Need to prove
Counterfeit
Poor countries
Big logo
HI Status
HI Wealth
LO Status
LO Wealth
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Luxury also depends on
Traditional
Head-to-toe covered, loyal to single brand,…
Buy established brand 🡪 Hermes, Dior,…
Modern
Not brand loyal, or loyal to one brand,…
Different desire and expectations
Smart, educated, savvy discerning consumers
Group pressure > individual taste
↑ group pressure in Japan, France, Spain…
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Luxury: Design vs. Modernity
Lamborghini
Ferrari
Aston-Martin
???
You decide
BMW (???)
Mercedes
Lexus
Morgan
Bentley
Rolls Royce
Modern
Art/design
Traditional
Comfort
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This is luxury consumer behavior
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Luxury behavior can be extraordinary!
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Types of consumers
Purchaser
They’ve knowledge to buy products
Browser
For entertainment
May come back 🡪 need more time to make decision
Opinion leader
Meeting point 🡪 Sephora store (10,000 visits weekend)
We display our history and heritage
That’s why we have museum section in luxury stores
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In-store consumer behaviour
Time spent
Women (W) + W = 8 min
W + child = 7 min
W alone = 5 min
W + Man = 4 min
Stealing 🡪 33% by customers, 66% by staff
Always take receipt 🡪 staff makes fake returns
RFID 🡪 Radio Frequency Identification
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Online consumer behaviour
Online 🡪 Pull consumers to store
Offline 🡪 sales people use knowledge for $
Debate 🡪 Luxury cannot be sold online
Prada 🡪 www for info only
Some brands sale limited (eg old) products online.
Others sale through luxury e-stores
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bluefly.com
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designerimports.com
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forzieri.com
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glam.com
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neimanmarcus.com
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net-a-porter.com
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yoox.com
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Attitude towards luxury products? (10-pt scale)
China = 8.2
Mexico = 8.0
India = 7.3
UK = 7.3
USA = 6.8
S. Korea = 6.4
Germany = 6.1 🡪 difficult relationship with luxury
Italy = 6.1 and France = 5.7 🡪 Catholic countries
Helping poor and controlling desire is important
Japan = 5.6 🡪 Symbolic revenge of WWII (after defeat)
They buy more European product to prove their wealth and economic power
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Europe — Germany, Italy, Spain, UK
25% of population > 60
Older people in Europe than USA
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Italy
Inspired by art
Flashy watches 🡪 mechanical
Curves in jewellery
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Germany
Quality is important
Simple watches 🡪 Quartz
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Japan
Like cosmetics, ready-to-wear,…
Do not like perfumes
It hides natural body odour
Encroaches personal space
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India
70,000 millionaires 🡪 50% of population < 50 by 2020
Jewelleries 🡪 gold, diamonds, gems,…
Industrial names 🡪 Sony, Mercedez, BMW…
Own luxury 🡪 world’s thinnest watch
Saries 🡪 even becoming popular abroad
To be served 🡪 Indian palace train,…
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World’s thinnest (3.5mm) Indian watch
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Hilton, Victoria Becman and Claudia Ciesla in Sari
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Palace on wheel - Indian service luxury
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HK/SP/Thailand/Taiwan
Full of young people
Stylish, sleek
Ready-to-wear
Brand visibility is important
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China
Largest emerging luxury market in the world
300,000 millionaires in China
20% of luxury goods are sold in China
Cosmetics 🡪 ↑ whitening products
Silk, Wine, whisky,…
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Russia
90,000 millionaires
Moscow alone spends $2b/year on luxury
Russians love luxury 🡪 banned before
Flashy
New wealth 🡪 Skiing Courchevel French Alp
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Other emerging luxury markets
Columbia
Indonesia
Vietnam
Egypt
Turkey
South Africa
CIVETS
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Types of fake luxury products
Counterfeit industry = 4 x luxury industry $500b
Counterfeit 🡪 100% copy — Deceive customers as real
Pirated 🡪 Copied — Customers know it
Imitation 🡪 Not 100% identical — Customers know it
Custom-made 🡪 Could be real — Replica made by legitimate craftsman through some connection
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Where are fake luxury products?
China, HK, Thailand, Morocco, Taiwan, Turkey, S Korea 🡪 Customers age: 25-35
London 🡪 Oxford Street
Manhattan 🡪 Canal Street
Shanghai 🡪 Xiang-Yang Road (Closed now!)
…
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Fake/misleading KFC in Iran
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Fake/misleading Apple Store in Iran
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Fake luxury bag
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Fake luxury products prevention
France: criminal activities 🡪 buyer and seller
If caught, 2 years in jail
LV sued Carrefour for $40,000 🡪 Shanghai store
Hermes post warnings on Internet
LV, Burberry,… and police raid fake shops
LV spends $15m-$20m/year to combat fake luxury
How to detect it? Click 🡪
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Questions?�s.singh@uwinnipeg.ca