Disassociation from the common herd: conceptualizing (in)conspicuous consumption as luxury consumer maturity

ABSTRACT

Within the context of luxury consumption, we propose a novel theory of luxury consumer maturity that captures how consumers’ tastes can become more discriminating over time. In particular, we consider the way luxury consumers exhibit maturity (i.e. connoisseurship) as a proxy for Bourdieusian cultural capital. Consumer maturity manifests as a preference for inconspicuous luxury goods that contain less general signaling ability than conspicuous luxury goods but stronger signals for those within the consumer’s social hierarchy. We conceptually propose the mechanisms that facilitate consumer maturity development, including knowledge, saturation, and time. By moving away from Veblenian conspicuous consumption, we seek to offer a nuanced and revisionist conceptual framework that details the process by which luxury consumers mature, resulting in a preference for inconspicuous luxury products and rejection of mass luxury brands.

KEYWORDS:

• (in)conspicuous consumption
• discriminating taste
• consumer maturity
• luxury consumer behavior
• cultural capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Foo-Nin Ho

Foo-Nin Ho is Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University. His research areas include ethics, luxury marketing, health care marketing, ethnic marketing, international business and consumer behavior. His research has been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Omega, Journal of Healthcare Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Promotion Management, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Journal of Marketing Education as well as various international and national proceedings.

Jared Wong

Jared Wong is a PhD student in the Department of Marketing at Yale School of Management. His research interests include status signaling, impression management, and luxury consumption.