The Luxury Industry: A study of Consumer's Behavior in time of crisis

Abstract

It is obvious to the world that luxury market is such a crucial market today seeing its value and share among the consumer market growing year after year. The purpose of this study is therefore to understand on a first hand the mechanism of luxury market and how it could be among one of the few market to benefit from the global economic crisis. And on the other hand, to understand the motivations of consumers through an analysis of their behavior based on a survey. What we will understand through this research is that the luxury industry is not to be seen as a cash-cow, in other terms a product is not luxurious because it is expensive, it is expensive because it is luxurious. Luxurys price is the one of every consumers dream and it is complicated to put a price limit on a dream, the bigger the dream the more money we would easily spend to achieve it. It can be a car, a bag, a watch, they all share the same logic: they make dreamers happy. This thesis will through behavioral theories analyze the very specific motivations of the luxury consumers. Moreover, the worlds markets is a big challenge for companies and we believe the world is going through a crucial change in worlds operating system, in terms of culture, societies, economies, so business should learn and anticipate how to face changes in trend. This is why we will also explore what strategies companies could adopt in order to face predicted trends in luxury industry.