Snobbish bandwagoners: Ambiguity of luxury goods’ perception

Abstract

Purpose: The article explores the grounds of possible interrelations of snob and bandwagon consumers’ inclinations in the luxury fashion sector. The reason to investigate this comes from the growth of inconsistent evidence among analyses of this subject. Consumers’ perception of luxury goods seems not only compound but also quite ambiguous at the same time. One of its reasons may be the wrong assumption that snob and bandwagon inclinations are opposite trends that cannot co-exist among individual motives of luxury purchases. Methodology and findings: The mixed method research – in the form of international consumers’ e-survey and semi-structured interviews with affluent consumers – reveals that mutual relations of these two trends are clearly visible and can both motivate purchase at the same time.