Materialistic Consumers Who Need To Signal Their Status: Examination of Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Luxury Brands Engagement on Social Media

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the key drivers and outcomes of consumer brand engagement (CBE) with luxury brands on social media. Specifically, this study aims to examine the mediating effect of CBE between antecedents (materialism, need for status signaling) and brand outcomes (brand attitude and brand usage intention) when consumer involvement (CI) is controlled. A survey was administered to 547 non-student young consumers who follow luxury brands on Instagram. The empirical findings show that antecedents (materialism, need for status signaling) positively influence brand outcomes (brand attitude, brand usage intention). Further, the results show a partially supportive mediating role of CBE between antecedents and brand outcomes. This research found prominent effects of materialism and need for status signaling. There are limited studies on CBE with luxury brands on social media. This research is a pioneer, as it extends the CBE framework by adding two individual difference variables as antecedents and two brand outcome variables.