Keywords

1 Introduction

Luxury companies are making greater use of the significant influence that the artistic ventures have in societal contexts. Luxury brands hope to shift consumers' perceptions of luxury from a fleeting notion to one that is profound, long-lasting, and representative of cultural taste through such a connection. What was initially tactical appears to be evolving into a crucial component of creating and upholding a luxury brand. A popular strategy for encouraging customers to purchase a brand is to include artistic elements [1]. This is especially true for luxury brands, which see the arts as a way to maintain their growth and increased presence while also reinforcing their perceptions of rarity and uniqueness. According to Kapferer [2], “artification: the process of transformation of non-art into art” has been studied by a number of researchers from both the managerial and the consumer perspectives. Despite the growing number of studies in the area, some researchers recommend that we continue to investigate the elements that influence how artification increases perceptions of prestige [3], while others advocate for examining consumer traits and situational cues at the same time [4]. This study aims to investigate the mechanism by which perceptions of luxury rise through artification in response to these calls.

As acknowledged by their links to cultural change and their symbolic nature, luxury brands have a fundamental affinity for global consumer culture [5]. Luxury shoppers consequently frequently experience a sense of belonging to a global community with shared values [6]. These international brands gain more symbolism from the system of the international consumer culture [7]. In fact, acculturation to global consumer culture has been described as the process by which individuals occasionally “acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are characteristic of a nascent and de-territorialized global consumer culture” [8]. According to Cleveland and Laroche [8], cosmopolitanism, exposure to the marketing strategies of multinational corporations, exposure to English, social interactions, exposure to global/foreign mass media, openness to and a desire to imitate global consumer culture, and self-identification with global consumer culture are all components of acculturation to global consumer culture. As a result, the following inquiry is raised: Is there a connection between a perceived global luxury brand’s artification and its customers’ assimilation into a global consumer culture? Significant changes have been taking place in the luxury sector lately. The importance of experience has been increasingly underlined, but the way to create such moments-of-truth is still under investigation.

2 Literature Review

If a brand enables customers to regularly satisfy their perceptions of themselves by using the appropriate cultural cues, then consumers are more likely to identify with that brand [9]. Many times, consumers want and buy products to demonstrate their membership in a global consumer culture [10]. Thus, a brand that is perceived as a global brand could aid people in their attempts to assimilate into a global consumer culture. At the same time, materialistic values have been related to global consumer culture [11]. In fact, acculturation to global consumer culture has been found to be a precondition for luxury consumption [9, 12] and the use of luxury brands is regarded as a sign of membership in a large, like-minded community [6]. As a result, a consumer who participates in global consumer culture is more likely to perceive higher levels of perceived opulence, particularly in the case of art infusion. Additionally, products with visual arts on their packaging appear to be more upscale, opulent, prestigious, and pricey [13]. When the arts are tactically combined with luxury brands, they have been shown to significantly improve brand authenticity and, as a result, brand equity [14], while the incorporation of artistic elements has also been shown to be a successful way to persuade customers to purchase the product [1]. Thus, the perceived opulence increased shopping intent.

The following serial mediation model is thus proposed (Fig. 1):

Fig. 1
A flow chart of serial mediation model. Perceived brand globalness links to acculturation to global consumer culture, perceived luxuriousness, and purchase intention. Acculturation to global consumer culture links to perceived luxuriousness and purchase intention. Perceived luxuriousness links to purchase intention.

Serial mediation model

Full size image

H1: Perceived Brand Globalness indirectly influences Purchase Intention through the indirect effect of Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture and Perceived Luxuriousness.

In recent years, there is growing interest in analysing luxury brands’ communication practices [15]. Studies focusing on different aspects of advertising of luxury brands have indicated that they may differ from other non-luxury brands in the strategies they employ [16]. This also applies to luxury brands in the fashion industry [17], as fashion advertising is at the forefront of emerging trends [18]. Luxury fashion advertising differs from advertising for fast fashion or mainstream fashion brands, in that it encompasses multiple layers of meaning [19]. Moreover, fashion brands are highly symbolic and luxury fashion ads frequently challenge advertising conventions [20].

3 Methodology

According to the research model, the purpose of this study is to investigate the serial mediating roles of acculturation to global consumer culture and perceived luxuriousness in the indirect relationship between perceived global brand and purchase intention. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire is used to assess the model. There were 125 responses in total. Following an initial question about the respondent's attitude toward art, participants were shown brief summaries of three art-related events hosted by Louis Vuitton. The descriptions, which were taken from the business website, lacked any language that was overly sentimental. A pioneer in fusing the arts and luxury was Louis Vuitton. Then, based on these events, the brand's globalness, the respondents’ acculturation to the global consumer culture, and their purchase intention, respondents were asked to indicate the brand's perceived luxuriousness. Basic demographic questions were asked at the end of the survey. The questionnaire’s measurements were derived from multi-item scales that are already in use. The proposed serial mediation hypothesis was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS [21] (Model 6, 5000 bootstrap resamples).

The cronbach’s reliabilities of the scales were calculated to evaluate their internal consistency. All scales had Cronbach’s reliabilities that were higher than the advised cutoff point of 0.50. We used the PROCESS macro (Model 6) of SPSS and the bootstrapping method with 5000 resamples to calculate bias-corrected 95% CI [22] to test our serial mediation hypothesis. Regarding the correlation between Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture and Perceived Brand Globalness, the overall model was significant [F(2, 109) = 5.8381, p = 0.05, R2 = 0.096]. According to path a1, Acculturation to Global Consumer Culture is predicted by Perceived Brand Globalness by b = 0.2968, t(109) = 3.1898, and p = 0.0019 (path a1). However, because of b = 0.1005, t(109) = 1.2115, and p = 0.2283, the control variable Personal Inventory does not predict acculturation to global consumer culture. The relationship to the second mediator, path a2, was also examined, and the findings revealed that Perceived Brand Globalness does not predict Perceived Luxuriousness because b = 0.0546, t(108) = 0.3583, and p = 0.7208 (a2 path) all equal positive values. Since b = 0.56, t(108) = 3.7350, p = 0.05 (d path), acculturation to global consumer culture does predict perceived opulence. Again, since b = − 0.1745, t(108) = − 1.3342, p = 0.1849, the control variable Personal Inventory does not predict Perceived Luxuriousness.

Perceived brand globalness does not predict purchase intention because b = 0.1086, t(107) = 0.6695, p = 0.5046 (c’ path), and acculturation to global consumer culture also does not predict intention to buy because b = − 0.2023, t(107) = −1.1927, p = 0.2356 (b1 path). Nevertheless, Purchase Intention can be predicted by Perceived Luxuriousness with a coefficient of b = 1.0700, t(107) = 10.4517, p = 0.000 (b2 path). Purchase Intention was not predicted by the control variable [b = − 0.0539, t(107) = − 0.3841, p = 0.7017]. Since b = 0.2849, t(109) = 1.2865, and p = 0.2010 (c path), the total effect model demonstrated that perceived brand globalness does not predict purchase intention if no other variables are present. Personal Inventory does not predict Purchase Intention, as it did in the prior instances [b = − 0.2007, t(109) = − 1.0163, p = 0.3117].

4 Discussion and Conclusions

The current study adds to the body of knowledge on luxury by utilizing acculturation to global consumer culture to understand the impact of art infusion on perceived luxuriousness and purchase intention. The aim of the study was to examine the sequential mediating roles of perceived opulence and acculturation to global consumer culture on the indirect effect of perceived brand globalness on purchase intention. Online polling of 125 luxury goods buyers was done. Our findings confirmed this theory and showed that purchase intention increases when a brand is viewed as global and makes investments in art because of acculturation to a global consumer culture and a sense of opulence.