Understanding consumer behavior
toward inconspicuous luxury brand
in Vietnam
LE THU HAI 11181430
CLASS: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ADVANCED 60B
Conspicuous consumption is one of the oldest ideas when it comes to consumer
behavior. Products are said to help wearer express their own identities and characteristics.
Brands assist the signaling process through visible logos and explicit patterns, for instance:
Nike’s swoosh, Apple logo, LV’s pattern vector, etc. Purchasing conspicuous luxury products –
goods that are easily to be recognized via their logos or patterns, is mainstream among the
Vietnamese while there is another phenomenon is also rising – consuming discreet luxury
brands. This paper will show a brief understanding about customer behavior of buying
inconspicuous luxury products in Vietnam market.
About discreet luxury, logo less brands in Vietnam, some names can be mentioned:
Bottega Veneta
A luxury fashion house based in Milan, Italy makes clothes, handbags, shoes,
accessories, jewelry, and fragrances.
Figure 1: Bottega Veneta Sai Gon
Figure 2: Bottega Veneta leather bag
Clé de Peau Beauté
A high-end beauty brand from Shiseido – Japan.
Figure 3: Clé de peau Beauté's logo
Figure 4: Clé de Peau Beauté products
Figure 5: Clé de peau Beauté store in Hanoi
Salvatore Ferragamo
An Italian high-end goods brand that is specialized in shoes, leather products. Salvatore
Ferragamo’s headquarters is in Florence, Italy.
Figure 6: Salvatore Ferragamo look book
Figure 7: Salvatore Ferragamo store in Hanoi
Those customers consuming these brands are from class that have high income in
general, of course. HENRYs – High Earners Not Rich Yet – are said to be a potential customer
segment for these luxury names. They already have sustainable disposable incomes and are
willing to pay a large of money for expensive pieces.
According to Jonah A. Berger (University of Pennsylvania) “Subtle Signal of
Inconspicuous Consumption”, there are several reasons that can explain the phenomenon of
purchasing logo less brands: People may not like logos and just care about high quality, minimal
design products; or they want to own something that requires more insight knowledge to
understand.
Previous papers also proved that consumers avoid explicit identifier products because of
their rejection ostentatious symbols. [CITATION Bro01 \l 1033 ][CITATION Dav92 \l 1033 ]
Another reason may be that consumers working in fashion industry are more likely to
buy conspicuous high-end brands as a kind of advertising the brand names, otherwise, people
who do not working in this field are not really interested in those products and such things
provide them differentiation from the main stream [CITATION Ber10 \l 1033 ]. Wealth alone is not
enough to define social class (Fussell 1983) and individuals have used distinct signals (e.g.
products, language, preferences) to indicate to others their social hierarchy. (Brooks, 2001)
[CITATION Bou84 \l 1033 ][CITATION Veb99 \l 1033 ]
“In today’s world, the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite. Highly educated
and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals earnestly buy
organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their babies. They care about discreet,
inconspicuous consumption–like eating free-range chicken and heirloom tomatoes, wearing
organic cotton shirts and TOMS shoes, and listening to the Serial podcast. They use their
purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers, to cultivate their children’s growth, and to
practice yoga and Pilates.” – said Elizabeth Currid-Halkett on her books “The Sum of Small
Things A Theory of the Aspirational Class”.
Two main factors that drive buyer to choose inconspicuous products are their minimal
style and differential in invisible image to mainstream.
References
Berger. (2010). Subtle Signals of Inconspicuous Consumption.
Bourdieu. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.
Brooks. (2001). Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got.
Davis. (1992). Fashion, Culture and Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Veblen. (1899). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Penguin.
