An Investigation into the Key Influences of Consumer Buying Behaviour Towards Luxury Fashion Brands in Bulawayo

ABSTRACT

Empirical studies and extant literature on factors that influence consumers into preferring expensive material goods have proliferated over the years, however no known published studies on this area have focused on luxury fashion brands. Findings from available studies emanate from the purview of expensive items such as vehicles, real estate property, and other high-end commodities. This study therefore adopts a comparative approach to examining how the influential variables observed in prior equivalent research (imagery, safety and assurance, self-expression, perceived brand quality, attractiveness, and brand association) drive customers’ purchase intention specifically on luxury fashion brands. The focus of this paper is on the three upmarket fashion apparel retail outlets in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe), thus On-Point Fashion Café, KMD Luxuryware, and Mandy’s Fashions. In the study, a descriptive research design was employed. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and information from 80 respondents who were randomly selected while going about their shopping ex- experiences at the three luxury fashion outlets. The researcher was fortunate to even get a glimpse of the financial bottom lines of each outlet to assess how vibrant the outlets were. The sample size was 80 respondents (40 males and 40 females), without regard to age groups, who were intercepted as they patronized these shops. The core empirical deduction drawn, though the research took a comparative approach to looking at the impact of psychographic motivational variables, is a confirmation that indeed these variables have a positive effect on consumer preference with diverging degrees of influence. Therefore, it is important that fashion designers, apparel merchants, and other fashion practitioners are encouraged to consider the synergistic contribution of the inuent variables in order to create a comprehensively appealing strategy for sustaining and attracting additional patronage, and to better meet the customer’s expectations in each brand they offer. The findings in this paper will have a bearing on the explanation of the sophisticated economics of luxury brands and their effects on the broader economy.

Keywords: Luxury fashion brands, Apparel, Brand equity, Perceived Brand Quality