Premium brand marketing and the concept of self

Abstract

The project attempts to understand how premium brands are marketed. There are differences in a premium product, mass product and luxury products. As per research, there lies a difference in the way the products are marketed just to generate consumer response for that particular kind of product. For example, mass products would not worry about generating a differentiated response, rather an affective loyalty. On the other hand, for premium products, there needs to be a willingness to pay for the differentiated factors that the product provides, and they use value-based pricing. Finally, luxury products do not want to establish differences between brands, but they rather tend to establish their own presence in terms of brand heritage and prestige. As per Kapferer et al, luxury goods were initially seen as a source of social stratification whereas premium products are more about personal indulgence. Hedonism takes preference over functionality for luxury products. However, premium products are still rooted in their functional aspects. They just differentiate themselves enough to charge a premium price. Luxury brands are exclusive and do not have the major drive to earn the highest market share. Finally, luxury brands are not positioned superior to their competitors. They are just distinct from competitors. The following literature survey goes ahead into different aspects of marketing related to consumer behavior like consumer values, reference groups, positioning, brand loyalty, brand personality, price perception, brand imagery, brand associations, and brand value. Consumer values and reference groups suggest the differentiation created as per segments and the values associated with the brands and the consumers. Moving over to the positioning, the global, foreign or local consumer culture positioning is preferred by different brands as per their category, and type. In terms of loyalty, there are multiple ways to generate brand loyalty like through attachment, brand experience, trust, satisfaction, positive WOM, and self-congruity. Brand personality affects the congruence between the brand and the perception of the consumer. This is dependent on the kind of products for example materialistic or cosmopolitan, and publicly or privately consumed products. Another important factor that changes the premium marketing is price perception. Premium marketers should think of how the consumers perceive their prices in terms of price justice, and whenever they are increasing prices. Consumer values, market share and the familiarity of the brands affects the evaluation of the price. Especially in terms of being a high PDB country, Indians look at the price and tend to adjudge the quality from it. Brand imagery differs for different product categories, demographics, and consumer values. Additionally, choices made by the marketers in terms of the kinds of appeals they use and the initiatives they take affects the final attitude and perception change. Brand heritage is an important factor for brand evaluation. Brand associations too change the picture of marketing. Post-evaluation doesn’t really change the perception but generation of the brand associations and especially in terms of brand extensions, brand associations play an important role. There are techniques to generate such a response. Finally, brand value is driven by prestige and value co-creation.