Business Administration Luxury Brands

Introduction

Luxury brands are attracting people from all over the world to possess them and boast owning them today. The industry of luxury branding is widely known nowadays as it is the emerging result of communication, mutual trade policies and a variety of business techniques that depend on globalization and information technology in order to reach the greatest number of consumers internationally. Purchasing luxury products began as a type of complements as these products used to be very fine mostly handmade pieces of art to be bought by only very rich socially distinguished people. It turned within ages of time to be a great industry purchased by many types of people. Luxury brands industry can be affected by many factors that can control it such as cultural factors, consumer behaviors and other factors. In this assignment, luxury brand will be discussed as an industry through reading, analyzing and discussing an article related to it, then the assignment will discuss the strengths of the article besides its weakness regarding its method in discussing luxury brand industry. The impact of the luxury branding on worldwide consumers will be discussed in addition to discussing the value in use in relation to the luxury brands.

Summary

In past years, only high class families tended to purchase the luxury goods as it was a sign of superiority in the society as the high quality goods were expensive and sold among limited numbers of people, this concept has been subject to many changes as time passed so many people were attracted to luxury goods and that was the start of brand building. There were certain companies that gave much interest to the luxury brands as their customers were attracted by the appreciation of society to them when they possess such goods. Stories and drama were the tools used by companies to add mystery effect to the products which lead to forming the brand identity. Today, the luxury brands are affected with macro environmental trends that are numerous as the internet, globalization and e-commerce. There are also social, cultural besides the external trends. Globalization is an example for the cultural trends because cultures are affected with it through the exchange of concepts and beliefs it leaves over worldwide peoples. People learned to love the brands as they represent a prestigious state all the world aspire to have. There is a difference in the way consumers purchase luxury goods and this is caused by market segments. Luxury products have characteristics that affect the way people buy them. The luxury brand then can be recognized by these characteristics as all luxury goods are having a high level of uniqueness, quality and pricing. There are sets of conditions distinguish the existence of luxury products and they form a consumer perceived value for certain features such as the product's quality, conspicuousness, hedonism, uniqueness and others. According to cultural differences between nations, consumers' perceptions for the luxury brands differ. Luxury brands value can be enhanced through many ways such as experiencing the luxury products and using them by the consumers who can realize the product in different ways. Brands are usually produced aligned with a story of love, success or creativity and this effect is what gives the products the brand meaning which is essential in realizing the relationship that connects a consumer with a certain brand. Consumers of the luxury brands are affected with the prestigious impact the brand leaves over their lives as the product's value in use affect them. The recent international marketplaces specify the characteristics of the luxury brands by the demands of firms and consumers. 

Evaluation

The article writers was good when he referred to the luxury branding start and how it began since the beginning of man civilization and its changing into brand building that focuses on a dramatic events to attract consumers as Ghodeswar, (2008) confirmed that brand building is a long life process and a life way which takes time to be made.  The people are affected with the luxury brands and they have relationships with them as the story related to the brand can leave its impact on their souls which make them purchase the product whatever expensive price it has. The article writers Oliver and Seo,(2015) discussed the brand identity and explained how it is formed with a cultural effect as the dreams of people in a place are not the same dreams of other people in different places. The country's heritage is the factor that decides the type of brands people are attracted to as in India people's preferences in brands differ from the preferences of Indian. Ghodeswar, (2008) referred to brand identity and related it to brand associations that bear promises of quality to their customers, he referred to what he called the core identity which is the service and product performance the brand is focusing on. Oliver and Seo,(2015) discussed that the brand identity can be formed according to the consumers it is addressing because globalization and travelling lead to a change in the way people consider brands as education for example affected the worldwide students to love the international brands even if the history of their countries doesn't support brands, they also discussed macro environmental trends' impact on the luxury branding industry and they defined luxury as the consequences of a relationship that occurs between cultures and it is based on a socio-psychological perspective. Ghodeswar, (2008) defined brand by being a symbol such as a trademark or a logo that is set for identifying a product or a service of a seller and can bring certain qualities to the customers. This definition was good and the article of Oliver and Seo,(2015) lacked such a definition which is a weakness in it. Ghodeswar, (2008)stated that brand identity is built on a deep understanding for the company manufacturer's competitors, customers and the general business environment and this was also missing from the article of Oliver and Seo,(2015) as it focused on people's dreams and requirements with relation to the needs of the company.   

Oliver and Seo, (2015)discussed market segments and how they play a big role in controlling the behaviors of consumers towards the luxury brands as they referred to changes in the customer behavior resulting from the area where the customer comes from, this is completely true and real as according to a view by Husic and Mehmedovic, (2015) the regional approach in segmenting the market of luxury branding depends on the consumers' demographics in order to segment consumers such as consumers sharing certain social or cultural characteristics; they also focused on the lifestyles of consumers as they can decide consumers' perceptions to luxury branding but the writers Oliver and Seo, (2015) neglected other things such as the perceptions of consumers regarding the luxury brands as segmentation of consumers can be based upon the perceptions they have for each brand as this was confirmed by Teimourpour et al, (2012) as they confirmed on the segmentation which is based on perceptions of consumers in addition to the product's country of origin; this means that the product comes from USA for example has a different consumer perception from a product comes from Italy. The article writers Oliver and Seo, (2015) only focused on segmenting customers according to their culture which is another weakness in their article.

For evaluating the article written by Oliver and Seo, (2015), it is found that they were very strong in presenting the characteristics of the consumers' values about the sold luxury goods as they discussed these characteristics such as uniqueness, pricing and quality. Teimourpour et al, (2012) discussed the consumers' values to luxury brands as they discussed some value dimensions that can tell how the consumers regard the brands, be attracted to them and their perceptions to them; they referred to the quality value which should be better than any product in the market as it is expected to be received by the consumer, they discussed the uniqueness that the consumer purchases the product for as owning such a luxury product is not repeated by many consumers but some categories.  Teimourpour et al, (2012) added that there are other dimensions for the consumers' values such as the usability value which can refer to the usage of the product and that customers need certain usage conditions they need. They also added that there is the financial value as the consumers realize and expect that the luxury product is of high value so it is not reasonable to purchase a brand product which is very cheap as this will make consumers devalue the product and perhaps not buying it.

Oliver and Seo (2015) discussed how the cultural factors leave their impact on the consumers of the luxury brands, they also stated that there are other circumstances affect the consumers behaviors such as the geographical conditions or the social conditions as consumers' perceptions to luxury branding are highly affected by such factors which is globally regarded. Ghodeswar, (2008) also discussed these factors as he referred to the factors that play a role in positioning the product into the consumers' minds and this affects their perceptions in return; he referred to the social cause of purchasing a luxury product and mentioned that companies follow the social causes and build their brands on them. Mehmedovic and Husic, (2015)defined "luxury" to be a group of goods that brings in a type of prestige to its purchasers due to high quality that is well perceived by customers. They discussed the brand awareness people have and that consumers of luxury branding goods have high levels of customer loyalty. They stated how consumers can be motivated to buy the luxury products by an inner feeling of being unique, they referred to a luxury branding model that has some dimensions such as history, product integrity, value driven emergence, endorsement and marketing, they mentioned five values relevant to five motivations and this results in five categories of consumers of luxury branding including the perfectionists and hedonists. They discussed how luxury brands consumers are sophisticated in all details such as packaging or finishing of the product. Oliver and Seo (2015) mentioned three kinds of consuming attitudes such as the democratic, the elitist and the distant but he forgot to mention the type that has no idea about brands but can be urged when he owns the money to buy them and the desire and knowledge. This is a weakness as the article's writers didn't discuss how companies today are not only targeting the elite of the society but they may also target any category that has the money to buy their products even if they are not from a very high social class but they aspire to look like high class society. This assures the view that confirms on the importance of social effects on consumers' perceptions as many consumers of luxury brands are not in fact belong to an elite category of society but they wish to be so that's why they search for the best luxury brands products and boast they possess them in society.    

Application of the article evaluation to the Omani market

In Oman, people like to buy luxury products as it is a rich Gulf country which is characterized with the Arabian life features such as buying good and fine products in order to show how wealthy you are as well as buying luxury products such as clothes and perfumes as a part of the Arabian culture. Consumers' behaviors are that of the Arabian Gulf behaviors, they are very attracted to Western life as a result of the trade exchange occurring between Oman and America so people of Oman are good consumers of luxury brands. As a country of the Middle East, Omani people like to try new worldwide products and they send their young youth to countries around the world to educate and get high certificates, this results in acquiring good knowledge and information about brands and luxury products and this raises the consumers' purchasing rates for luxury products; for example, people in Oman prefer buying the most luxurious cars in the world such as Rolls Royce as the company has its branch in Oman Called Oman Rolls Royce and the people in Oman like to purchase accessories relevant to the luxurious care with high rates, according to the Times of Oman newspaper, rates of Rolls Royce sales in Oman increases with 27% which indicates how much the Omani people are interested in luxurious goods and luxury branding. (Omantimes, 2015). People in Oman like all types of art because they have a good artistic heritage, their women usually like to appear net and lovely as they prefer purchasing the very expensive brands of clothes, perfumes and make up. The Omani history is full of art and handicraft as these pieces of handicrafts used to be sold at very high prices for the elite of the society in old Oman and people used to buy them as a mark of being from the high social classes. Oman is a country that has rich oil product which makes it a country with a strong market that is full of business and attracts people from many destinations and countries all over the world which raises the market segmentation of Oman and results in a wide variety of consumers of different demographic features and this raises the consumers' purchasing rates for luxury products. Oman market is full of great malls that attract many consumers to purchase the luxury brands products these malls sell in addition to the big number of car shows, electronics shows and shows for different products and all of them are full of the best brands products from all over the world. According to what was discussed in the previous evaluation, Oman market considers a good place for marketing the luxurious brands for many international manufacturers due to the consumers' behaviors in Oman, their purchasing attitudes and their perceptions for the luxury brands and their products found in the rich Omani market. (Capstone, 2013).

Conclusion

Luxury branding is an industry that attracts many people of different social classes but it used to be specialized in attracting only rich people of the high classes in the past. Many factors today resulted in making luxury branding a common industry that attracts so many people all over the world through a dramatic effect. Globalization and communication are among these factors. Luxury branding has an identity that is built by many characteristics of the products these brands are issuing such as being of very high price, high quality and uniqueness. Consumers' behaviors and attitudes identify their perceptions of the luxury brands. Market segmentation can decide how consumers react to the luxury products according to the nature of these segmentations. The luxury brands' value in use is important for attracting many consumers as firms focus on what consumers really use for valuing the product and how important the product is to them and their prestige in society. Oman market is a distinguished rich market that is full of luxury brands all Omani people purchase.