The art of wearing luxury products

Luxury consumption often garners mixed perceptions, yet openly expressing one’s passion for luxury can be beneficial

By Pan Jingyi, Principal Writer, China Business Knowledge @ CUHK

The adage “you are what you wear” often leads many to buy branded products. People normally buy luxury brands for their extraordinary appeal and the confidence they can inspire. For some professionals like lawyers, accountants, investment bankers, and the like, wearing a Rolex watch or a Louis Vuitton handbag could help them catch elite clients.

The consumer’s thirst for high-end products is no secret in China, where the luxury market is expected to reach 816 billion Chinese yuan (US$112 billion) in 2025, accounting for about 25 per cent of the global luxury market share, according to PwC’s 2023 report. However, luxury consumption can lead to negative judgments.

“Luxury consumers are conferred higher status and receive preferential treatment from others, but such benefits come with a hefty social price.”

Professor Jung SungJin

Adam Smith, a pioneer in modern economics, classified goods into necessities, basic goods, affluence goods, and luxuries. Since then, scholars have viewed luxury products as exclusive and expensive items only accessible to the wealthy.

However, recent economic uncertainties have led Chinese consumers to avoid flaunting their wealth in favour of more discreet fashion due to “luxury shame”, similar to what happened in the US during the 2007-2008 financial crisis, according to a June report published by Bain consultancy.

“These are the social costs of luxury consumption,” says Jung SungJin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Many luxury consumers worry that their choices may be judged negatively by others, leading them to appear pretentious, wasteful, and snobbish. These concerns can deter individuals from fully enjoying their luxury items as they grapple with potential backlash.

“Luxury consumers are conferred higher status and receive preferential treatment from others, but such benefits come with a hefty social price,” he adds. “They are often viewed as striving for status and managing impressions, and therefore judged as inauthentic.”

Express your true emotions

In a series of experiments, Professor Jung found that many individuals actually enjoy and love luxury products, yet a significant portion of them choose to keep this fervour hidden from others, especially from co-workers and social media followers. “This is because they worry about receiving negative judgments,” Professor Jung explains, citing an example of one individual who indicated wanting to avoid being thought of as a snob.

So, how can luxury consumers alleviate those negative social consequences? Professor Jung, in collaboration with Charlene Chen of Nanyang Technological University and Andy Yap of INSEAD, sought to answer this question in their latest research titled Expressing passion for luxury enhances perceived authenticity. The researchers proposed that openly sharing one’s passion for luxury can lead others to perceive them as more authentic. “Authenticity here refers to acting in accordance with one’s true self,” says Professor Jung.

The team carried out multiple studies to examine their hypotheses. The first experiment examined the consequences of expressing passion for luxury sneakers. The results show that demonstrating one’s passion for luxury helps alleviate the negative impressions associated with luxury consumption.

“We found that the luxury consumer was perceived as less warm than the non-luxury consumer,” says Professor Jung, “However, more importantly, expressing passion for luxury helped mitigate these social costs, making the luxury consumer appear more authentic and, therefore, warmer.”

Positive interpersonal outcomes

In the following experiment, Professor Jung and his co-authors aimed to investigate the reasons why luxury passion expression can enhance one’s perceived authenticity. “This occurs because luxury passion expression makes the luxury consumption appear more intrinsically motivated,” Professor Jung says.

Existing literature indicates that observers often attribute luxury consumption to external motives. In other words, they assume that consumers engage in luxury consumption to gain external benefits like status, social approval, and favourable impressions.

However, expressing passion shifts this inference. “A consumer who expresses passion for luxury will be seen as pursuing the enjoyment and stimulation inherent in the usage of luxury products, such as the pleasure derived from craftsmanship,” Professor Jung explains.

Publicly expressing one’s passion for luxury can make individuals appear more authentic, leading to several positive interpersonal outcomes. Firstly, increased perceptions of authenticity tend to make individuals seem warmer and more trustworthy. “People often associate warmth with genuine intentions, and feel less defensive toward authentic individuals and regard them as more trustworthy,” Professor Jung explains.

Another positive behavioural outcome of enhanced perceived authenticity is people’s increased interest in learning more about luxury consumers. “Disclosing a genuine, unvarnished self and not having a hidden motive is highly valued in interpersonal relationships,” says Professor Jung, adding that these positive effects can coexist with the status benefits of luxury consumption.

Unlike luxury consumption, non-luxury consumption is generally not linked to underlying motivations such as status enhancement or impression management. Thus, the researchers found that the benefits of passion expression are attenuated under the scenario of non-luxury consumption.

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A win-win scenario

While the luxury market continues to grow, this research offers practical insights for both luxury brands and their consumers.

On the one hand, the findings inform consumers that there is no need to hide their passion for luxury goods. On the other hand, Professor Jung suggests that companies can encourage consumers to showcase their passion explicitly. For example, they could nudge consumers to talk about the craftsmanship of the brand, or share and engage with specific social media content.

While expressing passion for luxury is generally viewed positively, Professor Jung underscores that the impact of passion expression on social evaluations might differ depending on what people are passionate about. “One avenue worth investigating is whether passion expression generates similar benefits when applied to other types of impression management behaviours, such as humblebragging about one’s professional achievement.”