Consumers’ Conspicuousness and its Underlying Traits

Conspicuous consumption is the behavior whereby individual displays wealth through extensive leisure activities and luxury expenditure on consumption and service (Veblen 1898; Trigg 2001; Griskevicius et al. 2007). The tendency to display wealth is no typical only to consumers in developed countries, but also in developing countries. The phenomena of conspicuous consumption are even more prominent in the society where cultural and social categories are diffused and the environment undergoes rapid changes. Wealth and exhibition of possession become important for the society members to communicate themselves (McCracken 1988). In the emerging countries, such as China, the demand growth for luxury products has attracted many global luxury brands producer to execute the opportunity (Chu 2012). Globally, in 2009, the growth was contracted, however, in 2010 the market for luxury goods were estimated to reach $222.9 billion, a 10% growth from the prior year and is predicted to reach $307.3 billion by 2015 (KPMG 2011).