A study on consumer buying behaviour for fashion and luxury brands under emotional influence

Purpose Fashion and luxury brands struggle to make themselves distinguished by ever more apathetic consumers in this highly competitive market. Fashion and luxury retailers can use emotional branding as a way to get their customers involved to address the increasing trend of emotional relationships with a brand to become more competitive. Although brand technology, such as product attributes, characteristics and facts, is unforgettable, personal sensations and experiences better shape brand assessments of consumers. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the dominance of consumers’ emotions over objective analysis in selection among the brands in the field of fashion and luxury products for similar products. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature study has been done to explore the various emotional associations that are identified by the advertising, marketing, psychology scholars and researchers. This study also analyses the relevance of consumers’ emotional associations with the fashion and luxury brands. Various online scholarly journal platforms have been used to find the relevant research papers, books and other publications on the basis of keywords of this study. Only recent studies and literature covering the basic concepts of branding, emotional buying and fashion consumer behaviour have been included after scrutinising carefully. Findings This study illustrates how emotional branding is crucial in a volatile market, particularly for fashion and luxury brands. This study will also be focussed on the possibility in which consumers buy the fashion and luxury products under the influence of emotional needs. The objective of this paper is to inform both consumers and brands about the emotional influence on the buying decision so that both can take better conscious decision. Originality/value Understanding the influence of emotional needs will help fashion brands in creating better customer value and satisfaction. A business or product will be successful only if it is chosen by the consumer to satisfy his needs. Understanding of emotional needs would result in enhancement of consumer’s loyalty for the brand with better satisfaction of needs. As huge part of marketing resources is involved into advertisement and celebrity endorsement, identifying the effective way of advertising and endorsement can help in efficient utilisation of resources.