Reference Group Influence On Consumption Of Luxury Brand

China ranked the third of country which consumed large amounts of luxury. Why the consumers have so great enthusiasm for luxury? We have known that the choice of consumers do not completely dependent on himself, but be influenced by social environment. Reference group is one of an important means that the society put the influence on the individual. The huge attraction power of luxury for the consumer derives from the admiration of the reference group, which is not a strategy of distinguish between social classes, but also the means to self-express. Although reference group influence has an important meaning for the consumption of luxury, and the luxury market gradually expand in the industry, the studies on both theoretical and empirical are scarce.This paper tries to answer four questions:(1) is the reference group influence on luxury purchase decision different, when the consumers faced with different consuming circumstance (publicly or privately)? and compared with the mass-market brand; (2)different kinds of reference group influence how to influnce consumer's self-brand connection? (3) how reference group influence through consumer perceived luxury social-oriented purchase value, or personal-oriented purchase value to influence on brand loyalty? (4) which differences of luxury consumption behavior exist between the consumer who is apt to perceived luxury social-oriented purchase value and apt to perceived luxury personal-oriented purchase value?Firstly, this study tests the differences in reference group influence between publicly/privately consumed products and luxury/mass-market brand. The study finds reference group influence is differrent in purchasing decision. Informational and value-expressive reference group influences are particularly sensitive for purchasing of luxury brand. Utilitarian and value-expressive reference group influences are particularly sensitive for purchase decision of publicly consumed products. Make use of the most efficient method to influence the consumer can get better result for brand management.Secondly, this study tests the differences in reference group influence on self-brand connection. The study finds that value-expressive reference group influence has most strong effect on luxury brand self-brand connection for both publicly and privately consumed products. Utilitarian reference group influences has most strong effect on self-brand connection for publicly consumed products of mass-market brand. And informational reference group influences has most strong effect for privately consumed products of mass-market brand.Thirdly, using 427 consumers of Louis Vuitton as samples, reference group influence on luxury-brand loyalty and the estimation of mediating effect are discussed. The empirical study shows that reference group influence is positively correlated with luxury-brand loyalty. Both informational and value-expressive reference group influence have significant positive effect on social-oriented and personal-oriented purchase value, whereas utilitarian reference group influence only has significant positive effect on social-oriented purchase value. Results shows that the consumer perceived personal-oriented purchase value has stronger repurchase intention, and the consumer perceived social-oriented purchase value has stronger word-of mouth intention. The purchase value of luxury-brand was tested partial or full mediating effects on reference group influence and luxury-brand loyalty.Lastly, the empirical study shows that purchase value has positively significant effect on luxury-brand loyalty. K-Means Cluster shows 4 clusters, and the difference of purchasing activity, word-of-mouth and repurchase intention is significant. The consumer of high score on social-oriented value purchasing activity is negative correlated to repurchase intention, but the consumer of high score on personal-oriented value purchasing activity is positive correlated to repurchase intention.The academic contribution of this study denoted as follows:(1) Enriching the study of reference group influence on consumer's purchase decision by comparing the purchase decision of luxury brand with the purchase decision of mass-market band; Reinforcing the conclusion that it shows consumer's self-brand connection derives from reference group influence, by put different kinds of reference group influence on the consumers to compare the differences between consumer's self-brand connection; (2) Expanding reference group influence theory and luxury theory by discussed reference group influence on luxury-brand loyalty and the estimation of mediating effect of consumer perceived purchase value; (3) Enriching the conclusion proposed by former studies by compared purchase behavior and brand loyalty of the luxury consumers who perceived social-oriented purchase value with the consumers who perceived personal-oriented purchase value. In addition, this study provides overseas and domestic enterprises some valuable guides to catch luxury consumer's behavior characters. It's meaningful to exploit luxury market successfully.