Updates in Luxury Purchase Motivation in East Asia: China, Japan & South Korea

Abstract

Japan and South Korea have always had an important influence in the East Asian luxury goods market. In recent years, Chinese consumers have also arisen extensive attention from luxury brands and consumer markets in various countries. Although the three countries have the common Confucian and Zen culture which brought a certain degree of commonalities, such as collectivism and aesthetic preferences, at the same time, they have developed their own national characters, such as China's "benevolence", Japan's "loyalty" and South Korea's "righteousness"—accompanying the evolution of aesthetic consciousness in the thousands of years' history, all of these impact profoundly on today's consumer motivation. However, the international and national economy, politics, society and communication gradually evolved different consumption motivations. "Luxury" has undergone tremendous changes among consumers in the three countries. A total of 405 respondents (of which 325 respondents answered all questions) in the three countries received our questionnaire. The questionnaire contained two parts: basic information and consumption motivation, based on the impression of the word "luxury" and the 36 questions which divided into five levels (Strongly Agree, Agree,Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Impression keywords helped us to understand the changes in consumers' attitudes towards "luxury". Besides, we analyzed 36 consumer motivations and behaviour issues through relative importance index (RII) analysis and classified and grouped these factors to determine the importance of motivation ranking. The results show that Chinese consumers are more concerned about the practical value of luxury goods, such as quality and price. Japanese consumers regard craftsmanship and quality as the most important consumption motives, while pleasure and quality are factors that Korean consumers value more. Through the analysis of the results, combining with the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 epidemic this year, we could see that luxury brands not only need to strengthen customer relationship management, but also consumer segmentation, behaviour and sentiment analysis, as well as the predictive analysis in order to provide customers with personalized, high-quality services. At the same time, as ethics and sustainable values become more and more important in consumer awareness, and even affect their purchasing decisions, they hope that the brands they buy can reflect their own value. Therefore, how to use science and technology to enhance transparency and authenticity will also be the new focus of luxury brands.