In the past, luxury goods only a few privileged people who can have, such as the nobility. However, due to the economic development made from the upgrading of the consumption patterns change, market liberalization, the Western to the East luxury wave of popular, people are willing to spend money to buy so-called high-priced luxury goods. In other words, the luxury goods consumption is a demand that has nothing to do with the survival of consumer behavior. However, why people are willing to buy luxury goods? What is the motive behind the demand of luxury goods? What are conditions to constitute a luxury market? If the above issues at a different time and space, we might have different answers. Obviously, the formation of a luxury market that behinds a very complicated message, and through observation of the luxury market, perhaps also to reflecting the political, economic or social and cultural meaning. This study attempted to take the rapid economic rise of China as an example, the luxury market with its observation of objects as a source of information, China's luxury market can produce, first, for the luxury goods industry, to see China's consumption why this market have the prospects for development to provide a favorable supply for the industry that can make growth to the industry. Second, as a observer to see, what are the purposes by consumers to buy the luxury goods. In addition, this study is expected to achieve these results. From China's special national characteristics and cultural values of fairness, such a luxury consumer behavior is the consumption of their special meaning. Between producers and consumers posed by the Chinese luxury goods market will show a positive development complement each other.

Submitted by Alice Cunha Cardoso Machado (alicecunha88@gmail.com) on 2015-01-19T18:31:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado_Alice Cunha.pdf: 834597 bytes, checksum: ece606084994e98e8244b17ee239ee3b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-01-21T17:53:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado_Alice Cunha.pdf: 834597 bytes, checksum: ece606084994e98e8244b17ee239ee3b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-02T11:17:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado_Alice Cunha.pdf: 834597 bytes, checksum: ece606084994e98e8244b17ee239ee3b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-02T11:17:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação de Mestrado_Alice Cunha.pdf: 834597 bytes, checksum: ece606084994e98e8244b17ee239ee3b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-18 / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo entender os hábitos de consumo das mulheres da nova classe trabalhadora para conhecer as aspirações, motivações e desejos que influenciam suas decisões de compra, e para identificar qual o significado, para elas, dos produtos característicos do 'novo luxo'. A problemática deste trabalho envolve o entendimento do comportamento de consumo da ‘nova classe trabalhadora’ (Souza, 2012), e tem por objetivo compreender os novos hábitos de consumo dessa classe, no que tange ao consumo de bens constitutivos do chamado ‘novo luxo’ (Silverstein & Fiske, 2008). Os resultados desta pesquisa trarão entendimento às ressignificações de produtos de novo luxo para a nova classe trabalhadora, conhecimento sobre as preferências e prioridades dessa classe, e compreensão sobre o valor simbólico do consumo desse tipo de produto. No primeiro capítulo, foi abordado o comportamento do consumidor, mostrando a importância do estudo do comportamento de consumo para as estratégias mercadológicas, além de explorar a influência da cultura na tomada de decisão dos consumidores; o segundo capítulo abordou os conceitos de habitus, capital simbólico e cultural, em que são exploradas as questões relacionadas a valores, atitudes e hábitos, e a importância destes na expressão do indivíduo na sociedade e na formação de sua identidade; no terceiro capítulo, discutiu-se o conceito de classe social, trabalhando com as principais divergências encontradas nas premissas utilizadas por cada autor para identificar suas características distintivas, mencionando os principais argumentos relacionados aos conceitos de ‘nova classe média’ (Neri, 2011) e de ‘nova classe trabalhadora’ (Souza, 2012); por fim, o quarto capítulo tratou do fenômeno do trading-up (Silverstein & Fiske, 2008), que demonstra que o consumidor tem optado por produtos considerados de novo luxo, mesmo que paguem valores superiores para obtê-los. O produto de novo luxo é definido pelos autores como um produto premium, que apresenta melhorias e características superiores em relação a produtos similares, porém com preços mais acessíveis se comparados aos de luxo tradicional. A metodologia escolhida para este trabalho foi a pesquisa qualitativa de caráter exploratório-descritivo, considerando uma amostragem não probabilística, usando a seleção por julgamento. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstraram que, de fato, o fenômeno do trading-up está presente no dia-a-dia das mulheres da nova classe trabalhadora, ao priorizarem determinados itens que julgam importantes para o seu conforto, bem-estar, e melhoria na qualidade de vida. / This study aims to explore consumption habits of new working class women to get to know their aspirations, motivations and desires that influence their purchase decisions and also to identify what new luxury products mean to them. The issue of this work involves the understanding of consumer behavior of the ‘new working class’ (Souza, 2012), and its objective is to understand the new consumer habits of this social class, in terms of the so called ‘new luxury’ consumer goods (Silverstein & Fiske, 2008). The results of this research will bring understanding to redefinitions of meanings for new luxury products to the new working class; understanding about preferences and priorities of this social class; and comprehension about the symbolic value in new luxury product consumption. On the first chapter, the topic of Consumer behavior was addressed, demonstrating the importance of this theme to marketing strategies, in addition to explore the culture influence in consumer decision making; the second chapter addressed the Concepts of habitus, symbolic and cultural capital, in which the issues of values, attitudes and habits are explored, as well as the importance of these issues in individual behavior in society and in their identity formation; on the third chapter, the social class concept was discussed, working with the main divergences found in the assumptions defined by each author to identify distinctive characteristics, indicating the main arguments about the concepts of ‘new middle class’ (Neri, 2011) and ‘new working class’ (Souza, 2012). The last chapter discussed the trading-up phenomena, studied by Silverstein & Fiske (2008), which demonstrates consumers choice for ‘new luxury products’, even if they have to pay more to buy them. A new luxury product is defined by Silverstein & Fiske (2008) as a premium product, which has been improved, and has superior characteristics compared to other similar products, yet at affordable prices in comparison to traditional luxury goods. The chosen methodology for this study was the exploratory descriptive one with qualitative approach, considering a non-probability sampling, using individual selection by judgment. The results of this research demonstrated, indeed, that the trading-up phenomena is present in the everyday life of the new working class women from the moment they prioritize certain items they consider important to their comfort, well-being and life quality improvement.

<p>This research investigates the interplay between self-worth and consumption, and explores the substantive phenomenon of trading up. Laboratory experiments were conducted in which participants were led to fail (or not) on an intelligence test, which threatened their feelings of self-worth (or not). Following the failure, participants made consumer choices. Of key interest was whether threatened self-worth would result in more "trading up" - that is, selecting more expensive products or retail stores. Results revealed that compared to consumers whose self-worth was not threatened, threatened consumers demonstrated more self-expressive consumption: trading up when a product portrayed "me" (high on self-relevance), or not trading up when a product portrayed "not me" (low on self-relevance). Self-relevance was operationalized in terms of choice sets (i.e., the choice between two Duke t-shirts vs. two white t-shirts) and individual differences in the tendency to consider material objects part of the self (this was measured via a questionnaire).</p><p>This research also examined two hypotheses regarding how consumption could, in turn, affect feelings of self-worth. The first hypothesis stated that negative feelings of self-worth can be immediately repaired via consumer decisions (here, the decision to trade up or not). Indeed, results revealed that among consumers whose feelings of self-worth were threatened, self-expressive consumption repaired negative feelings of self-worth. The second hypothesis stated that positive attachments between possessions and consumers' feelings of self-worth enable consumers to rely on possessions to protect self-worth. To test this, participants wrote about a possession that was important for who they are and how they feel about themselves (participants in a control condition wrote about a possession important to other people for this reason). Results showed that writing about a self-relevant possession before failing a test buffered the impact on feelings of self-worth. This finding was particularly robust for possessions important to consumers' social relationships.</p><p>These findings highlight the bright side of the relationship between consumption and self-worth: consumers respond to threats adaptively - sometimes spending more and sometimes spending less - and functionally - by making consumption decisions that repair self-worth and by relying on possessions to protect self-worth.</p> / Dissertation