PhD Luciana de Araujo Gil- Umayor (Santiago- Chile)

Phd Ian Michael- Zayed University (Dubai and Abu Dhabi- UAE)
PhD Lester Johnson -Swinburne Business School (Melbourne- Australia)

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF LUXURY:
COMPARING THE LUXURY ATTITUDES OF BRAZILIAN AND
EMIRATI FEMALES

https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT LUXURY A

FEW FACTSBRAZIL
From 2000 to 2008 Brazils luxury market growth was
35% (Strehlau, 2008).
Analysts from Goldman Sachs believe that Brazil will
become part of the largest world economies before
2050 (Keston, 2007)
Recent studies predicted that by 2030, the richest
Brazilians will increase from 1% to 5% of the
population, and the middle and upper-middle classes
will increase from 36% to 56% of the population
The good performance and potential of the Brazilian
market continues to attract further investment in
high-end products (Euromonitor, 2014)

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naGil

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT LUXURY A FEW FACTSUAE

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Listed among the best places worldwide for

organizations to conduct business, and there are over

400 multinational brands present in Dubai alone (Balakrishnan,

2008)

The UAE has now been classified as an emerging

economy consequently increasing the attention and
awareness (Faisal, Zuhdi, & Turkeya, 2014 )
UAE consumers rank as some of the worlds biggest
consumer of luxury brands (Salama 2008)
Has developed a fame of being an exquisite destination
for anyone who aspires to live in the luxury circuit
Statistics by UAEs Ministry of Economy showed that
within the last decade, the country has more than
doubled its GDP (IMF, 2009)
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THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

New luxury Populence (Popular

Opulence) Granot & Brashear (2008)
Brand consumption of which self-identity
value is one of the factors
Moderating the relationship between ones
self-image and ones image of the product or
service (Kapferer & Bastien, 2009)
Also addressed by congruity with internal
self
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https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

SCORES FOR BRAZIL AND EMIRATES CULTURAL VALUES THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE

90
80
76
69

49

50

38

25

Power Distance

Individualism
Brazil

Masculinity
United Arab Emirates

Uncertainty Avoidance
S ource: The Hofstede Center (S ept, 2014)

https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

METHODS
Brazil total sample consisted of 76
female students, the majority between
the ages of 18 and 24
Sample
UAE 175 female , the majority ranging
their age was from 18 to 25 years,
mainly from Dubai, Sharjah and Abu
Dhabi
self-reported, paper and pencil survey
Instrum
ent

for Brazil and Survey Monkey (online)

for UAE
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https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

MAIN MEASURES

Attitude toward luxury : Attitudes represent a

consumer's overall evaluations of an object such as

a product/brand or store; it is a response involving
general feelings of liking or favorability (American
Marketing Association, 2007).
We use a short version of the attitude toward
luxury scale created by Dubois and Laurent (1994)
that fits the scope of our research. Sample of the
items are In general, luxury products are better
quality products, Luxury products make life more
beautiful anchored by disagree- agree.

https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

MAIN MEASURES
Attitude toward luxury brands:

This scale is
an adaptation of the scale created by Mitchell and
Olson (1981) and it was used by Rios, Martnez,
Moreno, and Soriano (2006). It is measured by the
mean of four seven-point evaluative scales (goodbad, dislike very much-like very much, pleasantunpleasant, poor quality-high quality)
Sample of the items are To what degree do you
like or dislike luxury brands? anchored by dislike
very much - like very much and In my opinion
luxury brands are anchored by good - bad.
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naGil

FINDINGS
A first analysis reveals that Emirati
women are better disposed toward
luxury than Brazilian women. We
divided all 15 questions into six
categories to better compare: Interest
in Luxury, Disposition Toward Luxury,
Luxury Knowledge, Feelings Toward
Luxury, Luxury as Positive Expression,
Luxury as Negative Expression

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LUXURY IN THE UAE

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UAE FINDINGS
Emirati female students buy luxury goods for their
own personal pleasure and satisfaction. They feel
that these items may reveal some aspects of their
characteristics
Luxurious products add pleasure and beauty to their
lives, some feel that luxury makes them dream
Emirati female students agree that luxury cannot be
considered as a measure of social class or success. It
differentiates them from others
Most agree that it represents fashion but may not be
good taste all the time

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LUXURY IN BRAZIL

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BRAZILIAN FINDINGS
Brazilian (as UAE) feel that luxury items may
reveal some aspects of their characteristics
Brazilians believe that life is more beautiful
with luxury than Emirate women
Brazilian female students (as well as UAE)
agree that luxury cannot be considered as a
measure of social class or success. It
differentiates them from others
Brazilians believe that sometimes a fine
replica is as good as an original luxury brand

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naGil

SMALL SAMPLE -MEANS FOR TWO ITEMS - EMIRATI VERSUS BRAZILIAN FEMALES

T Test for different means

Countr
y

Category

Item
I have less desire
Emirati
towards luxury
brand products
when mass
quantities of people Brazil
i. Interest in
consume the same
Luxury
products as me
Im not interested
in luxury
ii. Disposition
Luxury is really
Toward
useless
Luxury

Emirati

Mean

175

4.78

76

4.03

175

2.41

Brazil

76

3.83

Emirati

175

2.22

Brazil

77

3.84

Sig.

3.091

0.002

-6.33

0.000

-6.282

0.000
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naGil

FINDINGS
Furthermore, we believed we could make
some deeper analysis by separating
females older and younger than 21
years old.
While Emirati female university students
present a tendency toward more
conservative answers when growing older,
Brazilians do not change their view with age.
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https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

FURTHER RESEARCH

Future research could also include

other demographic groups
Further research could include other
age brackets
More measures should be included in
order to have a more complete view of
what is happening in each country
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https://umayor.academia.edu/Lucia
naGil

THANK YOU
GRACIAS

http://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/colleges/colle
ges/college_business/faculty_staff/_
profiles/Ian_Michael.aspx
https://umayor.academia.edu/LucianaGil
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