Luxury beauty products purchase behaviour of affluent consumers : the role of brand consciousness and brand distinctiveness in Zimbabwe

The purpose of the study was to establish the extent to which brand consciousness and brand distinctiveness influence customer purchase decisions. The thrust was on interrogating whether there were any symbiotic relations between luxury beauty products’ brand consciousness, brand distinctiveness, and affluent consumers’ purchase decisions in terms of the need for simplification of cognitive tasks, in a turbulent pre-emerging market of Zimbabwe. Data was collected from five shopping malls situated in affluent suburbs by intercepting 200 consenting customers who would have bought a luxury beauty product to complete questionnaires. Analysis was done through structural equation modeling on SPSS AMOS. Results revealed that both brand consciousness and distinctiveness were closely related and also had a positive significant effect on customers’ purchase decisions. Managerial and intellectual implications were provided. The study was on the buying behaviour of wealthy consumers in Zimbabwe, a country which has an unstable economy. The research was on how these wealthy consumers take into consideration the reputation of the luxury beauty product and the brand’s unique or differentiating features. The data for the research was collected from 200 rich consumers, who were requested to complete a questionnaires just outside the shopping malls located in upmarket suburbs after it had been observed that the consumer had bought a luxury beauty product. It was noted that luxury beauty products wealthy consumers buying decisions are influenced by their knowledge of the reputation of the luxury beauty product brand and its uniqueness. Luxury beauty products brand managers were advised to create advertisements which pronounce the reputation and differentiating features of the product as bait to wealthy consumers in a developing country context.