Binomial Structure in Luxury: Analyzing Overseas Trip Experiences of Japanese Well-To-Dos (14:19)

What is luxury? What does luxury mean to consumers? In this video, our investigation turns from tangible to non-tangible luxuries, for example, luxurious experiences. Using a photo-elicitation narrative method, we found that the luxurious experience of an overseas trip arises from binary concepts, that is, pairs of competing and contrasting concepts that appear simultaneously in our subjects' descriptions of their luxurious experiences. Four binary concepts include: (1) the ordinary versus the extraordinary, (2) the expected versus the unexpected, (3) the separate versus the connected, and (4) the efficient versus the free or "wasteful" use of time. We suggest that luxury not only emanates from gorgeous-appearing consumption objects but also from the internal-meaning structures within consumers.

Citation:

Junko Kimura and Hiroshi Tanaka (2009) ,"Binomial Structure in Luxury: Analyzing Overseas Trip Experiences of Japanese Well-To-Dos (14:19)", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 805-805.