Pursuing premium: comparing pre-owned versus new durable markets

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether consumers in pre-owned durable goods markets (such as pre-owned automobiles) purchase products with higher premium/luxury positioning in a vertical line-up compared to consumers in new durable goods markets. The moderating role of brand loyalty on choice is also investigated. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested using a data set that includes the sales of new and pre-owned vehicles from an independently owned automotive dealer in the Northwestern USA during the first nine months of 2017 (N = 200). An ordered logit regression is used to estimate the relationship between consumers’ purchase of pre-owned vs new vehicles and the premium-level of the model that they choose, while controlling for the vehicle price. Two experimental robustness tests are conducted to provide empirical evidence of the proposed theoretical process. Findings Consumers who purchased pre-owned vehicles chose models with higher premium/luxury positioning compared to consumers who purchased new vehicles, even when controlling for price. This effect was moderated by brand loyalty, such that consumers’ premium-level of purchase was magnified if they previously owned a vehicle of the same brand. The results of an experimental robustness test indicated that consumers’ preference for pre-owned vehicles with higher premium/luxury positioning was because of greater perceptions of the quality along the dimensions of versatility, performance and prestige. Practical implications Sellers of complex durable goods (e.g. automobiles) should consider segmenting their upselling strategies for pre-owned vs new products. They should specifically focus more effort on the upselling of pre-owned durables as buyers appear more likely to pursue premium/luxury alternatives compared to new durables. Further, they should focus upselling efforts for pre-owned durables on brand loyal consumers. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to examine consumers’ desire for pre-owned durable goods with premium/luxury positioning in a vertical product line-up. Further, it is also the first to explore the role of brand loyalty in shaping consumer preferences for premium/luxury pre-owned durable goods. As such, it makes an important contribution to an emerging literature exploring the appeal of premium and luxury pre-owned goods. Much work in this area has focused on the motivations that consumers have for buying pre-owned premium and luxury nondurable goods, such as vintage clothing or accessories. By contrast, the present research investigates the appeal of premium/luxury positioning for complex, pre-owned durable goods (vehicles), which are more difficult for consumers to evaluate at the point-of-purchase.

Why Vintage Style? Investigation of Vintage Clothing Motivations of Consumers

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The Invention of Vintage Clothing

This chapter recounts the process of upgrading certain older apparel, a transnational process led by the wealthy and famous, including rich collegians, titled nobility, and rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Celebrations of affluence, elitism, individuality, and fame framed this path. The invention of "vintage" responded to a desire for visible distinction, one almost classically linked to affluence and in keeping with the 1899 thesis of economist Thorstein Veblen. For example, the 1956-7 college fad for old raccoon-fur coats from the 1920s was emblematic of a rising class of wealthy youth to whom chain department stores like Lord & Taylor eagerly appealed—and for whom the word “vintage” was first applied to clothing. Vintage exhibitionism usually disavowed political affiliations while reveling in bucking convention.

Hipsters on Our High Streets: Consuming the Gentrification Frontier

Gentrification involves the displacement of working class populations, a phenomena most obviously manifest in the transformation of residential landscapes. But this is also palpable in the changes visible on many shopping streets, with locally-oriented stores serving poorer populations and ethnic minorities being replaced by ‘hipster’ stores such as ‘real coffee’ shops, vintage clothing stores and bars serving microbrews. These stores have been taken as a sign that the fortunes of struggling shopping streets are improving, with the new outlets often depicted as offering a better range of healthy, green and ‘authentic’ consumption choices than the shops they displace. However, this paper argues that we need to resist this form of retail change given it typically represents the first stage of a more thoroughgoing retail gentrification process, remaining suspicious of forms of hipster consumption which, while aesthetically ‘improving’ local shopping streets in deprived areas, actually encourage the colonisation of neighbourhoods by the more affluent.

Never throw anything away, EVER

Mark Pawson is an artist, self-publisher and bookseller. He grew up in Cheshire, lives in London and never went to Art School. He's a one-man production line creating and selling a constant stream of artists books, postcards, badges, multiples, T-shirts and other essential ephemera. He has collaborated with jewellery makers Tatty Devine and worked with Levis Vintage Clothing.

Second-hand clothing shopping among college students: the role of psychographic characteristics

Purpose – The study aims to examine whether and how second-hand clothing shoppers differ from non-shoppers on various psychographic variables, including environmentalism, perception of contamination, price sensitivity and perception of vintage clothing. Additionally, this study hopes to uncover whether and how the aforementioned psychographic variables help predict second-hand clothing shopping behaviour, specifically shopping frequency at second-hand clothing stores. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a survey method from 152 college students. Findings – Results showed that college students who shopped at second-hand clothing stores were more likely to be environmentally conscious, more sensitive to higher prices and more likely to wear used clothing to express a vintage look and to be “green”, and to perceive used clothing to be less contaminated, as compared to those who did not shop at second-hand clothing stores. This study concluded that, among college students, second-hand clothing shoppers may do so not only for economic reasons but also for creation of style and feeling special about themselves. Research limitations/implications – This study suggests that college students who shop at second-hand clothing stores are different from those who do not shop at second-hand stores in terms of their environmental attitudes, perceptions of contamination from used clothing, sensitivity to prices and how they feel about vintage clothing. Further, financial concern (i.e. price sensitivity) is no longer the only reason for second-hand clothing shopping. Originality/value – Little research has been conducted to understand second-hand clothing shopping behaviour among college students. This study examined multiple psychographic variables and provided insights into college students’ second-hand shopping behaviour.

Vintage, the First 40 Years: The Emergence and Persistence of Vintage Style in the United States

This paper historicizes when wearing vintage clothing first became fashionable in the United States. I trace when the trend emerges in the U.S. and explore various ways the press framed secondhand/vintage clothes and anachronistic dressing. I contend that the emergence of vintage occurs as a form of alternative consumption alongside changes that occurred in the U.S. garment industry such as outsourcing and product licensing. These changes led many consumers to seek more authentic consumption experiences. Consumers with cultural capital found in vintage an alternative market for sourcing fashionable street style. Consumers attribute characteristics to vintage clothing that are typically part of authenticity discourse such as it being of exceptional quality, original, handcrafted, made from natural fibers, and providing continuity with the past. The authenticity of vintage is symbolically deployed in opposition to contemporary mass-produced clothing and standardized retail shopping experiences.