What drives Kuwaiti consumers to purchase luxury brands?

Luxury products evoke exclusivity and they compete in the market based on brand identity, brand awareness and perceived quality. The market for luxury products has grown exponentially in the last two decades. Thus, profiling luxury consumers is very important because it plays an important role in planning the target marketing strategy. This study investigates the influence of several functional, social and personal factors on Kuwaiti consumers' luxury consumption. Using a large sample size (n = 880), logistic regression results show that brand image, social image, need for uniqueness, self-identity, cosmopolitanism, ethnocentrism, and materialism affect consumers' luxury consumption in Kuwait. To the best of our knowledge this is the first empirical study to investigate luxury consumption in Kuwait. Thus, by focusing solely on luxury goods consumption in one of the richest nations in the Arab world, rather than on traditional commodities, this study enriches the knowledge base of this under-represented area.