Identification and assessment of luxury brand segments in the emerging markets: Case of South Africa

Abstract: Africa has been identified as an upcoming market in which luxury brands should secure future growth opportunities. A review of related academic literature, however, reveals that limited research has been conducted which focuses specifically on the continent’s luxury consumers. This gap in the literature highlights the need to further the body of knowledge on luxury consumer behaviour in this context. However, as the continent comprises a vast number of countries with diverse consumer profiles, it was decided that this study would focus on the assessment of the behaviour of the members of luxury consumer segments in the South African market.The specific areas that require research in order to establish an understanding of luxury consumer segments’ behaviour commenced from a review of different trends and developments in the South African market. The core trends, along with calls for further research on luxury brands in the international academic literature were combined to identify numerous avenues for further research. This eclectic approach aimed to not only contribute to an enhanced understanding of the behaviour of luxury consumer segments in the South African market, but to develop and extend the existing body of academic knowledge and literature on luxury brands.Four research questions were developed from both the identified avenues from the review of the trends in the market, and the calls for further research in the academic literature. Each of these questions was then addressed by four individual papers.  This thesis makes a number of contributions to the related body of knowledge as it details the behaviour of different luxury brand consumer segments in the South African market, thereby serving as a step towards addressing the gap in the literature on luxury consumers on the African continent.