Is your Perception of "Luxury" Similar to Mine? A Concept Made of Absolute and Relative Features

Luxury is a relative feature of goods and services. Despite the many empirical studies that have been conducted, marketing scholars have not agreed on a common definition or interpretation of the term "luxury" so far. This deficit causes improper interpretations and, thus, evokes a kind of growing conceptual confusion. Additionally, the increasing interest in luxury in recent years had contributed unintentionally to the ambiguity of the term. Advertising agencies consciously or unconsciously aim to take advantage of the confusion around the concept and propose the "attribute" of luxury for all kinds of trading purposes. this article aims to contribute to a clarification of the concept of luxury by going deep into the relativity of this attribute and the related characteristics of luxury products. We present a scheme summarizing previous conceptual contributions.