how far would you go for luxury? an exploratory study among romanian female students that consume luxury

The main purpose of the paper is to identify actions that Romanian female students consuming luxury have been taken and would be willing to take in order to obtain the desired luxury products, deepening the “compromise” dimension. Although not based on previous studies, as is the only one of its kind in the luxury domain, the study took into account the “sugar daddy” and the “extreme saving” phenomena, mentioned in few books and considered to exist among young female luxury consumers. The research is based on primary data collection, where a questionnaire-the data gathering tool-was applied among female students under 30 years, resulting 273 luxury consumers. The results that were obtained using the statistical program SPSS 19, showed that a small percent of the respondents mentioned that have made compromises to have luxury goods and services, like telling lies, engaging in relationships or have been financially supported by someone. The lack of past compromises for the other consumers is mainly due to the inconsistency between compromises and their moral and ethical standards, respectively to the low importance(desire) given to luxury. However, some of those who mentioned the previous reasons believe that in future there is a certain probability to make some compromises for luxury, especially for luxury cars, homes or clothing. In addition, many of those who have made compromises in the past are also willing to make in the future. But, in order to obtain luxury products, most consumers are willing to save or to get a job, seeing savings as a form of compromise. The authors contribution is given by the originality and uniqueness of the subject discussed, as there are no similar studies in the luxury domain both in Romania and at international level. Although the study has as a limit the use of a sample from a single city, we believe that the research is significant for the luxury sector, contributing on the one hand to outlining of the general profile of Romanian luxury consumer by identifying aspects related to consumer behavior, and secondly by identifying a new segment of Romanian luxury consumers, without high income but willing to take various actions in order to have luxury products.