Research on Influence of Materialism on the Consumption Habits and Perception of Coffee as Luxury Consumption

Defining concepts of consumption has changed by modernization and changing conditions of today. Luxury consumption is described as purchasing for symbolic values rather than useful values to the end that individuals maintain, or sometimes, reflect their position in the society instead of satisfying necessary needs. As a result of globalization, relationships of nations and societies have spread and improved. The improved relationships have affected and changed the people’s consumption behaviors. The concept of materialist consumption has somehow grabbed attention through the effect of consumption culture. The materialist consumption behavior is an excessive and non-normal form of purchasing that could cause severe consequences in people’s life. Therefore, understanding of materialist consumption behavior will help understanding of consumer behaviors, allow businesses to generate profit as they would be more careful when making decisions, and contribute to social welfare. The snob, hedonic and bandwagon consumption tendencies are considered that consumers buy a product to take pleasure not to benefit from it. Studies performed on marketing and consumption psychology suggest that materialism is an element affecting the behaviors of consumers. This study investigated the relationship between the materialism and the snob, hedonic and bandwagon consumption tendencies, and perception of coffee, a traditional drink in Turkish geography, as luxury consumption. For this purpose, the scales were administrated to 365 persons in Çanakkale through online questionnaire forms, and 344 were used for the questionnaire analysis. The analyses showed that there was a relationship between the materialist consumption tendency and the snob, hedonic and bandwagon consumption tendencies, and these dimensions had an influence on the perception of coffee as luxury consumption.The study complies with the ethical rules of scientific research according to the meeting number 03 at themeeting of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University on 08.11.2020