The Artification of Luxury: How Art Can Affect Perceived …
75
needs can change it: While the evaluations of consumers who aim at signaling their
status are more positively influenced by highly recognizable artworks, evaluations
of those who aim at differentiating from others are more positively influenced by
hardly recognizable artworks.
Another issue that the literature has explored is how the image of the artist who
produced the art associated with the product advertised can affect product evaluation
and perception. Specifically, Scarpaci et al. [73] investigated the effects that artist’s
iconicity has on the perception of national brands. Artists, who “may be viewed as
uniquely positioned representatives of their culture” (p. 321), often serve as national
icons by embodying national identity and values. Through a qualitative study, these
authors demonstrated that artists’ association with a national brand enables an “icon
myth transfer effect” that is a mechanism of translation of cultural and national values
into brand associations [73]. To do that, they distanced from the main characteristics
of previous studies: Taking into consideration two forms of artistic expression (dance
and poetry) that do not have a visual display, they introduced the artistic element into
the experiment by considering two products named after famous artists. This research
has contributed to both enrich the knowledge of the art infusion effect and extend the
boundaries of cultural branding. On the one hand, it demonstrated that the association
of the product with art can generate positive effects because of the spillover not only
of luxury perception, but also of cultural values. On the other hand, it challenged the
most traditional views of cultural branding, in which “the brand is the myth, and the
myth reflects characteristics of the myth market” [73, p. 330].
8 A New Theoretical Model
In the present work, we introduce a novel conceptual framework that aims to advance
extant knowledge about the art infusion effect in two important ways. First, we
introduce the role of a construct that, while being peculiar to both art and luxury, has
not been investigated by previous research in this stream: the perceived durability of
the product advertised. Second, we introduce a distinction between artworks based on
what we call intensity of artist’s craftmanship, which we predict to affect consumers’
perceptions of product durability and, in turn, purchase intention (see Fig. 1).
Indeed, some scholars have highlighted that the luxury sector can be intrinsically
sustainable (e.g., [31]), and more specifically, two luxury goods’ peculiar characteristics, such as craftmanship and durability, are particularly important to respond
to stakeholders’ growing concern for the environmental and social impact of companies’ activities. Craftmanship—namely the skill with which something is made
by hand—is not only “synonymous with time and the specialized labor needed to
produce an object of value, a symbol of tradition passed down from generation to
generation, the fruit of manual know-how”, but also a “type of guarantee in terms
of quality, duration and aesthetics” [8, p. 130]. Thus, consumers link the intensity
of craftmanship to product durability, which literature considers as one of the main
drivers of luxury value perception [74]. Building on knowledge about art infusion
75
needs can change it: While the evaluations of consumers who aim at signaling their
status are more positively influenced by highly recognizable artworks, evaluations
of those who aim at differentiating from others are more positively influenced by
hardly recognizable artworks.
Another issue that the literature has explored is how the image of the artist who
produced the art associated with the product advertised can affect product evaluation
and perception. Specifically, Scarpaci et al. [73] investigated the effects that artist’s
iconicity has on the perception of national brands. Artists, who “may be viewed as
uniquely positioned representatives of their culture” (p. 321), often serve as national
icons by embodying national identity and values. Through a qualitative study, these
authors demonstrated that artists’ association with a national brand enables an “icon
myth transfer effect” that is a mechanism of translation of cultural and national values
into brand associations [73]. To do that, they distanced from the main characteristics
of previous studies: Taking into consideration two forms of artistic expression (dance
and poetry) that do not have a visual display, they introduced the artistic element into
the experiment by considering two products named after famous artists. This research
has contributed to both enrich the knowledge of the art infusion effect and extend the
boundaries of cultural branding. On the one hand, it demonstrated that the association
of the product with art can generate positive effects because of the spillover not only
of luxury perception, but also of cultural values. On the other hand, it challenged the
most traditional views of cultural branding, in which “the brand is the myth, and the
myth reflects characteristics of the myth market” [73, p. 330].
8 A New Theoretical Model
In the present work, we introduce a novel conceptual framework that aims to advance
extant knowledge about the art infusion effect in two important ways. First, we
introduce the role of a construct that, while being peculiar to both art and luxury, has
not been investigated by previous research in this stream: the perceived durability of
the product advertised. Second, we introduce a distinction between artworks based on
what we call intensity of artist’s craftmanship, which we predict to affect consumers’
perceptions of product durability and, in turn, purchase intention (see Fig. 1).
Indeed, some scholars have highlighted that the luxury sector can be intrinsically
sustainable (e.g., [31]), and more specifically, two luxury goods’ peculiar characteristics, such as craftmanship and durability, are particularly important to respond
to stakeholders’ growing concern for the environmental and social impact of companies’ activities. Craftmanship—namely the skill with which something is made
by hand—is not only “synonymous with time and the specialized labor needed to
produce an object of value, a symbol of tradition passed down from generation to
generation, the fruit of manual know-how”, but also a “type of guarantee in terms
of quality, duration and aesthetics” [8, p. 130]. Thus, consumers link the intensity
of craftmanship to product durability, which literature considers as one of the main
drivers of luxury value perception [74]. Building on knowledge about art infusion