The Artification of Luxury: How Art Can Affect Perceived …
77
been collected, the questionnaire has been closed and data cleaned. Specifically,
all the incomplete observations as well as the ones which have failed the attention
check have been deleted in order to improve data quality and reliability, leading to
a reduced sample of 215 respondents. The final sample was equally distributed by
gender (51.2% female and 48.8% male) and composed of 39.1% students, 14.4%
independent contractors, 34.0% employees, 9.8% executives and 1.8% pensioners or
unemployed. Most of the respondents (61.9%) were aged between 18 and 34, while
20.4% were aged between 35 and 54, and finally 17.7% were 55 years old or older.
The majority of respondents, about 77% of the sample, declared to have a bachelor’s
degree or a higher academic qualification.
At the beginning of the questionnaire, respondents’ attentiveness has been
solicited by asking them to pay particular attention to the image and text they would
have seen immediately after. Moreover, they have been informed that the following
were fictional scenarios. Respondents were then randomly assigned to one of the
two scenarios resulting from the manipulation of the independent variable, namely
the intensity of craftmanship involved in the creation process (102 respondents were
exposed to the low-intensity condition, and 113 respondents were exposed to the
high-intensity condition). In order to avoid any potential influence coming from
respondents’ previous experience with the brand, we decided to resort to a fictional
one created for the purpose that is Kéntro. In both scenarios, it has been said to
respondents that the brand Kéntro has decided to promote its new wallet collection by incorporating in its visual advertising the artwork of a famous artist. In the
low-intensity condition, the artist was Lucio Fontana, a major abstract artist. In the
high-intensity condition, the artist was Sandro Botticelli, a leading figure of Renaissance art. Moreover, we provided respondents with a brief overview about the art
genre the displayed artwork was representative of, stressing the level of importance
of the artist’s craftmanship (low in the abstract condition and high in the Renaissance
condition). The above-described text has been paired with a figure showing the Kéntro’s advertising. In both conditions, the visual stimuli have been realized showing
the brand’s logo, the artwork and the product advertised, on a white background (see
Fig. 1). We decided to use a wallet in our stimuli because this product category is
widely used by the majority of people in everyday life, thus to reduce the risk that the
purchase intention could be affected by respondents’ potentially low usage. Moreover, accessories seem to represent the most relevant product category in the luxury
fashion sector.
1 In addition, to avoid a potential effect of respondents’ gender on purchase intention, we created two versions (one for male and one for female) for each
of the two conditions (low versus high intensity of craftmanship). Thus, whatever the
randomly assigned scenario was, respondents were in any case exposed to the version
of the product compatible with their gender, which has been previously asked and
operationalized through a screening question. Both wallets have been selected among
the ones displayed on Prada’s official Web site and have been slightly modified by substituting the original logo with Kéntro’s one (see Fig. 1). Once respondents have been
exposed to the text and image stimuli, they were asked which artwork they have seen
1 https://www.bain.com/insights/luxury-goods-worldwide-market-study-fall-winter-2018/.
77
been collected, the questionnaire has been closed and data cleaned. Specifically,
all the incomplete observations as well as the ones which have failed the attention
check have been deleted in order to improve data quality and reliability, leading to
a reduced sample of 215 respondents. The final sample was equally distributed by
gender (51.2% female and 48.8% male) and composed of 39.1% students, 14.4%
independent contractors, 34.0% employees, 9.8% executives and 1.8% pensioners or
unemployed. Most of the respondents (61.9%) were aged between 18 and 34, while
20.4% were aged between 35 and 54, and finally 17.7% were 55 years old or older.
The majority of respondents, about 77% of the sample, declared to have a bachelor’s
degree or a higher academic qualification.
At the beginning of the questionnaire, respondents’ attentiveness has been
solicited by asking them to pay particular attention to the image and text they would
have seen immediately after. Moreover, they have been informed that the following
were fictional scenarios. Respondents were then randomly assigned to one of the
two scenarios resulting from the manipulation of the independent variable, namely
the intensity of craftmanship involved in the creation process (102 respondents were
exposed to the low-intensity condition, and 113 respondents were exposed to the
high-intensity condition). In order to avoid any potential influence coming from
respondents’ previous experience with the brand, we decided to resort to a fictional
one created for the purpose that is Kéntro. In both scenarios, it has been said to
respondents that the brand Kéntro has decided to promote its new wallet collection by incorporating in its visual advertising the artwork of a famous artist. In the
low-intensity condition, the artist was Lucio Fontana, a major abstract artist. In the
high-intensity condition, the artist was Sandro Botticelli, a leading figure of Renaissance art. Moreover, we provided respondents with a brief overview about the art
genre the displayed artwork was representative of, stressing the level of importance
of the artist’s craftmanship (low in the abstract condition and high in the Renaissance
condition). The above-described text has been paired with a figure showing the Kéntro’s advertising. In both conditions, the visual stimuli have been realized showing
the brand’s logo, the artwork and the product advertised, on a white background (see
Fig. 1). We decided to use a wallet in our stimuli because this product category is
widely used by the majority of people in everyday life, thus to reduce the risk that the
purchase intention could be affected by respondents’ potentially low usage. Moreover, accessories seem to represent the most relevant product category in the luxury
fashion sector.
1 In addition, to avoid a potential effect of respondents’ gender on purchase intention, we created two versions (one for male and one for female) for each
of the two conditions (low versus high intensity of craftmanship). Thus, whatever the
randomly assigned scenario was, respondents were in any case exposed to the version
of the product compatible with their gender, which has been previously asked and
operationalized through a screening question. Both wallets have been selected among
the ones displayed on Prada’s official Web site and have been slightly modified by substituting the original logo with Kéntro’s one (see Fig. 1). Once respondents have been
exposed to the text and image stimuli, they were asked which artwork they have seen
1 https://www.bain.com/insights/luxury-goods-worldwide-market-study-fall-winter-2018/.