Communicating the luxury dream: The moderating role of brand prominence on the effect of abstract versus concrete language on consumer responses

The present research considers the effect of using relatively more abstract versus concrete language on consumers’ attitudes toward a luxury product and their willingness to buy it. More specifically, the present research investigates the moderating role of brand prominence on the effect of using abstract versus concrete language on consumers’ responses. The results of two experiments demonstrate that abstract language leads to higher product attitude and willingness to buy compared to concrete language when brand prominence is low but not when it is high. Implications of this research for theory and practice as well as its limitations are discussed.