“Effects of brand attitude, perceived value, and social WOM on purchase intentions in luxury product marketing”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant change in customer be- havior, including in the luxury product business. One crucial part of customer behavior is purchase intention. Understanding purchase intention is an essential basis for developing various marketing innovations. This study aimed to establish a model of the interaction of factors that influence purchase intention in luxury products today, especially in Indonesia. The study used a cross-sectional study approach. This study’s respondents were social media users who would buy luxury products. The research sample size was 381 users. The Lime Survey was applied to collect data and was accessed online. The questionnaire statement items used a Likert scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), including Perceived Value (9 items), Social WoM (3 items), Brand Attitude (3 items), and Purchase Intention (3 items). The model vali- dation was analyzed using bootstrapping to process the Structural Equation Model (SEM) under Smart-PLS software. The analysis results show that the three variables si- multaneously (R-square = 0.419) moderately can be used to explain Purchase Intention. However, the factors that affect Purchase Intention are only Perceived Value (p-value = 0.000) and Brand Attitude (p-value = 0.000), but not Social WoM (p-value = 0.203). This study concludes that marketing innovation is critical to focus on the prestige of luxury product users through perceived value and brand attitude. Information from other users is not reliable enough to build purchase intention because luxury product users tend not to trust products from other users. Still, they believe more in the perceived prestige.


INTRODUCTION
The era of globalization provides changes in all aspects. This era is synonymous with modern society and technological developments that allow a world without boundaries (Abdi, 2020). Globalization is driving the transformation of the luxury industry and the rise of emerging markets. One of the indicators of the effect of this technology is the increasing number of people accessing the internet. This situation has led to a growing middle class with disposable income. Luxury product retailers are changing their strategies by offering previously inaccessible products to publicly available products (Shukla et al., 2022). Luxury products need to meet specific groups. However, people spend tens to hundreds of millions for prestige and personal satisfaction. The impact is the high consumer purchasing power that is in line with the increase in the middle to upper-class society (Andhika, 2020). The growth of the upper-middle class in Indonesia has resulted in the emergence of branded goods and luxury products in Indonesia.
According to economic observers from the Indonesian Research Institute of Sciences, the people who love high-end brands in Asia are experiencing the fastest development. Especially in Indonesia, luxury products have a stable business environment. The tendency of Indonesian consumers to buy luxury goods is 44% (Koransindo, 2020).
Amid the difficulty of running a business during the COVID-19 pandemic, luxury goods manufacturers have risen and dominated Indonesia's market. One of the areas that experienced growth in 2020 was e-commerce. People spend more time indoors, work from home, etc. It also encourages an increase in retail purchases (Highland, 2021). Public demand for prestige brands (blue-chip brands) through e-commerce has increased (Soehandoko, 2021). In addition, boredom experienced by rich people while at home triggers a new phenomenon. They feel bored with the condition of not going anywhere and limited to doing anything. This feeling is then vented by online shopping. A person's buying behavior begins with purchase intentions in him or her. Consumer purchase intention is the tendency to plan or be willing to buy a product in the future. Retail companies need to identify and study consumer behavior to maintain their existence because consumers are the target of the marketing mix. Therefore, retailers need to understand consumer behavior. Identifying and evaluating factors that influence consumer buying behavior on purchase intention will enable retailers to introduce more compatible products through innovative marketing (Salehzadeh & Pool, 2017). If consumers have been affected by the quantity and quality of a product, product information, how to buy, weaknesses and advantages, it can encourage buying interest.
Through the background described above, the emergence of COVID-19 has brought changes to all sectors. One of these changes is in businesses that are transforming offline to online. The government's lock-down policy has reduced visitors. These conditions cause consumers and companies to adapt to a new way of life, and their views on luxury products may change. Previous studies have related consumer behavior toward luxury products; however, the retail market still needs adequate information in optimizing strategies and analyzing consumer attitudes towards branded goods. It is essential to understand the factors that encourage consumers to purchase branded goods. Further research is required to establish the customer behavior model to support innovative marketing of luxury products, especially the purchase intention.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
From an economic point of view, consumers will consider the perceived value concerning the price they pay for the product and receive it (Park et al., 2021). Perceived value is a consumer's perception regarding a product whether it can meet their needs and expectations or not. In connection with the consumption of luxury goods, realizing this value evokes the owner's prestige (Wen & Huang, 2021). Consumers buy luxury products to exchange value in balance with the value that meets their needs and wants. Luxury products are conceptualized in product-related characteristics and the personal and social benefits retailers provide to consumers. They can provide intangible benefits like status, prestige, etc. (Loureiro et al., 2020). When consumers feel the benefits they re-ceive from luxury products, they will recommend the value they get from these products to others on social media. Therefore, consumers have a social involvement in Word of Mouth (WoM) and offer recommendations based on social, personal, and functional values.
Luxury companies can reach and initiate their customers into luxury brand marketing activities in social communities with social media. This information creates opportunities for several users to interact and share information. Visual presentations such as pictures, videos, and designs can fulfill their personality. Information shared by consumers on social media can have the influence to be widely known and shape consumer intentions (Park et al., 2021). Instagram is one example of social media used by luxury brands to inspire consumers. Instagram has more than 60 million users in Indonesia by providing audio-visual features (Iman, 2020). It gives users a space to present themselves to others by sharing photos. Social media offer leisure time for the middle class by sharing consumer activities and showing off within the scope of a network society, and, as a result, using content through social media influences future luxury shopping behavioral intentions (Casaló et al., 2020). Luxury consumers often engage in WoM behavior and express spending wealth and luxury to enhance their social status (Chang & Ko, 2017

METHODS
Social media users in Indonesia were the subject of this study. Those who do not intend to buy luxury products were excluded. This study only observed one condition. Therefore, future results in different countries should consider current needs and require multiple treatments. According to the time dimension, a cross-sectional study was used to collect data once or only once in a certain period. This study used a quantitative type. It also used the Smart-PLS application in processing the data. The primary data sources were respondents who used Instagram and WhatsApp and would buy luxury products.

RESULTS
Aiming to examine the influence of public attitudes on the intention to consume luxury products, this research with social media users who like luxury involved 381 respondents. Characteristics of respondents show that people willing to fill out questionnaires who have the intention to purchase luxury spread across Indonesia. Based on the results of the survey conducted, Table 1 shows the respondent distribution. According to Table 1, the distribution of people who love luxury products is dominated by people aged less than 25 years and 25-35 years. At that age, one is looking for their identity and builds it through status symbols. Based on gender, women are more likely to go shopping than men, especially when buying luxury products. Women dominate in shopping intentions to seek happiness and self-satisfaction. The data shows that through a distributed survey, most of the respondents who have the intention to buy luxury products are from the DIY province. The occupations of people who buy luxury products tend to be private employees and are followed by students based on income, IDR 2,500,000-IDR 5,000,000, included in the middle-class, buy luxury products.
Products that tend to be in demand by the public are the types of electronics. Table 2 shows the detail of luxury product demand. According to Table 2, the luxury products that are still in high demand are Mobile phones (196). From the collected data in terms of Perceived Value, Brand Attitude, Social WoM and Purchase Intention, Table 3 shows the reliability and the validity of items.
Convergent validity describes the indicators used to measure the magnitude of the correlation between constructs and latent variables. The rule of thumb for convergent validity is the factor loading value > 0.7 (2nd Column) and the AVE value > 0.5 (4th Column). According to Table 3, all items are valid based on factor loading and AVE value. The reliability of the variables was measured by Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (CR). Criteria for a construct are reliable if the value is higher than 0.6.
Discriminant Validity explains the different construct measurement. Table 4 shows this result, so it should not be highly correlated. If the square root value of AVE has a higher value than the correlation value between constructs, it means that it meets discriminant validity. Table 4 shows the square root of the AVE by looking through each latent variable that has a higher value than the correlation value between a latent variable and other latent variables. This result shows that the questionnaire instrument compiled has good discriminant validity by measur- ing it through the Fornell-Larcker approach. It means that the construct is different from other constructs. Table 5 shows the measurement of the weight significance. It shows that all formative components of Perceived Value have a p-value less than 0.05. Therefore, these three factors explain the Perceived Value variable.
Inner VIF determines the multicollinearity between variables that influence endogenous variables (see Table 6). According to Table 6, the VIF value of each variable was less than 5. It implies that the multicollinearity symptom does not exist, and the next step is to test the research hypothesis. The value of R-square is used to determine the variation of changes in the independent variable. R-square value criteria are 0.67 (high), 0.33 (moderate), and 0.19 (weak). Table 7 shows the R-square result. Smart-PLS has issued a p-value to perform each evaluation and compare it with a predetermined alpha (0.05). If the output has a p-value <0.05, the hypothesis is said to be significant. Table 8 shows the decision of the hypotheses.
Path coefficient among the constructs examined the hypothesis test and path statical significance.
All the path coefficients are significant except H3.  Figure 2 shows hypothesis testing of the conceptual model with a path coefficient.

DISCUSSION
This result shows that the higher the perceived value of a person, the higher the purchase intention. These results are in line with the study by Jain and Mishra (2018). In increasing consumer purchase intention, companies need to provide more value. The marketing of luxury products requires balancing to meet global market demands and protect brands from counterfeiting (Lacroix & Joilbert, 2017). In enhancing the competitive position of luxury brands, companies need to focus on the customer and design and develop attractive and high-quality products so that the perceived value affects the purchase decision (Liu et al., 2017).
Functional value, hedonic value, and social value are relevant dimensions of perceived value. Marketers in increasing purchase intention need to pay attention to aspects of hedonic value, functional value and social value in considering perceived value. This finding also shows that consumers with higher priority pay for luxury brands (Salem & Chaici, 2018). Consumers display the value of consumption in the buying behavior of their luxury brand products. They understand and pursue total values associated with luxury products (  . Positive consumer perceptions of a brand's superiority can increase purchase intention on luxury products. The higher the brand attitude toward a consequence, the higher the con-sumer's purchase intention. On the contrary, if the brand attitude of a luxury product is low, it can lead to a lack of purchase intention of consumers (Salehzadeh & Pool, 2017).
This study provides insight for managers and marketers in luxury products both locally and internationally in understanding consumer behavior when choosing a product. In addition, this study shows that perceived value plays a role in Social WoM and brand attitude. Companies need to ensure their products are compatible with social media sites. Besides, companies also need to provide media as attractive as possible and encourage purchase intention. In achieving a competitive differential advantage, it is crucial to maintain a positive image on the internet and social media because perception plays a vital role in the consumer's willingness to buy, and also to focus most on passive consumer behavior in using Social WoM on their purchase intentions. Consumers only seek information and the opinions of others. In addition, according to this study, companies need to pay attention to marketing strategies in encouraging consumers to engage in Social WoM based on consumers' perceptions of luxury.
This study examined social value, hedonic value and functional value simultaneously in the dimension of perceived value. Researchers did not read the effect of each, and the product brands emphasized in this study follow those chosen by the respondents. Future research needs to focus on specific products and respondents' quotas in each region. Besides, there is also a need for additional information related to social media frequently used in recommending luxury goods. It is because of the continuous luxury market development and heterogeneity. This study only examined several factors that influence the purchase intention of luxury products. Further researchers need to identify other variables that affect the purchase intention of luxury products, especially during this digital era.

CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study is to find out the fit model of the relationship of the factors influencing purchase intention today for luxury product marketing. It provides a new understanding of marketing innovations for luxury products from the consumer's behavior during the pandemic. The conceptual model based on the literature review explained that perceived value, brand attitude, and social WoM were the essential factors influencing purchase intention. Tests on this model described that perceived value and brand attitude affect purchase intention, while social WoM does not. In addition, functional, hedonic, and social values can be used as a formative component of perceived value. This implies that in marketing practice, strengthening perceived value and brand attitude is very important even though the existence of social WoM is still essential in increasing purchase intention.