INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE TREND TOWARDS CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION ON BRAND PREFERENCE, MEDIATED BY BRAND SENSE AND BRAND AWARENESS IN THE TURKISH APPAREL SECTOR

While the understanding of consumption is based on meeting basic human needs, consumers have begun to purchase for different reasons, including for social status. Consumers exhibit purchasing behaviour to improve self-preception and raise their social status even in the basence of basic need. The tendency to conspicuous consumption, brand sense, and brand awareness process eventually affect brand preference. The primary purpose of this research was to investigate this mechanism and how conspicuous consumption affects brand sense and brand awareness. The study sample consisted of 922 consumers shopping in the apparel sector in the Marmara region. Significant results were obtained by analyzing a survey conducted over the Internet. There were positive effects of the conspicuous consumption trend in the apparel sector on brand preference coupled with mediatory effects of brand sense and brand awareness.