Herd Consumption Behaviour of Indian Youth Towards Luxury Fashion Brands: The Mediating Role of FoMO
Indian youth are known to spend heavily on luxury branded products, often well beyond what they strictly need. This study asks why that collective splurging happens, proposing that the fear of missing out, or FoMO, is the underlying factor driving young consumers towards the same brands at the same time, almost in unison.
The argument runs that young people with a high level of FoMO tend to develop strong brand involvement, which leads in turn to collective consumption of luxury products and a measure of psychological comfort, a pattern the study labels herd behaviour. To validate this proposition, the research surveyed Indian youth and analysed the responses using structural equation modelling within SPSS and AMOS, testing the mechanism rather than assuming it.
The findings help explain why young consumers fall into this kind of collective obsession with luxury brands, and the study draws out a set of managerial implications from that explanation. By naming FoMO as a driver of herd consumption, it offers brands and researchers a clearer account of how social pressure shapes youth luxury buying in an increasingly connected, image-conscious market.
Why do Indian youth splurge on the same luxury brands together? This study proposes the fear of missing out as the driver, arguing that high FoMO breeds strong brand involvement and collective, comfort-seeking consumption it calls herd behaviour. Tested through structural equation modelling in SPSS and AMOS, the findings explain the pattern and draw out managerial implications.
- The study starts from a familiar observation, that Indian youth spend lavishly on luxury branded products, and sets out to explain why this collective consumption happens among young buyers.
- It proposes that the fear of missing out drives the behaviour: youth with high FoMO develop strong brand involvement, leading to collective luxury consumption and a degree of psychological comfort.
- To validate the proposition, the research surveyed Indian youth and analysed the data using structural equation modelling within SPSS and AMOS, testing FoMO as the mechanism behind herd buying.
- The findings illustrate why young consumers fall into a collective obsession with luxury brands, and the study translates that explanation into managerial implications for brands and marketers.
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