普通大众而言，豪华手表行业看上去似乎完全不着调。
时下最贵、最热销的手表是纯黑超薄型，几乎或完全没有品牌标识等标记。其设计理念就是不引人注目。
低端豪华表市场则充斥着笨重的、用于炫耀身份的镶钻金表。豪华车市场中，越贵的车，其设计越引人注目，手表行业正相反。越不起眼的越贵。
怎么会这样？
一名博士生和两位教授一直在研究奢侈品及其“品牌突出性”──产品上的品牌或标识有多引人注目。他们试图发现什么类型的消费者希望拥有带有醒目标识的奢侈品，什么类型的消费者希望奢侈品上没有标识。
他 们发现：真正富有的消费者希望能表明其身份的产品标识不那么显山露水，而不太富有的人却想要醒目的标识。这项研究由南加州大学马歇尔商学院 (Marshall School of Business)主攻市场营销的博士生Young Jee Han负责。研究将奢侈品的消费者划分成四个阶层。
分别是：
显贵。显贵们的财力雄厚，主要关心自己与其它显贵们的联系，而不是自己与其它阶层消费者的区别。他们使用精巧的身份标志符，因为只有其它显贵才能读懂这些符号。他们为不显山露水付出了额外的成本。
新贵。新贵们不是不能负担低调的商品，他们富裕但渴望身份。他们最关心的是如何把自己与穷人们区别开来，同时又把自己与其他富人联系起来，无论这些人是显贵还是新贵。研究人员们说，新贵喜欢路易威登(Louis Vuitton)标识。
假贵族。与新贵们一样，假贵族也非常乐于为了彰显身份而消费。假贵族并不具备可轻松负担真品奢侈物的财力。但他们想把自己标榜成那些他们发现或是觉得有这种财力的人(新贵)，同时将自己与其他不富有的人区隔开来。假贵族喜欢假冒的奢侈品。
穷人。这些不富有的消费者也没有强烈的身份意识。他们不是为了显示身份才去消费的，也不能或不愿通过使用某些商品来表明其身份。他们既不寻求让人把自己与富有阶层联系起来，也无意把自己与其他穷人区隔开来。他们往往干脆拒绝任何奢侈品。
您认为自己属于上述哪个消费者阶层？抑或您认为还存在第五个消费者阶层？（巴菲特(Warren Buffett)算是一位贫穷的亿万富翁吗？）
To the average Joe, the luxury-watch business might seem completely upside down.
The most expensive, in-demand watches these days are solid black, ultrathin timepieces with little or no identifying brand markers. They are designed not to be noticed.
The lower end of the luxury-watch market is filled with chunky, gold and bling-encrusted models that scream for status. Unlike the luxury-car market, where the more expensive cars are designed to attract attention, watches are the reverse. Less costs more.
What gives?
A doctoral student and two professors have been studying luxury goods and their 'brand prominence'-how noticeable a brand or logo is on a product. They tried to figure out what types of consumers want luxury goods with big logos and what types want luxury goods with no logos.
Their finding: truly rich consumers want subtle badges or status, while the lesser wealthy want bigger logos. The research--led by Young Jee Han, a doctoral student in Marketing at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California-breaks the luxury market into four strata of rich consumers.
They are:
Patricians. High in financial means, Patricians are 'principally concerned with associating with other patricians rather than dissociating themselves from other classes of consumers. They use subtle signals because only other patricians can interpret them.' They pay a premium for understatement.
Parvenus. 'Parvenus are affluent-it is not that they cannot afford quieter goods-but they crave status. They are concerned first and foremost with separating or dissociating themselves from the havenots while associating themselves with other haves, both patricians and other parvenus.' Parvenus love the Louis Vuitton logo, the researchers say.
Poseurs. Like Parvenus, Poseurs are 'highly motivated to consume for the sake of status.' Poseurs 'do not possess the financial means to readily afford authentic luxury goods. Yet they want to associate themselves with those they observe and recognize as having the financial means (the parvenus) and dissociate themselves from other less affluent people.' Poseurs like counterfeit luxury goods.
Proletarians. These are less-affluent consumers who also are less-status conscious. 'Proletarians are simply not driven to consume for the sake of status and either cannot or will not concern themselves with signaling by using status goods. They seek neither to associate with
the upper crust nor to dissociate themselves from others of similarly humble means.' They tend to avoid luxury goods altogether.
Which category do you think you fall in? Or is there a fifth category? (Would Warren Buffett be a billionaire proletarian?)