Hedonic Shopping

Hedonic goods are those that consumers purchase for luxury purposes. As such, they include desirable objects that allow consumers to feel pleasure, enjoyment, as well as fun when purchasing the product (Cardoso & Pinto, 2010, p.540). As such, it is imperative for marketers to come up with effective ways of encouraging hedonic shoppers to purchase as many goods as possible. As for the case of Millennials, the marketers use pleasure and gratification mechanisms to motivate the buyers. Millennials are young, active, and outgoing, and as such, need more convincing to buy consumer goods and services. In this regard, it is evident that the more pleasure and gratification these Millennials draw from the purchase of goods and services, the more they are willing to spend on hedonic products.

Culture plays a critical role in the hedonic shopping motivations for Millennials. Evidently, this can be drawn from the fact that the society treats owners and users of luxury goods and services as top-class, the wealthy, the affluent, aristocrats of the community. In this regard, Millennials tend to consumer more of hedonic products in the quest of being associated with the top brass of the society, such as dressing up in expensive clothes like a hip-hop celebrity. Thus, hedonic shopping enables a person to belong to a given culture even if he/she does not belong there (Cardoso & Pinto, 2010, p.540). 

The influence of social class and culture on the hedonic shopping motivation for Millennials is similar. People of a high social class will want to look and appear socially escalated by purchasing top of class products and services. For instance, a wealthy person will hire a taxi to take him/her to an office appointment that is a walking distance, only to maintain image and prestige.