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ORCID

Irene Raguenet Troccol: 0000-0003-1434-4317

Patricia da Silva Leite: 0000-0001-6526-2405

Joyce Gonçalves Altaf: 0000-0002-4444-563X

Keywords

personal values, generation y, mean-end theory, brand, soft laddering

Abstract

This qualitative article explores the significance of a luxury women’s shirt brand in fostering the professional competitiveness of Brazilian Generation Y women. It does this by identifying the personal values that motivate women to wear these shirts, based on the Means-End Theory. This theory was operationalized using the Soft Laddering technique and complemented by non-participant observation. The result is that these shirts play a role in securing respect – primarily professional, but also personal – from third parties for the wearers, helping them to perceive themselves as successful in their careers. This study is the first to examine the ability of a conspicuous product to provide symbolic value to consumers, and it reveals the values of Brazilian Generation Y women that can enrich marketing tactics and thereby improve products and services aimed at them. This research contributes to the literature on status consumption by studying a category of conspicuous consumption not previously investigated in Brazilian academia in terms of its capacity to imbue symbolism in Generation Y consumers through the lens of personal values.

Acknowledgments

Funding

This research received no funding.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare they have no conflicting interests regarding this research.

Declaration about the scope of AI utilization

No AI resource was used in this research.

First Page

39

Last Page

57

Page Count

19

Received Date

19.12.2025

Revised Date

8.10.2025

Accepted Date

10.10.2025

Online Available Date

03.11.2025

DOI

10.7172/2449-6634.jmcbem.2025.2.4

JEL Code

M31

Publisher

University of Warsaw

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