Understated luxury

You can tell a lot about people by the logos on their handbags, cars, and shoes, according to a study by from the USC Marshall School of Business. For instance:

Patricians: "Wealthy consumers low in need for status" who "pay a premium for quiet goods, products that only their fellow patricians can recognize";

Parvenus: "Wealthy consumers high in need for status" who "use loud luxury goods to signal to the less affluent that they are not one of them";

Poseurs, who lack the financial means to buy luxury goods, yet are highly motivated to buy counterfeit items to "emulate those who they recognize to be wealthy" (i.e., parvenus); and

Finally, those with no drive for status consumption? Proletarians.

Shrieking designer logos often reflect a lower price point than more subtle counterparts. "A significant segment of the [high-end] population does not want to be branded, preferring to be understated ... and is willing to pay a premium to have 'quiet' goods without a brand mark," Joseph Nunes, associate professor of marketing at USC Marshal.

Knockoffs have always provided a good clue on which logos are subtle and which aren't, going back to the days when a prominent Gucci or Givenchy label was considered a big deal. "Counterfeiters predominantly copy the lower-priced, louder luxury goods, which appeal to the non-patrician status-seekers and rarely copy the higher-priced, subtle items," the USC study concludes. Customers were surveyed at a number of Socal shopping malls.

Photo: Fake Gucci bag