Masstige Brands Research Articles

Monetary discounts, metaphoric communication and mass prestige based branding: a comprehensive assessment

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of price discounts and how to communite such discounts for masstige brands. While a price discount might encourage potential (first time) customers seeking higher status to buy a masstige brand, it might deter existing (repeat) customers from purchasing the brand due to a decline in perceived status. Such paradoxical effect of price discounts on masstige brand’s purchase requires a detail investigation into whether masstige brands should offer price discounts and if so, how to communicate such discounts. Current research investigates this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach Four experimental studies were executed. Study 1 investigated the impact of monetary discount (absent vs. present) on the purchase intention of masstige brands for different customer types (potential vs. existing). Study 2 investigated the mediating role of perceived status. Study 3 examined the effectiveness of metaphoric communication of monetary discounts (absent vs present) on masstige brand’s purchase. Study 4 tested the moderating effect of customers’ need for cognition. Findings Overall, monetary discounts positively affect purchase intention of masstige brand; however, the effect is negative for existing customers and positive for potential customers owing to differences in perceived status these customer groups experience (positive for potential and negative for existing customers). Metaphoric communications of monetary discounts restrict the declining purchase intention and status perception of existing customers besides keeping the potential customers’ purchase intention intact. Research limitations/implications This research is confined to a particular country limiting the gneralisability of the study’s findings. Furthermore, this research is cross-sectional in nature. Practical implications The findings of this research provide valuable insights and actionable recommendations for masstige brands to effectively leverage price discounts, especially in the emerging markets. Originality/value To date, a question of whether or not masstige brands should offer price discounts and if so, how to communicate such discounts remain opaque. This is the pioneering study exploring this phenomenon.

The relationship between celebrity endorsement and masstige brand value: The moderating effect of brand credibility

The relationship between celebrity endorsement and masstige brand value: The moderating effect of brand credibility

Impact of self‐esteem and self‐gifting on masstige purchase intentions

AbstractConsumers prefer brands that provide them with symbolic meaning, and they use them to enhance their self‐esteem and develop their status and personal images. Self‐esteem is an important psychological factor that contributes to an individual's purchase intentions and consumption behavior, but its role in shaping the consumption of masstige brands has not been thoroughly researched. Hence, this research aims: (1) to identify the masstige brands in the smartphone industry of Pakistan using the masstige mean index, and (2) to explore the role of self‐esteem in consumer consumption behavior grounded in terms of masstige, self‐gifting behavior, and brand personality. Moreover, this study uses self‐gifting behavior as the mediator and brand personality as the moderator in the relationship between self‐esteem and masstige purchase intention. The data from study 1 (n = 560) and study 2 (n = 329) were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that masstige brand consumption is influenced by self‐esteem; this relationship is mediated by self‐gifting behavior, and brand personality moderates the association. Theoretically, this study contributes to the masstige theory by exploring the role of self‐esteem in masstige consumption in an emerging economy. Practically, this study provides a comprehensive guideline for brand managers to devise effective marketing strategies to build their brands as masstige brands.

Masstige buyers: Profile, perceived luxury values and purchase intentions

AbstractAs the term masstige has only recently emerged, the literature on masstige branding and marketing remains relatively limited. More research is needed to understand better the distinct profiles of masstige and luxury buyers, their perceived luxury values and purchasing motives. Our study, involving 601 UK consumers, aims to address this gap. Based on consumers' self‐reported prior experiences with masstige and luxury brands, we identify four distinct consumer segments: Premium luxury Buyers, Masstige Buyers, Buyers of Both Premium luxury and Masstige, and Non‐luxury buyers who have not previously purchased either Premium luxury or Masstige brands. We then explore each segment's socio‐demographic profiles, their luxury value perceptions, and how these values influence their purchase intentions. Individuals across diverse income levels, spanning low, middle, and high, fall into four distinct segments with unique luxury perceptions. Premium luxury buyers are characterized as socially oriented perfectionists, while masstige buyers align with hedonic materialism. Buyers of both seek self‐distinction. Non‐luxury buyers spire for group conformity, prioritizing experiential enjoyment when given the opportunity. Furthermore, our study offers a practical value‐based positioning framework and a roadmap for brands looking to expand their target markets. This framework can be a valuable resource for luxury marketers seeking to refine their positioning and better align with the values that resonate with their target audiences.

The Influence of Social Comparison Orientation on Attitudinal Loyalty, Brand Happiness, and Willingness to Purchase a Masstige Brand

Individuals often compare themselves to others because of the rise of social media, which can make them want to buy something like a luxury brand. However, reaching luxury brand will be difficult because in addition to the high price, the product is also made in limited quantities. Therefore, masstige brand is an alternative that companies can use. This study aims to determine the effect of social comparison orientation on willingness to purchase masstige brands and their impact on attitudinal loyalty and brand happiness. In this study, there were 211 participants. Structured equation modeling was used to analyze data. The results of analysis show social comparison orientation has an impact on willingness to purchase a masstige brand, resulting in attitudinal loyalty and brand happiness.

Coach Versus Goldlion: The Effect of Socially Versus Personally Oriented Motives on Consumer Preference for Foreign and Domestic Masstige Brands in Emerging Markets

The fast-growing middle class in emerging markets is leading luxury brands to adopt an affordable luxury (aka “masstige”) approach to reach the mass market. However, academic research in this promising area is scarce. Focusing on China, the world's largest emerging market, this research shows a novel pattern of masstige brand consumption: Instead of always preferring foreign masstige brands (e.g., Coach) as implied in previous international marketing literature, consumers in emerging markets prefer domestic masstige brands (e.g., Goldlion) when their personally oriented motives are made salient. In contrast, consumers prefer foreign masstige brands when their socially oriented motives are made salient. This stems from domestic masstige brands better manifesting self-focused intangible attributes (i.e., the actual value to please oneself), whereas foreign masstige brands are superior in other-focused intangible attributes (i.e., the symbolic value to impress others). Three studies using a multimethod approach provide converging results that support this phenomenon. The findings bring significant contributions to the literature and offer actionable implications for managers, including positioning and price promotion strategies for masstige brands in emerging markets.

Why do consumers consume masstige products? A cross-cultural investigation through the lens of self-determination theory

Shaping consumers' attitudes and influencing their consumption of masstige brands via intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is an unexplored research area. By applying self-determination theory, this study attempts to divulge how extrinsic and intrinsic motivations in a cross-cultural context affect masstige consumption behavior. Thus, a research framework and hypotheses are developed and validated using cross-sectional research. The data were collected from 437 Canadian and 412 Indian respondents using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Path analysis was performed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to test the hypothesized relationship. The path analysis established that attitudes and masstige consumption are influenced by both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and further studies established that attitude partially mediates the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on masstige consumption. However, the moderation analysis failed to establish the role of Hofstede's cultural variable (i.e., power distance) in modifying the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on masstige consumption for Indian consumers, while it did in the Canadian context, albeit on select relationships. The findings of this study may be useful to masstige marketers in understanding cultural differences when designing promotional campaigns that resonate with consumers.

Environmental concerns in brand love and hate: an emerging market’s purview of masstige consumers

PurposeFashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige fashion brands from the purview of emerging markets. This study deciphers three components of masstige fashion brand promise through the lens of hedonic identity, uniqueness and expected social gains for the affluent middle-class consumers. The model is complemented by the impact of environmental and society’s well-being.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical evidence was obtained through an online survey in India. Total of 222 complete responses were used to test hypotheses by fitting a model with the partial least squares algorithm.FindingsFashion brand love is triggered by consumers’ hedonic identity and expected social gains. Brand hate is fuelled by environmental and societal well-being concerns, expected social gains and uniqueness. Theoretical contribution is threefold: First, the relevance of social and environmental consequences reflecting consumers’ accepted responsibility for their masstige consumption is introduced. Second, the study deciphers the emotions related to masstige brand love and brand hate for emerging market’s affluent middle-class. Third, empirical results contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether brand hate and love are two distinct concepts or collapse to be two extremes of one and the same continuum.Practical implicationsMiddle-class consumers in India are strict in their avoidance and rejection of the lower classes’ preferred fashion brands. Targeting must consider the social classes hierarchy. Marketing-mix design, particularly prices and distribution networks, need to enable a distinction between the social classes.Social implicationsMasstige fashion brand love and hate turn out to be two distinct constructs that co-exist rather than being two extremes of one and the same dimension.Originality/valueIndian middle-class consumers satisfy their need of environmental and social caretaking by avoidance and brand hate but continue to choose masstige brands to demonstrate social status and are not modernizing their traditional accumulative materialism.

Beauty and the brands: the interplay of celebrity attractiveness, brand envy, and social comparison in shaping masstige brand passion in hospitality

Beauty and the brands: the interplay of celebrity attractiveness, brand envy, and social comparison in shaping masstige brand passion in hospitality

Can Masstige brands be introduced in the B2B markets? An exploratory study

The notion of a brand's mass prestige (‘masstige’) has always been confined within the contours of business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. This study is a pioneering attempt to introduce masstige brands in the business-to-business (B2B) market. Employing a three study design, this research established that masstige is a strong case for B2B marketers. The findings suggest that with an application of the anchoring effect, masstige brands can be introduced in the B2B markets as well. Further, it is found that B2B customers' preference for masstige brands is shaped by factors such as affordable pricing, premium positioning, perceived status, sustained competitive advantage and symbolism. Correspondingly, such purchases are executed by B2B customers in anticipation of a higher perceived return on investment. In essence, this study extends the contours of masstige into the B2B markets and explores new business opportunities for managers.

Attitudes and intentions toward masstige strategies: A cross-cultural study of French and Chinese consumers

The present research investigates how masstige strategies affect consumers’ attitudes toward masstige and their intention to purchase masstige brands. An exploratory qualitative study and two experimental designs compared the response of consumers from two nationalities—Chinese and Franch. Chinese consumers generally express a more positive attitude and higher purchase intention toward masstige than French. The article further disentangles the role of the masstige strategy (accessory vs. sub-brand) by accounting for self-construal. Chinese consumers recognize the prestige of the parent brand in masstige sub-brands more than French consumers, and exhibited a more positive attitude and higher purchase intention toward said sub-brands. Meanwhile, French consumers were more accepting of masstige in the form of new product lines, such as accessories. From a managerial standpoint, companies need to tailor their masstige messaging to different consumer targets: for instance, by emphasizing durability and status for Chinese consumers, but intrinsic luxury values for French consumers.

Impact of Self-Gift Behavior on Masstige Consumption: Moderating Role of Self-Esteem and Ideal- Social-Self

Masstige is a new marketing trend that emerged from democratizing luxury brands to the middle class. And in this era of democratization, individuals are consuming luxury not only to get social distinction but also to offer consumers personal experience and a sense of self-indulgence through its high-quality, premium price, and social reputation. As a way of self-indulgence, consumers self-gift themselves with affordable luxury. This study explores the role of consumers’ self-gift behavior involved in the intention to consume masstige smartphone brands. This study identifies the motives of self-gift that affect masstige brand consumption. This study also explores the moderating role of self-esteem and ideal social self as the moderator in the relationship between self-gift and masstige consumption. Using the masstige mean index, this study also identifies the masstige brands in the smartphone industry of Pakistan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 560 smartphone users in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. The results indicate that all dimensions of self-gift behavior used in this study positively affect masstige consumption. At the same time, self-esteem and ideal-social-self moderate the relationship between self-esteem and masstige consumption. The findings of this study contribute to masstige literature on the impact of self-gift behavior on masstige brand consumption.

Masstige consumption, brand happiness, and brand advocacy: A service perspective

AbstractDespite the call in literature, the masstige brands in the service industry remain unexplored exposing an important literature gap. This study employed the masstige theory to explore and conceptualize luxury service brands. An initial pre‐test study was used to identify the masstige brands in the service category. Study 2 comprised a quantitative survey on 358 identified masstige brand users for two purposes: (i) To determine the masstige mean scores of the specified brands. (ii) To examine the association between masstige consumption, brand happiness, and brand advocacy for masstige brands in the tourism and airline category. It was found that service masstige brand consumption does influence brand happiness, which further affects consumers' brand advocacy. Further, the masstige consumption and brand happiness relation was moderated by internal motivations but not external motivations. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Toward a better understanding of key determinants and consequences of masstige consumption

Consumption of masstige brands has emerged as an important research domain. This study investigates the key determinants, mediators, and consequences of masstige brands as they impact the willingness to pay a premium price. Following a pre-test with experts, we identified several brands belonging to masstige categories. Based on a sample of 1249 U.S. respondents, the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the proposed conceptual model. The findings reveal that ideal self-congruence, brand tribalism, inconspicuousness, and brand engagement are key determinants of willingness to pay a premium price through the mediating effect of brand equity and brand happiness. This study’s contribution to the literature is critical because it helps better understand the relevant factors underlying the emerging domain of masstige consumption. The theoretical and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.

Masstige as a mediator of the relationship between a typical user's image and brand preference

AbstractThe primary research objective was to test the masstige model, which is a mechanism to explain the relationship between symbolic value associated with a brand and brand preference (purchase intention). Using an online individual interview method, respondents rated the masstige, preference, and symbolic characteristics perceived in the image of a typical brand user (TBU), identifying three generalized positive and four negative characteristics. The research was conducted on 20 different brands. The generalized results were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling method. The present study, based on 393 interviews, found that the main TBU characteristics positively associated with brand masstige were two positive dimensions of Sophistication (e.g., elegant), Responsibility (e.g., solid), and one negative dimension of Boorishness (e.g., simpleton), which significantly reduced masstige. In addition, TBU brings the masstige independent part of the brand preference. The results confirm the theoretical relationship between symbolic brand value and masstige, and show that masstige is not the only determinant of brand purchase intention. The results allow for the development/strengthening of the masstige brand statute by targeting TBU characteristics associated with style or responsibility, and reducing associations with neglect, which may translate into increased sales.

Normative influence and masstige purchase intention: Facilitators, inhibitors, and the moderating effect of celebrity endorsement

AbstractMasstige marketing has gained considerable attention in the recent past as a theoretically significant and practically relevant concept. Masstige strategy encompasses all those activities directed to position the products for the masses, neither by offering drastic price reductions nor discounts. Rather its success depends on product innovation and promotion. Although it has been recognized as an important strategic construct, the nascent concept needs further investigation for better understanding. This research identifies significant gaps in the extant literature on fashion accessories masstige brands and intends to bridge them. The objective of the current study is to empirically investigate the factors that facilitate or inhibit masstige purchase intentions. Our study uncovers the role of normative influence in influencing the purchase intentions of a masstige fashion accessory brand, that is, Armani Exchange. Data were collected from 395 respondents, and structural equation modeling was applied to check the proposed hypotheses. The study's results revealed that conspicuous and social values play an important role as facilitators. In addition, the study highlighted that masstige brands need to overcome inhibitors like identity avoidance and deficit‐value avoidance to develop masstige purchase intention. Moderation analysis highlighted the significant influence of celebrity endorsement in strengthening the facilitators and overcoming inhibitors associated with masstige purchase intention. The study's results can help marketers to position their masstige brands by adopting the right strategies that can be formulated by taking into account the influence of stimulus, facilitators, inhibitors, and a moderating variable examined in the study.

Linking Masstige Marketing with Masstige Value: A Study of Customers’ Views from an Emerging Market of Pakistan

Masstige has become integral concept for luxury sector. Studies on this theme are scant, particularly in the masstige sector. This study aims to understand the role of consumer behavior attributes measured through Consumer Attitude (CA) and Consumer Hedonic Motivation (CHM) by examining the relationships between Masstige Marketing (MM) and Brand Prestige Value (BPV). Data was collected from 500 Apple’s MacBook consumers through questionnaire and model was analyzed using partial least squares - structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. The obtained data was evaluated using SmartPLS software. Results showed that there is a positive relationship between MM and BPV and the link between MM and BPV was partially mediated by CA and CHM. From a practical point, the relationship between masstige marketing and consumer behavior attributes provides a clue on how masstige brands can enhance prestige value of the brands for the masses. Current study contributes to the literature by providing a theoretical framework and empirical evidences for predicting and explaining masstige brands consumers’ behavior. From managerial aspect, current study identified critical components that are mandatory to enhance brand prestige value and discussed the implications of predictive elements on developing masstige marketing strategies that increase consumer’s positive behavior towards the masstige brands. Keywords: masstige marketing, consumer behavior attributes, consumer attitude, consumer hedonic motivation, brand prestige value.

The effects of masstige on loss of scarcity and behavioral intentions for traditional luxury consumers

An increasing middle-class segment, eager to trade up in product qualities and consumption behavior, is causing a paradigmatic change in how traditional luxury consumers ascribe value to luxury brands. Guided by commodity theory, we develop three experiments where we show that masstige branding (vs non-masstige) leads to reduced behavioral intentions for traditional luxury consumers (Study 1) both for public (Studies 1 and 2) and for private goods (Study 3). These effects are mediated by loss of scarcity of the brand (Studies 2 and 3). Finally, we also examine a boundary condition, self-brand connection (Study 3), and show that high self-brand connection can help mitigate the negative effects of loss of scarcity on traditional consumers’ behavioral intentions. Overall, this study significantly extends research on masstige and luxury branding and offers important implications. For instance, high self-brand connection leads to a greater likelihood of purchasing masstige brands among traditional luxury consumers.

Constructing Consumer-Masstige brand relationships in a volatile social reality

This article conceptualises how consumers construct their relationships with masstige brands. Drawing on a two-stage methodology of consumer interviews and online content analysis of brands’ social media pages, we offer innovative insight into how consumers navigate consumer-masstige brand relationships (CMBRs). We present CMBRs as multiple, dynamic and capricious relationships, departing from the view of enduring brand relationships as monogamous marriages. The unique symbolic nature and more central role of masstige brands in consumers’ identity projects, make CMBRs more intense and transient. The findings illustrate that ‘masstige’ brand status is continually negotiated within a complex web of on– and off-line dialogues between multiple actors (the consumer, masstige brand, other consumers and other brands (masstige, low/middle market and luxury)). Consumers expect masstige brands to be more responsive to their needs. The role of marketers as collaborators and enablers in consumers’ identity projects is therefore more intense in CMBRs.

Exploring masstige brands' antecedents and outcomes

AbstractThis study focused on developing a new conceptual model of consumers' perceptions of—and behaviours towards—masstige brands based on consumer‐brand relationship and brand equity theory, which was then applied using quantitative data analysis. The research model facilitated an exploration of how important brand love, co‐creation and need for uniqueness are as masstige brand antecedents and of whether brand happiness, brand loyalty and electronic word of mouth are outcomes. The proposed model's generalisability was assessed based on consumer data on a total sample of 1041 consumers from three countries: the United States, Portugal and China. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares‐structural equation modelling. The results show that the model is well specified, and all the hypothesised relationships between the selected constructs related to masstige brands are supported by the data. The five brands included in the questionnaire have Masstige Mean Score Scale Index values indicating that these brands fit in this classification. The findings have a wide range of theoretical and managerial implications.