“Standing out” and “fitting in”: understanding inspiration value of masstige in an emerging market context

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of middle-class consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU), consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII), inspiration and behavioral intentions toward masstige products. Specifically, this study examines the differential effects of CNFU dimensions, the underlying mechanism of consumer inspiration and the moderating role of CSII in the purchase intentions toward masstige products. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were carried out to test the proposed relationships. Study 1 examines the differential effect of CNFU dimensions and the mediating role of consumer inspiration for data collected from Tier 1 cities in India. Study 2 replicated Study 1 findings for the jewelry masstige products and tested the moderating role of CSII for data collected from Tier 2 cities. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The study findings confirm the differential effects of CNFU dimensions on inspiration and its mediating role in masstige products’ purchase intentions. Furthermore, the study found that CSII moderates the effect of CNFU dimensions on inspiration toward masstige (jewelry) purchase intentions. Status does not determine masstige purchase intention. Research limitations/implications The present study was carried out in the emerging market of India. Future studies should replicate the study findings in other emerging markets. Practical implications The study findings have important implications for marketers of masstige brands in developing effective marketing strategies in the emerging markets. Originality/value The study is among the few studies to investigate the differential role of CNFU dimensions and inspiration for masstige brands in an emerging market context.

Inspired and engaged: Decoding MASSTIGE value in engagement

“…Besides, they are also different from luxury in the sense that quality is inherent with traditional luxuries whereas masstige needs to explicitly communicate their quality quotient (Kapferer et al, 2014). Further, studies (Kapferer, 2015; Paul, 2019) indicate that traditional luxury stands for heritage, family name and country of origin whereas masstige express self‐identity through upmarket feeling (Das et al, 2021).…”

Drivers of attitudes toward luxury and counterfeit products: the moderating role of interpersonal influence

“…, 2021). Das et al. (2021) found that interpersonal influence moderated the relationship between need for uniqueness and inspiration for masstige.…”

“…It is important to note that what consumers perceive to be luxury ranged from traditional luxury to masstige to nontraditional luxury brands (Kowalczyk and Mitchell, 2021;Shin et al, 2021). Das et al (2021) found that interpersonal influence moderated the relationship between need for uniqueness and inspiration for masstige. Thus, it is reasonable that reference group influence can impact both luxury and counterfeit luxury products.…”

Masstige strategies on social media: The influence on sentiments and attitude toward the brand

“…How will luxury customers react when their favorite brand becomes accessible to more people? Although the literature is recently focusing on this topic (Das, Saha & Balaji, 2021; Das, Saha and Roy, 2021; Shahid & Paul, 2021), a gap still exists that this study intends to cover as there is still no empirical exploration of how masstige campaigns on social media influence followers and customers (Dash et al., 2021; Joshi & Garg, 2021; Kumar et al., 2021). Additionally, this paper discusses the influence of masstige strategies on attitude toward the brand, and we ground our research on the well‐established attitude toward the brand concept (Mitchell & Olson, 1981; Spears & Singh, 2004).…”

“…How will luxury customers react when their favorite brand becomes accessible to more people? Although the literature is recently focusing on this topic (Das, Saha & Balaji, 2021;Das, Saha and Roy, 2021;Shahid & Paul, 2021), a gap still exists that this study intends to cover as there is still no empirical exploration of how masstige campaigns on social media influence followers and cus-…”