Constructing Consumer-Masstige Brand Relationships in a Volatile Social Reality

Date

2022-10-11

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

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.

Description

open access article The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Keywords

Masstige, Brand Relationships, Mass Prestige, Social Media, Brand community, Loyalty

Citation

Moorlock, E, Dekel-Dachs, O, Stokes, P. and Larsen, G. (2022) Constructing Consumer-Masstige Brand Relationships in a Volatile Social Reality. Journal of Business Research, 155, Part A, 113381

Rights

Research Institute