Marketing

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: This research investigates nickname branding, a novel phenomenon whereby firms incorporate the ‘street’ names consumers give brands into their own marketing (e.g., Bloomingdale’s opening a Bloomie’s store). While practitioners anticipate positive results from deploying this tactic, the current research serves as the first empirical investigation of its likely effectiveness. Drawing on speech act theory, we theorize that using a nickname in place of a formal name serves as an act of power redistribution, effectively signaling submission to consumers, thereby reducing the perception of a brand’s power and weakening its performance. Using a multi-method approach that incorporates secondary data analyses, field studies, and pre-registered experiments, the results support this view across a range of performance metrics. In addition, we show this effect is contingent on two factors, such that nickname branding (1) harms performance more for competent brands than warm brands; and (2) is less pronounced when nicknames are used in messages that are communal-oriented (vs. transactional-oriented). Our research introduces a new theoretical perspective centering on the illocutionary meanings embedded in the process of naming brands and highlights actionable insights on how marketers should approach or avoid consumer-based slang in their marketing.