Luxury or Masstige: Role of Global and Local Identities, Luxuriousness Variances, Price Luxuriousness Inferences, and Consumer Flexibility

Abstract Masstige or mass prestige luxury brands are considered one of the principal drivers behind increased luxury consumption. Literature has proposed increasing globalization as one of the primary reasons behind the sales of these masstige brands. Given the impact of globalization, this research proposes and examines the impact of consumers’ global and local identities on their propensity to purchase traditional luxury and masstige brands. Results from a survey of 278 Indian respondents show a differential impact of global and local identities of consumers on these preferences. Further, the results show the serial mediation of luxuriousness variances and price luxuriousness inferences behind this impact. The results also indicate that the mediating effect of price luxuriousness inference is moderated by consumer flexibility, where consumer flexibility is a facet of consumer wisdom. The traditional luxury and masstige brand managers can use these results to formulate segmenting, targeting, and positioning strategies for their brands.