Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Masstige Marketing: Balancing Exclusivity with Accessibility (A Theory-Building Conceptual Framework)

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-676-0_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Masstige-AI Equilibrium Framework (MAIEF); masstige marketing; artificial intelligence in marketing; aspirational branding; ethical AI; consumer perception; brand equity; accessibility-exclusivity balance

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) quickly reshaping the forms of accessibility, aspirational value, and symbolic prestige in modern consumer markets. AI can be used to scale the creation of individualized and emotionally connotative experiences, but the risk of over-automation threatens to strip the exclusivity which aspirational value is based on. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a conceptual model that builds a theory-based framework, the Masstige-AI Equilibrium Framework (MAIEF), which explained how the marketing process mediated by AI can simultaneously destabilize and democratize prestige. Taking an integrative conceptual perspective, the paper combined the existing literature on consumer psychology, branding and AI ethics to determine the core mechanisms connecting AI marketing capabilities and the masstige brand equity. The framework proposed that the personalization through AI increases perceived accessibility and emotional engagement while the personalization's relationship to perceived exclusivity is curvilinear with both under and over-automation weakening symbolic value. The central mediating process through which AI affects brand outcomes is consumer perception and the moderating effect of ethical AI practices as a mechanism that maintains accessibility-exclusivity equilibrium. At the managerial level, the framework provides decision-based advice on how to balance the level of AI intensity, adopt limited personalization, maintain a symbolic distance in the digital environments, and institutionalize ethical AI governance. On a larger scale, it suggests that the sustainability of the masstige branding in the long run will not depend on the degree of automation but on the ability of companies to balance technological intelligence with values that focus on people.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aditi Talwar
AU  - Priya Vij
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Masstige Marketing: Balancing Exclusivity with Accessibility (A Theory-Building Conceptual Framework)
BT  - Proceedings of the 13th International Youth Conference in the series of “Youth for India @2047, AI Disruption and Opportunities: Preparing Youth for Global Challenges (IYC 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 4
EP  - 22
SN  - 1951-6851
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-676-0_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-676-0_2
ID  - Talwar2026
ER  -