Amir Grinstein from Northeastern University and VU Amsterdam

Title: What do I think about this sustainable Gucci? Product- or company-focused sustainability association, perceived environmental-impact, and consumer response towards luxury products

Work by: Inbar Elia (Bar Ilan University), Dikla Perez (Bar Ilan University), Amir Grinstein (Northeastern University and VU Amsterdam), and Neeru Paharia (Georgetown University).

Abstract: As luxury brands are increasingly integrating sustainable attributes into their products, research has yet to conceptualize these products and offers contradictory findings regarding whether consumers respond positively or negatively to such efforts. These contradictions point to a need to identify conditions that enhance consumers’ likelihood of perceiving sustainable luxury products favorably. The current research first conceptualizes luxury products that also carry sustainable attributes, distinguishing them from non-sustainable luxury products. It then addresses the contradictory findings by studying a communication-related factor that has not previously been explored: a brand’s sustainability association, defined as an indicator of whether marketing content associated with a product attributes sustainable features to the product itself (product-focused sustainability association) or to the company behind the product (company-focused sustainability association). Seven experiments show that, when faced with a marketing communication regarding a sustainable luxury product, consumers respond more favorably in the presence of a company-focused (as opposed to product-focused) sustainability association. Perceived (positive) environmental impact of consumers’, driven by the “size equals impact” heuristic, serves as the underlying mechanism for this effect. Finally, findings show that the effect is only relevant for luxury sustainable products and disappears with non-luxury sustainable products.