Born to Be Sustainable: Consumers’ Response toward Luxury Products That Are Born versus Reborn Sustainable

Abstract

With the rise of environmental consumerism, luxury brands have begun marketing sustainable products. Yet research so far has provided mixed findings with regard to consumers’ attitude toward sustainable luxury products. The current research enriches the ongoing debate of conditions under which consumers are likely to respond favorably to sustainable luxury products. Specifically, this research investigates a fundamental decision luxury brands take in the context of sustainability: whether to design a completely new sustainable luxury product or to redesign an existing luxury product as sustainable. We refer to these two sustainability branding strategies as born and reborn, respectively. Three controlled experiments show that consumers respond to reborn sustainable luxury products less favorably than to born sustainable luxury ones. This effect is mediated by consumers’ perception of the brand sincerity and less relevant for nonluxury products.