All Quiet on the Luxury Front: How and When Sustainability Labels Influence Purchase Behavior

ABSTRACT

As luxury brands launch sustainability initiatives and products, they face significant challenges, including the need to effectively communicate their practices to consumers. The current research draws on semiotics theory to explore how and when distinct types of sustainability labels, indexical and iconic, enhance brand authenticity perceptions, product purchase likelihood, and product choice. Three empirical studies, including a real‐choice experiential lab experiment, find that for luxury (vs. non‐luxury) brands overall, indexical labels are more effective in enhancing perceptions of authenticity, which in turn increases purchase likelihood. However, in examining labeling for traditional “loud” luxury versus “quiet” luxury brands, our results show that indexical sustainability labels enhance purchase likelihood for quiet luxury brands but do not do so for loud luxury brands. These findings extend semiotics and luxury branding research by demonstrating that the effectiveness of sustainability communication depends on the fit between label type and luxury product expression, while offering guidance for managers on tailoring sustainability labels across different luxury contexts.