Marketing sustainability within the jewelry industry

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how brands’ sustainability-related marketing messages impact consumers’ word of mouth and brand loyalty within the jewelry industry, using a Brazilian context. It also investigated the mediating roles of sustainability awareness of consequences, ascribed responsibility of sustainability, and personal norms, in the relationships using the norm activation model. Implementing an experimental design, data were collected from 300 Brazilian consumers. The results showed that the presence of sustainability information in marketing messages significantly but indirectly impacts consumers’ behaviors. Sustainability marketing messages appealed to consumers’ underlying sustainability-oriented awareness, responsibility, and obligations to predict their behavioral responses. This study is the first to respond to the scholarly need of jewelry brands effectively market their sustainability initiatives to improve their consumers’ reactions. These findings add knowledge to the literature on sustainable luxury marketing and guide jewelry brands’ marketing communications.

KEYWORDS:

• Brazilian jewelry industry
• sustainability
• sustainability-related marketing messages
• word of mouth, brand loyalty
• Norm activation model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2023.2166566.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Machado

Lauren Machado is from Brazil, from where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Publicity and Advertising from ESPM. She earned an associate degree in fashion marketing from Parsons School of Design in New York City, and her Master’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising from the University of Rhode Island. Her research interests are related to fashion marketing and merchandising, more specifically on the jewelry industry.

Saheli Goswami, Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island, USA, explores and investigates businesses’ social and environmental avenues to help those within the global fashion supply chain be pioneers of sustainability. Her research interests include business ethics, morally responsible marketing and management, employee relations, and sustainable development goals applied to the textiles and fashion industry.