How the perception of sustainable packaging influences consumer perception of a luxury brand

Details

Supervisors

Pleyers, Gordy

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Implementing sustainable initiatives into products has been a critical issue for luxury brands in recent years. Several efforts to tackle this challenge have been observed in the luxury beauty industry, which saw a growth of 4% to 5%, reaching €72 billion, despite changing beauty preferences among younger consumers and restrictive local policies impacting travel retail (D’Arpizio et al., 2024). Based on the analysis conducted with data collected from 132 participants, this study examines whether the use of recycled materials in skincare product packaging, which is proven to be perceived as ‘sustainable’ by consumers, can engender more favorable consumer attitudes. The results reveal that there is a positive relationship between sustainability perception and brand attitude. Luxury level is proved to influence this relationship. While brand attitude is generally more positive for non-luxury brands when perceived as sustainable, an improvement in consumers’ sustainability perception leads to a more significant improvement in their attitude towards luxury brands. In addition, regarding the perception of trust in the sustainability positioning of a brand, consumers' trust in the sustainability of luxury brands is comparable to their trust in non-luxury brands. Consumers’ perceived contradiction between luxury and sustainability were also analyzed, indicating that the two concepts fit well together in consumers’ minds. At the end of the study, proposals for enhancing sustainable packaging practices among luxury brands were also suggested, along with some recommendations for future research.