Diversity in Luxury Fashion Advertising: Relationships Among Brand Sustainability, Brand Equity and Purchase Intention

As major luxury fashion brands are embracing diversity in their brand communication strategies, new research questions are concerned with the effectiveness of such communication efforts on consumers’ brand evaluations and purchase behaviors. This study investigates the impact of diversity representations in luxury fashion advertisements on perceived brand sustainability, brand equity, and purchase intention. A first experiment, conducted on the advertising of a well-known luxury fashion brand, shows the moderating role of brand trust on the relationship between diversity representations and perceived brand sustainability. Results also indicate that diversity representations influence brand equity and purchase intention through the mediating impact of perceived sustainability. To control for brand name effects, these results are replicated by means of a second experiment conducted on comparable advertisements where the brand name was kept anonymous. Finally, a third experiment is conducted to explore how these relationships might unfold in the context of the Metaverse, where diversity is represented through avatars that embody consumers’ self-perceptions. Here, it is shown that the role of perceived sustainability on both brand equity and purchase intention is moderated by consumers’ self-congruity, referring to the extent to which the portrayed social sustainability values align with the individual’s self-concept. Insights are provided regarding brand strategy management for more effective socially sustainable representations in luxury fashion digital and virtual communication.