This research studies the role of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals in luxury goods communication, investigating how using one or the other type of message appeal affects product perceived luxuriousness and, in turn, product attitude, and consumers' willingness to buy. This research presents three experiments in which message appeal and brand prominence have been manipulated, while perception of luxuriousness, attitude toward luxury products, willingness to buy them and consumers' conspicuous consumption orientation have been measured. Hedonic, compared with utilitarian, message appeals increase perceived luxuriousness, thereby increasing product attitude and consumers' willingness to buy the product promoted. This effect is particularly likely to occur for consumers with lower levels of conspicuous consumption orientation and for products carrying lowly prominent logos. We extend the literature on luxury communication by studying the effect of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals on consumers' responses, and the literature on hedonism versus utilitarianism by studying this dichotomy in the context of luxury goods communication. This research suggests that different message appeals used in luxury goods communication produce different effects on consumers' responses and that this differential effectiveness is particularly likely to manifest for certain types of consumers and certain types of luxury products.

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link VISUAL AND CONCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS IN LOGO EVALUATION ACROSS EXPOSURES AbstractThis research investigates the effects of visual and conceptual complexity on brand logo evaluations at single and multiple exposures. Building upon the theoretical distinction between visual and conceptual constructs and on a processing fluency account it is proposed that the effects of visual complexity and conceptual complexity on attitude toward the logo change across exposures following opposite patterns, and are driven by the mechanisms of perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency, respectively. The results of a hybrid experimental study suggest that the initially positive effect of visual complexity on attitude toward the logo becomes negative with multiple exposures, whereas the initially negative effect of conceptual complexity on attitude toward the logo becomes positive as exposures increase. The findings contribute to research on consumer reactions to the visual elements of brands, and offer guidelines to brand managers and logo designers for leveraging on visual and conceptual complexity, as well as the number of exposures, in order to raise the attractiveness of logos.

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PurposeThis research investigates the influence of package sustainability on food satiation perception.Design/methodology/approachResearch hypotheses were tested through three experimental studies.FindingsThree experimental studies show that food quality is associated to higher perceived food satiation (preliminary study); that a food packaged in a sustainable package is perceived as more satiating than the same food packaged in a non-sustainable package and that this effect is explained by the higher perceived quality triggered by the presence of a sustainable package (Study 1); and that the positive relationship between higher perceived quality and perceived satiation is verified only for healthy but not for unhealthy foods (Study 2).Originality/valueThe present research advances knowledge on the highly debated issue of sustainable food packages. By proposing that consumers might perceive a healthy food presented in a sustainable package as more satiating, the authors show another extrinsic packaging cue modifying consumers' perception, namely package sustainability.

This study tackles the issue of how consumers might perceive luxury products' sustainability-focused communication. We compare consumers' reactions when luxury brands communicate their focus on either product sustainability or product excellence (i.e., a sustainability-vs. excellence-focused communication strategy, respectively). We predict that consumers perceive the former as more atypical for a luxury brand, which renders the communication more effective at enhancing consumers' willingness to buy the brand's products. Across six experiments, we demonstrate that perceived atypicality mediates the effect of luxury product communication strategy on consumers' willingness to buy; that perceived atypicality increases willingness to buy by increasing consumers' perception about the uniqueness of the communication strategy; that the effect of perceived atypicality is stronger for consumers with a higher chronic need for uniqueness; and that the greater effectiveness of a sustainability-focused communication strategy on atypicality and willingness to buy is peculiar to luxury products (i.e., it does not manifest for mass-market products). From a managerial perspective, our findings demonstrate that luxury brands may innovate their communication strategies by leveraging sustainability rather than product excellence.