In the face of the growing prevalence of multiple appeals to sustainable consumption in marketers’ sustainable product communications, we examine the efficacy, in terms of consumer reactions, of adding an extrinsic appeal (e.g., “Purchase this green product to save money!”) to an intrinsic appeal (e.g., “Purchase this green product to save the environment!”) based communication for a sustainable product. Three studies provide support for our basic assertion that, compared to an intrinsic appeal, joint appeals (i.e., an intrinsic and extrinsic appeal together) reduce consumer preference for sustainable products. As well, these studies demonstrate that this adverse effect of joint appeals is based on a lowering of consumers’ attributions of the company's sustainability efforts to intrinsic motives (e.g., to the company's genuine concern for the environment). Finally, not all consumers react adversely to joint appeals; relative to intrinsic appeals, such appeals increase, rather than decrease, the intrinsic attributions and sustainable product preferences for consumers with lower involvement with sustainable consumption.

Recent marketing research has identified mixed effects of luxury companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement on customer-level outcomes. To gain a better understanding of these effects, we develop a conceptual framework in which we propose that, unless carefully implemented, CSR engagement leads to lower financial performance, decreased customer loyalty, and elevated extrinsic CSR attributions for luxury companies. These effects are exacerbated if consumers actively deliberate on the company’s CSR efforts. However, luxury companies can mitigate these pitfalls and reap the potential rewards of CSR engagement by (1) engaging in company-internal, especially employee-focused CSR instead of company-external, philanthropic CSR or (2) framing their brands as sustainable instead of exclusive. We find consistent support for our theorizing in five empirical studies. The results contribute to existing knowledge on stakeholder reactions to luxury brands’ CSR and can help managers successfully navigate the implementation of CSR in luxury contexts.

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