‘I wanna be sustainable, but I don’t wanna show it!’: the effect of sustainability cues on young adult consumers’ preferences

Given the urgent need to address plastic pollution, fashion companies are implementing diverse strategies to reduce plastic in their production processes. To communicate their commitment to plastic waste reduction, companies have started including symbols on their products (i.e., sustainability cues). However, the effect of these symbols on consumer behaviour remains unclear. Thus, through a mixed method involving three focus groups and two online experiments, we investigate the effect of sustainability cues on consumers’ preferences. Our findings show that including sustainability cues on a product is not always an effective business strategy. Hence, we expand the ongoing debate on the effects of environmental strategies, offering new insights into consumers’ perceptions of sustainability cues and demonstrating the importance of perceived proximity and environmental concern in enhancing or reducing buying intentions towards sustainable products. For fashion companies, we reveal if and how sustainability cues can represent a competitive leverage prompting environmentally friendly purchases.