Setting the Sustainability Agenda: The Impact of Luxury Brands' SDG-Related Tweets on Consumer Engagement

Abstract

This study examines luxury market brands' communications related to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) on the social media platform “X,” and their impact on online consumer engagement. Our longitudinal study analyses 57,000 social media posts by 19 luxury brands (7-year period), revealing that social and environmental sustainability communications are the most popular to elicit consumer engagement, while economic sustainability messaging lacks a similar effect. The personal luxury industry (which includes apparel, footwear, watches, jewelry, and accessories) was chosen for this study as this industry faces unique challenges and more scrutiny over its practices. The study highlights the importance of sustainability communication in branded owned media, while emphasizing the role of the brand in shaping the public agenda through the content consumers like and share. Conceptually, agenda-setting theory is extended in this paper to cover luxury brand communications on social media. In this context, the theory is proven for some of the 17 SDGs; however, for economic agendas, extra strategic marketing practices beyond online social media communications may be required. Recommendations include prioritizing the reframing of economic sustainability communications and the continuation of the social and environmental sustainability messaging for consumer resonance.