Cause‐related marketing of luxury brands: Nudging materialists to act prosocially

Across four experiments, we show that materialists' willingness to engage in cause‐related marketing (CRM) depends on the type of campaign: product‐linked (brand linked to a cause through limited‐edition products) or donation‐linked (direct donations to a charitable cause). Materialists are more willing to engage in product‐linked than donation‐linked campaigns, whereas nonmaterialists show the opposite pattern. The effect for materialists is driven by the status‐signaling qualities that luxury products convey and is eliminated for value brands and when materialists' need for status is momentarily satiated. This study shows that materialists can be nudged to behave prosocially by leveraging their status‐seeking motivations in the context of luxury consumption, and luxury brands will maximize participation by utilizing product‐linked CRM campaigns.