From Laboratory to Luxury

Diamonds have long been associated with a symbol of love due to extensive advertising campaigns. However, growing awareness of the environmental and ethical issues surrounding diamonds has led to an increased demand for sustainable and ethical alternatives such as lab-grown diamonds. This research explores the influence of sustainable labelling, advertising appeals, and gender on consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions towards lab-grown diamonds. Specifically, it examines the extent to which sustainable labelling (with vs. without) and advertising appeals (emotional vs. rational) in the lab-grown diamond advertisements affect consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intentions. Additionally, it explores the moderating role of gender in this relationship. Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, a 2x2 experimental survey was conducted, presenting participants with lab-grown diamond advertisements featuring either a sustainable label or no label, as well as emotional or rational advertising appeals. The sample consisted of 324 American participants, and the effects of sustainable labelling and advertising appeal on consumer responses were examined using four independent samples t-tests. A two-way ANOVA was employed to explore the moderating role of gender. Contrary to expectations, the results revealed non-significant effects for all hypotheses, indicating that sustainable labelling, advertising appeals, and gender did not significantly impact consumer brand attitudes or purchase intentions towards lab-grown diamonds. These findings suggest that effective advertising messages should consider a holistic approach, taking into account context-driven factors that influence consumer decision-making.