The bunch of sustainability labels - Do consumers differentiate?

A huge number of sustainable labels addressing the different pillars of sustainability emerged over the last years. Some labels promote factors, which already imply other sustainability issues (e.g. organic incl. animal friendliness to a certain extent). Hence, the question arises how consumers react towards the redundancies of different sustainability labels. To add to the literature this study applies a latent class model for discrete choices first to test whether consumers take different sustainable labels into account when making their decision and second to test how consumers deal with different sustainable labels that are (partly) claiming the same aspect. Results indicate that three consumer segments with well-distinguished preferences and willingness to pay measures for the respective attributes can be identified. One group being the 'price-sensitives', exclusively deciding on the product with the lowest price, regardless of any sustainable attribute of the product. Another group opts for products with a sustainable label, without any clear preference for a specific sustainable attribute but expressing a clear willingness to pay more for all presented sustainable labels (i.e. the 'label choosers'). A third group can be named 'price-conscious label discriminators'. For them, some sustainable aspects provide negative utility when labelled exclusively (e.g. organic or free of genetically modified organisms) but labelled together (e.g. organic together with free of genetically modified organisms or animal welfare) it provides them significantly positive utility, even though being redundant by definition. Based on our findings there is no general statement to be made regarding the question whether different sustainable aspects complement or substitute each other. The research rather emphasizes that a differentiated look at different consumer types and different labels symbolizing sustainability is needed. The research adds to the existing literature by examining not only the relevance and acceptance of different sustainable labels to different consumer segments but also the interrelationship of different sustainable labels. The study clearly shows that with regard to different sustainable labels the more the merrier does not always apply. However, almost 85% of the market could be satisfied with a universal sustainability label. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.