The Limits of Brand Heritage in Luxury Advertising: Why Heritage-Based Storytelling May Fail for Certain Luxury Products

Brand heritage is a central dimension of luxury brand identity and is frequently leveraged in storytelling advertising to influence consumers’ evaluations of advertisements and downstream purchase-related responses. While prior research emphasizes the positive outcomes of such strategies, this paper reveals important boundary conditions. Across one observational study, one experimental pretest, and three experimental studies, heritage–focused storytelling is shown to backfire for close-to-self products, such as perfumes, by reducing ad evaluations and purchase intentions. Conversely, heritage-focused storytelling enhances consumer responses to distant-from-self products. These findings advance the brand heritage literature by identifying potential downsides of heritage-based storytelling in luxury advertising.