In another odd experiment, it seems as if religious people are less susceptible to buying things according to their brand, which to secularists is often a means of enhancing status and self-worth:
Prof. Ron Shachar of Tel Aviv University’s Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration says that a consumer’s religiosity has a large impact on his likelihood for choosing particular brands. Comsumers who are deeply religious are less likely to display an explicit preference for a particular brand, while more secular populations are more prone to define their self-worth through loyalty to corporate brands instead of religious denominations.
This research, in collaboration with Duke University and New York University scientists, recently appeared in the journal Marketing Science.
There is considerable statistical evidence that consumers buy particular brands to express who they are to the outside world, Prof. Shachar says. From clothing choices to cultural events, people communicate their personalities and values through their purchases.
Prof. Shachar and his fellow researchers decided to study the relationship between religiosity and brand reliance. . . .
Researchers discovered that those participants who wrote about their religion prior to the shopping experience were less likely to pick national brands when it came to products linked to appearance or self-expression — specifically, products which reflected status, such as fashion accessories and items of clothing. For people who weren’t deeply religious, corporate logos often took the place of religious symbols like a crucifix or Star of David, providing feelings of self-worth and well-being. According to Prof. Shachar, two additonal lab experiments done by this research team have demonstrated that like religiousity, consumers use brands to express their sense of self-worth.
via American Friends of Tel Aviv University: Shopping Religiously.
I suppose this simply proves that religious people are not as “worldly.” It also suggests how pathetic it is to be “worldly,” having to turn to corporate logos as a substitute for religious symbols.
HT: <a href=”http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/007649.html”>Future Pundit</a>
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