Brands: the Opiate of the Non-Religious Masses?

Researchers have suggested that people often form religious-like relationships with brands. The popular press has even proclaimed brands as the “new religion”. This research aims to understand whether or not there is a significant relationship between consumers’ religiosity and their reliance on brand name products. First, we analyze the relationship between religiosity and brand reliance in the U.S. at a macro level, using state level data. Next, we examine the relationship between individual levels of religiosity and brand reliance. Our results suggest that non-religious consumers rely on brands more than religious consumers, particularly when income is high.

Citation:

Ron Shachar, Tulin Erdem, Gavan J. Fitzsimons, and Keisha Cutright (2009) ,"Brands: the Opiate of the Non-Religious Masses?", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 990-991.