From an article summarizing new research to be published in Marketing Science:
A subject who attended worship services at least weekly was roughly 20% less likely to select an "expressive" brand than one who did not; there was no difference in the functional category.
“Expressive” indicates a brand with some cache:
The researchers classified the products as either "expressive" (Ralph Lauren sunglasses vs. WalMart's) or "functional" (Motrin vs. CVS ibuprofen).
So, I live in Utah, where non-Mormons are wary of expressing their faith†. Does this mean that there’d be better expressive brand identification by non-Mormons in Utah?
† This goes back to the first religious non-Mormons in the then territory - the Presbyterians - who were strongly discouraged from proselytizing to Mormons in any way. To this day, it is common to find Mormons who don’t know that the reason some others don’t proselytize in the state is because they’re trying to get along.
