The invisible identity in a visible world: how religiosity mediates consumer culture and the marketplace
| Pages | 15-30 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-10-2018-2066 |
| Published date | 18 July 2019 |
| Date | 18 July 2019 |
| Author | Thuy D. Nguyen,Shih Yung Chou,Charles Blankson,Phillip Wilson |
The invisible identity in a visible world:
how religiosity mediates consumer
culture and the marketplace
Thuy D. Nguyen and Shih Yung Chou
Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas, USA
Charles Blankson
Department of Marketing and Logistics, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA, and
Phillip Wilson
Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to offer a systematic view of religious consumption and its iterative influences on consumers, as well as their differences
in attitudes, values and behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach –Using a mixed-method approach –both qualitative and quantitative –the study develops religious self-
transformation and self-categorization scales to empirically evaluate the hypotheses.
Findings –The convergence of consumption, self-identification and religious attitudes and behaviors proffer an essentially subjective concept useful
in understanding the existential reflection and supernatural orientation that individuals may seek through consumption. Cluster analysis (based on
product, services, media and practices) reveals four quadrants. The non-religious (religious) group haslow (high) consumption in all four
consumption categories Self-categorization (self-transformation) group has high (low) level of product consumption, bu t low (high) in all three other
categories. This research presented four invisible identities that are visibly different in terms of life satisfaction, religious brand preference, dollars
spending on religious products and monetary donation.
Research limitations/implications –This research only considers one medium-size city as opposed to all types of cities. All religious affiliated and
nonaffiliated respondents are included in the total sample.
Practical implications –The study offers new insights into the triadic relationshipbetween religious self-identification, religious consumption, and
the marketplace that can be used in branding, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and persuasive advertising, public relation and social media,
and services marketing.
Social implications –Religion addresses the nature of existence. In this religion–consumer–brand nexus, consumption is a way for consumers to
experience and immense themselves in the sacred to solidify, communicate, transform, improve and transport who they are capitalizi ng on religious
self-identification can affectively promote positive social change.
Originality/value –This work proposes four invisible identities that are different in consumption of religious products and services in terms of
patterns and purposes. These groups of consumers shape the marketplace through the derived utility of their religiousconsumption based on their
self-identification, which in turn influences their religious brand preference.
Keywords Religiosity, Cluster analysis, Brand preference, Self-categorization, Self-transformation, Religious, Non-religious
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The intersectionsof the sacred vs profane, mundane vs mystical
and religious vs secular are embedded in everyday life and
necessitate religious and non-religious individuals alike to
navigate the consumption landscape as a self-identity project.
Regardless of consumers’disposition toward the marketplace,
few can escape the market permanently (Kozinets, 2002). As a
result, individuals learn to perform consumption functions
coherent with ones’religiosity and identity (Karatasand
Sandıkcı, 2013). Religiosity refers to “a person’s degree of
adherence to the beliefs, doctrines,and practices of a particular
religion”(Dube and Wingfield, 2008, p. 503). Some work has
been done in the study of religionand religiosity. Scholars have
examined the effectsof religiosity on dominion and stewardship
toward the environment and subsequent sustainable behaviors
(Leary et al.,2016), the effects of religious institutions on
forming the marketing systems (Mittelstaedt, 2002) and the
Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableon
Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/1 (2020) 15–30
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-10-2018-2066]
Received 18 October2018
Revised 25 February 2019
27 March 2019
8 April 2019
Accepted 9 April 2019
15
effects of religiosity on globalization and business strategy
(Laczniak and Klein, 2010). Past consumer research on
religion and the marketplace have also revealed how religion
shapes the marketplace (Blankson et al.,2018;Izberk-Bilgin,
2012), how marketplace impacts religion (Drenten and
McManus, 2016;Willson et al.,2013), how religion becomesa
part of the consumer culture (Veer and Shankar, 2011), how
consumption cycles within the context of religion and the
interactive and reciprocal role of religion in shaping consumer
behaviors and market systems (Belk et al.,1989;Cayla and
Elson, 2012).
In addition, although religion permeates individual identity
in complex ways and largely underlines the psychology and
behaviors of consumers in all aspects of life, the study of
religion in marketing has been sparse and mostly qualitative in
the literature (Cleveland et al.,2013;Mathras et al.,2016).
Mainstream business journals have presented little research
that explores the relationship between religion and marketing
(Cleveland et al.,2013;Engelland, 2014). The common
denominator of previousstudies is a lack of a systematic view of
religious consumptionand its specificinfluences on consumers.
To position future study of religion and the marketplace,
scholars have recently taken stock of the most prominent
studies of religion in marketing. Their efforts concluded that
the theoretical and quantitative methods contribute a small
percentage in the study of religion, urging diversification of
perspectives to explore religion (Cleveland et al., 2013;
Drenten and McManus,2016;Engelland, 2014;Mathras et al.,
2016).
The common denominator of previous studies lacks a
systematic view of religious consumption and its specific
influences on consumers. To redress this gap from behavioral
perspective, the study seeks to empirically investigate the
following researchquestions:
RQ1. Are consumers of religion homogenous in their
motivations?
RQ2. What are theircharacteristics?
RQ3. How do religious identities interact with the
marketplaceand vice versa?
RQ4. When do these interactionsintensify?
Critics of this research may arguethat religiosityexerts its
influences most strongly among the more vulnerable
population who constantly face physical, societal and personal
risks (Norris and Inglehart, 2011); thus, the context of this
research in the USA is not appropriate. However, by exploring
the importance of religiosity in the USA, the study proposes
that religiosity is still a formidablepredictor of a prosperous,
affluent and secure postindustrial society. The increasingly
secularized transformation of theUS population has not
diminished the importance of religion but produced deeply
divided and opposing forces, thatis, secular vs religious
orientations.
This study aims at extending our theoretical understanding
of religious consumptionby profiling consumers of religion and
empirically demonstrates their similarities and differences in
terms of attitudes and behaviors in the USA. The study differs
in which the results provide a methodical structure weaving
consumer choices and identity works through religiosity. The
results of the study shed light on the heterogeneity of the
motivations of religious consumers, the appropriation of
religions and the triadic relationship between one’s beliefs, the
market and identification of self. We propose that the
differences in religious identification and intensity tend to
influence the way people live (i.e. life satisfaction, spending,
materialism), their attitudes toward products (i.e. brand
preference) and the choices they make (i.e. monetary
donations). These differences are hypothesized to intensify
when individualsexperience religious conversions.
The investigation begins with a theoretically drawn
distinction between consumer groups based on their
appropriation of religions. Through religion, individuals
achieve the values of the physical world. For example,
consumers being religious (or nonreligious) to self-proclaim,
and to associate with desired social groups, to draw life
meanings for self-improvement purposes, or to be obedient to
the grand design of the Divines. This distinction is important
for several reasons. Although almost all religions answer
existential concerns of life beyond death inquiries, individuals
profit from religions for more than just securing an eternal
position in a supernatural realm (Cleveland et al.,2013).
Religion is exploited for political identity, social standing,
economic status,and consumption purposes (Yinger, 1970).
This widespread influenceof religion on consumers warrants
a systematic segmentation of its members for differential
marketing strategies. From a marketing perspective, the
variation of religious intensity enables creative marketing
strategies by shifting consumer demand to a more inelastic
demand curve. A criticalinsight that emerges from the typology
is how these groups differ with respect to their preferences for
brands. This research defines religious brand preference as the
intention and preference of consumers to transact with (or
avoid) companies and brands that have similar (different)
religious values from them. Consumers seek out religious
pathways to achieve self-assurance, improvement,
transformation and transcendence (Rinallo et al.,2013).
Marketing religious goods and brands by capitalizing on
purposeful consumptions can helpconsumers co-creating their
religious identities (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). It is well known
that consumptionof religious goods and brand preference often
reveal characteristics of the consumers by reflecting and
communicating owners’values to themselves and to others
(Richins, 1994).
In contrast to the quantitative study segmenting or
comparing differences between individuals from different
religious affiliations, such as Muslims and Christians
(Cleveland et al.,2013), this study focuses on the strength of
religiosity, irrespective of specific religions, on consumer
behaviors. In this context,non-religious consumers also exhibit
through consumptionthe intensity of their non-beliefs in divine
beings. The strength of religiosity is manifested through the
daily behaviors. The daily behaviorsaffected by religious beliefs
are displayed in material culture in the form of sacred images,
devotional and liturgical objects, places of worship, works of
art, mass-produced consumption goods, entertainment and
media products and the practices surrounding these material
objects such as pilgrimages, study, ceremonies and prayer
How religiosity mediates consumer culture
Thuy D. Nguyen, Shih Yung Chou, Charles Blankson and Phillip Wilson
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 29 · Number 1 · 2020 · 15–30
16
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