As it's stated in the book of Jobs: Thou shalt not worship false iPhones.
Or so goes the thinking in a new study from Duke University, which concludes: "The brand name logo on a laptop or a shirt pocket may do the same thing for some people that a pendant of a crucifix or Star of David does for others." In fact, the more religious a person is, the less brand expression appears to matter.
Researchers at Duke ran several experiments to determine this disconnection between brand importance and religiosity. In one, the team analyzed geographic areas for the number of Apple, Macy's, and Gap stores per million people. These statistics were compared with brand-discount stores. "Then they compared these rough measures of brand reliance against the number of congregations per thousand and self-reported attendance in church or synagogue, controlling for income, education and urbanization differences," the report says. "In every analysis, they found a negative relationship between brand reliance and religiosity."
In another experiment, a group of students were asked to write an essay on "what your religion means to you personally." A second set of students wrote essays on an unrelated topic. Both groups then underwent an imaginary shopping trip, where they were asked to choose between a series of products. A similar online experiment was conducted with hundreds of participants, divided between those who reported being religious and those who did not. In both cases, "those that were highly religious [or primed to think about religion] cared less about national brands ... religion reduces brand reliance by apparently satisfying the need to express self-worth."
While this perhaps finally solves the mystery of why Christopher Hitchens and Nietzsche were such label whores, it also provides insight into how certain brands--namely Apple--develop cult-like followings. Similar to Duke's report, brand expert Martin Lindstromconducted a 3 year, 7 million dollar study comparing brain scans of the religious to those with high brand loyalty. Lindstrom discovered that the scans of people loyal to Apple matched the scans of devoted Christians.
All praise the almighty Steve!
"Brands are a signal of self-worth," said Gavan Fitzsimons, professor of marketing and psychology at Duke. "We're signaling to others that we care about ourselves and that we feel good about ourselves and that we matter in this world. It's more than 'I'm hip or cool'...I'm a worthwhile person, and I matter, and you should respect me and think that I'm a good person, because I've got the D&G on my glasses."
And an Apple on my iPhone.
COMMENTARY: So basically, if I understand this article, if you are not religious you are a "brand whore" or as I refer to individuals crazy over a brand, "brand loyalists" or "evangelists", both used interchangeably to describe Apple customers. I actually met an Apple evangelist the other day at a bar. He had the new Apple iPhone 4. We spoke a bit, and he told me very proudly that besides the iPhone, he also owned an Apple iPod, iMac and iPad. Therefore, I can only assume that he downloads his music from Apple's iTunes. But, never in my mind would it cross my mind that he might not be very religious, or worst (OMG) an agnostic.
By the findings of the Duke University study, all brand loyalists are probably non "believers", and when Judgment Day comes the clouds will open and we will be struck down like dogs. Only those who practice religion religiously, like those Looney Tunes from the Religious Right, will be sparred, sucked into heaven and forgiven their sins.
Courtesy of an article dated September 29, 2010 appearing in Fast Company
I don't know how big your test group was and just how firm and decisive the results are. Nevertheless, i wouldn't say that it's transcendental or unbelievable. It actually makes a lot of sense. A person who has a very strong grasp on one thing, will likely has a weaker one on something else. It's a matter of balance.
Posted by: records management | 12/27/2010 at 10:23 AM