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Political ideology and brand attachment

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Abstract

We introduce political conservatism as possibly associated with brand attachment. We propose that conservatism, in particular, might be related to stronger attachment bonds to brands due to greater feelings of uncertainty, encouraging consumers to seek security via forming brand attachment bonds. In five studies, we demonstrate a relationship between conservatism and brand attachment. Uncertainty is able to explain the relationship, as attachment bonds to brands can appease conservatives' uncertainty. We also observe downstream consequences for price sensitivity and purchase intentions. Finally, the relationship may arise primarily for a brand with a domestic (vs. foreign) country-of-origin. Accordingly, consumers' political ideology may play a role in brand attachment with implications for how brand managers can segment or target the market in order to predict consumer–brand relationships. We situate our work more generally on the relevance of consumers' political ideology for marketing activities.

Introduction

In recent years, both marketing practitioners and scholars alike have gained an appreciation that political ideology might not simply affect voting choices on election days, but can also impact consumers' decisions, choices, and judgments in the marketplace. The growing body of work of political ideology within the marketing sphere (Jung, Garbarino, Briley, & Wynhausen, 2017; Shavitt, 2017; Tal, Gvili, Amar, & Wansink, 2017; Winterich, Zhang, & Mittal, 2012) is very timely. In many countries around the world, there is a “disappearing centre,” with political ideologies becoming more polarized not just in the U.S. (Abramowitz, 2012; Pew Research Center, 2017) but also in Latin America, Europe, and in Australia, among others (Draca & Schwarz, 2018; Groskopf, 2016; Mansillo & Evershed, 2014; Moraes, 2015). Shavitt (2017, p. 500) recently argued that examining the role of political ideology across a range of consumer judgments and choices “seems more urgent than ever” due to increasing “division and unrest.” Indeed, because political ideology concerns fundamentally how people see the world (Jost, Stern, Rule, & Sterling, 2017), it is possible for it to affect consumption contexts, with the growing division between political liberals and conservatives meaning a division in how consumers make consumption choices.

In Western societies, the two dominant ideologies are “liberalism” and “conservatism.” Although liberalism and conservatism form the foundation of political discourse in the West, there are individuals who subscribe to other ideologies, or consider themselves to be “independents” or “centrists,” and often vote for both parties as they subscribe to elements of both conservative and liberal ideologies (Kim, Rao, & Lee, 2008). As such, the left–right, or liberal–conservative, political divide, though simplistic (Chan, 2016; Jost et al., 2017) is emerging as a fundamental distinction that may influence personality, cognitive processing, and motivational differences. In marketing and consumption situations, for example, research has started to study the bearing of consumers' political ideology on their complaining behavior (Jung et al., 2017), charitable support (Winterich et al., 2012), taste or product experiences (Tal et al., 2017), green behaviors (Kidwell, Farmer, & Hardesty, 2013), and variety-seeking behavior (Fernandes & Mandel, 2014). But, the likely relevance of political ideology in the marketplace is still relatively sparsely studied in marketing, at least compared to such demographic segmentation variables as gender and culture (Aaker & Lee, 2001; Meyers-Levy & Loken, 2015). This motivated us to study the potential relevance of consumers' ideology on our topic of interest—brand attachment (i.e., an emotional bondage between consumers and brands; Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich, & Iacobucci, 2010; Thomson, MacInnis, & Park, 2005), which is of import to marketers and brand managers since emotional bonds are crucial in consumer–brand relationships and the development and maintenance of brand loyalty.

We hypothesize that greater political conservatism may be associated with consumers' formation of stronger brand attachments. We base our hypothesizing on how conservativism is related to uncertainty about the world in which they live. This uncertainty should then encourage them to seek or form attachments, which do not only include humans (Ainsworth, 1972; Bowlby, 1979; Carney, Jost, Gosling, & Potter, 2008; Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009; Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003; Nias, 1973) but brands (Park et al., 2010; Thomson et al., 2005). We, thus, magnify the role of consumers' political ideology to the branding domain—thereby extending earlier investigations on complaining, charitable deeds, product/taste experiences, and environmentally friendly behaviors. We provide brand managers with insights for segmentation of their target consumer base that may be more likely to produce bonds with their brands. The antecedents to brand attachment are important to examine as brand attachment fosters profitability and customer lifetime value (Thomson et al., 2005). Therefore, knowing what is linked with attachment bonds to brands can build customer–brand relationships. Our research is practical as political ideology is a simple, low-cost basis for market segmentation available to any brand manager—even to those with limited resources.

We conducted five studies to test our hypothesis. Study 1 aimed to demonstrate the relationship between political conservatism and stronger brand attachment to a new brand. We then tested our hypothesized mechanism of uncertainty in three studies using actual brands by measuring feelings of uncertainty (Study 2A) and intolerance to uncertainty (Study 2C) and by moderating the feeling of uncertainty (Study 2C). We also documented country-of-origin as a potential boundary condition of the relationship between conservative political ideology and brand attachment in Study 3. Further, we examined the downstream outcomes of conservatives' association with brand attachment on price sensitivity (Study 2A) and purchase intentions (Study 3). We now present the conceptual framework for our theorizing and afterwards the studies that we conducted to test our theses.

Section snippets

Political conservatism and uncertainty

There are numerous ways to distinguish between people who hold a conservative ideology from those with a liberal one (Bafumi & Shapiro, 2009; Khan, Misra, & Singh, 2013), two of which tend to be most primary and well-established (Chan, 2016; Jost et al., 2017; Thorisdottir, Jost, Liviatan, & Shrout, 2007). On social matters, conservativism is related to traditional and historically or socially accepted values and customs. On fiscal matters, conservatism is linked to hierarchy, even if it means

Study 1: Louise Chocolates

In Study 1, our objective was to demonstrate our overall hypothesis, H1, that political conservatism is associated with greater brand attachment. We used a fictitious brand to test our hypothesis since using existing “real” brands, while it might provide support of a relationship outside of a laboratory setting, succumbs to concerns of a priori knowledge. The possibility that conservatism would be associated with attachment to even a new brand that consumers have not seen before can also make

Study 2A: Dunkin Donuts

Our primary goals in Study 2A were to replicate our overall proposed relationship, this time with a “real” brand to show it outside of a laboratory setting, thus providing further support for H1, and to show that the relationship may manifest through conservatives' greater feelings of uncertainty, thus confirming H2. We also measured brand attachment differently. Here, we used a measure from Park et al. (2010) that measures brand attachment in terms of both self-brand connection and brand

Study 2B: Twinings

In Study 2B, we continued to seek evidence for our proposed mechanism regarding uncertainty to further buttress the initial findings from Study 2A, to establish further evidence for H2. Previously, we measured intolerance of uncertainty as our mediator, and it is conceptually possible for people (including conservatives) to be more intolerant of uncertainty—yet not feel greater uncertainty generally. Thus, in Study 2B, we sought to show that a conservative political ideology is related to

Study 2C: General Motors

In Study 2C, we sought to provide further evidence regarding the role of uncertainty in explaining the relationship between conservatism and greater attachment bonds to brands. In the previous two studies, we obtained a mediating effect with both intolerance of uncertainty (Study 2A) and overall feelings of uncertainty (Study 2B). While mediation analyses are fruitful, they succumb to alternative possibilities—especially when the measured mediator co-varies with the “true” mediating variable.

Study 3: Bunnings

Study 3 tested H5. We proposed that our relationship (of conservatism related to greater attachment bonds to brands) would only arise for brands with a domestic (vs. foreign) country-of-origin (COO) because conservativism is correlated with a form of patriotism that is based motivationally in fears of uncertainty and change, and blind patriotism can help one reduce uncertainty and provide a sense of security. It is reported, for example, that being a patriot to one's country irrespective of the

General discussion

We obtain evidence that political conservatism may be related to greater attachment bonds to brands. The relationship is likely due to conservatives' feelings of uncertainty, which motivates them to seek out attachment with brands as such bonds can provide them a sense of safety and security. We show the main relationship in Study 1, and then support for our posited mechanism regarding uncertainty both via mediation and moderation in Studies 2A, 2B, and 2C. We also report country-of-origin as a

Acknowledgement

We received funding for this project from the Monash Business School New Academic Staff Grant #1765052 given to the first author.

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