Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains

By Jonah A. Berger, Chip Heath. 2007

1,327 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Marketing, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/228ab06bf956f28377abe6cdf130075edd5d2e11

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Citations in the corpus

Word of mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and directions for future research (2014, background): “While cars, clothes, and other publicly visible goods are often used to signal identity (Berger & Heath, 2007), knowledge is usually private and much more difficult to display.”
Brains and brands: Developing mutually informative research in neuroscience and marketing (2008, background): “Given the substantial difference in individuals’ preferences for brands and products, especially with regard to self-definition (e.g., Berger and Heath, 2007), it would be very interesting to see whether activity in reward pathways could predict individuals’ unique hierarchies of brand preference.”
Viewing usage of counterfeit luxury goods: Social identity and social hierarchy effects on dilution and enhancement of genuine luxury brands (2016, background): “…a certain lifestyle (Englis & Solomon, 1995; Lowry, Englis, Shavitt, & Solomon, 2001), is an important driver in consumers' communicating to others the groups to which they aspire to belong or people to whom they wish to be similar or dissimilar (Escalas & Bettman, 2003; Berger & Heath, 2007).”
Marketing through instagram influencers: impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude (2016, neutral): “Two naïve theories may be linked to the need for uniqueness and c onformity: the naive theory of exclusivity or the belief that exclusive products are desirable (Berger and Heath, 2007), and the naive theory of popularity or the belief that popular products are ton, 1987; Deval et al.”
When Posting About Products on Social Media Backfires: The Negative Effects of Consumer Identity Signaling on Product Interest (2019, background): “…participants posted “products people can use to help the environment,” while in the identity-relevant condition, participants posted products “that you would use to show that you are a proud environmentalist” (Berger and Heath 2007, Study 4; for instructions and stimuli, see Web Appendix E).”
Social Influence on consumer decisions: Motives, modes, and consequences (2012, background): “In a creative series of studies, Berger and Heath (2007, 2008) found that consumers chose nonconsensual options in product domains (e.g., music, hairstyles) that could signal to others a unique, discriminating sense of taste.”