Friday Research: Your Experience With Identity Marketing Could Flop

When Will You Use This?  

Creating marketing messages that target consumers on the basis of their identity.

What’s The Red-Letter Bite Today? 

Marketing messages often appeal to consumers because of their targeted identities, for example, Crisco targets culinarians by noting that "Cooks who know, trust Crisco" and Jell-O asserts that all real Americans eat their desserts.

However, could identity marketing flop?

Current research* demonstrates that explicit identity-marketing messages can backfire. As authors note, "identity marketing messages that explicitly connect consumer identity expression to a particular brand may highlight the role of external forces in determining consumers’ purchase behavior. In doing so, explicit identity marketing may inadvertently reduce consumers’ perceptions of personal agency in identity expression, undermining the value of brand purchase as a meaningful expression of identity. Five studies support this theorizing and demonstrate that explicit identity-marketing messages may reduce purchase likelihood. Consumers perceive such explicit identity marketing as a threat to free identity expression and avoid brands they would otherwise prefer..".

Xbox One Invitation for Real Gamers: Is This a Meaningful Expression of Their Identity?

* Bhattacharjee, A., Berger J., Menon G., “When Identity Marketing Backfires: Consumer Agency in Identity Expression". Journal of Consumer Psychology: August, 2014. {Thanks for the material}

P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience with identity marketing? Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

P.P.S. Need some help on crafting your marketing message? Let's do this together.