Religious Consumption: A Parallel Comparison Between Apple and Catholic Devotees

摘要

Researchers have studied the cult-like phenomena widely in the fields of marketing, religion, sociology, and-more recently-in the field of neuroscience. The exploration between individuals and brands through these lenses begins to offer glimpses into the relationship between brands and their devotees. Religion, a multidimensional influence on human behavior and decision-making, is under-researched in the marketing discipline, possibly due to the sensitivity of religious topics and difficulties in measuring the impact of so potentially broad a field as "religion." This research narrows the topic, begins filling in the gap in the religion-brand relationship, and explores what constitutes a cult-like allegiance to a brand, namely Apple, by examining subjects' relationship to the Apple brand, comparing response to stimuli by subjects who were "devotees" versus "indifferents" to Catholicism and to Apple.