The quest for cool is never-ending. Accountants rev up their Harleys to the dismay of hard-core bikers. Soccer moms trade in minivans for hipper Land Rovers. Yellow rubber wristbands appear instantly, then just as quickly disappear. There is a fine line between cool and not-so-cool — a topic explored in a new paper, Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains, by Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger and co-author Chip Heath from Stanford. The researchers look at how consumers use products to signal membership in social groups, but swiftly abandon those same products when the original message is diluted as other groups co-opt the trend.
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