Research in April 2012 issue of Journal of Consumer Psychology Shows Consumers Choose Brands the Same Way They Choose People

PHILADELPHIA, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Relational Capital Group (RCG) today announced that its ground-breaking brand research in collaboration with renowned social psychologists at Princeton University and University of Louvain has been published in the April 2012 edition of the Journal of Consumer Psychology.  This research offers compelling evidence that consumers judge and behave toward brands in much the same way they do toward other people and social groups. 

In the same issue of the Journal, five leading marketing academics have published papers responding to the work of RCG.  In total, seven peer-reviewed academic papers on RCG's "brand warmth & competence" research appear in the issue, highlighting the significance of these consumer behavior findings.

The research applies a well-established human perception framework, pioneered by Dr. Susan Fiske at Princeton, to the study of 22 well-known brands.  The researchers found that consumers respond to brands using the same pattern of perceptions, emotions and behaviors as predicted by Dr. Fiske's work on the Stereotype Content Model, which has been used extensively in the study of societal stereotypes and ethnic bias around the world.  This indicates that consumers perceive and judge brands and companies using the same criteria they use for people and social groups, which has major implications for the future study and management of brands of all kinds.

"It turns out that recent efforts by brands and companies to digitize, automate and outsource their interactions with consumers are fundamentally at odds with the way humans perceive, judge and build loyalty to brands," said Chris Malone, co-author of the lead research paper and Chief Advisory Officer of The Relational Capital Group.  "As a result, consumers are more cynical, distrustful and disloyal toward large brands and companies than ever before," he added.

The brands studied in the research include Advil, AIG, Amtrak, BP, Burger King, Campbell's, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Hershey, Johnson & Johnson, Marlboro, McDonalds, Mercedes, Minute Maid, Porsche, Rolex, Rolls Royce, Shell, Tropicana, Tylenol, US Postal Service and Veterans Affairs Hospitals.

"We've found strong statistical correlation between consumers' perceptions of each brand's warmth and competence and their intent to purchase and remain loyal to that brand," said Dr. Fiske.  "These findings are consistent with other studies we've conducted that validate the influence and predictive power of warmth and competence on human behavior."

In addition to Malone, the authors of the lead research paper are Dr. Nicolas Kervyn, Post-Doctoral fellow at University of Louvain – FNRS and  Dr. Fiske, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.

The seven academic papers published in the April 2012 edition of Journal of Consumer Psychology regarding RCG's research are:

1. "Brands as Intentional Agents Framework: How perceived intentions and ability can map brand perception," Dr. Nicolas Kervyn, Dr. Susan Fiske and Chris Malone (Louvain, Princeton, RCG)
2. "Cultivating Admiration in Brands: Warmth, Competence, and Landing in the 'Golden Quadrant,'" Dr. Jennifer Aaker, Dr. Emily Garbinsky and Dr. Katherine Vohs (Stanford, Minnesota)
3. "Brands as Relationship Partners: Warmth, Competence and In Between," Dr. Susan Fournier and Claudio Alvarez (Boston University)
4. "The Universality of Warmth & Competence: A Response to Brands as Intentional Agents," Dr. Aronte Bennett and Dr. Ron Hill (Villanova)
5. "Understanding the Richness of Brand Relationships: A Response to Brands as Intentional Agents," Dr. Kevin Keller (Dartmouth)
6. "Brands as Intentional Agents: Questions and Extensions," Dr. Deborah MacInnis (USC)
7. "Brands as Intentional Agents: Response to Commentaries," Dr. Susan Fiske, Chris Malone and Dr. Nicolas Kervyn (Princeton, RCG, Louvain)

About The Relational Capital Group 

About Dr. Susan T. Fiske
Dr. Fiske, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology at Princeton University is a social psychologist renowned for her work on social cognition, stereotypes, and prejudice. She has authored over 250 publications and has written several books, including her most recent work, Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us (2011).  Of her two well-known texts, Social Beings: A Core Motives Approach to Social Psychology (2010) describes people's basic social  motives, and Social Cognition, a graduate level text she wrote with Shelley Taylor, defined the subfield of social cognition. A new version will appear in 2013. She also edits the field's standards: Annual Review of Psychology and the Handbook of Social Psychology.  Most recently, she won the 2010 APA Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2009 William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science.

About Dr. Nicolas O. Kervyn
Dr. Kervyn earned his masters and doctoral degrees in psychology from the University of Louvain and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Belgian National Science Foundation (FNRS).  He has published several research papers on warmth and competence, social perception and group stereotypes.

SOURCE The Relational Capital Group