Investigating the impact of religious commitment on purchase of self-expressive brand products

Purpose Brand and religion, although seemingly irrelevant, are sometimes considered as competitors in satisfying certain consumer needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between religious commitment and purchase of self-expressive (SE) brand products in the context of the Iranian consumer market. Furthermore, this paper investigates the effect of religious commitment on consumers' brand recall for Western versus local brand products. Design/methodology/approach Distributing questionnaires was used to collect primary data. Use of statistical techniques, specifically inferential and descriptive statistics were used through SPSS software. Findings Study 1 findings support that there is a strong link between religious commitment and purchase of SE brand products; the more the consumers' religiosity, the less their preference for SE brand products. The results of Study 2 illustrate that there is no meaningful link between the religious commitment of individuals and their brand recall for Western products. Furthermore, there are key correlations between religious commitment and gender and also between brand purchase and age and brand purchase and income. Research limitations/implications The results help domestic and international marketers form a better understanding of consumers' behavior regarding SE brand products and brand recall depending on consumers' religious commitment. The findings also assist marketers and brand managers in designing more effective advertisements and branding strategies based on their chosen target consumer market. Originality/value Little research has examined the relationship between religiosity and its effect on the purchase of brand products; this is the first academic study analyzing the effect of commitment to Islam on purchase behavior of SE brand products in the context of the Islamic consumer market.