Conserve Tradition If Serving Conservatives

If many of your shoppers identify themselves as religious and say they vote Republican, emphasize national brands over store brands in your merchandising and hesitate stocking just-released products. However, once you’ve established the habit of coming to your store among these consumers, you can stray from the merchandising formula without destroying the habit.
     This advice follows from findings at University of Michigan, New York University, and Turkey’s Özyeğin University. The researchers analyzed purchases over a six-year period in 416 U.S. counties. Survey data on voting patterns and religiosity for each county were used to calculate what the researchers identified as “conservatism.”
     The conservatives’ significant preference for national brands and aversion to newly-released products was seen across almost all of the 26 product categories evaluated. The researchers caution that all the product categories they assessed were utilitarian (diapers, peanut butter, and toothpaste, for instance) rather than hedonic (fashions, candy, wine, or bath oils, for example). But other research indicates the conservative’s attraction to tradition would carry over to hedonic items, too.
     Other studies have identified “Republican brands” and “Democrat brands.” The findings point out only tendencies, and there are broad variations within each group. But the differences are still useful to consider.

• Republicans prefer to have decision making decentralized. They think of political leaders as reliable and practical, but as not paying enough attention to what’s best for the locals. Democrats see politicians as intelligent, empathic, and interested in individual needs, so the Democrats are more willing to grant centralized authority. On average, Republicans are more likely to go to Subway, where you make a series of discrete choices yourself, than to Wendy's, where you’re encouraged to order by prepaid package number. Democrats go down the street to Wendy’s.
• Republicans, more than Democrats, fear for the future of free enterprise. They prefer Allstate, which has mounted fear-based ad campaigns, to Progressive, which features Flo’s smiling reassurance. Democrats prefer Progressive to Allstate. Their fears are about losing a healthy environment. For Democrats, Jeep arouses more positive associations than BMW, and Starbucks beats out Dunkin’ Donuts. Republicans see it the other way around. 

     Conservative religious consumers are as reluctant to change stores as to buy recently released items. The supporting research, centered at University of North Florida, found this to be true whether the religious folks were Protestants, Catholics, or Buddhists—the three alternatives represented in the study sample. Consumers showing lower levels of religiosity or declaring themselves to be non-religious were more likely to switch stores from one shopping trip to the next.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Use or Sidestep Political Polarization 
Maintain Customer Faith 
Encourage Customers to Be Innovative