LiveStrong Bands and Geeks

One of the levels in Maslow's hierarchy of needs is social. People need to feel like they belong to a group with other people who have similar values and beliefs as them. Along with that, people feel the need to distance themselves from those who they do not want to be like (divergence).

One study sought to examine the ways people diverge themselves from undesired groups. Researchers went to a college campus and sold yellow LiveStrong bands to one dorm (target dorm) and a week later sold them to the dorm next to it, which was where more academic students lived (geeks). The students in the target group did not dislike the students next door, but they did not want to be associated with them. As a control group, the researchers also sold the same number of bands to people off campus, to ensure that people wouldn't stop wearing them simply because of boredom with the fad.

The researchers followed up 6 and 13 days later. The sought to find out who was still wearing their wristband. They found that "in the week after the wristbands were adopted by the geeks, there was a 32% drop in the number of Target Dorm members who reported wearing the wristband." (Berger and Heath, 598) The control group only had a 6% drop in wearing them. According to the researchers the results "illustrate that people may abandon cultural tastes that are adopted by other social groups." (Berger and Heath, 598)


The implications for advertising?

Advertisers should be aware of who they associate their products with and how other people perceive these groups. They should also develop strategies that will enable these groups to be more receptive to being associated with each other.


Berger, Jonah, and Chip Heath. "Who Drives Divergence? Identity Signaling, Outgroup Dissimilarity, and the Abandonment of Cultural Tastes." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 95.3 (2008): 593-607. Print.