UJWAL
ARKALGUD
Voices
HUFFINGTON
08.26.12
The Age of
Belief-Based
Consumption
T
HE RECENT CHICK-FIL-A controversy has interestingly shed light on something I’ve been wanting to talk
about for a while now: Belief-Based Consumption. ¶
People’s decision making is increasingly becoming belief-based, which is to say that people are increasingly
choosing to do business with companies that share
their values and beliefs. And in the process of doing
so, audiences are bringing these brands into conversations with peer groups both online and off, making
these brands an integral part of their (audience) identities. ¶ When value systems are involved, audiences
are more than happy to spread a brand’s message into
the marketplace (through their own personal networks). The series of events this past month that occurred as a result of the President and COO of ChickFil-A openly expressing his opposition to same-sex
marriage illustrates exactly that. ¶ His comments had
such an impact that it led to hundreds of thousands of
supporters buying chicken from the restaurant chain on
ILLUSTRATION BY ANDY MARTIN
Ujwal
Arkalgud
is a digital
marketer
and design
anthropologist