Worshipping at the church of Ford: how modern brand devotion connects people online

It’s all I ever think and talk about. They are everything to me.

With this sort of a passion you would think this person is talking about a loved one, but this person is actually talking about a car. And not just any car, a very specific brand of car.

It’s gotten to the point where people express their views about certain brands with the reverence and dedication usually reserved for religion or politics. Research shows people use brands to substitute for important beliefs, especially where it reflects their own self-worth.

We decided to look at three major car brands to see how this plays out online. Our study examined more than 1,400 pages of data with hundreds of thousands of posts, from the Facebook sites for: Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, and Volvo.

Out findings confirmed that social media allows people to disclose all sorts of information about their love for these brands, to seek out like minded people. They are searching for affirmation of their belief in a brand. Read more

Simon Pervan - The Conversation - 2 June 2017