Are All Out-Groups Created Equal? Consumer Identity and Dissociative Influence

Past research finds that consumers exhibit weak self-brand connections to brands associated with out-groups. We extend this work by demonstrating that products associated with dissociative reference groups have a greater impact on consumers’ negative self-brand connections, product evaluations, and choices than do products associated with out-groups more generally. In addition, both situational priming and chronic identification with one’s in-group moderate the avoidance of products associated with dissociative reference groups. Further, we demonstrate the con-ditions under which dissociative influence does not occur and discuss the impli-cations of the research. Marketers often wish to position their brand in a waythat accentuates the positive aspects of the brand yet highlights the negative aspects of a competitor’s brand. One strategy for achieving this is to link the competitor’s brand with a group that the consumer does not wish to be asso-ciated with. For example, in their award-winning “Shady Acres ” advertisement, Pepsi juxtaposed a fraternity of Pepsi