Abstract:
Religion and nationalism are two of the prominent individual identities which can
signify the consumers’ emotional attachment to the brand. However, brand
communication rarely incorporates those two approaches simultaneously due to their
seemingly contradictory nature, which may burden the overall brand messages. This
study investigates the three-way interaction between consumers’ brand identification
(CBI), national identity (NI), religious brand positioning (RBP), and their effects on
purchase intention (PI). According to the context of this study, an experimental survey
involving two groups of small business consumers was employed in the data collection.
Hierarchical multiple regression is used to investigate the three-way interaction between
CBI, NI, RBP, and PI. The result revealed a significant three-way interaction effect, where
the strongest influence was found in high NI and brands with religious positioning
scenarios. This study concluded that nationalism and religious identities do not reject
each other. Moreover, those two identities simultaneously strengthen consumers’
emotional attachment to the brands. Hence, small business owners can develop
communication strategies to affirm consumers’ nationalism and religious identities.
