Abstract

This chapter discusses how, when and why religious identities help to guide and regulate consumer behavior. Religious affiliation and religiosity are two essential components of consumers’ religious identities. Furthermore, religious consumption is likely to reflect one or more of four dimensions of religion identified by previous research: beliefs, values, rituals and communities. Importantly, the extent to which religious identity influences consumer behavior depends on the relevance of a particular religious identity to a particular market or product. Subtypes of relevance that exemplify this phenomenon are symbolic relevance (that is, when one reinforces one’s identity to others through expression of a belief or possession of an object) and goal relevance (that is, when a belief or behavior is associated with an outcome that is important to one’s identity).