Non-Profits Seen as Less Competent
Jennifer Aaker is the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
Consumers perceive non-profit organizations as being “warm,” but not particularly competent, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
“Across three experiments, we found that consumers hold stereotypes, or shorthand, blanket impressions about non-profit and for-profit organizations and that these stereotypes predict crucial marketplace behaviors, such as the likelihood of visiting of a website and willingness to buy a product from the organization,” write authors Jennifer Aaker (Stanford University), Kathleen D. Vohs (University of Minnesota), and Cassie Mogilner (University of Pennsylvania).
The authors found that people generally view for-profit companies are being competent, but also as being devoid of warmth, which does not lead people to admire them.
In contrast, they found that consumers perceive non-profits as being warmer than for-profits, but they also believe they are less competent than for-profits. Therefore, if consumer stereotypes are not interrupted, people are more likely to buy products from for-profits than non-profits.
Non-profits can boost public perception by understanding and using tools that most effectively convey competence, the authors write. For example, non-profits can utilize sub-branding, endorsements, and sponsored events to avoid the general perception that they are in some way incompetent. (more…)
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