Schneider, Gustavo, Jennifer Savary, Ted Matherly and Anastasiya Pocheptsova Ghosh, “Swag against the odds: Underdog supporters prefer political campaign merchandise,” invited revision, International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Small donors represented 37% of U.S. 2024 election contributions, making them essential to cam-paign managers’ fundraising efforts. Political merchandise is an effective tool in reaching these do-nors, but little research has investigated why they might prefer to contribute by purchasing items like a t-shirt or hat rather than donate cash. Through an analysis of real contribution data and a se-ries of experiments, we identify a preferred candidate’s underdog status as a driver of preferences for merchandise, a relationship that is robust across election cycles, political parties, and political offices. We provide evidence that supporters of an underdog candidate experience an uncomforta-ble state of reduced power, which motivates them to repair by purchasing campaign merchandise. Our findings extend marketing theory on underdogs by showing downstream consequences of this positioning and contribute to a growing body of literature on political marketing and political con-sumption behavior. They also suggest that managers of underdog campaigns may empower their supporters by producing and marketing campaign merchandise.
