The quest for cool is never-ending. Accountants rev up their Harleys to the dismay of hard-core bikers. Soccer moms trade in minivans for hipper Land Rovers. Yellow rubber wristbands — signaling support for cancer research — appear instantly, then just as quickly disappear.

There is a fine line between cool and not-so-cool.

New research provides insight into how consumers use products to signal membership in social groups, but swiftly abandon those same products when the original message is diluted as other groups co-opt the trend. In a paper titled, Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains, Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger and Chip Heath, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, explore the power of social identity in the demand for consumer products.

According to Berger, much of the existing research has focused on the drive for conformity among consumers.…