دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی همکاری در تولید هویت برند مشترک با جوامع برند آنلاین: دیدگاه مدیریتی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

Contemporary branding literature views brand identity as socially constructed through complex interactions between multiple stakeholders. Despite extant work on how brand communities and individuals contribute towards brand identity formation, our understanding of management-led processes constituting part of the wider process of a socially constructed brand identity is still under-developed. Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior executives of a luxury automotive company and a netnography of its online brand community, we develop a process model of corporate brand identity co-creation, comprising three management-led processes: ‘nurturing brand passion’, ‘bridging’ corporate brand identity meanings and ‘partnering’, and associated activities through which management contribute to the wider process of corporate brand identity formation with community members and other stakeholders. By highlighting the interlinked and recursive nature of these processes and activities in the resulting model, the study offers a deeper understanding of the ways in which management are involved in co-creating corporate brand identity.

Managerial contributions

Previous work has already urged managers to fundamentally adopt a new way of thinking by embracing the stakeholder marketing approach and developing necessary co-creation capabilities (Hillebrand, Driessen, & Koll, 2015). By viewing brand identity formation as a dynamic and ongoing process involving various stakeholders and resulting in a multiple of meanings, the role of managers is that of a co-author of brand identity meanings (Allen et al., 2008). This involves contributing to and stimulating the dialectic interactions between multiple stakeholders in order to facilitate congruence of brand identity meaning and legitimacy of the brand. With this in mind, managers can draw on the proposed model of corporate brand identity co-creation as a guide for designing collaborative marketing programmes with brand communities, enabling interaction and marshalling joint resources. For brand managers, it is important to provide an environment of trust (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2016) to enable dialogue, exchange resources (e.g. stories, staging imaginary experiences) with brand community members such that they feel part of a larger family, as well as instil the aspirational nature of owning such a brand. It is vital that firm-owned platforms are available as they allow for interactional co-creation to occur (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2018). In the context of iconic brands, the nested nature of brand identities also requires brand managers to carefully consider the marketing programme directed to audiences outside the immediate brand community. The corporate brand identity meanings ascribed by these audiences help legitimise the brand and brand ownership. In sum, these exchanges are the basis on which corporate brand identity is negotiated and how the meaning of corporate brand identity can be accentuated for brand community members and other individual stakeholders.