Conclusion
The rise of social media dramatically challenges the way firms manage their brands. Key features of this social media environment with significant effects on branding are a shift from the firm to consumers as pivotal authors of brand stories in the branding process; a high level of interactivity manifested in social networks of consumers and brands; and a multitude of channels and brand stories that cannot be easily coordinated. To reflect the participative, multi-vocal nature of brand authorship amplified by social media, Fournier and Avery (2011) use the metaphor of ‘open-source’ branding, which implies “participatory, collaborative, and socially-linked behaviors whereby consumers serve as creators and disseminators of branded content” (p. 194). As brand control now largely resides outside of the firm, they argue that in this paradigm, the focus is on protecting the brand's reputation, making brand management more similar to public relations. Firms can follow three distinct strategies to brand management: they can follow the path of least resistance by listening carefully and responding (harshly said: giving in) to consumer demands; they can play the consumers' game by trying to gain cultural resonance through demonstrating a deep understanding of the online cultural environment in which their brand operates and fitting in seamlessly (e.g., T-mobile's “Life's for Sharing” campaigns); or they can attempt to leverage social media's connectedness and get consumers to play the brand's game by creating branded artifacts, social rituals, and cultural icons for consumers to appropriate and work on behalf of the brand (e.g., the Old Spice campaign).
