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Building Brand Community

DOI:10.1509/jmkg.66.1.38.18451
Authors:
James H Mcalexander at Oregon State University
James H Mcalexander
John Schouten at Memorial University of Newfoundland
John Schouten
Harold F. Koenig at Oregon State University
Harold F. Koenig
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Abstract

A brand community from a customer-experiential perspective is a fabric of relationships in which the customer is situated. Crucial relationships include those between the customer and the brand, between the customer and the firm, between the customer and the product in use, and among fellow customers. This paper delves ethnographically into a brand community and tests key findings through quantitative methods. Conceptually the study reveals insights that differ from prior research in four important ways. First, it expands the definition of a brand community to entities and relationships neglected by previous research. Second, it treats vital characteristics of brand communities, such as geo-temporal concentrations and the richness of social context, as dynamic rather than static phenomena. Third, it demonstrates that marketers can strengthen brand communities by facilitating shared customer experiences in ways that alter those dynamic characteristics. Fourth, it yields a new and richer conceptualization of customer loyalty as integration in a brand community.
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Building brand community
James H McAlexander; John W Schouten; Harold F Koening
Journal of Marketing; Jan 2002; 66, 1; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 38
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... The essence of the brand community is the creation and negotiation of meaning (McAlexander et al., 2002;Muñiz & Schau, 2005), which also involves interpersonal actions, such as consuming as play (communion and socialisation) and consuming as classification, which enhances the distinction from others (Holt, 1995). ...
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