The Internet-Based Democratisation of Brand Management –The Dawn of a New Paradigm or Dangerous Nonsense?

Bjoern Asmussen1, Sally Harridge-March1, Nicoletta Occhiocupo1

& Jillian Farquhar2& Jillian Farquhar2

1 Oxford Brookes University & 2 University of Bedfordshire, UK

EMAC ConferenceCopenhagen Business School

Copenhagen, June 2010

Overview

• What is the internet-based democratisation of brand management about?

• Research problem: Addressing the ambiguity of this phenomenon

• Findings: Three key developments that led to the emergence of this democratisation phenomenondemocratisation phenomenon

• Conclusion

What is the internet-based democratisation of brand management about?

• THE RISE OF BRAND MEANING CO-CREATION: Brand managers, who have traditionally been in charge of managing brand meaning, are facing potentially radical changes to the nature of their role due to the rise of brand meaning co-creation

• INTERNET EMPOWERED: Empowered by the internet, consumers and other stakeholders are contributing to brand meaning to an unprecedented extent (Boyle, 2007; Mooney and Rollins, 2008; Muniz and Schau, 2007) through UGC platforms

• EXAMPLE: “YouTube is forcing marketers to hand over control of how their brands • EXAMPLE: “YouTube is forcing marketers to hand over control of how their brands are seen by consumers.” (Johan Jervoe, corporate vice-president of global marketing at McDonald’s, in Jones, 2008, p. 4)

• SHIFT IN POWER: This erosion of control signifies a shift away from a traditional, mainly company-control-centric management approach towards a broader perspective of co-creation (Kozinets et al., 2010; Merz et al., 2009; Pitt et al., 2006)

• DEMOCRATISATION: Such a shift in power can be described as democratisation: Democratisation is a process of transition from a less democratic to a more democratic form of power sharing (Grugel, 2002; Potter et al., 1997)

• CONCEPTUALISATION: Thus the emergence of internet-empowered brand meaning co-creation processes can be conceptualised as an internet-based democratisation of brand management

Research problem & methodology

RESEARCH PROBLEM • The phenomenon of the internet-based democratisation of brand management is a

widely debated topic• A central issue of this debate appears to be the ambiguity surrounding this

democratisation phenomenon• Academic research to date has mainly focused on investigating ‘just’ individual

themes (for an overview see Burmann and Arnhold, 2008)

RESEARCH AIM • To address the ambiguity of this democratisation phenomenon as a whole• To explore the different developments that contributed to the emergence of this

democratisation phenomenon

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY • Research question: What has instigated the emergence of the internet-based

democratisation of brand management?• Integrative literature review (Bem, 1995; Torraco, 2005; Webster and Watson,

2002)• Socio-technological perspective (Fuchs, 2005)

Findings: Key developments that have led to the emergence of the internet-based democratisation of brand management

Emergence of the Internet-Based Democratisation of Brand Management

Internet-Based Democratisation of Information:

Internet-Based

Democratisation of Social Capital:

Internet-Based Democratisation of Social Capital:of Information:

• Information Access • Information Creation• Information Dissemination

Democratisation of Social Capital:

•Social Self-Representation •Social Connectivity•Social Mobilisation

of Social Capital:• Social Self-Representation• Social Connectivity• Social Mobilisation

Democratisation of Internet Technology:• Internet Access (incl. Broadband & Mobile)• Internet usage-related Hardware• Internet usage-related Software

ConclusionTHEORETICAL AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS• The conceptual framework makes a contribution to clarifying what the internet-based

democratisation of brand management is about • It also provides a broader basis upon which to debate whether or not this

democratisation phenomenon can be conceptualised as the dawn of a new paradigm

LIMITATIONS• Exploratory literature review only• Exploratory literature review only• Not all relationships between the democratisation phenomena have been explored

(clear focus on the first key development)

FUTURE RESEARCH• Give a voice to practitioners in academic research: How do they make sense of this

democratisation phenomenon?• How can organisations benefit from these developments? How can they adapt?• The dark side of the internet (e.g. commercial exploitation, social divide, censorship)• Defining the terms ‘brand’ and ‘brand management’ in the internet age• Are consumers/external stakeholders the new brand managers?

Thank you