Browsing by Author "Kushchuk, Valeriya"

Modern consumers and marketers commonly perceive the concept of brand community as a social formation that exists in symbiosis with organizations behind different brands. However, many researchers question whether community branding remains engaged and aligned with the brand’s agenda. Moreover, existing literature fails to explore the role of individual marketers in building the relationship between brands and communities. To compensate for this omission, this study investigates the perception of brand communities conveyed by marketing professionals who have worked at several Finnish companies in four different industries. The research questions were the following: How do marketing employees at Finnish companies perceive brand communities? What do interviewees think about the relationship between brand communities and companies? The data used in the study consists of semi-structured interviews of six marketing professionals collected during face-to-face meetings. The data were thematically analysed: the texts were first coded according to the predetermined topics (interviewees’ feelings about brand communities; the relationship between the community and the brand; life inside a brand community), after which the themes that emerged from the topics were studied further. Three themes were detected: participants feel distant from all brand communities; the relationship between brand communities and companies is symbiotic; the profile of brand communities in the eyes of brand managers is incomplete and blurry. The presentation of the findings is guided by the constructivism paradigm. The analysis revealed that participants’ perception of the subject is categorically complex, yet it lacks a critical perspective and insight on what may drive people to participate in brand communities. Marketing professionals shared their experiences of being lurking members and observers of brand communities. The data also indicate that interviewees do not identify themselves with most brand communities. The analysis also indicates that there may be a conflict of values between brand representatives and how they perceive brand community members’ values.