Building Betty Crocker's brand community: conversations with consumers, 1940-1950

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Swenson
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Type Design ◽  
Brand Values ◽  
Shared Mission

Purpose This paper closely examines an iconic relationship between the Betty Crocker brand figure and a set of consumers to build our understanding of how corporate personas contribute to community, engagement and dialogue. Design/methodology/approach Using a historical approach to analyse radio scripts featuring Betty Crocker and “Dear Betty Crocker” letters women wrote to the fictional brand icon from 1940 to 1950, at the height of Betty’s popularity, this study identifies themes and rhetorical strategies that explain how General Mills used Betty Crocker to make the institution relatable and products relevant during a period of cultural and social change. Findings General Mills built a strong brand community by using Betty Crocker to facilitate dialogue among consumers and slightly re-frame the group’s shared mission as the decade progressed. The analysis of letters reveals women engaged in dialogue with the company to reify brand values, express gratitude and loyalty, and seek more social support and connection. Originality/value This research adds to our understanding of a central challenge described by communication professionals: how to leverage corporate personas and brand voice in ways that resonate with audiences, inspire interaction, and build community.

scholarly journals Millennial cultural consumers: co-creating value through brand communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Vaux Halliday ◽  
Alexandra Astafyeva
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Community Theory ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Research Propositions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise millennial cultural consumers (MCCs) to bring together strands of consumer theory with branding theory to consider how to attract and retain younger audiences in arts organisations. Within that the authors single out for attention how “brand community” theory might apply to MCCs. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual paper that reviews and comments on concepts relevant to helping arts organisations develop strategies to attract and retain younger consumers in their audiences. Findings – Thoughtful conceptual insights and four research propositions for further work by academics and/or practitioners on Millennials and the art and culture world are derived from this review and commentary. Managerial implications are also drawn out. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the knowledge development of such concepts as value and brand communities. It also provides an explanation of these concepts conncecting academic thought on value with pressing management challenges for arts organisations, suggesting ways to apply brand community thinking to innovatiely conceptualised MCCs.

Online brand communities as heterogeneous gatherings: a netnographic exploration of Apple users

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuğba Özbölük ◽  
Yunus Dursun
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Online Brand Community

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the different types of members based on their roles within an online brand community dedicated to Apple. Design/methodology/approach Design/methodology/approach Data are drawn from an 18-month netnographic study, including participant and non-participant observation. Findings Findings reveal that members of the online brand community share a common goal but they are heterogeneous in many respects. In this research, five different types of brand community members are identified: learner, pragmatist, activist, opinion leader and evangelist. These findings emphasize the heterogeneity of the brand community or the differences of members and subgroups they form in the community. Practical implications This paper offers some insights for brand managers. There are different sub-tribes in online brand communities and these sub-tribes develop their own meanings of the brand. This means that online brand communities do not form one single homogenous target group and can be segmented into subgroups. Findings also offer a deeper understanding of negative characteristics of online brand community members. The role “activist” found in this study may be crucial for marketers, as activists can represent the negative side of online brand communities. Originality/value The literature on brand communities has focused predominantly on the homogeneity of these communities. This paper extends the literature by demonstrating the heterogeneity in an online brand community. The paper contributes to the brand community literature by substantiating that online brand community members can be segmented into subgroups based on their roles within the community. In addition, the paper extends the existing literature on brand communities that has overlooked the destructive consumer roles.

scholarly journals Investigating the Linkage Between Proactive Personality and Social Support on Career Adaptability Amidst Undergraduate Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Olawole Olanre Fawehinmi ◽  
Khulida Kirana Yahya
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Proactive Personality ◽  
Career Adaptability

Purpose: This paper studies the linkage between proactive personality and social support with career adaptability amidst final year undergraduate students at a university in the northern region of Malaysia. Design/Methodology/Approach: 257 questionnaires were distributed but only 188 were received and analysed. Regression analysis was used to determine the linkage relating proactive personality and social support with career adaptability. Findings: Results indicates there is positive relationship and significance relating proactive personality and career adaptability. Likewise, positive relationship and significance exist relating social support and career adaptability. Implications/Originality/Value: Proactive personality and social support are variables which essentially influence career adaptability among students. This result gives implication on how career advisors, lecturers and parents can channel efforts in making fresh graduates highly adaptable in their chosen careers.

scholarly journals Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities: Community Values, Brand Symbolism and Social Strategies

10.28945/4536 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 065-090
Author(s):  
Haili Pan
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Consumer Engagement ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Communities ◽  
Online Brand Community ◽  
Symbolic Value ◽  
The Relationship

Aim/Purpose: This study examines the kind of community value companies should provide when strengthening the relationship between customers and brands through the establishment of an online brand community, and how this kind of community value promotes customers’ sense of community engagement and willingness to spread brand reputation. The paper also discusses how an enterprise’s brand symbolism affects the relationship between community value and customers’ engagement in online brand community. This study explored the important role of brand symbolism in the establishment of an online brand community. Background: Many companies want to create online brand communities to strengthen their relationships with consumers as well as to provide better service and value to consumers, for example, Huawei’s Huafen community (club.huawei.com), Apple’s support community (support.apple.com/zh-cn), and Samsung’s Galaxy community (samsungmembers.cn). However, these brand communities may have different interests and consumer engagement about the kind of community value to offer to their customers. Methodology: This study uses data collection from questionnaire surveys to design a quantitative research method. An online questionnaire survey of mobile phone users in China was conducted to collect data on social value, cognitive value, brand symbolism, customer community engagement, and brand recommendation. The brands of mobile phone include Apple, Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, VIVO, MI, and Meizu. The researcher purchased a sample service of WJX, an online survey company (www.wjx.cn), and WJX company distributed the questionnaire to research participants. The WJX company randomly selected 240 subjects from their sample database and then sent the questionnaire link to research participants’ mobile phones. Among the 240 research participants, the researcher excluded participants who lacked online brand community experience or had invalid data to qualify for data collection. After the researcher excluded participants who did not qualify for data collection, only 203 qualified questionnaire surveys advanced to the data collection and analysis phase, which was the questionnaire recovery rate of 84.58%. For the model analysis and hypotheses testing, the researcher used statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics and AMOS 21 and Smartpls3. Contribution: This study deepens the body of literature knowledge by combining online brand community value and brand symbolic value to explore issues that companies should consider when establishing an online brand community for their products and services. This study confirms that brands with high symbolic value establish communities and strengthen social values in the online brand community rather than reducing brand symbolism. Online brand community involves a horizontal interaction (peer interaction) among peers, which can have an effect on the symbolic value of brand (social distance). Findings: First, online brand community value (both cognitive and social value) has a positive impact on customer community engagement. Second, customer community engagement has a positive impact on customers’ brand recommend intention. Third, the customer community engagement is a mediator between the online brand community value and the customer brand recommend intention. Most importantly, fourth, the symbolic value of the brand controls the relationship between community value and customer community engagement. For brands with high symbolic value, the community value should emphasize cognitive value rather than social value. For brands with a low symbolic value, the community provides cognitive or social value, which is not affected by the symbolism of the brand. Recommendations for Practitioners: Practitioners can share best practices with the corporate sectors. Brand owners can work with researchers to explore the characteristics of their online brand communities. On this basis, brand owners and researchers can jointly build and manage online brand communities. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can explore different perspectives and factors of brand symbolism that involve brand owners when establishing an online brand community to advance consumer engagement, community value, and brand symbolism. Impact on Society: Online brand community is relevant for brand owners to establish brand symbolism, community value, and customer engagement. Readers of this paper can gain an understanding that cognitive and social values are two important drivers of individual participation in online brand communities. The discussion of these two factors can give readers and brand owners the perception to gain more understanding on social and behavior activities in online brand communities. Future Research: Practitioners and researchers could follow-up in the future with a study to provide more understanding and updated research information from different perspectives of research samples and hypotheses on online brand community.

Workplace incivility and bystanders’ helping intentions

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Jungert ◽  
Kristoffer Holm
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Behavioural Response ◽  
Workplace Incivility ◽  
Power Relation ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Prosocial Behaviour ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Severity ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Using observational and experimental designs, the purpose of this study was to explore if the power relation between the offender and the victim of incivility and the level of perceived severity of the incivility were associated with bystanders’ intentions to help when witnessing workplace incivility. Design/methodology/approach In Study 1, 160 participants completed a questionnaire where they described a recent uncivil incident they had witnessed, and completed measures of perceived severity and measures of their behavioural response as bystanders. In Study 2, 183 participants were randomised to read one of two vignettes (a manager being uncivil towards a subordinate or vice versa), and completed measures of perceived severity and of their motivation to intervene. The authors investigated whether the power relation between perpetrator and victim, and the perceived severity of the uncivil exchange, were associated with prosocial bystander behaviours in Study 1 and with motivation to defend the victim of incivility in Study 2. Findings Higher perpetrator power was significantly associated with the incident being perceived as more severe, and higher perpetrator power was directly related to greater tendency to confront, and lower tendency to avoid, the perpetrator. Perpetrator power was indirectly associated with social support according to the perceived severity. A supervisor acting in an uncivil manner was rated as more severe than a subordinate acting in such a way. Perceived severity mediated the relationship between perpetrator power and the witness’s introjected, identified and intrinsic motivation to intervene. Originality/value This study extends previous work by investigating how the perpetrator’s power influences both the bystander’s prosocial behaviour and their motivation to defend the victim. Furthermore, previous research has not considered how perceptions of severity might mediate the relationship between power, behaviour and motivation.

scholarly journals Who says waiting is boring? How consumer narratives within online communities help reduce stress while waiting

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Mahmud Hassan ◽  
Rumman Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Emotional Pain ◽  
Waiting Period ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Waiting Periods ◽  
To Receive

Purpose Waiting is associated with pain and stress that leads to frustration. However, consumer narratives may help cope with the stress associated with such waiting. This study aims to understand consumer waiting behaviours within online communities. Design/methodology/approach Data was gathered following a netnographic approach from a Facebook brand community (FBC) by downloading and archiving the threads related to members’ waiting behaviours. This resulted in 91 pages of data, with 438 individual comments and 179 distinct threads. Findings The data revealed that members of the sampled FBC exercised waiting behaviour. The authors confirm that waiting for a product is associated with both negative outcomes (frustration, boredom, etc.), but positive ones (create stronger ties with the brand and fellow members, etc.). Members of the FBC exhibited reduced consumer anxiety and stress during the waiting period. Research limitations/implications This study found 13 waiting behaviours within the FBC and supports the idea that new value-creating behaviours are noticed within the context of FBCs. Originality/value This study focuses on waiting within a goods-based context (waiting to be served has been examined predominantly within the service sector). The study explored the behaviours of consumers who use social media to complain about extended waiting periods to receive the product along with other consumer reactions to these waiting crowds to reduce the emotional pain associated with such delays.

Brand community motives and their impact on brand community engagement: variations between diverse audiences

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Haverila ◽  
Caitlin McLaughlin ◽  
Kai Christian Haverila ◽  
Julio Viskovics
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
North American ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Sample Population ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Communities ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to compare two different sample populations (student and general) to determine the impact of brand community motives on brand community engagement.Design/methodology/approachTwo samples were drawn for the purpose of the current research. The first sample was drawn among the members of various brand communities from a general North American population sample (N = 503). The second sample was drawn purely from students, belonging to a variety of brand communities, from a middle-sized Canadian university (N = 195). Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the strength, significance and effect sizes of the relationships between brand community motive and engagement constructs.FindingsThe findings indicate that the impact of brand community motives varied by sample population. The information and entertainment motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in both sample populations with roughly equal effect sizes. The social integration motive was again significantly related to the brand community engagement construct in the student sample population – but not for the general North American general population sample. Further, the self-discovery motive and status enhancement motives were significantly related to brand community engagement in the North American sample, but not for the student sample. This indicates significant differences between the two sample populations.Originality/valueThe results of the current research demonstrate that student populations are significantly different from the general population regarding their motives towards brand communities. This indicates that brand community managers need to be aware of the motives of different brand community members and also that they need to exercise caution about utilizing purely student data to make decisions about brand community management.

Oppositional loyalty as a brand identity-driven outcome: a conceptual framework and empirical evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyun Liao ◽  
Xuebing Dong ◽  
Ziwei Luo ◽  
Rui Guo
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Identity Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Brand Identity ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Brand Community ◽  
Brand Identification ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Oppositional loyalty toward rival brands is prevalent. Although its antecedents have increasingly received scholarly attention, the literature is rather disparate. Based on identity theory, this study aims to propose that oppositional loyalty is a brand identity-driven outcome and provides a unified framework for understanding the formation and activation of brand identity in influencing oppositional loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical framework based on an online survey of 329 brand community members. Multigroup analysis was used to test the moderating effect of inter-consumer brand rivalry and brand community engagement. Findings The results show that self-brand similarity, brand prestige and brand uniqueness lead to consumers’ brand identity (i.e. consumer-brand identification), which, in turn, facilitates oppositional loyalty. Furthermore, the results indicate that inter-consumer brand rivalry and brand community engagement are identity-salient situations that strengthen the relationship between consumer-brand identification and oppositional loyalty. Practical implications Identity has great power in shaping consumer behaviors. Fostering consumer-brand identification is critical for firms to prevent consumers from switching to competing brands. Inter-consumer brand rivalry and brand community engagement can help firms consolidate their customer base by evoking consumers’ brand identity. Originality/value This investigation makes theoretical contributions by providing a unified theoretical framework to model the development of oppositional loyalty based on identity theory.

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