Bernard Cova

Community and consumption

Encapsulates the debate on the topics of confusion in consumption and the return of community. Starting with an ethnosociological analysis structuring the passage from modernity to postmodernity around the metamorphosis of the social link, aims at clarifying and explaining the different levels of the postmodern confusion in consumption. Modernity entered history as a progressive force promising to liberate humankind from everyday obligations and traditional bonds. As a consequence, modern consumption emphasized essentially the utilitarian value (“use value”) of products and services. Postmodernity, on the contrary, can be said to crown not the triumph of individualism, but the beginning of its end with the emergence of a reverse movement of a desperate search for community. With the neo‐tribalism distinguishing postmodernity, everyday life seems to mark out the importance of a forgotten element: the social link. Consequently, postmodern consumption appears to emphasize the “linking value” of products and services. Concludes with an exploration of the implications of postmodernity for rethinking marketing with the integration of the linking value concept.

Tribal marketing: The tribalisation of society and its impact on the conduct of marketing

This paper presents an alternative, “Latin” vision of our societies. Here the urgent societal issue is not to celebrate freedom from social constraints, but to re‐establish communal embeddedness. The citizen of 2002 is less interested in the objects of consumption than in the social links and identities that come with them. This Latin view holds that people like to gather together in tribes and that such social, proximate communities are more affective and influential on people’s behaviour than either marketing institutions or other “formal” cultural authorities. There is also an element of resistance and re‐appropriation in the acts of being, gathering and experiencing together. This view of the shared experience of tribes sets it apart from both Northern notions of segmented markets and one‐to‐one relationships. In this Latin view, the effective marketing of 2002 and beyond is not to accept and exploit consumers in their contemporary individualisation, as Northern approaches might. Rather the future of marketing is in offering and supporting a renewed sense of community. Marketing becomes tribal marketing. In a marketing profession challenged by the Internet phenomenon, tribal marketing is by no means just another passing fad but a Trojan horse to induce companies to take on board the re‐emergence of the quest for community.

Brand community of convenience products: new forms of customer empowerment – the case “my Nutella The Community”

Purpose – To analyse the power that a virtual brand community exerts over a brand of a mass‐marketed convenience product. To draw implications about the strategy that a company can employ facing this power shift. To track emerging trends in virtual brand communities applied to convenience product (as opposed to niche or luxury goods).Design/methodology/approach – Case study of the web community “my Nutella The Community” promoted by the firm Ferrero in Italy. The study applied multiple methods and was conducted through interviews with key informants, netnography and document analysis.Findings – The virtual community that gathers around a convenience product brand shows a new form of sociality and customer empowerment: it is not based on interaction between peers, but more on personal self‐exhibition in front of other consumers through the marks and rituals linked to the brand. The company should play the role of non‐intrusive enabler of these personal expressions, reducing its control over the brands mea...

Critical perspectives on consumers’ role as ‘producers’: Broadening the debate on value co-creation in marketing processes

This special issue continues the critical engagement with the popular discourses of Prahalad’s value co-creation paradigm and Vargo and Lusch’s service-dominant logic of marketing. The intensity of the debate among marketing scholars over these two marketing and management concepts demonstrates how much is at stake — conceptually and politically — when the roles of consumer and producer become blurred. Economic concepts of value, ownership, consumption, and production need to be redefined, and political ideas of the relationship between the social and the economic require addressing in the age of cognitive, or as we call it, collaborative capitalism. In addition to these broad theoretical challenges, the contributions in this issue zoom in on what arguably constitutes the central question for our specific field: What are the implications of a collaborative capitalism for understanding the place of marketing techniques in value creation? As with all good scholarship, the essays in this issue do not provide definitive answers but instead lead to a more elaborate set of questions. By doing so, they broaden the critical engagement with value co-creation in marketing.

Counter-brand and alter-brand communities: the impact of Web 2.0 on tribal marketing approaches

Abstract This paper deals with the phenomenon of tribal marketing, which is increasingly fuelled by the development of online groupings utilising Web 2.0 technologies. After having addressed the key concepts of brand community and co-creation of value, the paper analyses new trends in online community behaviour, taking an in-depth look at two specific cases through an ethnographic/netnographic approach: the Warhammer tabletop wargame community and the CouchSurfing travel and accommodation community. It appears that such communities may constitute a significant risk for companies who have thus far based their offering on a ‘market with’ approach. The case study clearly shows that groupings of consumers are capable of developing potentially dangerous opposition and/or competitive offerings with little or no assistance from companies. These online groupings generate alter brands and counter brands that present opportunities and threats for existing brand managers.

Global brand communities across borders: the Warhammer case

Purpose – The “brand community” concept believes that the meaning of the brand transcends national boundaries. However, such an assumption presents challenges arising out of several reasons including co‐existence of sub‐tribes within a given brand community that allocate different meanings to a particular brand. This plurality of meanings seems exacerbated for global brands where meanings are shaped by tremendously varying cultures. Aims to address the issues.Design/methodology/approach – This text relies on a comparative study of the meanings attributed to one particular global brand, Warhammer, by the members of its brand community in France and the USA.Findings – Findings highlight the elements of homogeneity and heterogeneity that reside in the cross‐border meanings of the brand. The authors also discuss the marketplace relevance arising out of this plurality that should be taken into account by global marketers.Originality/value – The present text argues that community attached to a global brand cons...

Marketing theory and practice

Acknowledgements - Preface - List of Tables - List of Figures - Evolution of the Marketing Concept M.J.Baker - The Need for Theory in Marketing M.J.Baker - Sources and Status of Marketing Theory S.Brown - Consumer Behaviour L.McGregor - Organisational Buying Behaviour S.Rajagopa l - Market Segmentation D.Littler - Marketing Research J.Webb - Modelling Markets P.Leeflang - Diffusion Theory & Marketing M.J.Baker - New Product Development S.Hart - Pricing A.Diamantopoulos - Channel Management S.Ennis - Marketing Communications K.Crosier - Analytical Frameworks for Strategic Marketing Planning D.Brownlie - Business to Business Marketing K.Bernard - Retailing S.Carter - Customer Care B.Donaldson - Consumerism D.Tixier - International Marketing M.McDermott & Chan - Marketing and Eastern Europe P.Ghauri - Relationship Marketing Chan & M.McDermott - Marketing, Theory and Practice in a Post-modern Era Cova & Badot - Notes and References - Index

Milieu as a pertinent unit of analysis in project marketing

The purpose of this article is to shift gear from the purely economic to the socioeconomic level in project marketing and consequently to demonstrate that project marketing consists, to a certain extent, in the management of a firms relationships to a local network of business and non-business actors, named the milieu. This networking action forms the basis of a proactive approach aiming at anticipating bids and at maximizing the firms chances of success on on-going projects.

A twin-track networking approach to project marketing

The purpose of this article is to go far beyond competitive bidding strategies and consequently to highlight the fact that project marketing and system selling mainly consist in the management of a firms relationships to a local network of business and non-business actors, named the milieu. This networking action forms the basis of a twin-track approach aiming at maximizing the firms chances of success on on-going projects by: - anticipating the competitive arena and the rules of the game (deterministic approach); - becoming actively involved in shaping the competitive arena and the rules of the game (constructivist approach).

How to create competitive advantage in project business

The marketing of projects was studied separately from the sellers and from the buyers points of view. The two research approaches were then combined and a model for international project marketing was developed. First it was demonstrated how the different stages in the buying process are related to the sellers project marketing cycle. Then, two separate empirical studies were conducted. In the first, three key succes factors for project business were isolated. These factors were then combined with six major action variables identified in the other study. The resulting model shows how the marketing of projects overlaps all corporate functions, and it is proposed that this model can be used for creating competitive advantage in project business.