Véronique Cova

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.

On the road to prosumption: marketing discourse and the development of consumer competencies

This paper reveals the three major faces of the “new consumer” that has emerged during the last 30 years throughout marketing discourses. The paper shows how these faces interact to format the structure of consumer competencies: individualistic competencies of dialogue are combined with hedonistic competencies of play together with creative competencies of resources integration. The paper concludes with a discussion about the existence within these marketing discourses of a governmental process that puts pressure on todays citizens to see and think of themselves as consumers in the first instance.

Faces of the New Consumer: A Genesis of Consumer Governmentality

This paper is less concerned with discussing the reality of the new consumer than in discovering how researchers and consultants construct this through their marketing discourses. A genealogical approach uncovers the three major faces of the new consumer that have emerged over the past twenty years: individualistic consumers in the early 1990s; hedonistic consumers at the turn of the millennium; and creative consumers in the mid-2000s. The paper then shows how these faces interact within a consumer competency structure in which individualistic dialogue competencies combine with hedonistic play competencies and creative resource integration competencies. The conclusion focuses on the existence within these different marketing discourses of a governmental process pressuring todays citizens to see and think of themselves first and foremost as consumers.

How sex differences in perceptions influence customer satisfaction: a study of theatre audiences

We explore the effects of sex-related, value-expressive and functional image perceptions on satisfaction through a study of audience members at two theatres. Results suggest that satisfaction is higher for men when they perceive an elevated level of functional service quality and for women when they perceive that the theatre possesses pro-social values. Satisfaction overlap exists when either men or women perceive market or artistic values. Existing literature has suggested that women begin elaboration of message cues at a lower threshold than men; however, it appears that a zone exists where both sexes elaborate on some image attributes, while women further elaborate on communal attributes and men focus on agentic attributes. Contrary to prevailing evidence in the services management literature, no direct link surfaced between perceived quality of the core service and customer satisfaction. Post hoc tests for mediation indicate that tangible quality of the core service is important to both men and women, driving their engagement in elaboration of image attributes, but it is not important enough to directly stimulate satisfaction when other factors of the consumption experience are taken into account in complex encounters.

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

Abstract The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.

The changing dichotomy between the sacred and the profane: a historical analysis of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage

ABSTRACT In a world where belief systems are constantly evolving, the number of people making a religious pilgrimage has skyrocketed. The Camino (Road) to Santiago (Saint James) de Compostela has been part of this general fervor. The present study looks at the dichotomy within this particular pilgrimage between the sacred and the profane, applying a historical method toward this end. It will demonstrate that at each of the three periods used here as units of analysis (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Postmodernity), the sacred and the profane have combined in specific ways around the constructs of separation, encapsulation, and hybridization. This categorization justifies pilgrimages’ depiction as societal and commercial phenomena; shows that this particular, mythical pilgrimage has always been associated with markets and consumption behavior; and offers insights into these elements’ development and operationalization in the marketing arena.

Conceptualizing Marketing Relationship Models and their Impact on Customer Response

In this paper we propose a conceptual framework consisting of four marketing relationship models – market, hierarchy, partnership, and community - that a company can enact to coordinate its interactions with customers. These models describe the proactive or reactive posture of the firm and its customers concerning their respective status and role in the value creation process. We develop conceptual arguments that identify the exchange characteristics that are best suited for each relationship model and hypotheses that link market and hierarchy models to transactional customer response and partnership and community models to relational customer response.

La question de la durabilité de la récup' à travers le prisme d'internet?

Cet article tente, à partir d’une étude netnographique, d’analyser la durabilité des pratiques domestiques de récupération d’objets. Nos résultats identifient deux profils de récupérateurs en fonction de leurs discours et réalisations : les maîtres et les courtisans. Cette catégorisation permet à la fois d’interroger la récup’ comme une forme de recyclage informel et d’en distinguer différents niveaux de durabilité. De plus, elle met en évidence le rôle joué par internet dans sa capacité à générer une récupération idéologique des récupérations matérielles.

Viewing recycling’s long-term sustainability through the prism of the internet?

The article uses a netnographic study to try to analyse the long-term sustainability of domestic recycling practices. By monitoring narratives and practices, it identifies two profiles for recyclers: leaders and followers. This categorization raises questions about the informality of recycling while differentiating between different degrees of long-term sustainability. It also reveals the role that the internet plays because of its ability to generate an ideological recycling of the recycling of materials.

Hospitalité et culture locale : deux atouts pour un tourisme responsable

Cette recherche s’interesse aux elements de l’hospitalite selon la vision des autochtones. Ceci s’inscrit dans le courant de recherche qui etudie et appelle depuis plusieurs annees a un tourisme durable. Ce tourisme durable passe en outre par la prise en compte et le respect des particularites locales des destinations visitees. Ainsi, nous proposons d’etudier l’hospitalite comme un element culturel faisant partie de ces particularites locales et donc favorisant un tourisme durable.