ABSTRACT
In recent times, researchers have expended considerable time and energy in understanding marketplace-based collectivities, alternatively conceptualized as consumption tribes (e.g., Bennett, 1999; Cova, 1997; Cova and Cova, 2002; Kozinets, 1999; Patterson, 1998) or brand communities (e.g., Algesheimer, Dholakia, and Herrmann, 2005; McAlexander, Schouten, and Koenig, 2002; Muñiz and O’Guinn, 2001). For a few reasons, these collectivities are of special interest. First, these groups typically comprise dense social networks of loyalists to particular brands, products or leisure activities. When properly nurtured, these concentrations of brand loyalists constitute a potent collective resource for
marketing organizations, comprising customer retention, long-term profitability and positive word of mouth (Bhattacharya, Rao, and Glynn, 1995). Second, in the past, traditional marketing theory failed to adequately explain these phenomena, reflecting instead neo-classical notions of consumption as confined to instrumental and/or self-expressive motives. A more enlightened perspective recognizes that consumption can have strong social value, due to its ability to forge lasting social relationships that people value (Cova and Cova, 2002). In such instances the bonding that develops between participating individuals amplifies bonding with the focal consumption object and related activities. Significantly, such ideas had been already voiced by the institutional economists at the beginning of the twentieth century, notably Veblen, but since that time have been overshadowed by beliefs associated with advanced right wing capitalism. Finally, the emergence of these groups suggests that the rampant individualism supposedly believed to characterize late twentieth century affluent societies is arguably a myth. Rather the macro-subcultures of yesteryear, such as social class, age, gender and ethnicity have been replaced by microgroupings (Featherstone, 1991; Van Raaij, 1993) defined by similarity of values, interests and life experiences (Cova and Cova, 2002).
