Greta Thunberg's Friends and Foes: Understanding the Dynamics Of

Master Thesis Greta Thunberg’s Friends and Foes: Understanding the Dynamics of Person-to-Person Brand Co-creation Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism The University of Innsbruck School of Management Submitted by Laura VAZ KREUZ Innsbruck, May 31, 2021 ABSTRACT This thesis studies the person-to-person brand co-creation dynamics by using Greta Thunberg as a case study. Since Greta started to gain recognition, her person brand was co-created by third parties, such as the media and the public opinion. The person brand co-creation literature studies mainly considers other actors, such as endorsed products, the audience, and the media. There is a gap in the literature regarding how person brands co-create each other. Nevertheless, the interactions between person brands impact the public‘s opinion, especially on social media. This thesis answers the following research question: how are brand co-creation dynamics between person brands in online environments? The most suitable methodology to answer this question is a netnography, observing Greta‘s interactions with other person brands on Instagram. The findings identified five person-to-person brand co-creation dynamics: fame-seekers, best friends, power providers, complementary forces, and trouble makers. Keywords: person brand, person brand co-creation, co-creation dynamics, person-to- person brand co-creation. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 4 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................................................... 7 2.1. The various perspectives of person brands.................................................................... 7 2.2. Person brands and the co-creation perspective ............................................................ 14 2.3. The role of brand relationship theory for person branding.......................................... 20 3. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 21 3.1. Context ........................................................................................................................ 22 3.2. Research method ......................................................................................................... 22 4. FINDINGS .......................................................................................................................... 26 4.1. Person-to-person brand relationships .......................................................................... 27 4.2. The person-to-person brand co-creation dynamics ..................................................... 41 5. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 51 6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 56 6.1. Contributions ............................................................................................................... 56 6.2. Managerial implications .............................................................................................. 57 6.3. Limitations and future research ................................................................................... 57 7. REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 59 TABLE OF TABLES Table 1: Description of the person brands .................................................................................. 40 Table 2: Description of the person-to-person brand co-creation dynamics ................................ 51 3 1. INTRODUCTION The topic of this thesis is Greta Thunberg's person brand. More specifically, this thesis will study how a person brand can be co-created by other person brands. Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who rose to the public's attention in 2018 when she incited school strikes for the climate. Since then, she has created a significant presence online: she has over 10.5 million followers on Instagram and 4.4 million on Twitter. Most authors in the person brand literature use the definition from Thomson (2006): "any well-known persona who is the subject of marketing communication efforts." Firstly, Greta's presence on social media indicated that she is a widely recognized persona. Secondly, she uses marketing communication strategies (such as interviews, speeches, and social media posts) to fight for the environment. Therefore, Greta Thunberg can be considered a person brand. Another aspect that makes Greta a unique person brand is that she defends a cause. Unlike traditional celebrities, Greta did not become famous for her talents or for being on television. Instead, she achieved global recognition by advocating for the environment at a young age – she became the girl who skips school to strike. The choice of defending the environment while her counterparts study or party made Greta stand out. Additionally, her person brand was created around a social cause, and, as such, it is of interest to most people. Due to her unusual behavior for her age and the social aspect that she defends, soon, Greta became the headline of countless newspapers. She became a topic of conversation, and everyone seemed to have an opinion about her. Hence, Greta is a unique type of person brand because (1) her person brand was built around a social cause, and (2) her person brand is typically co-created by third parties. What is interesting about Greta is that her person brand is co-created by other person brands. Consequently, she develops her brand through a process of person-to-person- brand co-creation. For instance, when Time Magazine nominated Greta as person of the year in 2019, former President Donald Trump tweeted: "So Ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill, Greta, Chill‖. One year later, when Trump lost the election, Greta replied, also on Twitter: ―So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill". Her response went viral: the tweet has received 1.8 million likes and over 375 retweets. The interaction between Greta and Trump also received attention from other media, such as 4 the newspaper The Guardian, which enhances the reach of the interaction. This example illustrates that one of the aspects that co-create a person brand is the interactions between the co-created person brand and other person brands. It raises the following question: how are person brands co-created in person-to-person interactions? More specifically, the example shows how this process happens to the Greta Thunberg person brand. Hence, Greta is an appropriate case study to analyze person brand co-creation dynamics. Person-to-person brand co-creation is also a gap in the person brand literature. There are three main perspectives of person brand in the literature. The first is the product perspective, which analyzes person brands through product brands theories and frameworks. The second is the persona perspective, which studies person brands as an independent concept and develops frameworks specifically for this type of brand. Finally, the celebrity perspective researches person brands with massive recognition, typically from the entertainment or sports industry. For this research, the co-creation perspective is also relevant. It analyzes how third parties, such as endorsed products, the media, and the audience contribute to co-create person brands. However, none of these perspectives studies how the interactions between person brands affect the co-creation dynamics. This research fills this gap by considering other person brands as co-creators. The study of person-to-person brand co-creation is relevant due to two factors. The first is the high impact of the interactions between person brands. Social media increases the reach of the interaction between person brands. Consequently, these interactions have more significant impacts on a person brand. For example, Greta's pictures receive up to 30.000 comments and even more likes, demonstrating the substantial reach of her social media. The second reason why filling this gap is relevant is that the person brand has no control over these interactions. Although Greta controls what she posts on social media, she does not control the person brands who interact with her or the effects the interaction has on her person brand. For instance, in the interaction described earlier with Trump, Greta has no control over what he says about her. When someone as influential as a former President of the United States says something about Greta, it affects the public's perception of her. At the same time, if Greta develops a friendship with another person brand, such as the German environmental activist Luisa Neubauer, her person brand is associated with Luisa‘s person brand. In this case, if Luisa does something that heavily harms her brand, it could have an impact on Greta's person brand 5 as well. In both scenarios, Greta has no control over (1) what people say about her and (2) the actions of other person brands, and both aspects can potentially impact her person brand. Since it impacts person brands at such a high level, filling this gap could help the person brands to have some control. This thesis

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