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Navigating the Identity Market to Find Brand Resonance

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Navigating the Identity Market to Find Brand Resonance Navigating the identity market to find brand resonance A phenomenological study of the marketing work of personal branding Trent Hennessey Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (with coursework component) Melbourne Business School The University of Melbourne January 2018 ORCiD ID: 0000-0002-6988-1462 Declaration This is to certify that: (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD; (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; (iii) the thesis is fewer than the maximum word limit length of 100,000 words, exclusive of tables, figures, and bibliographies. ……………………………… Trent Hennessey i Abstract This thesis introduces the missing voice of personal branders to describe how the marketing work of personal branding is undertaken in the identity market. To do this, it adopts a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to situate the phenomenon of personal branding in relation to macro-level trends in consumer culture, including the commodification and marketisation of personhood and the anthropomorphication (or humanisation) of brands. From this socio-historic perspective, it examines the lived experiences of ten participants with established brands in diverse occupations and organisational fields for a period of seven years. Using Bourdieun theory as an overarching framework, this research found that: (1) the field of the identity market was a contested space structured by six major intersections that the personal branders navigated relating to their marketisation, commodification, locus of work, brand authorship, visibility, and marketing ethics; (2) personal brand capital was comprised of economic, social, and cultural dimensions that were volatile, unpredictable, and difficult to convert; (3) personal branders drew on multidimensional, but fragmented sources of knowledge and learning to become habituated to the identity market; (4) personal brand demise/death was an ever-present threat associated with the alienating experiences of selling out, fading out, and burning out; and (5) the marketing work of personal branding was constituted by practices such as engaging in identity compartmentalisation, interdependent status games with other actors, discursive identity negotiation, and multiple market exchange modalities of selling versus gifting and sharing personal brands. The empirical, practice-based account of personal branding this thesis advances fundamentally challenges the knowledge claims underlying the influential popular press literature on the subject that has emerged since the late 1990s. In contrast to the personal branding movement’s assurances of efficacy, graduated and prescriptive processes, and codified marketing plans, this thesis supports that the marketing work of personal branding is more accurately described as tacit, ambiguous, informal, uncertain, and creative. The lived experience of being a brand is replete with conflict, failure, symbolic domination, and multiple forms of alienation. These findings not only revise the knowledge claims about personal branding for practitioners, but contribute to the literature on cultural branding and marketing work by re-examining theories about self-commodification, the role and function of personal brands in postmodern consumer culture, and the value of humanistic accounts of marketing work to address theory-practice gaps in the marketing literature. ii Acknowledgements Like many first-generation university students, the value of education was impressed on me from a young age. My parents scrimped and saved their way through life to ensure their children had access to educational opportunities that were not open to them. ‘Grateful’ is not a word that sufficiently represents the depth of feeling I have for the sacrifices they made. My hope is they see my work as an extension of theirs, because it is. Thank you, Dale and Kay. When asked to reflect on their education, most people can readily identify the special teachers who changed their lives for the better. My supervisor Etty is one such person for me. Her expansive intellect and deep love of scholarship steered me to completion. It was validating and inspiring to be Etty’s student – the privilege of working closely with a brilliant mind was never lost on me, and will long remain as an experience I treasure. While the process of completing a doctoral thesis can be a lonely experience, an island I was not. I would like to thank my academic advisors and PhD colleagues for their ideas, thoughtful feedback, and encouragement. To list their names would fill several pages, so instead I will thank them collectively. If they were ever to read these acknowledgements, please know I hold your commitment to learning, teaching, and research in the highest regard. I would also like to express my profound thanks to the participants in my study for so generously sharing their experiences with me. In acknowledging the personal support that I received, I would like to thank Ren for first planting the seed to undertake a PhD and Chico for riding the highs and lows with me. For their wise words and modelling how to forge ahead, my thanks extend to Andy, Lucky, Michelle, Marty, Chamila, Aly, and Heather. For her editing prowess, I am indebted to Marie. I am also grateful for my writing days with Bec and Linus, and the support from my ever-patient friends. However sentimental it sounds, this librarian could not conclude these acknowledgements without celebrating the various libraries in which I found solace, community, and inspiration. From undertaking my doctorate, the importance of libraries as vital public institutions came alive for me, orienting me to do what I can in the future to advance their mission. iii Table of contents Declaration ______________________________________________________________ i Abstract _________________________________________________________________ ii Acknowledgements _______________________________________________________ iii List of tables ____________________________________________________________ ix List of figures ____________________________________________________________ x Chapter 1: Introduction ______________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Background and rationale ______________________________________________ 1 1.2 Purpose and contribution _______________________________________________ 3 1.3 Clarification of terms and issues of terminology ____________________________ 4 1.3.1 Working definition of personal branding _________________________________ 5 1.3.2 Understanding personal branding as a marketing practice ____________________ 7 1.3.3 Understanding the identity market for personal brands ______________________ 7 1.3.4 The relationship between personal branding and self-marketing _______________ 8 1.3.5 The relationship between personal branding and human branding _____________ 8 1.4 Conceptual frame _____________________________________________________ 9 1.5 Thesis structure ______________________________________________________ 16 Chapter 2: Literature review on personal branding _______________________________ 18 2.1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 18 2.2 Consumer culture theory and the cultural branding perspective _____________ 18 2.3 Socio-historic perspective on the phenomenon of personal branding __________ 20 2.3.1 The commodification and marketisation of personhood ____________________ 20 2.3.2 The ascendency and anthropomorphication of brands ______________________ 24 2.3.3 Summarising the socio-historic perspective informing this thesis _____________ 32 2.4 Studies of marketing practitioners, marketing work, and marketing practices __ 33 2.5 Academic studies of personal branding __________________________________ 35 2.5.1 Studies of personal branding from a consumer perspective __________________ 35 2.5.2 Studies appropriating personal branding terminology to examine other phenomena _____________________________________________________________________ 36 2.5.3 Case studies of personal brand objects in consumer culture _________________ 37 2.6 Summary ___________________________________________________________ 41 iv Chapter 3: Literature review problematising the personal branding movement’s knowledge claims ___________________________________________________________________ 42 3.1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 42 3.2 Popular press literature on personal branding ____________________________ 42 3.2.1 Knowledge claims of the personal branding movement ____________________ 43 3.3 The interaction of the personal branding movement and academic literature ___ 53 3.3.1 Precedent to the personal branding movement’s knowledge claims in the marketing literature ______________________________________________________________ 53 3.3.2 Replication of the personal branding movement’s knowledge claims in the academic literature ______________________________________________________ 56 3.3.3 Criticism of the personal branding movement’s knowledge claims in the academic literature ______________________________________________________________ 56 3.4 Summary ___________________________________________________________ 66 Chapter 4: Methodology ____________________________________________________ 67 4.1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 67 4.2 Interpretive research paradigm _________________________________________ 67 4.2.2 Methodological assumptions _________________________________________
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