Mediating Influences in Intracommunity Brand Engagement: The Performance of Brand Faces and Brand Heroes on the Brand Stage Toni Eagar February 2012 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University. i Statement of Originality I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signature: _____________________ Toni Eagar Date: _____________________ ii Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my supervisor Doctor Stephen Dann for his comments and encouragement and most of all for his interest and understanding of the ideas presented in this thesis, and not least the crazy email conversations where spoons were denied and the answer “water crescent game fowl panama orchestra” made perfect sense. I would also like to thank the members of my supervision panel, Michael O’Donnell and Ujwal Kayande, for their help and comments during the thesis process. You have both made significant contributions to the qualitative and quantitative research incorporated into this thesis. I would also like to thank those that provided additional supervision throughout the years of this thesis: Michael O’Donnell, Gillian Sullivan-Mort and Bruce Stening. The help you gave along the way got me to the end. I also need to acknowledge the contributions of John Ford, John Campbell, Rob Kozinets and Stephen Brown who made excellent sounding boards for my ideas over the years. Your willingness to read my work, to provide feedback and to tell me when I was going wrong was invaluable to this process. The brand community members of the Discworld and Brumbies clubs were awesome. Your willingness to help, your humour and actual interest made the data collection phase the best part of this research process. You made me laugh and cry, but you always made it interesting. I would especially like to acknowledge Tempus Fugitive who was lost to war before his time. Lest we forget. I would also like to thank all of my family for asking “So how is your PhD going?” This was my least favourite question in the whole world because it made me feel so guilty iii that I had to get it done. Included here is my dog Jackson, who gave me a reason to get exercise and away from doing my thesis. And finally, but definitely not least, I would like to thank my husband. The badgering got me there in the end and I didn’t even make you read it. iv Abstract This thesis explores the relationship that forms between brand communities and those faces and heroes that represent the brand organisation. Previous research has focused on the direct relationships that individuals form with celebrities in the form of imagined parasocial or pseudo-relationships. The marketing literature has focused on the influence those celebrities external to the organisation have in endorsing brands, considering endorser credibility, attractiveness and meanings. However, for brand communities, the brand faces and heroes are drawn from within the organisation and their importance lies in their contribution to the brand. In order to explore this mediated relationship, where the brand is the focus of worship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes, two ethnographic studies were conducted. The first study was on the Discworld community, which is a fantasy / comedy book series with a single brand hero: the author, Terry Pratchett. The second was the Brumbies rugby union team based in Canberra Australia, which has multiple brand faces and heroes in the players, coaches and managers. Data collection followed the ethnographic style of researcher embeddedness and data analysis followed the procedures outlined in grounded theory. To triangulate the results of the qualitative studies, quantitative surveys were also conducted in each community. The findings from these studies suggest three main thematic conclusions. The first is the confirmation of the brand as the mediator in the relationship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes. In this situation, a brand face is only considered heroic when they demonstrate their contribution to the brand and their willingness to uphold the same brand values that are important to the community. The second conclusion lies in the nature of brand hero authenticity, where consumers are active participants in the market system but seek brand value over commercial success. This is a constant tension between brand communities and brand organisations. However, brand heroes are those faces that are willing to forgo commercial concerns in order to advance key brand values. The final conclusion concerns the development of the brand community theatre model, which outlines the various roles that brand faces enact with v the brand community in a constant negotiation of brand values in a performance metaphor. The first contribution that this thesis makes to marketing theory is the brand face / hero concept, where relationships are formed via a brand proxy. An additional contribution is the confirmation that brand authenticity is based on a perceived distance from the market system. For brand communities, genuine sacredness exists within the brand rather than within the market. Marketers need to be seen to be advancing brand values rather than simply achieving commercial success. Finally, a new model of brand meaning negotiation is developed using a performance metaphor that extends beyond the individual levels outlined in McAlexander et al.’s (2002) model. The model proposed in this thesis includes group level negotiation between organisations and brand communities and allows individuals to become increasingly active in brand value negotiation. vi Statement of Publication Work originating from this thesis has been published in the following articles and conference papers: Eagar, T. (2011), 'We’re Not Nuts!: The Brand Hero Worship Behaviours of a Fan Community', Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 2011, Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), Perth. Eagar, T. (2010), 'Approaching God: Proxy and Proximity of Brand Heroes to the Brand Community', Advances in Consumer Research, 38. Eagar, T. (2009), 'Defining the Brand Hero: Explorations of the Impact of Brand Hero Credibility on a Brand Community', 36(1), 448-493. Eagar, T. (2008), 'Brand Hero Mythology: the Stories Generated by a Brand Community about their Brand Hero', Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 2008, ed. D. Spanjaard, S. Denize, N. Sharma, Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), Sydney, 6. Eagar, T. (2007), 'When Brand Communities Collide: Moral Judgments and Pseudo- Relationships in Cross-Community Conflicts', World Marketing Congress 2007, ed. Carol DeMoranville, Academy of Marketing Science, Italy, 307-311. vii Table of Contents Statement of Originality .................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. v Statement of Publication ................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Motivation for Study ............................................................................................... 2 1.3 Overview of Literature ............................................................................................ 3 1.3.1 Branding ........................................................................................................... 3 1.3.2 Brand Community ............................................................................................ 4 1.3.3 Commercial Mythology ................................................................................... 5 1.3.4 Parasocial Relationships .................................................................................. 7 1.4 Research Question Development .......................................................................... 10 1.5 Summary of Method ............................................................................................. 14 1.6 Ethical Considerations .......................................................................................... 16 1.7 Summary of Findings ............................................................................................ 17 1.7.1 Research Question 1: What is the nature of the interaction between a brand hero and the brand community? .............................................................................. 17 1.7.2 Research Question 2: What are the brand community narratives about their brand hero and what influence do these have on the community? ......................... 18 1.7.3 Research Question 3: How is the brand hero sacred and commercial as opposed to the brand face who