1. The Internet-Based Democratisation of Brand Management –
The Dawn of a New Paradigm or Dangerous Nonsense?
Bjoern Asmussen1, Sally Harridge-March1, Nicoletta Occhiocupo1
& Jillian Farquhar2
1 Oxford Brookes University & 2 University of Bedfordshire, UK
EMAC Conference
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen, June 2010
2. Overview
• What is the internet-based democratisation of brand management about?
• Research problem: Addressing the ambiguity of this phenomenon
• Findings: Three key developments that led to the emergence of this
democratisation phenomenon
• Conclusion
3. What is the internet-based democratisation of brand
management about?
• THE RISE OF BRAND MEANING CO-CREATION: Brand managers, who have
traditionally been in charge of managing brand meaning, are facing potentially radical
changes to the nature of their role due to the rise of brand meaning co-creation
• INTERNET EMPOWERED: Empowered by the internet, consumers and other
stakeholders are contributing to brand meaning to an unprecedented extent (Boyle,
2007; Mooney and Rollins, 2008; Muniz and Schau, 2007) through UGC platforms
• EXAMPLE: “YouTube is forcing marketers to hand over control of how their brands
are seen by consumers.” (Johan Jervoe, corporate vice-president of global
marketing at McDonald’s, in Jones, 2008, p. 4)
• SHIFT IN POWER: This erosion of control signifies a shift away from a traditional,
mainly company-control-centric management approach towards a broader
perspective of co-creation (Kozinets et al., 2010; Merz et al., 2009; Pitt et al., 2006)
• DEMOCRATISATION: Such a shift in power can be described as democratisation:
Democratisation is a process of transition from a less democratic to a more
democratic form of power sharing (Grugel, 2002; Potter et al., 1997)
• CONCEPTUALISATION: Thus the emergence of internet-empowered brand
meaning co-creation processes can be conceptualised as an internet-based
democratisation of brand management
4. Research problem & methodology
RESEARCH PROBLEM
• The phenomenon of the internet-based democratisation of brand management is a
widely debated topic
• A central issue of this debate appears to be the ambiguity surrounding this
democratisation phenomenon
• Academic research to date has mainly focused on investigating ‘just’ individual
themes (for an overview see Burmann and Arnhold, 2008)
RESEARCH AIM
• To address the ambiguity of this democratisation phenomenon as a whole
• To explore the different developments that contributed to the emergence of this
democratisation phenomenon
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• Research question: What has instigated the emergence of the internet-based
democratisation of brand management?
• Integrative literature review (Bem, 1995; Torraco, 2005; Webster and Watson,
2002)
• Socio-technological perspective (Fuchs, 2005)
5. Findings: Key developments that have led to the emergence
of the internet-based democratisation of brand management
Emergence of the Internet-Based
Democratisation of Brand Management
Internet-Based Democratisation Internet-Based Democratisation
Internet-Based
of Information: ofDemocratisation Capital:
Social of Social Capital:
•Social Self-Representation
• Information Access • Social Self-Representation
•Social Connectivity
•Social Mobilisation
• Information Creation • Social Connectivity
• Information Dissemination • Social Mobilisation
Democratisation of Internet Technology:
• Internet Access (incl. Broadband & Mobile)
• Internet usage-related Hardware
• Internet usage-related Software
6. Conclusion
THEORETICAL AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
• The conceptual framework makes a contribution to clarifying what the internet-based
democratisation of brand management is about
• It also provides a broader basis upon which to debate whether or not this
democratisation phenomenon can be conceptualised as the dawn of a new paradigm
LIMITATIONS
• Exploratory literature review only
• Not all relationships between the democratisation phenomena have been explored
(clear focus on the first key development)
FUTURE RESEARCH
• Give a voice to practitioners in academic research: How do they make sense of this
democratisation phenomenon?
• How can organisations benefit from these developments? How can they adapt?
• The dark side of the internet (e.g. commercial exploitation, social divide, censorship)
• Defining the terms ‘brand’ and ‘brand management’ in the internet age
• Are consumers/external stakeholders the new brand managers?
