Corporate blogs have potential to help companies implement participative market orientation in three key ways: 1. Corporate blogs can help companies get close to customers by providing a platform for direct and unmediated customer feedback which helps companies better understand customer needs and interests. 2. Blogs can foster strong relationships between customers and companies by encouraging open dialogue and co-creation of the brand, satisfying customers' desire to engage with and feel connected to the brand. 3. When companies openly share information on their blogs, it builds trust with customers and positions the company as a learning organization that can gain competitive advantages from direct customer data and feedback.

1. By embracing new rules of (Internet) marketing a firm can become truly customer oriented.
The potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement Implementing participative market
orientation
Ann-Christin Hoffmann
Magistratsvägen 55X, Lund
Gim11aho@student.le.se
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2. Introduction
In current years, the internet has changed marketing profoundly. The world wide web has become an
“enabler of a global marketplace, characterised by equal access to information about products,
prices, and distribution” (Pires et al., 2006, p. 937) This development goes hand in hand with changes
in the competitive environment: “Competitive advantage is more likely to be derived from marketing
strategies focused on consumers’ perceptions of value1 and embodied in supplementary benefits
targeted to them” (Pires et al., 2006, p. 937). With the increasing demand to distinguish less about
physical, tangible aspects and more about immaterial, intangible aspects (De Chernatony, Dall ’
Olmo Riley, 1998), the brands2 enter the focus of attention. “The potential of brands to play a pivotal
role in a company’s value generation has been widely acknowledged (Aaker, 2002; Ind and Bejerke,
2007; Kapferer, 2004; Keller, 2007)” (Burmann et. al, 2009, p. 113). Building and communicating the
brand, however, has changed. Web 2.03 and its interactive technologies such as blogs, social
networking and video-sharing sides have empowered customer to take an active role in delivering,
accessing and sharing brand–related content (Chua, et al., 2010; Burmann, 2010). Christodoulides
(2008 in: Arnohold, 2008, p.13) sees the “new age of branding shifting from a predominant emphasis
on top-down marketing communications to an emphasis on relationships: Instead of passive
recipients of marketing messages consumers had to be appreciated as equal partners in mutual
value-building relationships with brands and joint creators of brand meaning.” This poses a new
challenge for companies. They need to understand how they can incorporate the empowered
customer and his brand- related content into brand management while at the same time
safeguarding their own purposes (e.g. boosting brand equity4, financial aims).
Literature on customer orientation suggests that putting the customer at the strategic focus of a
company is linked to the enhancement of business profitability (Narver, Slater, 1990). Despite the
extensive academic literature in this field, the concrete implementation of customer orientation in
the company has often been neglected. Moreove, only few sources examine the concept against the
background of brand building (Nwankwo, 1995; Ind, Bjerke, 2007). Ind and Bjerke (2007) contribute
to fill this gap with their participatory market orientation (PMO). They suggest that including the
1
In this paper, value is understood as defined by the customer and co-created between the company and the customer.
Value for the customer is unleashed ‘in –use’ of a product or service that enables him/her to reach a desired end-state. This
understanding builds on the new service dominant logic developed by Vargo and Lusch (2004).
2
“Referring to the identity based brand management approach [see below] a brand is understood in the following as a
bundle of benefits with specific characteristics (In terms of communications, customer service, packaging, technological
innovation, etc.) causing a sustainable differentiation regarding other bundles of benefits which meet the same basic needs
from the perspectiveof relevant target groups” (Arnhold, 2008, p.2)
3
Web 2.0 is an umbrella term for vehicles such as blogs, podcast sites, video and photo sharing sites and social networking
sites which support the communication, interaction and collaboration in the internet (Arnhold, 2008, p.5)
4
Brand equity in this paper is refereing to Aakers (2004) definition: awareness, loyalty, perceived quality, associations
2

3. organization and customers equally in the brand building process can enhance brand equity. The
researchers outline measures through which the concept is successfully executed in an organization
offline. However, they do not provide the same insight in depth for the online environment. So it is
not clear which tools companies can use to implement customer orientation in Web 2.0. In this
context Arnhold (2010, p.1) examines “how brand-owning companies may involve consumers in
interactive programmes such as corporate blogs, brand communities and online challenges in order
to strengthen the consumer's relationship to the brand.” As this is mostly examined under the
generic term ‘user generated branding’, specific advantages and challenges associated with the
respective tool underlying this concept are not in depth covered. This is, however, important for
brand managers as there still seams to be a gap between the potential of the Web 2.0 technologies
and the efficacy of its usage, which can partly be traced back to a lack of knowledge. The 2011 Social
Media Marketing Industry Report e.g. found that 69% of the 3300 polled marketers wanted to learn
more about blogging. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential and challenges
of blogs as a tool to implement customer orientation from a company’s perspective. Therefore,
first the concept of customer orientation in a branding context is outlined. As a second step, the
management approach ‘user generated branding’ (UGB) is introduced. As a third step, the two
concepts are linked by examining the underlying research question.
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4. Theoretical framework
Customer orientation and participative market orientation
Customer orientation is extensively discussed in the literature. It has been explained in various ways,
often associated with different terms e.g. marketing concept and market orientation. Kohli and
Jaworski (1993, p. 53) describe the concept as “the organization wide generation of market
intelligence, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization wide
responsiveness to it“. Narver and Slater (1995) see customer orientation as a facet of market
orientation besides competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination. They describe market
orientation (including customer orientation) as an organizational culture and a long-term focus the
company assumes. “[…] The primary focus of a market orientation is on creating superior customer
value, which is based on knowledge derived from customer and competitor analyses” (Naver and
Slater, 1995, p. 68). By constantly collecting information about customers and competitors the
company engages in a learning process that improves its understanding of the latent and expressed
customer needs. Sharing this gained knowledge throughout the organization and acting on it can
provide the company with a competitive advantage and an enhanced business
performance/profitability (Narver and Slater, 1990). A point for criticism raised by marketing
practitioners and academics is that it is often no clearly distinguished between customer orientation
and market orientation which frequently leads to an interchangeable application of the terms
(Nwanko, 1995).5 However, all concepts share “the goal of putting customers at the center of
strategic focus” (Nwanko, 1995, p.6 ).
Ind and Bjerke (2007) see several limitations in the concept of market orientation as outlined by
Naver and Slater: While market orientation has been linked to overall business performance, it has
not been explicitly connected to brand building capability— i.e. seen as a source to build a strong
brand in terms of brand equity. Furthermore, the entire side of the concept’s implementation has
been neglected. Building on this criticism, they develop the concept of participatory market
orientation (PMO). It is defined as a “philosophy that aims at building brand capability and brand
equity by involving employees, customers and other stakeholders in the development of the brand.”
The central principle of PMO is the idea of entrainment i.e. the direct engagement of the
organization with its customers in ongoing dialogues and the belief in the value of participation.
5
The core literature in the following paragraphs uses the term participative market orientation, with reference
to Narver and Slater (1995), neglecting, however, the aspect of competitor orientation.
4

5. Referring to Eric Raymond, they describe their approach connected to the ‘Bazaar model’ of a brand:
“ A bazaar model approach to branding lets consumers, retailers, press and public take a peek behind
the scenes and have a say when decisions are made” (Mack,2004, in: Ind, Bjerke, 2007,p. 140).The
customer’s role herein is that of a “ natural partner in a collective process of product and brand
development” (Mack,2004, in: Ind, Bjerke, 2007,p. 140). Developing PMO in brand building requires
as a first step to carry out market intelligence in order to form an idea about the customer needs and
to ‘bring the customer inside the organisation’. This should be achieved by getting “[…] genuinely
close to customers, so that the acquisition of knowledge is direct and unmediated” (Ind, Bjerke,
2004, p.141). As a second step people in the organization have to be involved in order to develop a
response. It can be described as a process of ‘externally sensemaking’ by engaging in open and
ongoing dialogues with customers and ‘internally sense sharing’ between managers and employees
organization wide. PMO thereby recognizes the importance of both the internal and external facet of
market orientation. “ […]the value of this is in building brand equity and delivering customer
experience”(Ind, Bjerke, 2007, p. 141)
Another limitation Ind and Bjerke (2007) highlight is that the outlined marketing orientation models
do not cover how the organization can practically implement market orientation. In their PMO
approach they outline several measures through case studies in an offline context. With the concept
of user generated branding Arnhold (2010, p.1) examines “how brand-owning companies may
involve consumers in interactive programmes such as corporate blogs, brand communities and online
challenges in order to strengthen the consumer's relationship to the brand”. Thus, she delivers a
theoretical basis and possible tools to implement PMO in an online context.
User generated branding
“UGB can be defined as the strategic and operative management of brand related user-generated
content (UGC) to achieve brand goals. That is, UGB is understood as the handling of all kinds of
voluntarily created and publicly distributed brand messages undertaken by non-marketers – from
original user comments to reviews, ratings and remixes with corporate messages, to even full artistic
work. This UGC might represent both expression of customer complaint and brand fan dedication. It
might be visualized as text, image, audio or video and distributed not only via Web2.0 platforms such
as blogs, review, video sharing and social networking sites, but also via mobile devices” (Arnold,
2010, p.5).
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6. UGB is rooted in the theoretical frame of identity based brand management (Burmann, 2010). This
“[…] takes into account both the brand perception by external stakeholders – referred to as brand
image – and the self-reflection of a brand by internal stakeholders – called brand identity. By
considering the inside-out perspective as equally relevant to the outside-in perspective” this
approach differs fundamentally from the preceding one-sided image-oriented models” (Burman,
Hegner, Riley, 2010). Herein, it shares a dynamic two dimensional understanding of the brand that
implicitly can also be found in Ind and Bjerke’s (2007) internal/external view of brand building in
PMO. It combines the sales market perspective with internal resources and competences of the
organization.
There are two key UGB approaches that can be distinguished: non-sponsored UGB can be defined as
the monitoring of naturally occurring unprompted brand related UGC and the incorporation of the
won insights by adapting operative brand management tools. On the other hand, brand management
may actively stimulate brand related UGC through blogs, contests, selected fan contributions or
other forms of campaigns. The management of this form of UGC is called sponsored UGB (Arnholt,
2010). Sponsored user generated brand related content, if “promoted as symbols of open brand
communication, highlighting the brand transparency and responsibility principles” (Burmann,
2010,p.3), are found to be a very effective branding tool and for actively fostering consumer-brand
relation ship (Burmann, 2010). Hence, sponsored UGB seems to provide opportunities for a company
to genuinely become entrained with the customer, one of the fundamental criteria of participative
market orientation. One such tool of sponsored UGB is a corporate blog. In the following, the
potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement customer orientation from a company’s
perspective will be examined.
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7. The potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement PMO
What are corporate blogs and why are they relevant?
“A blog is defined as a type of webpage usually displaying date-stamped entries in reverse
chronological order” (Gill, 2004; OECD, 2006a, in: OECD, 2007, p. 36). It is updated regularly and can
consist of text, images, audio, video, or a combination of them (OECD, 2007, p. 36). Corporate blogs
additionally are characterized by three criteria. “Firstly, they are usually maintained by individuals
who post in an official or semiofficial capacity at a company (known as the corporate blogger); the
blog content is explicitly or implicitly endorsed by that company and lastly, entries are posted by a
person perceived to be clearly affiliated with the company” (Chua, 2010, p. 2). In part corporate
blogs overlap with brand communities; however a point of distinction for this paper is that brand
communities can be rather understood as a market place for per-to-peer storytelling, while
corporate blogs are more positioned as forums for customers to talk to the company (Arnhold,2010).
Despite the enormous growth of corporate sites on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, blogs
also represent an important tool for companies: among the Fortune 500 firms about 23 % adopted
corporate blogs in 2011, a number that has been growing since 2008. Especially in branding,
corporate blogs provide two important advantages compared to social networks. Firstly, the latter
have predefined interfaces which limit the possibility for the corporate’s visual branding.
Furthermore, corporate blogs provide a better format for extensive storytelling (i.e. sharing legends
from inside the organization) which presents an important “hook for brands to be understood
internally and externally” (Yan, 2010, p. 693). In the following the advantages and limitations
associated with corporate blogs as a tool for implementing PMO should be examined from a
company’s point of view.
Getting close to the customer
As outlined in the theoretical framework an important basis for PMO is to gain genuine information
and acquire knowledge by learning about customer needs. Chua et al. (2010) argue that corporate
blogs facilitate the company-customer knowledge exchange given their dialogical nature. They are
effective in obtaining direct access to customer groups for unmediated market research purposes
(Barwise, Meehan, 2010) and thus help companies to develop a deeper understanding of their
customers’ interests and concerns. Due to the fact that many blogs are anonymous, customers likely
provide uncensored opinions and insights. Numerous customers of the Italian moped manufacturer
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8. Vespa for example contribute with their product reviews on the blog to the company’s
understanding of customer preferences (Singh et al., 2008). An important aspect for a successful
learning process is the existence of trusting and open customer-company relationships which PMO
stresses as a crucial point in its approach (Ind, Bjerke, 2007) Corporate blogs have the capacity to
build these relationships. An example of a corporate blog that practices radical disclosure to their
customers is Zappos’ blog ‘Insight’ where the shoe fabricant shares everything from internal memos
to e-mails. This openness has fostered strong bonds between customers and the company (Fournier,
Averey, 2011). Furthermore, co-operate blogs establishing strong customer relations is by providing
them a platform to engage in the co-creation of the brand. Thus, “ they satisfy a need: the desire of
engagement with a brand they wish to be associated with, or to put it in Engeseth’s terms to feel
‘one’ with the brand” (Yan,2011). Through their participation, customers identify with the brand and
become involved. The deeper the resulting relationships are the more they will create opportunities
for acquiring knowledge, hence make the company more flexible in adapting to the customers’ needs
and giving their brands greater relevance (Chua et al, 2010; Yan, 2011). “If the organization goes
online with these ideas in mind, then it is a modern sign of its market orientation: it becomes a
learning organization, getting data from audiences directly, providing it with competitive advantage.”
(Yan,2010, p. 692 ). An example for this provides Patagonia’s corporate blog. The brand is known as a
producer of apparel outdoor clothing and gear. On their blog, they feature customers’ stories of high-
end adventure journeys. Thus, they not only enable customers to carry the company’s brand promise
through to their personal experiences but at the same time allow the company to learn about the
customers’ interests and new outdoor trends.
Corporate blogs are also useful tools for revealing the thinking of the people behind the brands
(Yan,2010). This corresponds to the ‘Bazaar model’ that is key in PMO. BBC’s ‘The editor’s blog’ for
example ‘aims to explain the editorial decisions and dilemmas faced by the teams running the BBC’s
news service’. Weighing in these information customers then can decide how news should be
covered. The Disney Parks Blog provides another example of how to take customers behind the
scenes. It features posts about dance rehearsals, sneak peeks at new construction sites, interviews
with employees etc. Posts like this humanize a company and give the customer valuable insights
(Singh, 2010).
As PMO is a bi-dimensional approach with an internal and external perspective, after illustrating the
capacity of corporate blogs ‘to bring the customer inside the organisation’, now their potential for
internal response building will be examined.
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9. Being responsive
An important aspect of PMO in this context is to connect employees organization wide in order to
allow ’internal sensesharing’ of customer insights. Corporate blogs leverage this process. Corporate
blogs facilitate internal collaboration by allowing employees to share knowledge and experiences
(Sing et al.,2008). South Western airlines’ blog for example features stories of employees talking
about their job experiences, their customer encounters, company news etc. Thus, the blog serves as
an important platform for internal brand management. The stories around the brand foster the
employee relationships and strengthen their knowledge about activities in other departments.
Moreover, they help them to understand the brand and feel aligned to it (Yan, 2010, p. 693).
Employees who are ‘living the brand’ are better able to deliver positive brand experiences to
customers which is a vital prerequisite for creating brand equity (Ind, bjerke, 2007).
Furthermore, by applying data filtering methods the blog becomes an efficient tool for internal
knowledge management (Singh et al., 2010). Also important is that, blogs provide organizations the
opportunity to quickly respond to customers’ comments on the page “while setting the expectation
that their opinion will result in a better product or brand in the long run” (Sing et al.,2008, p. 286).
Starbucks, for example incorporates customer ideas in new product variants.
Challenges
Despite the advantages corporate blogs provide as a tool for PMO in branding, they also entail
challenges. A major challenge that companies are facing is the considerable loss of control over
brand messages and brand meanings, although to a less extent than other mediums (Arnhold,2010)
Customers are invited by such blogs to freely share brand related comments opinions and
interpretations. These, however, do not necessarily always overlap with the maketer’s concept of the
brand or are in favour of it.
Connected to this is also the challenge of anonymity. While it might grant valuable insights on the
one hand, it also makes it difficult for the marketers to assess the root of the problem and doesn’t
allow a targeted response (Singh et al., 2008).
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10. For some companies it can also become a challenge to maintain authenticity and transparency in the
perception of the customer. An illustration of this provides the Wal-Mart blog scandal. “Wal-Marting
Across America,” was a blog that spread positive information about the retailer and was ostensibly
created by a man and a woman traveling the country in an RV and staying in Wal-Mart parking. In
2006 customers revealed it as a fake blog sponsored by the company and organized by a public
relations firm. Subsequently, the Wal-Mart brand suffered a severe reputation crisis instead of
experiencing the intended image boost. Similar problems can arise if there is somebody else than the
claimed person behind the blog as in ‘ghostwritten’ CEO blogs for example (Founier, Averey, 200;
Yan,2010).
Summarizing the analysis of the potential of a corporate blog as a tool for implementing PMO it can
be said that they leverage both the external sensemaking and the internal sensesharing: They enable
unfiltered market intelligence while offering a unique personal manner to connect with the customer
and learn about him. Moreover, they can foster employees together and offer a convenient way to
built direct responses. Thus, corporate blogs can be seen as interactive tools that help to involve
both the customer and the employees in building the brand.
Conclusion
The new rules of branding in Web 2.0 have migrated the relationship between the customer and
company to an interactive level. Companies therefore face the challenge to encounter these
development and integrate the customer into its brand management. A customer focus in branding
has become imperative. However, the literature so far delivered hardly any tools for companies to
implement customer orientation in branding in an online context.
The purpose of this paper therefore was to discuss the potential and challenges of blogs as a tool to
implement customer orientation from a company’s perspective.
Corporate blogs were thereby found to fulfill both external sensemaking and the internal
sensesharing: On the one hand it connects the organization with its customer, making it more
relevant through better tailored offerings and eventually boosting brand equity. On the other hand it
also fuels internal collaboration leading to supreme value generation. Thus, corporate blogs can be
seen as interactive tools that help to involve both the customer and the employees in building the
brand. Nevertheless, also the challenges have to be taken into account with one of the biggest being
to establish a transparent and authentic dialogue with the customer.
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11. By analyzing the underlying purpose the paper made a contribution to the current PMO literature by
adding a concrete tool for companies to become more customer orientated in the online context.
Moreover, the insights gained are valuable with regard to closing the current knowledge gap of
brand managers who want to learn more about the potential and implications of blogging. Small and
medium enterprises’ benefit especially from the analysis as they can harness corporate blogs as a
relatively inexpensive tool for enhancing their customer orientation in branding and thus become
more competitive against big companies with higher media budgets. A limitation of this paper is that
the role of UGB programs in strengthening a brand ’ s organizational interaction capability is still
relatively uninvestigated which points out a field for further research.
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