Constitutive marketing: towards understanding brand community formation

This paper theoretically and conceptually examines the formation of brand communities through the mechanisms of constitutive rhetoric.

Constitutive marketing: towards understanding brand community formation

Ana Kilambi

SAY Media

Michel Laroche and Marie-Odile Richard

Concordia University

Introduction

Simply put, a brand represents the attributes, identity and positioning of a product of a company, and how that product is to be perceived by consumers. Where brands represent goods, and goods carry meaning beyond their function and commercial value (McCracken 1986, p. 71), brands are relevant to culture in that they bear communicative power to convey cultural meaning.

The interpersonal relationship between a consumer and a brand is a common area of research in relationship marketing. The traditional model...

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