Brand Tribalism - Term Paper Example

Brand Tribalism Brand tribalism is considered as one of the most important aspects in modern business domains for increasing the interests of businesses in terms of raising the level of recognition of various brands of products and services which business organisations across the globe are producing and selling. This research paper explains the concept of brand tribalism, brand tribes and their basic characteristics. Hence it analyses the meaning of a brand in the concept of brand tribalism, the relationship between customer and brand, the way in which brand tribalism mainly influence the customers behaviour and the current state of art in brand tribalism. The research paper is aimed at providing an analysis of two hypotheses related to brand tribalism. 1. Introduction 1.1 Problem Statement and Research Objectives Community or tribe is the fundamental component of social thought. studies on communities have always been an interesting subject of study for social theorists and scientists overtime. A traditional community usually shares certain physical and demographic characteristics but in the rise of modernity and consumer culture a new concept has emerged to redefine the concept of a tribe or a community. Here comes the significance of brand community which is not restricted geographically and forms on the grounds of common characteristics and shared emotions between members. This is a crucial component of consumer behaviour studies. Brand communities or tribalism can play a crucial role in the bequest of a brand (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2002, p. 412). In fact, relationship between a brand and the consumers can be marked and assessed in terms of “brand personality, brand attachment, brand love and the brand experience” (Taute et al, 2010, p. 1). Certain powerful relationships of consumers with brands can be termed as cults and tribes. A brand thus brings together the devoted consumers via a common social and interpersonal experience. A loyal and dedicated member usually invests time and emotion to acquire a notion of shared ownership and change the tangible and intangible features of a branded product (Taute et al, 2010). This paper is aimed at providing a description of all concepts related to brand tribalism, such as brand tribes, its relationship with customers’ behaviour etc., in detail and also analysing the following two hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: "The brand community influences the brand more than the management could do". Hypothesis 2: “A strong brand tribe/community helps business organisations to gain greater amount of market share and profits”. The research objective is to check the validity of these two hypotheses in the context of the modern business structures. 1.2 Approach The approach of the paper is a logical description and analysis of the concept of brand tribalism and its association with related concepts, such as the relationship between brand and customer and relationship amongst consumers. The paper considers various cases and literature reviews which have shown that these hypotheses are significantly valid in modern businesses. The approach therefore is qualitative in nature and general analysis is used as a tool to draw inferences about our hypotheses. The research also provides some recommendations regarding the measure that a brand owner can adopt to optimize the strength of brand tribalism 2. Background 2.1 Terminology (Brand, Tribalism, Brand Tribalism) In brand tribalism the word "brand" signifies specific features and characteristics of a particular product and/or service. A brand can consist of name of the product, sign or symbol of the product, slogan related to the marketing and sales campaigning of the product or service, or it can be consisted of the products colour combination. The slogan translates a “brand mantra” into a language easily comprehendible by customer. Colours help in brand recognition, for instance, the personalised yellow of Caterpillar or Kodak gives them the recognition and imparts meaning and purpose to their brands (Kotler, Pfoertsch and Michi, 2006, p. 108). The concept of brand is expected to affect the personality of the product, the service or the organisation. In other words brand directs the perception that the customers of a company possess regarding products and/or services which the company produces. For instance, Canon’s photographers are asked to wear white shirts to give a user friendly and approachable look. Samsung’s value proposition added to emotional aspects which the brand wanted to generate amongst the customers by promising the best technology and innovations (Kotler, Pfoertsch and Michi, 2006, p. 217). A brand tribe is described as the group of people who possess the connection with each other with the help of their shared belief regarding the properties, functions and culture of the particular brand of their preferences and choices. The members are not mere consumers but also play the role of brand advocates. As the internet has brought in new opportunities for communication, consumer advocacy will always play an important role and help in building competitive advantage for the years to come (Chernatony, McDonald and Wallace, 2010, p 341). The notion of brand tribalism is closely related to the fact that there are significant amounts of brand tribes in the market for various goods and services. The concept of brand tribalism can be defined as the tendency of consumers in the market to make decisions on purchasing goods or services on the basis of shared beliefs about the brand and characteristics of the brand. Different studies have shown different types of explanations and evaluations on brand tribalism. In one of these studies, social interaction between different communities has been defined as the most important factor, which contributed to the stronger formation of the notion of brand tribalism. Also ‘the relationships between tribal rites and capitalisation of an offer at a brand image level’ are considered as the most important factor in developing the notion of brand tribalism (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.317). The notion of brand tribalism also considers aspects like ‘use a factor structure, such as brand liking, sponsor favourability, perception of fairness in sponsorship, positive convergence in sponsorship, external manifestations and accepted sponsorship’ etc. which influence the level of effects of brand tribalism on the acquisition of greater amount of market share as well as profit and the brand itself (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, pp.317-318). Consumers across the globe are creating unique as well as vibrant relationships with different brands. The process of conceptualisation of these relationships in the business and marketing domain is becoming increasingly important in modern times. According to Taute et al. (2010), “brand relationships are salient in the mind of the consumer, take a variety of forms, and have a number of life cycle variations. A singular and important characterization of the consumer-brand relationship has been in terms of a brand community” (Taute et al., 2010, p.1). The notion of brand tribalism is related to different types of brand communities, which are responsible for creating greater amounts of impacts on the particular brand. These brand tribes are comprised of consumers who are devoted to a certain brand or different brands of product(s) and service(s). The tribe members share an interpersonal relation and hence is resilient to outside criticisms (Taute et al., 2010, pp.5-7). 2.2 Characteristics of Brand Tribes In modern businesses, consumers are making their buying decisions largely based on their previous buying experiences. Therefore these buying decisions of consumers are largely dependent upon the attributes and associations of brands. These attributes and associations are largely driven by images regarding the particular brand and are also intangible and symbolic. In these contexts brand tribes play the most important part in the consumers decision-making-process on the choice of the preferred brand. On the basic level a brand tribe is an informal and/or formal group of consumers. These consumers share the same loyalty, information, passion and awareness regarding the brand. Brand tribes are described as strong drivers of strength behind the relationship between consumers and he brand for large number of international brands (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p. 315). In certain specific cases brand communities are highly related to the fact that these groups and communities have greater amount of control on the association. These associations characterise the brand instead of the brand team (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2007, p.316). For instance, according to Veloutsou and Moutinho (2007), a consumer campaign at grassroots level can help in protecting a brand or product from extinction. The authors cite the example of the devoted consumers of Crown Pilot crackers who came to know that Nabisco stopped all production and hence began lobbying which led to a new social movement. On one hand, the passion of campaigners and the consumers were significant in safeguarding the commodity from becoming extinct. Similar instances were observed in case of introduction of the ‘New Coke’ replacing the classic drink and discontinuation of the Apple Newton product (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2007, p.316). Brand tribes are also characterised as sustained admirers of the certain brand under consideration; they share the same (common) ‘tradition, stories, lived experiences and rituals’ regarding the brand; they share the identical level of consciousness regarding the brand of the product or service and they possess a felt moral obligation to each other and the brand community’ (Taute et al., 2010, p.6). These characteristics are basis properties of different brand tribes across the globe (Taute et al., 2010, p.6). In fact consumers and producers often negotiate consumption and the exchange corresponds to their common interests. These influences on the level of preference and choice over the brand are dependent on the condition that the exchange between the consumer and the producer is mutually serving interests of both. Again in this respect the group which has the maximum power regarding the process of accessing the gain from forming the brand tribes has the advantage in acquiring the particular type of satisfaction of interests. Here consumer tribes play a significant role in raising the demand for the brand. In certain specific cases consumers possess developed imagination and cravings regarding the products and/or the services, which have not been launched in the market yet. These emotions and desires for the brand, in particular, and for the product and the service, in general, constitute the most important characteristic in the brand tribes (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.316). 2.3 Types of Brand Tribes: There are various types of brand tribes in the market. Brand tribes or consumer tribes are consisted of different cultural and social attributes as well as relationships and also have distinct behavioural characteristics. Most of the brand tribes are related to the notion of relations between the brand and the consumer and to the relationships among the consumers. Some of the brand tribes are related to different communities and social or cultural groups in relation to a particular brand of a product and/or a service (Goverse and Mugge, 2010, pp.1-4). Brand tribalism might be classified according to the factors which affect decision making of consumers. These are ‘degree of fit with lifestyle’, ‘passion in life’, ‘reference group acceptance’, ‘social visibility of brand’ and ‘collective memory’ (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p. 320). In the first category customers are guided by the brand’s contribution to one’s image and the way the individual perceives life. The second category refers to the intangible characteristics of the brand. Their members possess the same set of information and passion for the particular brand as well as product or service. If one or more consumers in the group want to purchase the brand, then the rest of the consumers of the same group are more likely to purchase the same brand product or service. Under the category reference group acceptance, an individual would choose a particular brand because his friends use that and he wants to be like them too. Social visibility refers to the feel good factor related to the brand and the fact that people always feel good about a particular product brand. Collective memory once again refers to one’s friends’ choice of a particular brand. Hence, any particular admirer of a specific brand has a closed and associated relationship with the other admirers of the same group in the same community and group (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p. 320). Postmodern tribes in fact refer to a connection of passion and emotions rather than age and ethnicity. Archaic tribes in contrast could be referred as “permanent and totalizing” and here one individual could belong to a single community. The boundaries marking the different postmodern tribes are based on concepts and members related via sentiments and certain acquired signs (Cova and Cova, 2002, p. 597). Another concept which has emerged is that of neo tribes. Unlike brand communities, neo-tribes refer to an unstable group of people connected by ‘shared experience, the same emotion, a common passion’, yet there is a ‘volatility of belonging’ which indicates that homogeneity of behaviour and definite rules are disturbed. Neo-tribe is rather a vague concept where a group of people keep shifting in an open system and they use consumption as a symbol of tribal identity. However they can be either devoted users of the brand, or participants at events and even simply sympathisers (Elliott and Percy, 2007, p.69). 3. Relationships in the brand tribalism Brand tribalism influences the relationship shared between customers and a particular brand. In fact, the findings of Veloutsou and Moutinho (2002), based upon 912 respondents’ feedback suggest that brand tribalism can predict the strength of brand relationships better than the reputation of the brand itself. Consumers usually look upon a brand as a character or at times, a celebrity having an individual character. The managers and the ambience help in sustaining the brand and build its reputation through signals sent to the market. The organizational skills of the managers will play a key role in building reputation of a brand. On the other hand consumers’ bonding with the brand develops through experience and to some extent reputation determines he expectations a customer will have from a brand. However, it is brand community which predicts the strength of a brand more than the reputation factor and this indicates that the network of the management is less significant than brand tribalism or the emotional connection that ties all individuals together (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p. 316). Muniz and O’Guinn marked three identifiers of community, for e.g. ‘consciousness of kind, moral responsibility and shared rituals and traditions’. This idea often helps in building a connection between marketers, consumers and brands. In fact marketers undergo problems in controlling the brand’s meaning but the meaning is created by consumers as in case of Apple Newton where a group of people adhered to the old product even though the producers stopped producing the same (Maclaran, Stern, Tadajewski and Saren, 2009, p. 338). In order to create a successful brand relationship it is important to create positive personal interaction with that particular brand. It is also necessary for a brand to create legitimate relationship partners for which the brand needs to be successfully personified (since consumers usually perceive brand as a character) and it needs to behave as an important ‘contributing member of the dyad’ (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.315). Fournier (1998) through the case studies of three women’s stories have concluded that for all strong brand relationship, “a rich affective grounding reminiscent of concepts of love in the interpersonal domain” was at work (Fournier, 1998, p. 344). An individual sharing a strong brand relation often would feel that certain aspect was missing if they are not accustomed to the brands for sometime. Such brands which are strongly held have the characteristic of being irreplaceable and identifiable since a ‘separation anxiety’ would come into play if the user withdrew from consumption of the brand (Fournier, 1998, p. 364). Consumers are attracted to brands of products and services which are produced and/or marketed by companies that are innovative, ingenious as well as ambitious. Consumers also like to achieve several emotional benefits from consumption of different brands of products and services that they are purchasing. These benefits can be defined by the factors which determine decision-making of consumers discussed in the previous section. These emotional and material benefits also increase the strength and longevity of the relationship between consumers and brands. Various researches have suggested that these perceived personality of various brands of products and services are effective in influencing the strength of the prevailing relationship between the consumer and the brand. According to Veloutsou and Moutinho (2007), “it is also been proven that when consumers feel a brand has the desired attitude towards the issues they perceive as important to their system of values, they tend to support and buy it” (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.315). 3.2 Relationships between the customers The customers belonging to a particular community are usually connected by certain common factors. It has been traditionally argued that they are connected by factors like gender, age, and class while Aaker’s study showed that five main attributed are possessed by consumers, such as, ‘sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness’ (Elliott and Percy, 2007, p.64). The three identifiers of members in a brand community might be brought back in this context to understand the relationship between consumers. The members share a common consciousness which refers to a familiar feeling or ability to identify with each other. A triangular relationship exists between consumers and brands (one consumer with another and with the brand). In fact this relationship is used to differentiate between the true members of the tribe and the marginal consumers who might use the brand’s products for ‘wrong reasons’. Such a shared consciousness often brings into play opposition to rival brands. This has been evident in the opposition of Macintosh community towards Microsoft. Rituals and traditions also identify relationships between community members. For instance, a Saab member might wave their hands or flash their headlights at another Saab driver on the road even if they do not otherwise know each other. This shows a shared moral responsibility and helps in brand advocacy to draw in new members. In fact the brand community also depends upon the customer’s experiences with the brand. The producer of a brand might therefore arrange events like brandfests in order to build customer loyalty; here the first step is to build a community around the brand created. This strategy was used in case of Camp Jeeps (Elliott and Percy, 2007, p. 68). These relationships between the consumers are classified as lower-order relationships and higher-order relationships. These higher-order relationships are also called loyal relationships. This relationship between the consumer and the brand are also dependent on the existing relationship among consumers. Certain researchers have found that there are different types or different stages of friendship. These are: ‘potential friends (brand trying), casual friends (brand liking), close friends (multi-brand resurgent loyalty), best friends (brand loyalty) and crucial friends (brand addiction)’ (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2007, p.315). Detailed studies on consumers’ perspectives also reveal that there are relationships among consumers themselves and these relationships vary from arranged marriage to different types of friendships and also to enslavement. These relationships possess different qualities and attributes. These can be voluntary or imposed; temporary or permanent; public or private; formal or informal; symmetric or asymmetric. However, these relationships are usable in the market only when these are related to the existence of a particular brand (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, pp.315-316). 4. Impact of Brand Tribalism on the customers behaviour Consumers share various stories and explanations regarding their experiences in the process of consumption of one or more brands of products and services. Sometimes these communications between consumers show powerful word-of-mouth conversations or communications which form inspirational or influential consumers passing around various communities in a virtual manner. Consumers are also affected by various social and cultural networks which largely affect the preference pattern of these consumers and also their choices and purchasing patterns of brands of various goods and services. Both formal as well as informal social groups are affecting consumers’ preferences and choices of various brands. In most of the cases these informal groups and leaders of those groups affect consumers’ behaviour. Various influences that these brand tribes and communities make on consumers are also dependent on particular relationships among consumers, such as, friends, wives etc. Researches on effects of brand tribalism on consumers’ behaviours suggest that brand tribalism plays an important role in developing various behavioural development of consumers’ preferences and choices of brands of products and services (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.317). According to a research conducted by Veloutsou and Moutinho (2007), there exists a strong positive correlation between brand tribalism and customers’ behaviour (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, pp.317-318). Brand tribalism is responsible for creating greater amounts of confidence among the consumers in regard to forming the preference pattern on different brands of products and services. Brand tribalism helps consumers to create a stronger link with the properties and functioning of these brands. In other words brand tribalism plays an important role in matching the passion of life with the degree of fit with various styles of life, ‘while its correlation with the Collective Memory and the Social Visibility of the Brand are also of interest’ (Veloutsou and Moutinho, 2009, p.319). The members of a brand community will be eager to find like-minded people on the basis of devotion, uniqueness in lifestyle and patriotic interpretations connected with a definite brand. Such interactions might take place in a cyberspace or events which are geographically localised (Belk, Grayson, Muniz, Jr., and Schau, 2011, p. 62). 5. State of the Art: 5.1 Research Findings on Brand Tribalism: In fact the four components of brand equity are connected with consumer behaviour and these are: perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand associations. Brand communities influence all these elements and therefore a strong brand community can play a key role in relationship marketing. The strength of a brand community will determine a “socially embedded and entrenched loyalty, brand commitment and even hyper loyalty” (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p.427). The most basic social unit is the community which originates in the familial association that helps in defining relationship marketing. In the 21st century brand tribalism is considered as one of the most important aspects of modern businesses and the growth of these businesses through greater sale of various products and services. Therefore as sale increases, there is greater scope for increase in market share for a business and retaining loyalty via brand community can help in the process. As seen earlier, more than brand reputation, brand tribalism plays a stronger role in building relationship with customers. Here, the role of brand community gains more points over the management’s skill. It has been found that if a particular group of people purchases the particular brand of a product and service then other people (who might belong to the same country or social and cultural group or who belong to the different country or social and cultural group) can also demand the product or the service led by the factors of decision making discussed earlier. Hence, they also eventually purchase the product and the service (Taute et al., 2009, pp.9-10). In modern businesses, with the help of greater amount of application of various social media (like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc.), different economic, social and cultural forums, large number of people across the globe are getting influenced by this concept of brand tribalism. The social media serves as an useful tool to promote the brand community without advertising. Once an individual becomes a virtual member of the community, his relationship with the brand is prolonged and marketers can take advantage of this by giving more opportunities to keep the members engaged and thus adding more value to their membership (Powell, Groves and Dimos, 2011, p. 189). There are two most important research findings in this paper. One of these finding is that brand tribalism helps business organisations gain greater amounts of market share through popularity or community strength of a particular brand sold by the company. Brand tribalism is that policy which gives these business organisations greater amounts of chance to reach a large number of consumers in the shortest possible time. Brand tribalism helps consumers to communicate with each other with respect to various characteristics and features of various brands. Consumers belonging to different or same brand tribes get the chance to share different good as well as bad characteristics of brands. In these ways these consumers are given the chance to share their sentiments regarding brands of products and services which are available at present in the market. This help in providing valuable insights to the brand owners who can incorporate or adjust to the tastes and preferences of the brand community members in order to sustain and increase market shares. In fact it is not always the fact that consumers come together to behave in a certain manner in order to change, rectify or influence market process. Such interactions take place in communities which might be referred as gift economies. The participation guarantees emancipation to the consumer via finding a common space which functions at a distance from market mechanisms (Cova and Dalli, 2007, p.9). 5.2 Best Practice examples: From the above study it is clear that brand community or tribalism serves as a best practice for relationship marketing and in boosting the sales of a branded product. Hence strategies which help in building a strong brand community should be encouraged. While conventional practices like advertising and building brand reputation can help in promoting or supporting a brand community, the idea of brandfests can help in bringing all the loyal consumers of a brand together and help in forming a strong community. The case of Duck Brand Duct Tape can be studied in this context. This is an online community where the members can associate with several other duct-tape innovators who are using basically Duck Brand duct tape. When a brand allows the most loyal consumer to project the salient points about a brand, then the perception of consumers can be altered around the particular commodity. Consciousness of a Kind is used by the brand community. Sharing of stories centring the brand and associated incidents of day-to-day lives are exchanged here in order to create a bonding amongst the members. Organising contests on this site also help in holding the interests of the members. For instance, Stuck at Prom, a scholarship contest where winner will need to create the best outfit using only Duck Brand duct tape and submit photos online (Smack, n.d.). Jones Soda, a beverage brand seeks for consumers’ opinion essentially obtained from a community of the brand. The inputs obtained form 12-24 years old consumers are used in the different processing decisions like packaging, promotions etc. It uses its website to allow and encourage consumers to submit their feedbacks and photos which could fit in advertisements and could be used in packaging. Garmin also has a community comprising of employees and consumers both offline and online. The offline community is based on travel experiences where the users meet to exchange ideas (Schau, Muniz and Arnould, 2009, p. 31). 5.3 Expert Opinions: Brand tribes and brand tribalism help companies across the globe to reach each and every consumer at the minimum point of time and thus to implement various internal as well as external business and marketing policies or strategies to raise the level of profits earned by these companies at large. Cova and Cova (2002) suggest in their research the viability of the Latin vision of societies where the idea is not to emancipate social restraints but re-build communal embeddedness. The people of the modern era are more interested in social associations and identities that are linked with the objects of consumption. According to the Latin view, people would prefer to gather and form tribes and this influenced people’s behaviour more than the measures taken by marketing institutions. The concept of shared experiences of these communities is unique since it is different from the Northern ideas of segmented markets and one-to-one relationships. In fact in a marketing scenario driven by the internet, tribal marketing helps in inducing the firms to adopt the re-emergence of the quest for community (Cova and Cova, 2002, p. 595). Govers and Mugge (2010) opine that “an attractive strategy from the viewpoint of sustainability is to increase the experienced product attachment” (Govers and Mugge, 2010, p. 10). Building a strong emotional bonding between consumers and products would surely extend the “psychological lifespan” of a product (Govers and Mugge, 2010, p. 10). The research depicts the impact of designs on sustaining a brand. Designers can invest by stimulating attachment to a product by imparting designs which match the personality traits of the target group members. Conclusion: 6.1 Summary and Discussion of Findings: Brand tribalism and brand tribes are considered as most important marketing and business strategies in modern businesses which are helping business organisations across the globe to raise their level of market share as well as the level of profit in business domains of countries all over the world. As explained in the previous sections brand communities form the base for relationship marketing which brings about increase in sales when carried out effectively. This gives rise to greater probability of making profits and increasing market share. In certain instances tribalism has dominated the decisions of producers (in case of Apple Newton and New Coke) and this proves the strength of brand tribalism over and above management decisions. It is therefore helpful to follow the characteristics of tribes and frame the decisions of production strategies of a brand. 6.2 Limitations: The study was mainly based on literatures and different examples in order to understand the importance of brand tribalism and its impact on the brand. However in such cases, certain primary research incorporating interviews of some consumers and brand managers could help in providing first hand expert opinion. The study also does not take into consideration the interplay of ethnicity, age and such demographic factors which might affect the formation of a tribe. 6.3 Outlook and Implications for Future Research: For future research one might take up case studies in more detail in order to explore how brand communities rule over producers’ decisions. Certain cases might be incorporated to show how some brands are using different tools especially internet marketing in order to promote strong communities. This topic has been discussed to some extent but further research can elaborate on this. References: 1. Belk, R.W. Grayson, K. Muniz, K.M. Jr., and Schau, H.J. (2011), Research in Consumer Behavior, Emerald Group Publishing 2. Cova, B. and Dalli, D. (2007), From communal resistance to tribal value creation, available at: from http://s2.e-monsite.com/2010/01/11/11/3-Cova-Dalli.pdf (accessed on March 3, 2012) 3. Chernatony, L., McDonald, M. and E.Wallace (2010), Creating Powerful Brands, Routledge 4. Cova, B. and V. Cova (2002), Tribal Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36, No.5/6, pp. 595-620 5. Elliott, R. and L. Percy (2007), Strategic brand management, OUP 6. Fournier, S (1998) Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Vol. 24 7. Kotler, P. Pfoertsch, W. and I. Michi (2006), B2B Brand Management, Springer 8. Govers, P. C. M. and Mugge, R. (2010), ‘I love my Jeep, because it’s tough like me’, The effect of product-personality congruence on product attachment” 9. Maclaran, P. Stern, B. Tadajewski, M. and M. Saren (2009), The SAGE handbook of marketing theory, SAGE 10. Muniz, A.M. and O’Guinn, T.C. (2001), Brand Community, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 412-432 11. Powell, G. Groves, S. and S. Dimos, (2011), ROI of social media, John Wiley and Sons 12. Smack (n.d.) Building Brand Community around a commodity: case study, available at: http://www.smackinc.com/media/pdf/from_commodity_to_community.pdf (accesed on March 8, 2012) 13. Schau, H.J. Muniz, A.M. and E.J. Arnould (2009), How Brand Community practices create value, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 73, pp. 30-51, available at: http://www.uwyo.edu/mgtmkt/faculty-staff/faculty-pages/docs/arnould/how%20brand%20communities%20create%20value.pdf (accessed on March 8, 2012) 14. 15. Taute, H. A. et al. (2010), Defining Brand Tribalism, Woodbury School of Business, 16. Working Paper 2-10. 17. Veloutsou, C. and Moutinho, L. (2009), Brand relationships through brand reputation and brand tribalism, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 62, pp.314-322 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Read More