Building a Brand Community Online During a New Product Launch

AbstractThis article presents an investigation of the building process of an online brand-associated community. It uses netnographic methods to investigate an automotive community, created months before a new model was actually launched. The study highlights the motivation to gather information and to influence product launch as factors to mobilize community existence. Category involvement, aspirational positioning of the corporate brand and revolutionary promises for this product also seem to be relevant to promote the community. The research presents a typology of community members based on two dimensions: information about the category and user experience with the brand/model. The typology distinguishes between newbies (low information and low experience), theoretical (high information and low experience), pragmatic (low information and high experience) and experts (high information and high experience). The paper highlights logics that stratify members´ interactions, explaining community formation dynamics and evolution processes.

摘要 本研究针对与品牌相关的线上社群的构建过程展开调查。研究采用网络民族志（netnographic）方法，对某款新车型正式发布数月前便已创建的汽车社群进行分析。本研究表明，收集信息与影响产品发布的动机，是推动社群存续的核心驱动因素。此外，品类参与度、企业品牌的理想定位，以及该产品的革命性承诺，同样对社群的推广起到了关键作用。本研究基于两个维度构建了社群成员的类型学：一是品类相关信息的掌握程度，二是针对该品牌/车型的用户使用经验。该类型学将社群成员划分为四类：新手（newbies，信息掌握程度与使用经验均较低）、理论型（theoretical，信息掌握程度较高但使用经验较低）、实用型（pragmatic，信息掌握程度较低但使用经验较高）以及专家型（experts，信息掌握程度与使用经验均较高）。本研究揭示了社群成员互动的分层内在逻辑，阐释了社群的形成动态与演化进程。