Peranan Consumer Collectives : Brand Communities, Counter Cultures, Resistance Grouping, Shared Lifestyles Terhadap Loyalitas Suatu Produk dan Jasa

Pertumbuhan popularitas komunitas konsumen baik online dan offline di antara konsumen dengan adanya teknologi meningkatkan kualitas masyarakat untuk berinteraksi dan berbagi ide satu sama lain. Komunitas online  dan offline mengumpulkan orang-orang dengan kebutuhan dan minat khusus seputar praktik organisasi seperti merek, layanan, produk dan jasa yang diperkuat oleh ritual, homogenitas, budaya kolektif, dan makna bersama.  Komunitas konsumen tidak hanya berperan sebagai media promosi, namun juga menjadi sarana untuk membangun loyalitas  dan digunakan sebagai alat riset pasar sebelum perusahaan merilis suatu produk. Komunitas konsumen bisa menjadi public relation bagi perusahaan yang secara otomatis menjadi media promosi kepada masyarakat lebih luas. Melalui komunitas akan menimbulkan citra merek yang baik, kesadaran akan merek yang tinggi, serta loyalitas atas merek yang kuat. Kemunculan dan kesuksesan komunitas konsumen seperti komunitas online  telah menarik banyak minat untuk melakukan penelitian terhadap consumer collective yang berusaha  menentukan kondisi dimana konsumen menciptakan lingkungan sosial berupa komunitas konsumen terhadap suatu produk dan jasa di pasar. Penelitian ini ditujukan untuk melakukan kajian terhadap literatur maupun hasil penelitian serta artikel yang berhubungan dengan collective consumer seperti brand communities, counter cultures,  resistance grouping  dan shared lifestyles. Hasil kajian  berasal dari jurnal-jurnal yang berkaitan dengan collective consumer dan  dilakukan analisis yang lebih mendala

“No piracy talk”: how online brand communities work to denormalize controversial gaming practices

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how online brand communities work to support the denormalization of controversial (i.e. illegal yet normalized) gaming practices. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study was characterized by long-term immersion in an online brand community for Brazilian Xbox gamers. The dataset includes online and offline interactions with community members, interviews, and online archival data. Findings This study shows how online brand community members promoted legal gaming in a market where piracy was prevalent. It demonstrates how community members worked to establish coherence; engaged in cognitive participation; developed collective action that extended beyond the community; and reflected on their own work. Research limitations/implications This study identifies online brand communities as a potential ally in combating controversial practices in online gaming; complements individual and behavioral approaches in explaining why consumers adopt controversial practices in online environments; and adds a normalization framework to the toolkit of Internet researchers. Practical implications This study identifies ways in which the potential of online brand communities can be leveraged to reduce consumer adherence to controversial gaming practices through denormalizing these and normalizing alternative practices that may be more desirable to companies and other stakeholders. Originality/value This long-term, qualitative study inspired by normalization process theory offers an innovative perspective on the online practices of consumers who engage with a brand in ways that create value for themselves and for the brand

Normalizing Instagram

In less than seven years, Instagram has grown five-fold and in 2021 overtook Twitter globally as a source of news. Here we engage the recurrent debate regarding the normalization of digital tools through interviews with lifestyle journalists from Austria and the United States (n=63). Through the lens of Normalization Process Theory, we seek to understand how the routine use of Instagram has become embedded among lifestyle journalists and elaborate on the nature of normalization in journalism. We argue that to engage with the normalization of a technology is also to consider the stacking of platform-specific routines. Journalists reflected that normalizing Instagram required them to apply many of the norms they developed using Twitter