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

The Activist Tale of Emergent Crowds & Mobilized Communities: Investigating the Interplay Between Consumer Activism & Consumer Collectives

Consumers are collaboratively and collectively engaging in activist performances in the marketplace to challenge market(er) hegemony and power. Facilitated and enabled by online technologies, consumer collectives are waging battles both behind and outside of the screen, but is the performance of activism from a collective perspective influenced by the nature of the collective itself? This dissertation explores the intersection and interplay between consumer activism and collectives by addressing the questions of how the nature of a primarily online consumer collective influences its performance of activism, and conversely, how the performance of activism influences the evolution of pre-existing collectives. Analyzing five activist campaign sites using a netnographic method, this dissertation proposes that two types of collectives, the Emergent Crowd and the Mobilized Community, differ significantly in terms of their identity work and leadership organization and structure. These differences impact the campaigning behaviors exhibited; knowledge, resources, and platforms used; and tactical choices developed and enacted that constitute the activist performances. Furthermore, Mobilized Communities are shown to experience relationship transformations within and external to the collective that impact both individual behavior and the collectives evolutionary trajectory. In particular, alliance formation efforts, particularly enabled by social media platforms, are examined and discussed, ranging from non-responders to collaborative partners. Conclusions for practical and research applications regarding the distinct performances of activism in light of the collective a company or cause encounters, including suggestions for managing and taking advantage of value-creating opportunities, are suggested and discussed

One Good Turn: Tackling Poverty through the Circulation of Goods in Kirklees

When the Coalition Government came to power in the UK in 2010, David Cameron announced the Big Society initiative claiming it to be a “serious reform agenda to take power away from politicians and give it to people’ (cited in Slocock, 2013: 6). An independent audit conducted in 2013 found that the Big Society was “failing to live up to its own rhetoric in key areas”, but that it is nonetheless inspiring: “not only has it spawned many new initiatives with real impact on the ground, many people...are also continuing to turn to civil society as a positive force for social change” (2013: 6). One example of such a civil society initiative is a local community group called One Good Turn, which set up in Huddersfield during 2010. The group initially operated through a number of Facebook sites, where members listed the things they no longer required and those in need put their names forward to receive the items on a first come-first-served basis. Sophia Crawshaw took over the running of the sites in the summer of 2011, and in an article published in the local newspaper six months later, she explained that the group was set up “as everyone is struggling right now during the recession and even charity shops are becoming expensive.” The Facebook sites have a varied membership from teenagers to pensioners; “lots of young mums and first home buyers” and Sophia enthused that “it’s so lovely to see people giving things away to help others – it’s seeing the best side of human nature and kindness...” (Huddersfield Examiner, 2012). Within a short period of time under the stewardship and kind-heartedness of Sophia, One Good Turn became a registered charity, which now liaises “closely with other Kirklees Council Agencies and several other local charities to help as many people as possible” who are in need within Huddersfield and its surrounds (www.onegoodturncharity.org.uk )

The Role of Emotion Discourse and Pathic Stigma in the Delegitimization of Consumer Practices

Abstract Drawing on institutional theory and discursive psychology, this article elucidates how actors use emotion discourse to undermine the legitimacy of consumer practices. Based on an empirical investigation of the bullfighting controversy in Spain, our work shows how activists engage in the production and circulation of compelling emotional prototypes of their adversaries. Such emotional prototypes constitute the discursive foundations of a pathic stigma, which, once established, taints the identity of the social groups associated with the practice. Our work frames the centrality of pathic stigmatization as a cultural mechanism mediating the relationship between emotion discourse and the subsequent delegitimization of consumer practices. We make three key contributions to the literature: we advance a rhetorical perspective on emotions and their role in deinstitutionalization processes; we further develop the theory of marketplace sentiments by showing how sentiments operate downstream; and we provide evidence of the sociocultural mechanisms underpinning the emotional vilification, stereotyping and stigmatization of consumer collectives.</jats:p

Multi Agent Coordination for Demand Management with Energy Generation and Storage

In this paper, we focus on demand side management in consumer collectives with community owned renewable energy generation and storage facilities for effective integration of renewable energy with the existing fossil fuelbased power supply system. The collective buys energy as a group through a central coordinator who also decides about the storage and usage of renewable energy. produced by the collective. Our objective is to design coordination algorithms to minimize the cost of electricity consumption of the consumer collective while allowing the consumers to make their own consumption decisions based on their private consumption constraints and preferences. Minimizing the cost is not only of interest to the consumers but is also socially desirable because it reduces the consumption at times of peak demand (since differential pricing mechanisms like time-of-use pricing is usually used by electricity companies to discourage consumption at times of peak demand). We develop an iterative coordination algorithm in which the coordinator makes the storage decision and shapes the demands of the consumers by designing a virtual price signal for the agents. We prove that our algorithm converges, and it achieves the optimal solution under realistic conditions We also present simulation results based on real world consumption data to quantify the performance of our algorithm

The Relationship Between Crowdsourcing and Consumer Power

This research investigates consumer power in the context of crowdsourcing. In a series of studies, this research explores differences in consumer perceptions of power based on whether they participate in idea crowdsourcing (in which consumers submit ideas for new offerings) or in crowd voting (in which consumers are invited to vote for various options for new offerings). This research also manipulates whether the crowdsourced ideas or votes were accepted or rejected by the firm, and provides an investigation of consumer perceptions of power. Implications for marketers in terms of optimizing the management of a crowdsourcing initiative are discussed

Brand Community, Loyalty and Promise in myfootballclub.co.uk

Purpose The primary purpose of this paper is to link the notions of brand community, loyalty and promise as a reminder to marketers of the importance to brands of keeping their commercial promises to brand community members. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on a questionnaire survey (n=500) of members of a sport brand community as part of an investigation into the relationship between brand community and brand loyalty. Findings Brand loyalty was predicted by age, frequency of attendance, motivations for joining the brand community and the degree to which expectations built by the brand promise are met. Research limitations/implications In common with many inquiries in the area of brand community, this is a single case study. It is primarily a cross-sectional study, with a minor longitudinal element. Practical implications Branding practitioners and consultants with responsibility for brand community management issues need to balance the consumer-to-consumer dimensions of community with a careful understanding and operationalisation of the brand promise. Originality/value (mandatory): This is the first paper to integrate the constructs of brand community and brand loyalty with that of brand promise