Crossing Bridges: Assembling Culture into Brands and Brands into Consumers' Global Local Cultural Lives

Abstract

2019-this issue) and Batra (2019-this issue), respectively, offer interpretive and psychological perspectives on how brands acquire cultural meanings. In this commentary, we discuss the opportunities for leveraging these two perspectives, and use an assemblage theory lens to uncover the dynamics of how cultural models articulated through cultural myths, metaphors, ideologies, and cultural objects circulate through the brand assemblage and through the consumer assemblage. We offer a bridge-crossing approach to research opportunities bringing both a socio-historical-cultural approach and psychological approach to understand how cultural meanings are assembled into brands and how consumers assemble brands into their lives.

Social media brand engagement in the context of collaborative consumption: the case of AIRBNB

“…Despite its relevance, few studies so far have helped to understand what are the firm-led, brand-related aspects that may influence users in adopting CBE behaviors on social media, with the few exceptions taking place outside the context of the hospitality industry. In view of this, the current study contributes to the body of literature by drawing on the concept of brands being defined collectively through an assemblage of heterogonous human and nonhuman actors (Price and Coulter 2019 ) to explore the ecosystem within which CBE takes place on social media. Specifically, by investigating the influence of Airbnb brand image (both functional and hedonic) and the mediating role of Airbnb’s OBE in motivating users to engage in CBE behaviors by means of consumption, contribution, and creation of Airbnb-related content (Schivinski 2019 ).…”

“…Creation activities include writing and posting reviews, uploading photos/selfies using the brand, and initiating hashtags (Schivinski et al 2016 ; Stathopoulou et al 2017 ). COBRAs importance is heightened when consumers expect to engage and interact with the brands they consume (Harmeling et al 2017 ; Veloutsou and Black 2019 ) and in a time that brands are defined collectively (Price and Coulter 2019 ).…”

“…Despite the previously hypothesized link between brand image and CBE, the mechanism underlying this complex relationship is yet not well known. For proposing the mediational role of OBE, the authors build on the concept of brands being defined collectively through an assemblage of heterogonous human and nonhuman actors (Price and Coulter 2019 ). Given consumers’ expectations to highly engage and interact with the brands they consume and value (Veloutsou and Black 2019 ; Harmeling et al 2017 ) within a collaborative consumption context, social media helps to socially shape and co-create consumers’ attitudes (France et al 2020 ).…”

“…Brands are defined collectively through an assemblage of heterogonous human and nonhuman actors (Price and Coulter 2019 ), as individuals expect to highly engage and interact with the brands they consume (Veloutsou and Black 2019 ; Harmeling et al 2017 ). Brand-consumer interactions are essential to the consumer experience (Brakus et al 2009 ), and consumer experience is critical in the assemblage of brand meanings (Price and Coulter 2019 ). The co-creation of brand experiences is particularly relevant in the tourism industry (Fan et al 2020 ) and it is facilitated by social media (Ramaswamy and Ozcan 2016 ).…”

“…The current study contributes to the literature in the field of hospitality branding in terms of shared or collaborative consumption and its relationship with branding and social media. A topic of high importance to drive knowledge and guide informed managerial practices (Sundararajan 2019 ; Swaminathan et al 2020 ), since the presence of brands on social media are increasingly becoming a complex phenomenon in which value, image, and equity are co-created in through relationships and interactions among all stakeholders, including consumers (Hutter et al 2013 ; Ind et al 2020 ; Price and Coulter 2019 ; Kennedy and Guzmán 2016 ). More specifically, the current study draws on the concept of brands being shaped collectively through heterogonous human and nonhuman actors to explore the ecosystem within which CBE takes place on social media, by means of investigating the influence of brand image (both functional and hedonic) and the mediating role of brand equity on motivating users to consume, contribute and create brand-related content on social media (Muntinga et al 2011 ; Schivinski and Dabrowski 2016 ).…”