Heterotopian selfies: how social media destabilizes brand assemblages

Abstract

Purpose Digital technologies are changing the ways in which the meanings and identity of both consumers and brands are constructed. This research aims to extend knowledge of how consumer-made “selfie” images shared in social media might contribute to the destabilization of brands as assemblages. Design/methodology/approach Insights are drawn from a critical visual content analysis of three popular champagne brand accounts and consumer-made selfies featuring these brands in Instagram. Findings This study shows how brands and branded selves intersect through “heterotopian selfie practices”. Accentuated by the rise of attention economy and “consumer microcelebrity”, the authors argue that these proliferating selfie images can destabilize spatial, temporal, symbolic and material properties of brand assemblages. Practical implications The implications include a consideration of how selfie practices engender new challenges for brand design and brand management. Originality/value This study illustrates how a brand assemblage approach can guide investigations of brands at multiple scales of analysis. In particular, this paper extends knowledge of visual brand-related user-generated content in terms of how consumers express, visualize and share selfies and how the heterotopian quality of this sharing consequently shapes brand assemblages.

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

“…In consumer research, assemblage theory has been used to understand brands, consumer culture and markets, practices, families, new technologies, and daily life (c.f., Canniford & Bajde, ; Epp, Schau, & Price, ; Hoffman & Novak, ; Lury, ; Parmentier & Fischer, ; Price, ; Preece, Kerrigan, & O’Reilly, ; Price & Epp, ). An assemblage framework prompts consideration of semiotic meanings and material components at macro‐ and microlevels of analysis that make up the complex systems that constitute brands and consumer culture (Canniford & Bajde, ; Lury, ; Rokka & Canniford, ). As such, assemblage theory encourages attention to the broad meanings that circulate in cultures and through institutions, but also with the minutiae of consumers' and brands' daily practices.…”

“…Consistent with Slater (), we suggest the need for interpretive work to understand why particular actors have an interest in stabilizing or destabilizing the brand territory, and how actors within assemblages may reconstitute brand territories. Research might more closely examine how social media is bound up with the sociocultural context for brands and potential destabilizing effects on brand meanings (Rokka & Canniford, ), or focus on consumers' power “to reward or punish firms for their branding initiatives in real time” (Thompson et al, , p. 320).…”

“…Batra draws upon McCracken's meaning transfer model; but Moor () challenges this guiding lens given that the governance of brand meaning is widely dispersed among heterogeneous actors (Cayla & Arnould, ; Rokka & Canniford, ; Thompson et al, ). Moor () points to avenues for research that distinguish different forms of mediating activity and different material and nonhuman participants in mediation.…”

“…Moor () points to avenues for research that distinguish different forms of mediating activity and different material and nonhuman participants in mediation. Research could examine the salience of new actors (e.g., “market influencers” on Instagram or twitter) as mediators for the creation of brand meanings (Rokka & Canniford, ). Amazon's Alexa Show (on her 10″ screen) shares headlines, reviews, and shopping options unprompted, selecting, and then mediating what we know about “what's trending” (Hoffman & Novak, ).…”

(De-)stabilizing the digitized fashion market on Instagram–dynamics of visual performative assemblages

“…Accordingly, we regard Instagram not just as a common fashion marketplace, but also as a place where shared understandings of contemporary body aesthetics and beauty are negotiated among market actorsa genre which is firmly connected to the fashion market and which also enjoys massive visibility on Instagram. Consumers employ such communication in the form of fashion posts and brand content to gain publicity and fame (Arvidsson and Caliandro 2016;Marwick 2015;Rokka and Canniford 2016), but also to contest mainstream market ideologies.…”