analyse the potential to either facilitate or benefit from a brand community by
observing and extracting brand meaning to be used actively in a brand strategy.
Methods and data of the community approach
Research in the community approach borrows from the scientific tradition of
ethnography. Ethnography was developed around the turn of the twentieth century
as a new approach to the study of cultural and sociological research phenomena.
The pioneers of this new scientific approach sought ‘fundamental truths about
human nature, social affiliation, and the conduct of daily life’ (Mariampolski,
2006, p. 4). Ethnography has (very roughly) evolved from a methodology used for
the study of ‘exotic’ and ‘primitive’ people in the early twentieth century to being
used increasingly for studies of cultural issues in all kinds of societies, to being
applied to the arena of marketing research in the mid-1980s.
Uncovering the socio-cultural interaction of a community cannot be done in a
laboratory setting or by the use of questionnaires. Research into how meaning is
created requires participation and an open mind. Academic ethnographic research
designs often span several years, requiring full immersion into the community of
interest. Conducting a marketing-based study of a brand community is different
from conducting an academic study. The marketing study often needs to be
conducted over a much shorter period and with a less explorative aim. But the
principles of the ethnographic research tradition can still deliver valuable insights
even though the study has to adapt to limited resources and a tight time frame. In
this section, these principles will be outlined along with an introduction to funda-
mentals of ethnography’s twenty-first-century younger sister, ‘netnography’.
The ethnographic research tradition
Ethnographic research is also known as field research, observational research or
participant observation and is characterized by researcher participation and a
variety of data:
In its most characteristic form [it] involves the ethnographer participating,
overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time,
watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – in fact,
collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the
focus of the research.
(Hammersley and Atkinson 1994, p. 1)The ethnographic research tradition sets no limits on data collection. A participant
researcher is free to collect any kind of data that is believed to add to the study of
the subject or phenomena of interest. Common data types are interviews (more or
less structured), depth interviews, visual impressions, print, video-recording, and
photographs. Taking notes and photographs/video of all relevant observations also
helps memory of minor details that might prove important. A deep understanding
192 Seven brand approaches