Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

The tradition is suited to the exploration of new themes. As an ethnographic
researcher should attempt to be open-minded in his work, unintended knowledge
and issues may occur in the process and should not be ignored.

Netnography

[N]etnography involves the transplantation of ethnography, one of the most

venerable marketing research procedures, to cyberspace, the latest marketing

milieu.

(Brown et al. 2003)

The internet-based methodology of netnography plays an important role in several
of the community research studies. Applying the principles of ethnography to
internet-related fieldwork, it is an obvious information source to collect
knowledge of the geographically dispersed brand communities. Netnographic
methods are used for gaining insight into internet-shared brand meaning on
community websites and can also be used in combination with a more traditional
ethnographic research design. Community members can be contacted and
recruited for interviews and/or observation, or e-mail questionnaires can be circu-
lated with the help of the community.

The community approach 195

Box 9.5 How to do an ethnographic study of a brand community

yourself

• Pair up and let one be an inside observer while the other remains
  outside the community. This will enable you to gain insight into the
  deeper structures of the brand community while still being able to
  analyse the information properly.


• Start with an exploratory phase uncovering all expressions of community.
  Be creative; everything counts as data (photos, video, etc.).


• Observe – go to the everyday environment of the consumer; watch,
  listen and learn. Let respondents take the lead, do not interfere and
  ensure a lot of data. Join a community, go to community face-to-face
  meetings, sign up as an online user, join discussion forums.


• Be objective, try not to assume anything and put all prejudices aside.


• Be loving – respect your respondents, they are opening their hearts to
  you! Do not mistreat the information. Start slowly and build confidence.


• Make sure that your presence does not make the respondents change
  their routine – you need an accurate picture of the true nature of the
  brand community.


• Start out by being very open and ask questions in an unstructured
  fashion. Go with the flow and encourage respondents to elaborate and
  explain statements further.