Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

long history or technically complicated brands are the more obvious ones to attract
a brand community, but the facilitation of a brand community is also possible for
an FMCG brand.

Theory

Managerial

implications

Assumptions

Methods and data

Figure 9.10Managerial implications of the community approach

The community approach 203

Comments from the ‘founding fathers’ (5)

Brands and communities

Albert M. Muniz, Jr, De Paul University, and Thomas C. O’Guinn,

University of Wisconsin School of Business

Like many successful collaborations, this one began over food and drink. We

had both been talking for some time about the lack of sociological thought in

mainstream consumer behaviour. We had both used brands in debates and

discussions with our psychologist friends. Brands seemed such as an obvious

product of social forces and constructs. If brands could have personalities

(actually, we don’t think they do), could they not be the centre of a mean-

ingful social aggregation, a community? Meaning, objects, and meaningful

objects are often at the centre of communities. Brands were the perfect

extension of contemporary social thought. So went our academic argument.

So over food and wine more than a decade ago we coined the term ‘brand

community’.

In truth, we were also both drawn to this topic by our own personal brand

community experiences. We both had (somewhat) vintage Saabs in the