Brand Meaning Research Articles

Choice Between Salary and Employer Brand: The Roles of Materialism and Inclination to Develop an Identity-Motives-Based Relationship With an Employer Brand.

Despite recent interest in individual differences in psychological meanings of consumer brands, the concept of psychological employer brand as a factor independent of particular brands has not been examined. Drawing on an instrumental-symbolic framework, person–organization fit literature, and theory and research on salary and materialism, and combining consumer brand approaches with motivated identity construction theory, we examine the role of materialism and identity-motives-based inclination for the self–employer brand relationship in the situation of a dilemma between two job offers: one proposed by a strong employer brand with an unattractive salary and one from a subjectively weak brand with an attractive salary. A homogenous sample of 101 university students in academic fields related to financial careers participated in a quasi-experimental study. We found that participants preferred the offer from the weak employer brand with an attractive salary compared to the strong employer brand with an unattractive salary; however, supporting our hypothesis, those who preferred this offer anticipated lower job satisfaction. Following expectations, materialism negatively and inclination for self–employer brand relationship positively predicted preferences and evaluations of the unattractive salary offer proposed by the strong employer brand. However, materialism negatively predicted anticipated job satisfaction regarding this offer, as well as positively predicting evaluation of the weak brand with attractive salary job offer. Despite all the detailed hypotheses not being supported, the findings confirm the role of materialism in job offer preference and introduce the inclination to develop an identity-motives-based relationship with an employer brand as an important factor in reactions toward different employer branding recruitment strategies. We discuss the results in light of previous theories and research on person–organization fit, materialism, and brand effects, and consider potential short- and long-term outcomes of recruitment strategies.

The symbolic meaning of luxury-lite fashion brands among younger Chinese consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is uncovering the connotative and symbolic meaning of “luxury-lite brands” [轻奢].Design/methodology/approachApplying mixed methods, this study conducted two studies: (1) a semiotic analysis of a focus group discussion and 10 interviews on luxury-lite brands and (2) a content analysis of 248 Weiblog posts from 10 luxury-lite brands in a two-month period.FindingsStudy 1 showed that luxury-lite brands are interpreted as foreign brands that serve people's needs for social presence, and symbolize youthfulness, tastefulness, and aspirations. Other descriptors of luxury-lite brands included unique design, and less than the best quality offered by luxury brand. Study 2 suggested brands are missing out on a wide range of stories that resonate with their core segments in their social media advertising.Practical implicationsBased on the definition of luxury-lite brands in the context of China proposed by the researchers, we recommend that managers broaden topics of stories, make more effort to create desirable symbolic brand meaning, and use social media to excite these young crowds.Originality/valueLuxury-lite brands have been a cultural sign in the Chinese market projected to grow into an over 90 billion USD business by 2025. Therefore, an insightful understanding of the masstige market of China is a must for any Western masstige brand to be successful and competitive.

Lemmy Kilmister and milk from Finland: On remembering, online spaces and corporate branding

Abstract In this article, we show how new (social) media dynamics condition the way remembering and mourning play out online. We analyse commenting with regard to the Finnish dairy-product company Valio’s advertisement-turned-tribute to rock idol Lemmy Kilmister, who had passed away some days earlier. Our study shows that ambiguous and fluid power relations in online spaces can sustain facile and simplified corporate messages. We offer an example of how the context of representation shifts in online exchanges and highlight how local repertoires of meaning making are overpowered by universal myths. This offers a new perspective to metal music studies. More generally, our study elucidates contextual shifts as one of the ways in which contemporary capitalism operates as consumers such as metal music fans are engaged in co-production of corporate brand meanings.

An integrated approach to estimate brand association matching and strength in virtual settings

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes an innovative method for estimating brand association matching and strength. It is based on a dual analytical perspective as it compares consumer-perceived with company-defined brand associations, thereby filling a research gap in the offline and online brand studies. In order to build this method, we investigate online communities as authentic interactive environments by combining text-mining with Hybrid Log-Linear models. What emerges is an interdisciplinary method that contributes to extending the use of the user-generated content (UGC) for marketing purposes. Its application is useful for verifying the conditions for customer brand equity and more systematically controlling the adopted brand communications. The analysis also takes into consideration consumers who, after experiencing the virtual setting, have become free-brand tellers and real co-creators of brand meaning. In the study, we focus on online fashion communities as digital platforms where consumer interactions are particularly intensive, and the narratives are rich in brand-related perceptions.

Compensatory word of mouth as symbolic self-completion

Purpose When consumers experience a self-threat that calls their self-concept into question, the ensuing psychological discomfort motivates them to restore their self-perceptions on the threatened attribute. Although consumers can restore a threatened self-perception by consuming products and brands that possess the desired symbolic associations, this study aims to propose that word of mouth can serve to resolve self-threat and restore a threatened self-perception when the brand at the center of a word-of-mouth communication is symbolically congruent with the domain of the threat. Design/methodology/approach Experimental online survey research was conducted, inducing self-threat, manipulating brand and word-of-mouth conditions and measuring self-perceptions. Data for three studies were analyzed using SPSS and Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS macro. Findings Three studies show that spreading word of mouth can restore consumers’ threatened self-perceptions when the brand is symbolically congruent with the threat domain. Word of mouth about a symbolically congruent brand alleviates psychological discomfort, resulting in higher self-perceptions on the threatened attribute. The restorative effect is amplified for lower self-esteem consumers. Research limitations/implications Participants in the focal conditions were required to spread word of mouth, which may not be an organic response for all consumers; although not spreading word of mouth is ineffective, other compensatory consumer behavior options exist. The brand option was provided to participants, which allowed for control but may have reduced some of the realism. Practical implications Positioning brands to meet consumers’ psychological needs encourages the development of consumer–brand attachments. Brands that resonate with consumers reap the benefits of consumers’ active loyalty behaviors and enjoy stronger brand equity. The present research implies a new way consumers can form brand attachments: by spreading word of mouth to resolve self-threat. As many consumers post detailed, personal information online, this research suggests firms can align their brand messages with relevant identity-related discrepancies. Originality/value This research extends the symbolic self-completion compensatory consumption strategy to the word-of-mouth context, showing that consumers can achieve the same restorative effect as consumption by spreading word of mouth. This research also contributes to compensatory word-of-mouth literature by establishing the role of brand meaning.

Hello Brand, let’s take a selfie

PurposeIt has been suggested that brands and products often assume a role in selfies (Ham, 2014) where the expression of brands and products provokes consumer emotions that bring about greater engagement (Tsai and Men, 2013) and contributes to the interactivity with the brands. This study aims to understand how the selfie phenomenon could mobilize the interactivity between brands and target audiences, in a way that could be used as a marketing tool by companies.Design/methodology/approachA netnographic research methodology was used for the current study because it is a method specifically designed to study online communities (Kozinets, 2010). The experiences of brand selfie postings on Instagram were studied by analyzing users’ selfies to predict brand usage. A purposive sample of Instagram users was chosen, and from these, a total of 74 brand selfies were analyzed.FindingsThis study provided an understanding of consumer behavior and marketing practices in the social marketplace through a detailed exploration of the data using visual and textual analysis. The main finding of this study is that consumers both consume and produce brand meanings in digital platforms; hence, companies should view them not only as passive receivers of messages, but also potential generators and co-creators of brand messages.Research limitations/implicationsAn important limitation of this study is that it only examines a small number of cases, and conclusions can only be limited to the specific sample chosen. A future research endeavor could of course be carried out to include a larger sample audience for investigating the effect of brand selfies and the potential purchase decisions of peers following exposure. Theoretically, this study provided further insight into the selfie phenomenon and specifically as a marketing tool and not just a new social trend.Originality/valueThe growing trend in the selfie phenomenon along with social networking sites (hereinafter SNSs) have attracted the attention of both users and marketing experts in terms of consumer–brand relationship (Zhu and Chen, 2015). In line with this current trend, many studies have attempted to understand the influential impact of the selfie phenomenon through SNSs. Studies on the motivation of selfie postings (Pounders et al., 2016) and selfie-posting behavior on SNSs (Kim et al., 2016) have been carried out; however, how brand selfies posted on SNSs appeal to non-users and how they interact with them remain unclear. Consequently, the intention of the current study is to provide some insight in this area.

Branding in a Hyperconnected World: Refocusing Theories and Rethinking Boundaries

Technological advances have resulted in a hyperconnected world, requiring a reassessment of branding research from the perspectives of firms, consumers, and society. Brands are shifting away from single ownership to shared ownership, as heightened access to information and people is allowing more stakeholders to cocreate brand meanings and experiences alongside traditional brand owners and managers. Moreover, hyperconnectivity has allowed existing brands to expand their geographic reach and societal roles, while new types of branded entities (ideas, people, places, and organizational brands) are further stretching the branding space. To help establish a new branding paradigm that accounts for these changes, the authors address the following questions: (1) What are the roles and functions of brands?, (2) How is brand value (co)created?, and (3) How should brands be managed? Throughout the article, the authors also identify future research issues that require scholarly attention, with the aim of aligning branding theory and practice with the realities of a hyperconnected world.

From Play to Political Action: Prosumerism on Fanvideo Meme Production

Fans are singular productive consumers. One of their typical practices is the production of fanvideos. An increasingly common trend in fanvideos is the creation of memes, a phenomenon of the modern internet related to ironic humor. This study aimed to analyze how fans, based on media texts, related to successful popular culture franchises. For this purpose, we performed an interpretive content analysis of fanvideos based on popular culture franchises posted on YouTube. Results demonstrate that meme fanvideos are made for play with and through the franchises, play dirty tricks, and criticize the politics. It happens by a variety of types of performances and techniques that dialogue both with the fictional universes and with different spheres of social life, often revealing an attitude of social criticism. Nevertheless, this interface makes room for a reproduction of prejudiced practices that target stigmatized identities. This process illustrates the intensive use of information and communication technologies and the ubiquity of the media, as well as the political tensions increasingly present in ordinary social life. These outcomes show how productive consumer behavior collapses with other social spheres when the meaning of products and brands is appropriated and re-signified through skilled creative consumer practices.

Do Social Capital Affect In-Role and Extra-Role Consumer Behavior in Pakistan: The Mediatory Role of Consumer-Company Identification and Brand Image

Consumers are no longer merely passive recipients of brand-related information, but rather, act as dynamic participants and co-creators of value, and of brand meaning. Hence the success of a brand is linked in its social capital making social capital and consumer behavior mutually reinforcing. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of social capital on consumer attitudinal evaluations. We propose a theoretical framework thereby applying Sun & Lii (2018) mediation framework because of social capital. We hypothesized that social capital would enhance the brand image as well as consumer-company identification, these would in turn make favorable in-role and extra-role consumer Behavior towards the brand. Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. Data was collected from 425 respondents mainly students from Karachi and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. The results showed that social capital had a positive and significant relationship with consumer Extra role behavior, as well as with two mediators i.e. brand image and consumer company identification. Moreover, both mediators also have a significant impact on both in-role and extra-role behavior. However, the direct effect of social capital on in-role behavior is not substantiated. This research would help companies in gaining a competitive edge by giving a little more focus on social capital in order to enhance the image of their brands as well as their relationship with their customers.

Consumer response to service brand physical elements: Using a semantic priming task to explore implicit understanding of service brand meaning

Consumers' responses to design features involve both conscious and non-conscious information processing. The current research therefore argues that a combination of explicit and implicit measures should be used to assess consumer understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements. However, most methods traditionally used to evaluate design meaning are explicit methods, based on conscious cognitive processes. The current research addresses this gap by documenting how understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements can be tapped by an implicit measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate the extent to which a greater ability to decode meaning conveyed by design features results in differences in implicit understanding of service brand meaning. This research uses a Semantic Priming Task to assess associative strength between brand meaning and a service brand's physical elements. Results (N = 157) show that command of the design language, captured by design acumen and involvement in the product category, results in greater ability to implicitly understand brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements, and moderates the implicit-explicit relationship. Results suggest that combining implicit and explicit measures may help practitioners in charge of creating brand's physical elements, especially when associations between design types and brand impressions are not constant across product categories.

Esports extension of a football brand: stakeholder co-creation in action?

ABSTRACTResearch question: There is no published research on how the launch of an esports section can influence the meaning of a sport brand. This research aims at finding out if and how the participation in sport simulation esports games influences the meaning of a football brand and if and how stakeholders co-construct this meaning in interaction.Research methods: Based on the theoretical concept of brands as complex and dynamic social phenomena, the research analyses the online discourse of fans and professional players of AS Monaco football and esports over two years during and after the launch of the club´s new sport simulation esports games section. Semi-structured interviews with football fans and the AS Monaco Head of Digital serve the purpose of triangulation to assure the proper interpretation of the discourse.Results: Football fans ignore or do not consider the launch of sport simulation esports games worth discussing. Esports fans are not concerned with football. The two communities evolve apart from each other. The lack of fit between the fanś associations with the sport brand and the brand extension does not diminish fan-based brand equity. The meaning of the brand to the football fans does not change. Two sub-versions of the AS Monaco brand with a very similar core meaning tend to develop.Implications: The concept of brands as complex dynamic social phenomena might need adaptation when applied to the field of football brands. If management aims to extend the brand via the launch of sport simulation esports games, management should organise events that link the traditional sport and esports in a way to make both fan communities experience the core meaning of the brand.

Problematizing the presentation and reception of political brands

PurposeThere are explicit calls for research devoted to how political actors present their brand to the electorate and how this is interpreted. Responding to this, the purpose of this paper is to build an understanding of how political brand messages and values are received and aligned with voter expectations, which in turn shapes the consistency of a political brand.Design/methodology/approachUsing an interpretivist perspective, this two-stage approach first focuses on semi-structured interviews with internal stakeholders of the UK Conservative Party and second uses focus group discussions with external stakeholders (voters) of age 18-24 years. Data was collected between 1 December 2014 and 6 May 2015.FindingsThe findings suggest that the UK Conservative brand had recovered from the “nasty party” reputation. Further, the Conservative brand was perceived as credible, trustworthy and responsible, with positive associations of “economic competence”. However, while the nasty party imagery has declined, the UK Conservative brand continues to face challenges particularly in terms of longstanding negative associations perceived by both internal and external markets.Research limitations/implicationsIt must be acknowledged that all research methods have their own limitations, and acknowledging these will strengthen the ability to draw conclusions. In this study, for example, due to time constraints during the election campaign period, 7 participants supported stage one of the study and 25 participants supported stage two of the study. However, participants from stage one of the study represented all three elements of the UK Conservative Party (Parliamentary, Professional and Voluntary). In addition, the elite interviews were longer in duration and this provided a greater opportunity to capture detailed stories of their life experiences and how this affected their brand relationship. Similarly, participants for stage two focussed on young voters of age 18-24 years, a segment actively targeted by the UK Conservative Party.Practical implicationsThe brand alignment framework can help practitioners illuminate components of the political brand and how it is interpreted by the electorate. The increasing polarisation in politics has made this a vital area for study, as we see need to understand if, how or why citizens are persuaded by a more polarised brand message. There are also social media issues for the political brand which can distort the carefully constructed brand. There are opportunities to evaluate and operationalize this framework in other political contexts.Originality/valueThe brand alignment model extends current branding theory first by building on an understanding of the complexities of creating brand meaning, second, by operationalizing differences between the brand and how it is interpreted by the electorate, finally, by identifying if internal divisions within the political party pose a threat to the consistency of the brand.

How globalization affects consumers: Insights from 30 years of CCT globalization research

Understanding how globalization affects consumers is a key concern of international marketing research. Consumer culture theory (CCT) studies contribute to this stream of research by critically examining how globalization affects consumers under different cultural conditions. We offer a systematic narrative synthesis of 30 years of CCT globalization research to gain perspective on this important stream of research. We identify three theoretical perspectives – that is, homogenization, glocalization and deterritorialization – that have shaped the ways in which CCT scholars have approached globalization phenomena. We discuss each perspective with regard to its underlying notion of culture, its assumptions of power relations between countries and the role that it ascribes to individuals in globalization processes. We problematize these perspectives and show how CCT research has challenged and extended each perspective, focusing specifically on consumer empowerment, consumer identity and the symbolic meaning of global brands as substantial domains. Lastly, we discuss avenues for future consumer cultural globalization research.

Corporate brand identity co-creation in business-to-business contexts

Traditionally, corporate brand identity was considered to be directed and controlled by managers. However, more recent research has begun to recognize the limits of this view, which has led to the emergence of a stakeholder-driven, dynamic perspective, in which multiple stakeholders co-create diverse corporate brand meanings. This perspective argues that while managers have influence over the essence of the corporate brand, other stakeholders imprint and share their own interpretations. To better understand the process of corporate brand identity co-creation, we used a case study method with multiple cases, involving five small and medium sized business-to-business (B2B) corporate brands. We specifically chose B2B corporate brands, because they are often built on long-term and close relationships with diverse stakeholders, serving as a solid ground for illustrating the process of co-creation. To obtain the necessary depth of insight, we conducted 37 semi-structured interviews. Our research shows that corporate brand identity co-creation in B2B contexts is an ongoing dynamic process where multiple internal and external stakeholders engage in four different but interrelated performances: communicating; internalizing; contesting; and elucidating.

Crafting Extraordinary Stories: Decoding Luxury Brand Communications

Advertising is central to creating brand meaning by endowing brands with symbolic values and embedding them within their broader sociocultural context. This study analyzes how the symbolic meaning of luxury brands is constructed in print advertisements. In particular, the study shows how brand communications of luxury brands systematically differ from those of premium and mass-market brands. Through a comparative analysis of thematic and formal characteristics of 208 print advertising campaigns consisting of about 1,700 individual ads from the primary advertising campaigns of four luxury brands, four premium brands, and four mass-market brands, this study identifies three distinguishing factors of luxury brand communication: enrichment, distancing, and abstraction. First, luxury brand advertising enriches the communication content by using more complex campaign templates that make more frequent use of symbolism, rhetorical structures, and storytelling. Second, luxury brand advertising systematically uses distancing techniques, such as temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical distancing. Third, luxury brand ads use higher-level discourses that allow for different interpretations of brand advertisements. Therefore, this study provides insights into the construction of brand identity in the luxury field, as well as the broader sociocultural construction of luxury and the evolution of its core symbolic constituencies.

Package graphic design and communication across cultures: An investigation of Chinese consumers' interpretation of imported wine labels

Package graphic design is a powerful tool for brand communication. Yet, an important question is how the designs are understood across cultures. A considerable amount of research has focused on cross-cultural marketing communications, prompting discussions on the emergence of global consumer cultures, which make package standardization possible or, conversely, the awareness of cultural differences, which has suggested that package localization is necessary. No research, however, has considered this question from a design-centered perspective and examined whether some package graphic designs are more likely than others to remain intelligible across cultures. This research proposes that packages using motivated signs in their graphic designs are more likely to be intelligible across cultures than packages using arbitrary signs. To explore this proposition, eight imported wine labels were analyzed through a semiotic study (study 1). Then, two studies investigated the interpretations of the wine labels by Chinese consumers. The results indicate that the labels that were classified as “motivated” succeeded in conveying the desired brand meanings to the Chinese respondents (study 2: N = 1391) even when they were not familiar with the wine brand culture (study 3: N = 795). The research presents a theoretical contribution by introducing the concept of sign motivation to the marketing literature and nuancing the classic assumption that visual signs convey different meanings across cultures. It also presents a managerial contribution by presenting a conceptual framework and methodology for the analysis of whether or not a graphic design is likely to be intelligible across cultures. It therefore provides guidelines for the design of packages for international markets.

Creating Brand Meaning: A Review and Research Agenda

In this paper I review, from the perspective of experimental research, studies that have examined how brands acquire cultural meaning, and suggest future research directions. McCracken's (Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 1986 and 71) model of the meaning transfer process gained influence about thirty years ago, but experimental studies of the processes it posited have been limited in their scope. The review is organized around three questions. First, what should be the dependent variables: the types of meanings that can adhere to brands? Second, what have we learned from studies on the types of visual, sensory, and human cues that are the sources of particular types of brand meaning—our independent variables? Third, what do we know, and need to know, about the inferential and other processes through which consumers “take possession” of these brand meanings from these cues? The review concludes with a research agenda.

How Brands Acquire Cultural Meaning

This article endeavors to advance research on the cultural resonance of brands by building bridges between branding scholarship in the consumer psychology tradition and interpretive research regarding brands and their meaning makers. We adopt a cognitivist conceptualization of cultural meaning and focus on the application of interpretive insights to well‐established constructs in the consumer psychology of brands: brand associations, product category associations, social identity, and self‐identity. This integrative exercise highlights the value of cultural models in explaining the processes whereby brands acquire meaning, and suggests several themes that are under‐valued when considering this process problem through a psychological lens: the motivational underpinnings of myths and other cultural meaning models, the relative value of shared cultural and brand meanings versus idiosyncratic meanings, the power and primacy of category‐level meaning making over brand‐level meaning making, the complex processes whereby brands gain and lose legitimacy, and the influence of lay theories about brands and branding on how consumers co‐create meaning for brands.

The Casual Chain of Relationship Among the Antecedents of Brand Equity in Pakistan's Higher Education Sector

The stud aims at investigating brand equity along with its relevant determinants specifically thestudents' preferences as proposed in earlier literature then institutes of higher studies will be not onlyattract a mass number of students' but be able to serve the society in a far better manner. In addition,the objective of this study is also to examine the causal chain of a relationship among the antecedentsof brand equity like students preferences, brand meaning, students' satisfaction, trust, andcommitment with the mediating role of attachment strength in the higher education sector ofPakistan. A survey questionnaire was used for the collection of data from graduate level students ofPakistani Universities from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and GilgitBaltistan. A sample of 255 students was analyzed using SmartPLS3.2.7. The findings of the studyrevealed that there exists a causal chain of a relationship among the constructs of the conceptualmodel. Furthermore, attachment strength fully mediates between brand meaning and therelationship factors like Students' satisfaction, and trust while partially mediates amid brand imageon student commitment. This paper is an effort to provide ample guidelines to the policymakers inthe higher education sector. Keywords: Brand Meaning, Relationship Factors, Attachment Strength, Higher Education

Keeping it real with Bruce Springsteen

PurposeUnlike artists using sartorial flair and flamboyant identities to shock and engage audiences, Bruce Springsteen is relatable, stable, consistent and authentic. Based on qualitative interviews of Springsteen fans of various levels, it is suggested that brands can sustain success through such tactics as existential authenticity, transparency and charity. His fans co-opt his music and co-create their own stories, which are enabled through Springsteen's use of universal themes and vivid details. In terms of a branding paradigm, he adapts to the post-postmodern era, where brands allow individuals to define their own meaning.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a qualitative method in generating themes and relationships on the enduring success of Bruce Springsteen's brand. They interviewed 19 informants of various levels of fan support and various backgrounds and areas. They used grounded theory methodology, including open coding, triangulation and member checks, to develop themes and findings.FindingsIn general, it was found that narrative structure and cause-and-effect stories are at the heart of his enduring success. While his individual songs, stage performances and charitable works cover a variety of topics and interests, combined they map to the same universal story structure, thus giving his fans solid understanding of his brand. His underdog appeal and story of redemption are maintained through such tactics as vivid songwriting, activism and charitable acts despite his international success and fame.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretically, the authors add to the literature on celebrity branding, narratology and authenticity. Specifically, the authors build upon the notion of existential authenticity, connecting a brand to its various stakeholders beyond customers in a way that is holistically authentic. We also suggest that to sustain a brand for the long haul, it is necessary to be transparent and available to your community members. The story of your brand needs to resonate and be meaningful to the audience in a way that is believable, and more importantly true to the artist and product.Practical implicationsThe authors show how narrative structure and universal story themes create ways in which fans can identify. By not straying too far away from the inherent brand meaning, brands can achieve long-term success. Tactically, all ways to manage the brand must link to the main story, but authenticity and maintaining a macromarketing perspective are the keys to making the story believable and enduring. In Springsteen's case, according to our interviews, his music and the message of his well-scripted songs have always mapped well with his real-life persona, making a distinction between his staged persona and actual self visibly difficult to distinguish.Social implicationsPart of Bruce Springsteen's enduring success and strong brand are built on his charitable works and activism. Brands that have this aspect will endure as well if motives are transparent, benign and believable. Springsteen has succeeded in this aspect because his charitable works often go unnoticed or unreported, which his fans respect when they discover these acts.Originality/valueTheoretically, the authors also add to the question (i.e. WH-question) literature in terms of connectedness and felt meaning. Springsteen's music connects specific discourse to universal stories/themes via his vivid songwriting, live performances, charitable acts and multiple other tactics. The data suggest that Springsteen's experiences are so vivid and thoughtful that little is needed for the audience to obtain aesthetic or felt meaning of his universal story themes. He allows direct access to the stories without internal interpretation, which then allows for instant penetration of felt meaning.