Tribal Marketing Research Articles

Introduction to the special section: Tribal marketing after Covid

This article introduces the special section, “Tribal Marketing After Covid: Consuming Together in an Age of Social Distance.” The authors trace the history of tribal marketing theory up until the present, ‘post-Covid' era, outlining each wave and some trajectories for future research.

GENDER AND MARKET: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL MARKET AND SHOPPING MALL

This investigation attempts to discover the factors liable for various purchasing conduct of customers of traditional market (tribal market and rural market) and shopping centre and how sexual orientation assumes a significant part in the buyers purchasing motives and decisions. This paper takes into account an assortment of factors that keep on affecting the purchasing motives and decisions with changing marketplaces and with respect to gender contrasts. It investigates how sexual orientation in different aspects are associated with market be it as a consumer or in workforce. The paper likewise examines, how even the items and brands are gendered. This study further investigates shopping propensities in different types of markets in India and endeavours to recognize and differentiate potential contrasts between genders utilizing various studies. The paper attempts to analyse various previous investigations regarding two unique sorts of market and tried to understand consuming behaviour of patrons on these two types of markets.

Development of Tribal Marketing and Application Possibilities in Postmodern Society

Development of Tribal Marketing and Application Possibilities in Postmodern Society

POSTMODERNISTINIS VARTOTOJIŠKUMAS KAIP GENTINĖS RINKODAROS FORMAVIMOSI PRIEŽASTIS IR VYSTYMOSI TIKSLAS

In contemporary society the new organizational forms take pace, which enable individuums to form some kind of common identities by reaching consumers communities. Consumerism is the main feature of such communities, which may be called as certain “tribes” with their values and they develop as capitalist system deepens and widens. Postmodernism creates such cultural environment, which forms “tribal marketing” phenomena as mobilizing different groups for the more developed, clearly defined and specific consumption. The authors in the article seek to reveal the impact of postmodernist consumerism to the formation of “tribal marketing” and the development of this phenomena vice/versa.

Sentiment analysis of virtual brand communities for effective tribal marketing

PurposeBy doing sentiment analysis of netnographic data, this study aims to explain the need to give special attention to negative sentiments expressed in virtual tribes, as they play a significant role in translating the informational mode of conversation to the relational mode of conversation. The overall purpose is to aid brand managers in the process of brand co-creation by articulating brand communication targeted to specific audiences based on their shared passions and interests.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a mixed-methods approach. The primary data were collected from two virtual brand communities through qualitative net-based ethnographic methods. Semantria Excel plug-in was used to categorize the extracted consumer statements based on positive, neutral and negative sentiments.FindingsManaging the negative interactions in the virtual communities and relationship development with members through non-commercial conversations should be the two main priorities for effective brand management. Sentiment analysis specifically helps to identify pain points and consumer sentiments at each stage of the shopper journey. The findings of the study endorse the importance of offering and supporting communities as a valid marketing.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper shows how systematic attention to user interactions on virtual brand communities can be used for tribal marketing, which in turn will impact the intangible aspects of the business, such as increasing brand value and loyalty. By engaging the consumers, the social ties among the target audience can be nurtured and strengthened.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on decoding their behavior by unpeeling the consumer statements rather than tangible aspects of the business, such as sales of products or services. It contributes to development of a theoretical framework that outlines how the interactions in virtual brand communities can aid in formulating the functional and communicational strategies for a brand.

Tribal Jurisdiction - A Historical Bargain

The existing rhetoric surrounding tribal civil jurisdiction over non-Indians often leaves out the historical foundations to that jurisdiction. This article compares the tribal economies of the 18th and 19th centuries with the current environment of gaming and economic development on tribal lands. Though non-Indians and nonmembers occasionally object to tribal jurisdiction, the long history of tribal governance and economic regulation demonstrates that nonmembers have received and continue to receive the benefit of a bargain that places them under considerable tribal regulation in exchange for access to tribal markets. Through a detailed survey of treaties, tribal statutes, and federal laws covering pre-1970’s tribal economic regulation, this article reveals that non-Indians have continually consented to tribal jurisdiction to access these tribal markets, making outliers of the non-Indians attempting to access tribal markets without consenting to tribal market regulations. Analyzing the laws surrounding the federal and tribal licensing of Indian traders; the Great Lakes fur trade; the marriage laws of the Five Civilized Tribes; and the procedures established for dealing with intruders on Indian lands in the 18th and 19th centuries demonstrates the vast historical underpinnings of the current efforts to retain civil jurisdiction over non-Indians.

THE PROBLEM OF RECONCILIATION OF NEW PUBLIC GOVERNANCE AND POSTMODERNISM: THE CONDITIONS OF RETURNING TO COMMUNITARIANISM

1. Introduction Each historic period is distinguished for a unique entirety of cultural ideas, values and forms of life, which inevitably appear in various layers of the society, public institutions, private sector organizations, and the structures of individuals' consciousness. The epoch of postmodernism is an opposition to modern values, realism, wholeness, synthesis, rationality, positivism, stability, consumption, relativism, universalism, clarity, identity and authority. Therefore, in the current Western cultural environment there is a lack of trust in meta-narratives, consumerism, relativism, simulacra universal uncertainty, the fragmentation of the society and erosion of authorities and identity (Lyotard 1984, Bauman 2007, Baudrillard 1998, Sorgner 2007). This environment is especially important during the transformation of public administration models, when the priorities of state governance are being changed, along with the functioning of the institutions, the decision taking processes and civil service systems. In the context of the formation of a normative, democratic discourse of new public governance, public sector institutions, as a mechanism for the implementation of public policy, both together face the needs and the provisions of the postmodern society, ambivalent forms of thinking and life, which could become a threat to the formation of new public governance principles and their practical implementation. On the other hand, it is essential to note that one can notice the trends of reintegration and restructurization of traditional ideologies in postmodernism. In a consumerist, fragmented society, with the predominating sense of universal uncertainty, individualism and competition (each person's fight against everybody else and together against all), one should emphasize the return of communitarianism as ideology. This can be confirmed by the theory of tribal (communal) marketing that became popular in the private sector, which is oriented towards the creation of a consumerist society. Taking into consideration the fact that the process of modernization of public sector is an integral part of integrating good practice of the private sector into state governance, in this case the aim is to show that communitarianism could conform to the current postmodern environment, the needs of contemporary society and to be also integrated into the system of public administration, as a value of new public governance that is being formed (this would be a priority component both in terms of political will and finances). This would provide new opportunities in public governance how to constructively use, or at least to neutralize negative influences of postmodernism. Beside this, new public governance also encourages cooperation, co-participation and social justice, which are first of all characteristic of successfully functioning communities. New public governance is a model of new, contemporary capitalism type governance, which is more focused on the creation of favorable conditions for the formation of natural needs of the society and for new organizational forms to develop from 'above'. In this case, central government becomes merely an advisory, not an imperative body of governance, but the same kind of participatory element as the community. A special role is given to the level of territorial self-government, which per se is 'closer to people' than central government. Cooperation of municipalities and communities must solve a number of issues related to technical interoperability, and especially of commonplace nature, and also in extreme cases. The article is trying to prove the relevance of a new value-related normative model and to substantiate the status of a community as a value of this model in the postmodern cultural environment by referring to acknowledged Western authors, such as Lyotard, Baudrillard, Bauman, Parker (philosophical, sociological discourse); Lane, Pollitt and Bouckaert, Hood and Peters, Denhardt and Denhardt, Osborne, Samier, (problems of modernization of public governance); Etzioni, Fox and Miller, Cova and Cova, Mitchell and Imrie (communitarianism and tribal marketing). …

Tribal marketing, tribal branding. An expert guide to the brand co-creation process

Brendan Richardson. Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2013

CCT applied research and the limits of consumers’ heroicisation

The sum total of the research produced by Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) researchers has enabled a spectacular improvement in our understanding of markets and consumption. Yet, this knowledge has struggled to penetrate the business world due to a dearth of practical proposals appealing to managers looking for action-guiding toolkits. Based on a relatively small corpus of CCT-related articles published in the main applied journals with academic values, the present article traces the contours of CCT managerial knowledge revolving around the concept of cultural branding and composed of four main approaches: relationship marketing, retromarketing, tribal marketing and collaborative marketing. The article also synthesises the contributions that CCT researchers propose for each of these approaches and discusses the limits of the heroicisation of the consumers. The conclusion looks at potential research paths for the dissemination of CCT applied kind of knowledge.

Experiential marketing in sport spectatorship services: a customer perspective

Research question: Services play a growing role in modern sport industries. Relatively little is known about the impact of experiential marketing strategy on consumer behaviour and within the context of sporting events industry in particular. The study seeks to start addressing this gap in knowledge and to better examine the subjectively based aspects of extra-ordinary experiences, which define experiential marketing, in sporting events lived by consumers, and their impact in terms of consumer behaviour and experiential and branding strategies.Research methods: A series of in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Stade de Français' spectators who witnessed what is considered as extra-ordinary experiences. The 26 interviewees were aged between 18 and 56 years old (M age = 24.7), and were comprised of 18 males and 8 females.Results and findings: It was found that the pricing issue, which highlighted the presence of opportunistic behaviour, was probably as important as the experiential marketing strategy. Moreover, if experiential marketing influenced brand awareness and brand associations, those associations were not always perceive positively particularly from the most committed and connoisseur fans. Finally, this marketing strategy did not seem to have any conspicuous positive result in terms of brand loyalty.Implications: An explanation relying on the tribal marketing approach, which emphasises the link between consumers rather than between consumers and the brand, could be put forward estimating that the consumers attracted by the extraordinary experiences provided are more interested in the link with the other consumers than the brand and the service offered.

Mediterranean marketing and southern thinking: retrospects and prospects

Today, the Mediterranean is an area where several consumption and marketing practices can be observed and analysed from a different point of view. Moreover, Mediterranean researchers think that the application of a Southern thinking—also known as Meridian thinking—can inject a truly differentiated innovation into the field of marketing and revitalise consumer research. This special edition includes papers covering a wide range of topics related to consumer behaviour in a Mediterranean context and/or through a Mediterranean thinking perspective. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. FROM MARKETING PANACEAS TO CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES The marketing midlife crisis of the 1980s has led to an explosion of the discipline into different panaceas (Brown, 1993). The emergence of numerous (apparently) new currents in marketing (Badot and Cova, 2008) is continuing and has its roots in postmodern thinking centred on fragmentation and pluralism as opposed to dominant and unambiguous positions. If relational marketing was originally proposed as a new dominant theory, which found its essential spirit in Q2 customer relationship management, this idea has been rapidly replaced with the appearance of new paradigms. One of these is experiential marketing, based on the idea of a reenchantment of consumption, in the conviction that consumption is also a question of emotions. Other cure-alls have also been proposed: sensorial marketing, tribal marketing and retro-marketing, to name but three. The list of new marketing gets longer everyday, depending on the prospects for analysis of the adopted market. Against the background of this proliferation of paradigms typical of postmodern thought, attention has been paid to the search for an innovative approach to marketing centred on the local dimension and tied to specific geographic and cultural contexts that go beyond the mainstream models. As an alternative, Stephen Brown suggests adopting a cultural perspective in order to understand better what happens in markets. As editor of two special issues on Celtic Marketing published in the Journal of Strategic Marketing in 2006 and 2007, Brown analyses the concept of the Celticity, seen as a phenomenon with a multiplicity of significances linked to various historical periods: ‘It is, variously, a pre-modern (Iron Age), modern (Machine Age) and post-modern (New Age) phenomenon. It is a phenomenon, furthermore, that is riven with conflict and internecine strife’ (Brown, 2006, p. 6). In his view, Celtic Marketing contrasts with the mainstream approach, including many aspects that the latter overlooks, and offering companies new means to understand and act in the market. In the wake of Brown’s work, other types of regional approaches to consumption and marketing have been investigated such as Islamic marketing (Sandicki and Jafari, 2013; Suerdem, 2013). At the beginning of the 2000 decade and in a different context, a group of researchers from France and Italy began to look for an alternative to the North-Americanmodel and to consider a Mediterranean view of marketing rooted in specific cultural and territorial values (Appendix A). In a similar vein as Celticity, Mediterraneity conveys contrasting meanings but overall provides researchers with a fresh perspective on consumption phenomena. Indeed, Mediterranean researchers think that the application of a Southern thinking—also known as Meridian thinking—can inject a truly differentiated innovation into the field of marketing (Cova, 2005). For that, this article starts by introducing the notion of Southern thinking. Then, it develops its possible impacts on consumer research and marketing, prior to introducing the seven texts composing this special issue.

Investigating the effects of organizational culture on brand promise

Article history: Received July 28, 2013 Accepted 10 March 2014 Available online March 11 2014 This paper studies the impacts of four components of organizational culture on brand promise in one of Iranian producer of detergent and sanitary products. The proposed study uses two questionnaires, one for measuring the effects of organizational culture and the other for brand promise in Likert scale. Cronbach alphas for organizational culture and brand promise are calculated as 0.83 and 0.91, respectively. The study has been implemented among 211 regular customers of producer of detergent and sanitary products. Using Spearman correlation ratio as well as stepwise regression analysis, the study has detected that three components of organizational culture including tribal culture, entrepreneurial culture, and market culture influence positively on brand promise and bureaucratic culture influences negatively on brand promise. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Postmodernizm ve Klan Pazarlaması: Dinsel Topluluklara Yönelik Bir Uygulama

The emergence of communities described as modern tribe in postmodern period has led to the occurrence of an alternative marketing approach – tribal marketing. The purpose of this study is to define the religious communities in Turkey in terms of modern tribe behaviors and to determine to what extent tribal marketing is applicable to the concerning communities. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to the community members selected by convenience sampling in Biga, Canakkale. The results of analysis indicate that the community has characteristics of modern tribe to some extent although most of the members are not aware of symbolic values. On the other hand, the hypotheses intended to test behavioral differences regarding the level of membership types, affiliation of members to the community and whether they have adaptive behavior to the community were confirmed to a great extent. Yet the results also indicate that the adaptive behavior of members to the community does not reflect on their buying attitudes.

Commercial Non-Timber Forest Products collected by Arid Region and Marketed by Pawata and Basani in Jodhpur Town of Jodhpur District, Rajasthan

The study documents the commercial Non-Timber Forest Products, collected by arid and semi-arid region and marketed by the tribals in Jodhpur town of Jodhpur District, Rajasthan. These tribals collecting a total of 32 products as commercial NTFPs which are sold in the open daily and highly in weekly tribal market by the tribal people. Buyers come from within and around the town. Women constitute over 60% of the traders in these markets.

Counter-brand and alter-brand communities: the impact of Web 2.0 on tribal marketing approaches

This paper deals with the phenomenon of tribal marketing, which is increasingly fuelled by the development of online groupings utilising Web 2.0 technologies. After having addressed the key concepts of brand community and co-creation of value, the paper analyses new trends in online community behaviour, taking an in-depth look at two specific cases through an ethnographic/netnographic approach: the Warhammer tabletop wargame community and the CouchSurfing travel and accommodation community. It appears that such communities may constitute a significant risk for companies who have thus far based their offering on a ‘market with’ approach. The case study clearly shows that groupings of consumers are capable of developing potentially dangerous opposition and/or competitive offerings with little or no assistance from companies. These online groupings generate alter brands and counter brands that present opportunities and threats for existing brand managers.

New Star and Blue Bio Negotiation: Merger and Acquisition Scenario

This merger and acquisition scenario explores negotiation through several lenses: preparation, negotiation as an art, valuation, tribal marketing and the freak factor. Preparation, especially with a best alternative to negotiated outcome is critical in setting the stage for negotiation. Negotiation as art presumes a need for practice and personal understanding of the situation. Valuations are never perfect, with each party having a bias. Tribal Marketing looks at the organizational dynamics and considers how firms can create support by letting stakeholders integrate themselves into the company. The Freak Factor assesses that a firm's strength is found in its weaknesses, success is found in magnifying strengths rather than balancing outs a weakness. The working paper uses fictional corporations to simulate and apply real situations. New Star Technologies is a venture capital backed biotechnology firm specializing in developing antigens for vaccines. The firm is loosing five million Euros a month, internally valued at 200 million Euros, and is developing a promising antigen for use in an AIDS Vaccine. New Star must become cash flow positive. Blue Bio is a publicly traded firm with a market capitalization of fifteen billion Euros; its research and development projects span many aspects of biotechnology. Blue Bio is expanding through acquisitions of smaller firms to develop research synergies and to build and international brand.Based on a student trail of this scenario, Piratical Suggestions include: Preparation is critical in negotiations; management should include diversity in negotiation planning. Valuations are never perfect; management should include brand valuation and consider the cost of cultural integration with the new firm. Tribes create value to the firm; management can promote the tribe by releasing control to stakeholders. Tribes are smart; management builds trust with the tribe by fostering open communication. Building on strengths maximizes value; management should recognize that weaknesses are keys to strengths.

Web 2.0: un'indagine sulle societÀ di calcio italiane

- This study carries out an analysis about tools and features that characterize the Web 2.0 approach and the related opportunities for companies. The study is focused on the Football field in Italy and it analyses companies' and consumer activities related to the Premier League and the Second Division. There are two main goals the analysis aims at: first, understanding actual trends and problems in adopting the Web 2.0 tools; secondly, the definition of eventual business developments both for the analysed sector and for close businesses. Keywords: Web 2.0, community, sport, tribal marketing, Internet

Tribalism: definition, identification and relevance to the marketing of professional sports franchises

This paper examines the literature relating to tribalism and considers its existence and its relevance to the marketing of sport. Tribal marketing is not a feature of the philosophy dominating today's sports marketing programmes. It is suggested, however, that more focus be placed on the interactions and relationships of groups of sports spectators as tribal members, and this paper presents factors that should be considered by the sports marketer to encourage and facilitate tribalism.

Commercial non-timber forest products collected by the Bhil tribe in Shivgarh town of Ratlam district, Madhya Pradesh

The study documents the commercial NTFPs, collected and marketed by the tribals in Shivgarh town of Ratlam District (M.P.). These tribals collecting a total of 33 products as commercial NTFPs which are sold in the open weekly tribal market by the tribal people. Buyers come from within and around the town. Women constitute over 90% of the traders in these markets.

Fashion and clothing: the construction and communication of gay identities

PurposeThis paper explores the importance of clothes for gay males as semiotic markers for identity creation and communication in order to highlight the increasing fragmentation of this market and the role of consumption practices as cultural markers.Design/methodology/approachThe study is grounded in qualitative data from participant observation, diaries interviews and a focus group of Manchester‐based respondents; findings are linked back to literature on postmodernism, image and identity.FindingsFindings point to communication of individual identity through clothes; firstly, on a community level, as a marker of “gayness”; secondly, on a neo‐tribal level, indicating tribal allegiance and aiding inter‐tribal communication; thirdly, on a situational level, where clothing facilitates acceptance and integration. The proactive use of clothing as a semiotic marker enables the fluid construction and linking of multiple identities. Findings indicate the existence of quite specific codes with (gay) culturally embedded meanings which gay men can choose to identify with and make use of, or not, in different situations. Thus fashion is an important means of differentiation and communication of personal and group identities and affiliations.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an in‐depth study of a small sample of subjects located in Manchester only. Despite satisfactory respondent and ecological validity it would therefore be desirable to extend the study to a larger sample size and replicate it in other settings before making wider generalisations.Practical implicationsImplications for marketers include the need to move away from treating this market as homogeneous as well as opportunities for “tribal marketing”.Originality/valueThrough its in‐depth qualitative approach the paper represents a rich picture of the UK gay fashion market which has a good degree of respondent validity and useful insights for marketers.