Mediating influences in intracommunity brand engagement: The performance of brand faces and brand heroes on the brand stage
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis explores the relationship that forms between brand communities and those faces and heroes that represent the brand organisation. Previous research has focused on the direct relationships that individuals form with celebrities in the form of imagined parasocial or pseudo-relationships. The marketing literature has focused on the influence those celebrities external to the organisation have in endorsing brands, considering endorser credibility, attractiveness and meanings. However, for brand communities, the brand faces and heroes are drawn from within the organisation and their importance lies in their contribution to the brand. In order to explore this mediated relationship, where the brand is the focus of worship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes, two ethnographic studies were conducted. The first study was on the Discworld community, which is a fantasy / comedy book series with a single brand hero: the author, Terry Pratchett. The second was the Brumbies rugby union team based in Canberra Australia, which has multiple brand faces and heroes in the players, coaches and managers. Data collection followed the ethnographic style of researcher embeddedness and data analysis followed the procedures outlined in grounded theory. To triangulate the results of the qualitative studies, quantitative surveys were also conducted in each community. The findings from these studies suggest three main thematic conclusions. The first is the confirmation of the brand as the mediator in the relationship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes. In this situation, a brand face is only considered heroic when they demonstrate their contribution to the brand and their willingness to uphold the same brand values that are important to the community. The second conclusion lies in the nature of brand hero authenticity, where consumers are active participants in the market system but seek brand value over commercial success. This is a constant tension bet…
abstract: This thesis explores the relationship that forms between brand communities and those faces and heroes that represent the brand organisation. Previous research has focused on the direct relationships that individuals form with celebrities in the form of imagined parasocial or pseudo-relationships. The marketing literature has focused on the influence those celebrities external to the organisation have in endorsing brands, considering endorser credibility, attractiveness and meanings. However, for brand communities, the brand faces and heroes are drawn from within the organisation and their importance lies in their contribution to the brand. In order to explore this mediated relationship, where the brand is the focus of worship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes, two ethnographic studies were conducted. The first study was on the Discworld community, which is a fantasy / comedy book series with a single brand hero: the author, Terry Pratchett. The second was the Brumbies rugby union team based in Canberra Australia, which has multiple brand faces and heroes in the players, coaches and managers. Data collection followed the ethnographic style of researcher embeddedness and data analysis followed the procedures outlined in grounded theory. To triangulate the results of the qualitative studies, quantitative surveys were also conducted in each community. The findings from these studies suggest three main thematic conclusions. The first is the confirmation of the brand as the mediator in the relationship between brand communities and brand faces / heroes. In this situation, a brand face is only considered heroic when they demonstrate their contribution to the brand and their willingness to uphold the same brand values that are important to the community. The second conclusion lies in the nature of brand hero authenticity, where consumers are active participants in the market system but seek brand value over commercial success. This is a constant tension bet…
author: Eagar, Toni Maree
language: en_AU
keywords: brand community, celebrity, heroic narratives, ethnography, netnography, structural equation modeling, consumer culture theory
date published: 2012
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:55:04Z
provider: Australian National University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian National University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/9740