Article: Consumer storytelling of brand archetypal enactments Journal: International Journal of Tourism Anthropology (IJTA) 2015 Vol.4 No.1 pp.67 - 88 Abstract: The study here probes the perspective that consumers use certain brands as actors that play roles in the consumers' lives and that help consumers as protagonists to enact roles that give them the feelings of achievement, well-being, and/or emotional excitement. The method enables the uncovering of archetypes as unconscious forces that drive consumers to specific actions implicitly and to a less extent, explicitly. The study employs two techniques: degrees-of-freedom analysis (DFA) to test whether or not consumer stories fit a given archetypal theme and visual narrative art (VNA) to confirm whether or not consumer's own stories enact a specific archetype and how such enactments are done. This study offers an alternative for survey auditing consumer-brand relationships; the study here describes and explains the importance of narratives in consumer behaviour and the use of archetypes as universal themes that aid understanding of brand-consumer relationships. The study describes DFA and VNA with two examples of the use of these analytics. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Consumer storytelling of brand archetypal enactments

Authors: Karlan M. Muniz; Arch G. Woodside; Suresh Sood

Addresses: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Rua Imaculada Conceição, 1155, Bloco Acadêmico – Sala 103B – 1º Andar, Prado Velho – Curitiba, PR,CEP: 80215-901, Brazil ' Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Department of Marketing, Fulton Hall 450, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3809, USA ' University of Technology, Sydney, City Campus, 15 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007, USA

Abstract: The study here probes the perspective that consumers use certain brands as actors that play roles in the consumers' lives and that help consumers as protagonists to enact roles that give them the feelings of achievement, well-being, and/or emotional excitement. The method enables the uncovering of archetypes as unconscious forces that drive consumers to specific actions implicitly and to a less extent, explicitly. The study employs two techniques: degrees-of-freedom analysis (DFA) to test whether or not consumer stories fit a given archetypal theme and visual narrative art (VNA) to confirm whether or not consumer's own stories enact a specific archetype and how such enactments are done. This study offers an alternative for survey auditing consumer-brand relationships; the study here describes and explains the importance of narratives in consumer behaviour and the use of archetypes as universal themes that aid understanding of brand-consumer relationships. The study describes DFA and VNA with two examples of the use of these analytics.

Keywords: consumer storytelling; brand archetypes; brand enactments; consumer-brand relationship; consumer narratives; degrees-of-freedom analysis; DFA; visual narrative art; VNA; consumer behaviour; achievement; well-being; emotional excitement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2015.067644

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2015 Vol.4 No.1, pp.67 - 88

Received: 31 Jan 2014
Accepted: 30 Aug 2014
Published online: 18 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article

Title: Consumer storytelling of brand archetypal enactments

Keep up-to-date