Harry Potter Fans Community and Value Creation Essay Example

essay has 3 objectives: (1) to gain a better understanding of Harry Potter Fans as a strong brand community; (2) to discover the process Harry Potter Fans create value; (3) to explore the link between value creation and brand community. An enhanced understanding of how Harry Potter Fans create brand value will aid an enhanced understanding of brand community. In addition, it will help marketers "build and nurture brand community and enhance collaborative value creation between and among consumers and firms" (Schau, Muniz, and Arnould, 2009).

The essay is organised as follows. Firstly, I will review literature on brand community and value creation. Then I study Harry Porter Fans to explore how it creates value for Harry Porter brand. Finally, I will discuss the managerial implications of brand community value creation.

Literature review

What is brand community?

Community is a critical construct in modernity. Then it develops into a social phenomenon that researchers call subculture of consumption. It is characterised by shared ethos of core values, hierarchy social structure and unique expression (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995). In their research of the group of Harley-Davidson riders, bikers represent their identities, ethos and status through consuming the brand products, including motorcycles, official clothing and accessories. Entering into postmodern era, brand community has become the core construct in marketing and consumption. It is slightly different from subculture of consumption, as brand community is "socially negotiated, rather than delivered unaltered and in toto from context to context, consumer to consumer" (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001).

The same authors define that "brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand." (1) Consciousness of kind;

members feel strong emotional attachment with each other, but differentiate themselves from others not in the community. It can be represented in 2 social processes: membership identification and oppositional brand loyalty. (2) Rituals and traditions; celebrating the history of the brand and sharing brand experiences both support to construct culture value of the brand. (3) Moral obligation; sharing sense of commitment can help to integrate and retain members and assist brand members using the brand properly.

Given the development of information technology, brand community goes beyond geographical boundaries (Shang et al., 2006) and establishes their own website to share thoughts. It allows consumers to develop virtual communities (Arora, 2009). It is not limited in time or space and allows communication revolving around a common interest (Kim et al, 2008). On the internet, community members take part in various activities and pose brand-related discussion topics, such as product/role preferences, recent developments and anecdotes etc. Through this collective intelligence, community members expand a community's knowledge because no individual fan can acknowledge fully brand information (Jenkins, 2003a). Indeed, brand-based online communication forms social networks (Kim et al, 2008), which extends the relationships between consumers and brand. And more importantly, it encourages a solid emotional connection among members.

What is value creation?

Value creation is an experience-based process that involves consumers to construct value (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). As highlighted by Lusch and Vargo (2006) "the customer is always a value co-creator". It is a consumer-centred concept which focuses on conceptualizing collaborative imagination and creativity. Previous studies concentrate more on creating individual value as individual consumer plays a key role in constructing creation experience. It emphasises participation and involvement of individual consumer

instead of collective community power. For example, Holt's (1995) research on value gaining through taking part in sporting activities is only limited on individual consumer. Recent researchers have shifted attention to the collaborative force because of their immense influence on shaping brand value. Schau, Muniz, and Arnould (2009) examined 9 brand communities to study collective value creation through involving and engaging in practices.

How brand community create value?

Value creation is accomplished through behaviours, including practical activities, performances and representations (Duguid, 2005; Wade, 2005; Muniz, and Arnould, 2009). Bonnemaizon and Batat (2010) also argue that value creation emerges when using, consuming or experiencing and is so called "value-in-use". Schatzki (1996) states that practices are linked with community and self-identity. Clearly, members express shared values and identify competencies to differentiate themselves from others who are outside the community.

Schau, Muniz, and Arnould (2009) study the process of value creation (Figure 1) in brand communities. (1) Social networking--- sustaining emotional connection within community members through 3 main ways, including welcoming, empathizing, and governing. (2) Impression management--- consisting of evangelizing and justifying for promoting great impression of the brand. (3) Community engagement--- encouraging members to involve in the practices which include staking, milestoning, badging and documenting. (4)Brand use--- enhanced using of the brand. It consists of three interrelated parts: grooming, customizing and commoditizing.

Figure 1 The process of collective value creation in brand communities

Source: Schau, Muniz, and Arnould (2009)

Harry Potter community

It comes as no surprise to find that the Harry Potter fan community is "enormous, enthusiastic and evangelical" (Brown, 2007). It meets all the characteristics of "brand community"--- conscious of kind, rituals and traditions, and moral obligation (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001). In

terms of "conscious of kind", fans community try to "demonstrate members' true devotion to the brand" by voting for the "fan of the year".

Fan of the Year is represented by the best of the best, the craziest of the crazy, and the, well, Potter-est of the Potters. These fans were voted here by you, the MuggleNet readers!

(http://www.mugglenet.com/profiles/indexfoty.shtml)

Also members assert themselves being distinctive and special, differentiating them from other community. As can be seen from a great deal of debates on "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", Harry Potter fans defend the unique value of their brand and regard criticism as attacks on their identities and life style choice.

I've been in the Harry Potter fandom for a long time now and I'd do anything to defend it.

1. We actually have good characters that are well developed and that we can relate to.

2. Harry Potter teaches us about friends and family while Twilight teaches us about how important it is to have a boyfriend.

3. JKR can actually write well. Have you read Twilight? It's horrible. It's like bad written fanfiction.

(Posted on Yahoo Answers by Explodieren Padfoot in 2010)

Harry Potter brand community is host to a variety of rituals and traditions. Book launch party is the site of much general ritualized behaviour: crazy fans queuing up outside the book stores for hours, from wearing magical costumes, to taking sacred wands and brooms. There is no denying that internet based virtual community contribute to the great success of Harry Potter. Unlike other brand communities, there is no official website. A number of fan sites equipped with fruitful forums were launched across the world like Mugglenet, Harry Potter Fan Zone, HPANA etc.

Outstanding ones for creative and inventive touches would get "Fan Site Award" from J.K. Rowling. There are a wide range of activities within the sites, including "manifold role-playing games; any amount of fan art, including images aplenty of Draco Malfoy in bondage gear, to say nothing of video mash-ups, Potter podcasts, photo galleries, discussion groups , trivia quizzes interview archives" (Brown, 2007). Despite of the different shapes and forms, they indeed establish platforms for fans to share, discuss, entertain, and consume.

Harry Potter community create value

Brown and Patterson (2010) state that "If ever a brand was co created, it is Harry Potter." Countless millions of crazy hard-core consumers have contributed to the happy Harry experience. According to Lanier (2007) and Schau (2006), co creation is a process that consumers "extend, modify, and/or alter" the established product's uses or meaning. Harry Potter Fans community are co creators. They form and grow based on the share interest of the fiction figure. They reproduce, alter and extend the brand meaning and value through engaging in a wide range of practices like fan-fiction, fan art, role-playing games, wizard rock and a series of conventions. It follows Schau, Muniz, and Arnould's (2009) framework of collective value creation.

Social networking

Social networking which represents through on-line fan sites is the first stage of community value creation. It helps brand community to maintain and enhance 2 types of relationships. One emerges between the brand and the fans. And the other establishes among fans community members. The emotional association of Harry Potter and its fans and the connection between fans are strengthened by means of welcoming, empathizing and governing.