SOCI 342 Chapter n/a: Consumer Based Communities
Document Summary
Albert m. muniz, jr. and thomas c. o"guinn, brand community, . A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand. exhibit three traditional markers of community: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility. Not incidentally, branded products were ubiquitous and pri- mary symbols of this purported seismic shift in human con- sciousness and the resultant (alleged) loss of community. The first and most important element of community is what gusfield (1978) refers to as consciousness of kind. Consciousness of kind is the intrinsic connection that members feel toward one another, and the collective sense of difference from others not in the community. Shared consciousness, thinking that is more than shared attitudes, shared knowing of belonging. Second is presence of shared rituals and traditions.
