I create, you create, we all create – for whom?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-01-2016-1078 |
| Date | 20 March 2017 |
| Pages | 68-79 |
| Published date | 20 March 2017 |
| Author | Eric Kennedy |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
I create, you create, we all
create – for whom?
Eric Kennedy
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This research aims to propose that prompted co-creation from a brand to a consumer will increase the value of the consumer to the brand
through an increase in brand commitment and purchase intention. Additionally, the study compares the differences of a social media post made
by a brand and a social media post made by a celebrity who is endorsing the brand.
Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were developed. First, a 2 ⫻2 between-subjects’ experimental design analyzes the effects of
prompted and non-prompted co-creation posts by a fictitious brand and celebrity. Study 2 looks to confirm the results of Study 1 using a 2 ⫻2
between-subjects’ experimental design with a real brand and celebrity for the social media post. Co-creation, brand commitment and purchase
intention are the dependent variables in both studies.
Findings – The studies reveal that a prompted co-creation post – which is a post explicitly asking for consumer feedback – from a brand can
increase brand commitment and purchase intention from consumers. Also, the study reveals that, when compared to a celebrity-endorsed message,
a branded message shows an increase in brand commitment and purchase intention. The results support the general notion of attribution theory.
Research limitations/implications – First, the study focused exclusively on millennial consumers. While this group has significant purchasing
power, testing the effects of co-creation messages on a more generalizable sample is warranted. Next, the survey takes place in an online social
media setting. With the power of social media and e-commerce, this channel is certainly important to study.
Practical implications – The results of this study bring the co-creation literature into a new area of research. Extending attachment theory and
attribution theory into co-creation creates numerous opportunities to further grow the knowledge of the co-creation phenomena. The findings
provide insight into the power that a prompted co-creation message can have on a consumer, either from a brand or celebrity endorser source.
Practitioners can place a value on prompted and non-prompted co-creation messages originating with a brand. In addition, the research will give
practitioners insight into how messages of co-creation are received by millennial consumers.
Originality/value – This research is the first of its kind for co-creation literature. No research to date examines the effect that a brand or
celebrity-endorsed co-creation prompt has on the behavior of millennial consumers. Very little, if any, empirical research has been conducted on the
co-creation of brand.
Keywords Brand engagement, Social media, Online marketing, Brand co-creation, Celebrity endorsement
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In today’s technologically advanced marketplace, consumers
are gaining power with their ability to shape a brand. This
consumer power results in the phenomena of co-creation.
Co-creation is the process where more than one party
systematically joins forces to interact, learn and share
information to create value (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004;
Vargo and Lusch, 2004).
For more than a decade, the subject of co-creation has
fascinated scholars and practitioners alike (Prahalad and
Ramaswamy, 2004;Vargo and Lusch, 2004;Payne et al.,
2009;Hatch and Schultz, 2010;Helm and Jones, 2010;
Christodoulides et al., 2012;Gylling et al., 2012;Iglesias and
Bonet, 2012;Gebauer et al., 2013;Gronroos and Voima,
2013;Gyrd-Jones and Kornum, 2013;Iglesias et al., 2013;
Ind et al., 2013;Vallaster and von Wallpach, 2013;Yi and
Gong, 2013;Flores and Vasquez-Parraga, 2015;Greer, 2015,
Alves et al., 2016). In today’s complex marketplace with
virtual communication and online social interactions among
millennial consumers (Duggan et al., 2014), various options
for dynamic co-creation to occur exist (Vallaster and von
Wallpach, 2013). This avenue for communication has
transformed consumers from being a non-prompted
participant to being a group of active creators and influencers
(Hutter et al., 2013;Kozinets et al., 2008;Merz et al., 2009).
The goal then of marketers should be to engage consumers,
through virtual and social interactions, to become active with
the brand. Creating this engaged based of consumers is
already a key marketing objective for many firms (Dessart
et al., 2015;Dessart et al., 2016).
Segmenting the marketplace to engage the correct set of
consumers is crucial. Specifically, within the usage of social
media, the millennial generation has the largest percentage of
users. Millennials now represent more than one quarter of the
US population at 83.1 million people born between 1982 and
2000 (US Census Bureau, 2015).
Millennial consumers are the market leader for social
technology, with 90 per cent of the group using social media
(Duggan et al., 2014). It appears, however, that firms in the
USA do not take advantage of this social media use, with only
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
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Journal of Product & Brand Management
26/1 (2017) 68–79
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-01-2016-1078]
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