TAILIEUCHUNG - E-Tribalized Marketing?: The Strategic Implications of Virtual Communities of Consumption

E-tribes or virtual communities: whatever one chooses to call them, at least one thing seems assured. With 51 per cent of Internet users using the Web daily, and exponential global growth rates for new users, prodigious growth in the quantity, interests, and influence of virtual communities is guaranteed. Unlikely to replace physical encounters, or information from traditional media, online interactions are becoming an important supplement to social and consumption behavior. Consumers are adding online information gathering and social activities into an extended repertoire that also includes their face-toface interactions. Online interactions and alignments increasingly affect their behavior as citizens, as community members and as consumers. The prospect of advancing marketing thought and practice may come from. | Pergamon European Management Journal Vol. 17 No. 3 pp. 252-264 1999 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved _ _ Printed in Great Britain PII S0263-2373 99 00004-3 0263-2373 99 1 E-Tribalized Marketing The Strategic Implications of Virtual Communities of Consumption ROBERT V. KOZINETS . Kellogg Graduate School of Management Northwestern University Illinois On the Internet electronic tribes structured around consumer interests have been growing rapidly. To be effective in this new environment managers must consider the strategic implications of the existence of different types of both virtual community and community participation. Contrasted with database-driven relationship marketing marketers seeking success with consumers in virtual communities should consider that they 1 are more active and discerning 2 are less accessible to one-on-one processes and 3 provide a wealth of valuable cultural information. Strategies for effectively targeting more desirable types of virtual communities and types of community members include interaction-based segmentation fragmentation-based seg- the advent of cyberspace .y mentation opting communities paying-for-atten-tion and building networks by giving product away. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Introduction More than three decades ago Marshall McLuhan expounded that cool and inclusive electric media would retribalize human society into clusters of affiliation see . McLuhan 1970 . With 252 European Management Journal Vol 17 No 3 June 1999 E-TRIBALIZED MARKETING THE STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF CONSUMPTION networked computers and the proliferation of computer-mediated communications McLuhan s predictions seem to be coming true. Not only are people retribalizing they are e-tribalizing. Networked computers and the communications they enable are driving enormous social changes. Networked computers empower people around the world as never before to disregard the

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