Brand Community and Ethical Branding in the of Apple - Case Study Example

Brand Community and Ethical Branding in the case of Apple Word count Introduction Storch (2008: 7) defines the brand as a distinctive picture of a product or service which an organisation positions in the minds of consumers and other target audiences. The main aspect that makes a brand recognised as ‘a brand’ is presenting its constantly recurring features within the appearance, rather than the identical duplication of a logo. The brand creates imaginations, associations, pictures, and commitments. The brand holds the answer to the aspirations of consumer for an ideal product and creates a solid trust in a world full of similar products and services. A brand is the link between customers and products of the brand because it mediates particular moral concepts that embrace emotional, functional, and self-affirmation benefits. According to Schneiders (2011: 14), a brand is something that lives in consumer’s head. It is a promise linking a product or service to consumers by use of words, emotions and images. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001: 412) describe brand communities as “specialised, non-geographical bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand.” They further state that brand communities are stable constructs established around brands with solid image, challenging competition and long history. Brand communities are further described as forms of postmodern tribes that act as links between consumers and brands. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) observed that brand communities have three characteristics. First, the consciousness of kind emphasises social bonds between members and a feeling of connection to the community. Second, shared rituals and traditions are said to reinforce brand meaning and strengthen community ties. Third, moral responsibility makes members develop a feeling of obligation towards the community. Fan (2005, p. 3) states that ethical branding is a subset of ethical marketing. There is strongly need to evaluate a brand on the basis of moral criteria. Moreover, ethical brand should satisfy both consumers as well as stakeholders including employees. 2. Problematisation Different theories of co-creation and consumer integration fail to fully integrate the dynamics of brand communities. Most of these theories appear inconsistent in explaining this issue. People are socially connected and they value their social identities. These factors have largely influenced people’s choices for brands. Hackley (2005) and Hokkanen (2014) observe that consumer researchers have neglected the issue of brand communities as an important area of study. Research has not placed special emphasis on brand communities. One may conclude that researchers do not place a significant value in this study. In order to understand the fundamentals of brand community, it is important to study about the characteristics of one brand community that distinguishes it from another brand community. A brand may have different meaning to different people. Therefore, extensive study should be conducted to establish how communities are it is important to search for deeper understanding of how brands are shaped, influenced and maintained in the consumers’ minds (Hokkanen, 2014: 4). According to Auty and Elliott (1998), advertisers and marketers should “understand the behaviour of different brand communities in response to a particular set of symbols” (p. 115). Through such an understanding, advertisers and marketers can greatly control the decoding of brand image. An extensive research in brand communities is needed. This essay uses two theories that provide a better understandingof discussing issues related to brand love and corporate social responsibility. In more detail, this paper will use Apple brand as its case study. Apple has been selected as a case study because it is one of the most loved brands by consumers. At the same time, Apple does not practice ethical branding because there has been complains of mistreatment of employees, low remuneration, poor working conditions in the factories where brands are manufactured. 3. Literature Review and Critique Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) conceptualised and investigated the brand communities. Their study established that there are dedicated forms of interpretive societies that focus on specific brands such as the Apple brand community. However, it is possible that the brand communities that were studied constituted undetected, multiple brand communities. Their findings established various characteristics of brand communities in relation to ritual and traditions, and moral obligations. The study further found out that storytelling among the brand community serves as the key social and cultural process of meaning movement (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001). Another study found out that brand communities own powerful cultures that may trigger religious experiences, which can explain by fandom (Muniz and Schau 2005: 738). In the study of self-acknowledged ethical consumers, Papaoikonomov (2013) confirmed that the act of consuming ethically is not limited only to the act of shopping. Rather, it is also a way of living that affects decisions that are beyond the consumer market. Today, branding goes beyond adding value to the product; it represents and promotes lifestyles and brands themselves to an extent where branding becomes a kind of culture (Fan, 2005). Most companies are replacing the unique selling proposition (USP) by the emotional selling proposition (Fan 2005: 4). The latter tool provides companies with the ability to manipulate the emotions of its customers for the purpose of brand differentiation. A company can manipulate the emotions of its customers through branding. In Tornetta et al. (2011) study, corporations used the psychology of colour to manipulate the emotions of their customers. They believe human beings associate colours with meanings. Members of a specific community adapt products using colours to represent their community. In Korea, for example, black colour represents luxury and high quality. The element of colour is linked to identity, be personal, local, or national. Overall, colour affects the perception of consumers and plays an active role in their daily lives. In the book of Business Ethics for Dummies, Bowie and Schneider (2011) critique some advertising and branding behaviours that are displayed by companies. Consumers become especially vulnerable to created problems when it comes to technological products such as mobile phones and computers. Some companies make branding messages appeal to consumers’ fears and offer a product or service to assuage those fears. Consumers who express their love for brand are sometimes unaware of unethical behaviour that is practised in factories producing those brands (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001: 571). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is criticised as the one that involves cover-up and spin. In most case, CSR fails to address real issues, and instead serves to distract public attention away from corporate illness. According to “stakeholder theory”, a firm has multiple stakeholders, not onlyemployees, society, communities,butindeed environmentas well (Donaldson and Preston, 1995: 76). Employees are key stakeholder group whose interests should be taken in consideration when branding company’s products. The way an organisation treats its employees raises ethical concerns. However, there is a problem because currently organisations are ignoring the fact that branding should start with their employees. Most companies end up producing brands that are loved by consumers but ignore the plight of the agents of production such as employees Donaldson & Preston, 1995). Apple is one case in point. Another theory that is a useful reference in point is the Symbolic Convergence Theory (Littlejohn, 2002). This theory states that a human’s image of reality is guided by stories that reflect how things are believed to be. Both theorists belonged to the same symbolic interactionist school of social theory. Both theories hypothesize that a human being creates his meaning via sharing of experiences and interaction. Brand communities give consumers an opportunity to share common interests. The boundaries of brand communities are created symbolically in the minds of community members. 4. Case analysis – Apple Apple was founded in 1976 and co-founders were Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (Sutherland, 2012). Apple symbolises innovation in personal computing and digital media manufacturing. The company aims for a revolution in designing, developing, and distributing its variety of products. Apple’s products are varied and wide, also for people who are creative, cool and fashionable. Apple is enough evidence that brand success equals business success. The bottom line is that Apple has brand communities that express their love for its brands. Moreover, Apple’s brand has its own strong identity over the years and successfully managed it. According to Balasubramanian and Ramakrishnan (2012: 42), the power of Apple’s brand keeps it alive, it differentiates, it fails, it resurrects, it imagines, and it innovates. A bond that Apple has established with its customers is deep. As an iconic brand and an emotional brand, its customers just love it. Its connection with its customers transcends commerce because it established around its products communities which are people driven (Kahney, 2012). Consistent with Muniz and O’Guinn (2001), Apple brand community maintains its social bond through subtly different traditions and shared meanings than other brand community. 4.1 Attributes of the brand Apple enjoys a super brand reputation and it is widely recognised by its customers. The realisation of its brand being a super brand has driven Apple to engage in cult marketing (Schneiders, 2011). This type of marketing presents a method of mystification and symbolisation of a specific brand. Apple commands super high customer loyalty and almost evangelistic followers. It can be classified as a “Cult Brand”. This cult brand makes Steve Jobs almost the preacher of the Apple Cult, serves consumers with the products which they want (Schneiders, 2011: 16). Apple brand is always associated with some adjectives, as friendly, creative, cool, metro-sexual and good looking (Rhoads, 2007). Strong brands have the capability to survive in people’s memories (Kahney, 2012). Apple customers follow Apple’s products just look like a cult. When Apple introduced iPad, for example, its customer had to camp at the Apple’s headquarters overnight just to get this product firstly. Apple is a self-empowering brand that fulfils the need of self-actualisation (Ragas and Bueno, 2002: 4). Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs provides the solution for brand love and the level of customers’ needs that can be satisfied by the brand. Apple satisfies the highest level in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs – self-actualisation. Apple products are design icons thus causing people to react and respond by looking at them. Another characteristic of Apple products is that they are built around emotion, around function and combines these features as well. Apple brand reflects personality traits that give customers something relate to on a human level. For example, an actor was used by Apple to promote the brand, Mac. The actor infused the brand with a distinct personality. The intentional part of the promotion is displayed in the promotion line, “Everything about Mac”. The act of referring to Mac brand as young, competent, and confident was also intentional because this reference made Mac to assume a human personality. The brand Mac was brought to a human level by this promotion. Another personification of a phone brand was where Apple personified its brand with personality traits that were appealing and different from those of a competitor brand. Another trait of Apple’s product is colour. For example, Apple uses black colour in iPhone packaging and this has been useful in its branding (Tornetta, Fox & Blackbird, 2011). In some cases, black colour is linked to evil and sometimes even death. However, in Apple’s case, black colour is associated with power, luxury and high in quality. Apple brands are expensive and black is an ideal representation of this. Meanwhile, most electronics also use black as their colour of choice. One striking feature of Apple products is that of colour. The usage of colour to capture the interests of computer users is rampant in Apple. Most computer manufacturers use memory size and processor speed to promote their brands. However, Apple took a different direction and launched a new line referred to as iMac. iMac computers are differentiated from other computer brands by their vibrant colours. In the case of Apple, colour serves to allow a competitive advantage to build their brand communities. Originally, Apple was conceived to be a brand of Californian culture. It was a representation of California’s beliefs and cultures. Every cult brand has a brand culture. Apple has a different type of culture and these cultures define Apple’s brand communities. 4.2 Example of Macintosh User Groups (MUGS) MUGS are made up of Apple computer users. No formal connection exists between Apples and MUGS. These groups are operated independently. Each group consists of several local clubs and each local club offers a range of support services to its members and the members are not charged for these services. One of the characteristics of these groups is strong loyalty to the Apple brand. Members maintain their connection to these groups through email lists and monthly meetings (Komaromi, 2003). They also maintain their websites. 4.3 Apple and Corporate Social Responsibility In terms of CSR, Apple has been in the news for all the negative reasons ranging from inhumane working conditions in its factories in China to low remuneration. Others are discrimination, the humiliation of workers by the management and long working hours (Carbery and Cross, 2013). In 2011, two explosions were reported at iPad manufacturing factories which resulted in four fatalities and 77 injuries. In 2010, it was reported that employees remain exposed to toxic chemicals in the manufacture of iPhone screens (Duhigg & Barboza, 2012). Apple should seek to strike a balance between the brand values and the organisation’s social responsibility. Failure by Apple to drive branding internally may be detrimental in future. Apple should make its employees appreciate its brand so that they can be able to provide the desired brand experience to consumers. Apple’s brand must go beyond being a unique selling proposition and become an organising principle that unites even the employees. It has to maintain the same meaning to the employees as to the consumers. Failure to do this may make Apple’s brand be destroyed by corporate wrongdoing. While consumers wait for several days to buy Apple products, Apple’s CRS conceals to the consumers what happened behind the scene. Which mean consumers enjoy iPhone products without knowing that the employees who manufactured them were mistreated and paid low remuneration. 5. Discussion The Symbolic Convergence Theory was advanced by Littlejohn (2002) and it has found significance usage in this study. Earlier in this paper, this theory stated that a human’s image of reality is guided by stories that reflect how things are believed to be. Stories about Apple brands have been found to play a critical role in enhancing the promotion of Apple products. For example, when a consumer buys an Apple phone and derives pleasure from it, he/she is most likely to communicate his/her excitement to his/her friends who will also want to experience that feeling. In order to satisfy their need for pleasure, they end up purchasing the brand and becoming the members of that particular community. As this paper observed earlier, when consumers are connected by the same brand or shared values, they become a brand community. Consumers may possess the same brand or may share certain values for a certain period of time. During this period, such consumers belong to the same brand community. For example, consumers who like Apple’s silver colour computers are within the same brand community. Apple’s products inspire strong loyalty, a sense of community among customers, and powerful emotional responses. The seminal works of Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) have offered concrete guidance and direction in the field of brand communities. Apple is a good example of brand communities in action. However, great consumers’ love for Apple brand does not match with its corporate social responsibility. As it has been observed earlier in this paper, while consumers pledge allegiance to Apple brand, Apple’s management does not fulfil its social responsibility to its employees. 6. Conclusion A corporate brand is the face of the organisation. Therefore, it should communicate to a wider range of audiences than consumers. Apple’s brand has been found only communicate with the consumers, not communicate to the employees. Apple’s brand reputation is positive, but its CSR reputation is negative. Branding of the product involves packaging, labelling and communicating. These processes all may affect the reputation of a company. A super brand such as Apple may not be ethical. Consumers do not have ethical concerns in their purchasing behaviours, which is a case of Apple. Apple’s situation is where consumers tend to reward unethical business practices and punish ethical business practices. This trend may change in future and consumers may do the opposite. Therefore, Apple should change its approach and align its brand love with its CSR. Ethical branding should play the greatest role in maintaining the company’s reputation (Carrigan &Attalla, 2001). Further research should be done to unravel the complicated issues in ethical branding and brand communities. References Auty, S. and Elliott, R. 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