Relationship Marketing and Brand Involvement of Professionals - Essay Example

What is common in both viewpoints is the idea that the new developments in information and communication technologies certainly change the way we interact, civic engagement and community creation. Participation has the ability and potential to make a difference. The awareness about the possibilities of participation is a defining feature of the present democratic societies. “The crisis of political participation” is the product of the dilemmas of this awareness on participation (Bryan, Tsagarousianou and Tambini, 1998, p. 3). However, more electronic democracy could only be achieved through the universal availability of the internet and open discourses on the internet.

According to Bryan, Tsagarousianou and Tambini (1998), although access to information networks is a public right, the cost and private ownership of such infrastructure and technologies lead to a tension between both. Bughin, Chui, and Johnson have asserted that “companies will need a combination of incentives of encouraging customer participation” (2008, p.28). In the case study of Coloplast’s web-supported community of health care practitioners, it has been found that “web communities in the professional market build on preexisting communities, enabling community members to intensify the activities of the community to expand its reach” (Andersen, 2005, p. 49). It could be seen as an example of identity building and community creation.

In the content analysis of the sites and blogs for the 10 Democratic candidates in the 2004 US presidential election, it has been revealed that “candidates promoted interactivity online through technical means such as enabling asynchronous feedback in blog comments as well as fostering an environment of participation through textual appeals and strategy” (Trammel, 2006, p.42). Here, there is no actual participation, just networking for the purpose of vote gathering. Lillekar and Jackson point out that “the current revolution in terms of individual internet use is facilitated by Web 2.0, the key features of which allow, although they may not encourage, greater control over the way individuals communicate, the means of communication and what information is accessed, when and where” (2008, p.2). Therefore, the point is not to emphasise the inherent liberating potentials of digital tools but the radical use of such tools for identity and community rebuilding.