MGT5184 Global Consumer Behavior

Introduction:

Consumer community is a common platform where the customers, product experts, different business partners and other members discuss the product specification of a product or marketplace and post different reviews about the product as well for the company of that particular product. The community members also brainstorm to generate new ideas to develop a new product from the company. Consumer community benefits the company, as well as consumers in a different angle such as consumer community, build the opportunity to network with other members in the community as well as with other industry (Trudel 2019). By the use of digital labour created by the consumption of Nike, the company can derive profit as well as surplus value. The consumer community helps the consumer to access any new product of the company before their actual launch. Nike is a global sports accessories manufacturing company headquartered at Beaverton in the Oregon province of the United States of America. The company was founded in the year 1964. At the time of its foundation, the name of the company was “Blue Ribbon Sports”. The company changes its name and became Nike in the year 1971. Nike has a different type of consumption community present across the world such as consumer consumption communities, self-directed consumer consumption community, C2C focused consumption community (Armenteras, Paech and Politiek 2017). In a consumption community, there is a different kind of consumers are present who differs in their rituals, language as well as in hierarchical specification. This essay will analyse the different communities of Nike that are present worldwide. Community analysis will provide a clear overview of the consumption community of Nike. This essay will analyse the consumption community of Nike to give a proper understanding of the importance of the consumption community of Nike for the consumers as well as for the company. This essay will further analyse the consumer identity in a particular consumer community.

Discussion:

Community Analysis:

For NIKE there are several communities are present worldwide such as consumer consumption communities, self-directed consumer consumption community, C2C focused consumption community. All these consumption communities are analysed based on different other sub-factors such as language, rituals and other hierarchical structure. Consumption communities of NIKE are the group of consumers who shares the same interest in the product range offered by NIKE worldwide. The consumer community of NIKE is more customer-centred rather than industry centred. The consumer community of NIKE has a proper interconnection between the community members. They are well connected. Sometimes they created a network between themselves where they share their beliefs about the product of Nike. There are several consumption communities present for Nike. But according to nationality and language, they are different from each other. Such as the Nike consumption community present in the United States of America will differ from the Nike community present in China due to the difference in language. Culture is also a determining factor for the consumption of Nike product. The culture of one country is different from the culture of another country which is also a determining factor for the community consumption of a particular product of any particular company or brand. Culture or rituals is the thing that best fits their values as well as a belief system (Merikanto 2019). The consumption community also floats with the changing cultural behaviour showing by the different consumption community member of a different country. Rituals or cultures is essential to understand the purchasing behaviour of any consumption community which is valuable information for the company. The consumption criteria are different from one consumption group to another consumption community group due to the difference in their culture. The culture of the Nike consumption community of the western market and the culture of the Nike consumption community in the Asia region is completely different. Thus, there are different consumption rate for the same Nike product in different consumption community present in a different part of the world. In a particular consumption group, there are several influential factors that determine the consumption characteristics of a particular consumer in the consumption community. Social esteem, as well as social prestige, influences the consumers in a particular consumption community to buy any product from the house of Nike. Inc. Different hierarchical factor also makes the difference in consumption of Nike product in the consumption community group of Nike (Machin et al. 2019). In a particular consumption community group, there are several hierarchies present such as hierarchical difference in age, sex, religion, ethnicity and income group. Maybe in a consumption community, several members possess the same interest in the brand (Rauschnabel et al. 2015). But there will be a difference in their purchase behaviour due to the difference in age, sex, religion, ethnicity and income range. There will be no similarity in the consumption of a male and a female. Might be they choose the same brand that is Nike but their consumption characteristics, as well as consumption ratio, will be different from each other. Income group is also a basis of differentiation in a particular consumer consumption group of Nike. A high-income earner customer will consume the product of Nike which is priced higher to maintain a proper social class in the consumption community, whereas a customer present in the consumption community of Nike will purchase the product of Nike which has a moderate price. Consumers present in a consumption community group is sharing a different kind of information across the consumption community which determines the purchase behaviour of any particular customer present in the consumption community group. There is some community member who is associated with a different kind of blog writing. By providing a different kind of information about the different product of Nike they are creating product awareness among the community. There is a popular Nike community present across the world that NIKE+ who are providing different resources about the Nike product, as well as community members, provides different reviews about the Nike product which influence the other members present in that particular consumption community group. In the Nike+ community, the community member themselves share different product specification and talk over that as well as they are interacting with other members present in that particular community. There are several other Nike consumption community present across the internet and different social media sites (Arli 2017).  Consumption behaviour also depends upon the sharing factors in the community such as market, no-market or hybrid logic such as a customer who has consumed the product of Nike in the time when Nike provides several discounts in their product, that is an economy-related factor and can be considered as a market factor. In the Nike consumption community, there are several members who will be present like this. Some customers present in the community consumption group will be such like they will purchase the product of Nike to maintain a proper social status in the community. This can be considered as a non-market factor that will encourage a customer present in the consumer consumption group of Nike to purchase the product of Nike. There will be some member present in the community who will present in the consumption community who has both the issue to buy particularly the Nike product (Ramya and Ali 2016). That can be considered as a hybrid logic consumption characteristic for them. Sometimes C2C focused consumers of Nike consumption community group arrange a different kind of fair or programme to aware the community member about the new product launch of Nike. They are as well active in the different social consumption community group and post several information about the upcoming product of Nike and analyse the product specification before the actual launch of the product. In social media platforms such as Instagram, the consumption community members of Nike share their experience in the form of sharing individual images about the product of Nike with the product specification and reviews (Sibai et al. 2015). There are several characteristics present for this kind of online consumption communities such as all the members of the consumption community lives with a strong feeling of belongingness in the consumption community. The consumption community provides all the group members with a proper social identity as well as help them by providing necessary motivational factors to be associated with the consumption community. The interpersonal level of sociality helps the community members by exchanging knowledge, symbolic as well as emotional value (Ahmad and Thyagaraj 2015).

The evolution of Nike community and involvement of Nike in the community can be portrayed in the below table:

Source of information: purpose.nike.com/community (2021).

Consumer Identity Analysis:

Consumer identity in a particular consumption community describes the consumption pattern by which any consumer present in the consumption group can describe themselves. A particular and individual consumer of a consumer consumption group constructs their identity in different ways. There are several influential capitals that determine the consumer identity of an individual customer in a particular consumption community (Black and Veloutsou 2017). Different influential capitals for an individual consumer can be economic capital, can be symbolic capital, can be cultural capital and also can be social capital which determines their consumption pattern as well as determines the consumer identity in that particular consumption community. Nike is a sports manufacturing brand as well as they also present in the apparel section (Stoeva 2017). The consumers present in the consumption community can make a difference from the other community members by the consumption of premium product of Nike (Quintão, Brito and Belk 2017). The consumer can consider the brand a premium brand and by the consumption of the premium class product from the brand they can make a unique identification of them in front of the other group members present in the consumption community (East et al. 2016). Any consumers of the consumption community use the marketplace resources for the construction of their identity in the group. Consumers in the consumption group define their identity within the group on the basis of self-concept (Savary and Dhar 2020). The consumers constructing their identity within the Nike consumption group by relating their personalities or image with the products offered by Nike. Exchange of communication with other group member and the background of the consumption community helps the individual consumer to construct their identity. Consumers in a particular consumption community have different role identities and they construct their identity within the consumption group on the basis of that (Munnukka, Karjaluoto and Tikkanen 2015). Consumers consumed the product offering of Nike based on their role of personality. A consumer who has higher economic capital will always choose the high priced product offering of Nike to maintain or to show the premium social class in front of the consumption community members. Sometimes the symbolic group behaviour is persistent for the non-members of the consumption community (Su and Tong 2016). When a consumer accessing the information of any particular product of Nike from social media they feel connected and a form of bonding is being generated with that consumption group which helps in their consumption behaviour. Sometimes consumption community member’s possession can be seen to confirm or extend their self-images. Consumers of the consumption community define their identity by comparing what they want to use and what are they getting from Nike. Self-esteem and social capital is a great influential factor for the construction of consumer identity in the Nike consumption community group. Customers are feeling more socially acceptable within the community by using the Nike product (Edbring, Lehner and Mont 2016). The product offering of Nike helps them to get a proper social status in the community as well as help them to get satisfied by the use of the product.

Recommendations:

By the analysis of the essay, some recommendations can be given to Nike for their marketing strategy which can be beneficial for the construction of a perfect consumption community that can benefit the consumers as well as the company. Nike should get more engaged with their different consumption community present worldwide. Nike should provide some early access to their upcoming products to the consumption community members. Nike should present their product with more value to their consumption community member which will benefit the community members by satisfying them more with the product offering as well as that will help to get more profit margin for Nike by the word of mouth marketing of the product by the community members within the consumption community members. By the proper use of social media, Nike can provide more social capital to their community members as well as introducing much new product with a proper pricing strategy will provide more economic capital to the consumption community members from Nike. Nike should introduce any new product in such a way that the community member can relate with their personality which will, in turn, help the company to take a more competitive advantage in the market.

Conclusion:

From the above essay, it can be concluded that there are several consumption communities are present for Nike worldwide. The consumption community helps the company to get a more competitive advantage from the market. A consumption community provides the group member with a feeling of association with the brand which in turn helps the community members to understand their self-esteem and helps to relate with the brand personality with their personality (Stock, von Hippel and Gillert 2016). Nike is a global brand of sports accessories and they have several consumption communities. Proper use of social media nowadays provides Nike with the opportunity to offer more social capital to their community member which in turn helps them to get a more competitive advantage in the market as well as help to increase the acceptability among the community members. Offering more economical product to their community members will help the brand to offer more economic capital to their consumption community members.

Work Cited:

Ahmad, A. and Thyagaraj, K.S., 2015. ’Understanding the Influence of Brand Personality on Consumer Behavior. Journal of Advanced Management Science, 3(1).

Arli, D., 2017. Does social media matter? Investigating the effect of social media features on consumer attitudes. Journal of Promotion Management, 23(4), pp.521-539.

Armenteras, J., Paech, R. and Politiek, I., 2017. Influencer Marketing's Effects on B2C Brand Image: A Case Study of Nike. LBMG Strategic Brand Management-Masters Paper Series.

Black, I. and Veloutsou, C., 2017. Working consumers: Co-creation of brand identity, consumer identity and brand community identity. Journal of business research, 70, pp.416-429.

East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M. and Vanhuele, M., 2016. Consumer behaviour: Applications in marketing. Sage.

Edbring, E.G., Lehner, M. and Mont, O., 2016. Exploring consumer attitudes to alternative models of consumption: motivations and barriers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 123, pp.5-15.

Machin, J.E., Adkins, N.R., Crosby, E., Farrell, J.R. and Mirabito, A.M., 2019. The marketplace, mental well-being, and me: Exploring self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-compassion in consumer coping. Journal of Business Research, 100, pp.410-420.

Merikanto, S., 2019. Controversal Marketing-A successful strategy to grow a brand or risky approach? Case study: Nike Inc.

Munnukka, J., Karjaluoto, H. and Tikkanen, A., 2015. Are Facebook brand community members truly loyal to the brand?. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, pp.429-439.

Nike Purpose. 2021. Nike Purpose: Building Community. [online] Available at: <https://purpose.nike.com/community> [Accessed 25 April 2021].

Quintão, R.T., Brito, E.P.Z. and Belk, R.W., 2017. Connoisseurship consumption community and its dynamics. Revista brasileira de gestão de negócios, 19(63), p.48.

Ramya, N. and Ali, M., 2016. Factors affecting consumer buying behavior. International journal of applied research, 2(10), pp.76-80.

Rauschnabel, P., Ahuvia, A., Ivens, B. and Leischnig, A., 2015. The personality of brand lovers. In Consumer brand relationships (pp. 108-122). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Savary, J. and Dhar, R., 2020. The uncertain self: How self-concept structure affects subscription choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(5), pp.887-903.

Sibai, O., De Valck, K., Farrell, A.M. and Rudd, J.M., 2015. Social control in online communities of consumption: A framework for community management. Psychology & Marketing, 32(3), pp.250-264.

Stock, R.M., von Hippel, E. and Gillert, N.L., 2016. Impacts of personality traits on consumer innovation success. Research Policy, 45(4), pp.757-769.

Stoeva, M., 2017. Emotional Branding Online: Case study: Nike.

Su, J. and Tong, X., 2016. Brand personality, consumer satisfaction, and loyalty: A perspective from denim jeans brands. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 44(4), pp.427-446.

Trudel, R., 2019. Sustainable consumer behavior. Consumer psychology review, 2(1), pp.85-96.

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