Managing Brands in the Age of DIY-Branding: The COBRA approach

Abstract

The relatively surge of social media websites has changed the marketing landscape beyond recognition. Consumers are more connected, more active, more informed – more empowered than ever before in the history of our consumer society. Branding in this day and age is unpredictable and complex; managerial control over consumers, effectively DIY brand managers, and what are increasingly also their brands, is an illusion. Hence, persuasion-oriented, essentially one-way marketing communication tools such as advertising are losing their relevance quickly. Brand managers should instead capacitate themselves in inspiring COBRAs – an acronym for consumers’ online brand-related activities. But how does one get one’s consumers to engage in COBRAs? Based on the empirical insights of a qualitative and a quantitative study, this chapter asserts that a deep and comprehensive understanding of the how and the why of consumer brand engagement on social media (i.e., how different behaviors are motivated) are essential to that end. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed.