This study intended to advance the understanding of brand and value co-creation in sport management. A single exploratory case study of the Ottawa REDBLACKS, the CFL expansion franchise launching in 2014, was conducted. The purpose of the research was to unveil the practices that could lead to brand and value co-creation in the relationships between the Ottawa REDBLACKS and their stakeholders. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 20 participants from the focal organization’s network of stakeholders. The sample was built through a purposeful and snowball sampling method that added to stakeholders identified from the literature. Archival data of media publications, organizational online content, and radio podcasts were also gathered in order to complement the data from the interviews. The deductive and inductive data analysis highlighted five main practices that could lead to brand or value co-creation in the stakeholder-firm relationship performance in a unique sport context: establishing relationships, supporting public relations, sharing resources, enhancing the experience, and driving brand image. The findings explained that joint actions between stakeholders and the REDBLACKS can lead to increases in brand equity and value creation. In the end, the study suggested that future research should investigate the threat of co-destruction.

Background: Today, for firms to engage with customers, it takes more than traditional advertisements, enticing prices and celebrity endorsements. Customers now rely on and expect to become an active rather than passive participant in the firm’s branding and marketing activities. Due to this change in the marketing environment firms have moved towards utilizing social media influencers and brand co-creation activities to drive the level to which customers connect their self-concepts with the brand.      Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the unique ways in which NA-KD uses their influencer marketing strategy and brand co-creation activities to drive the social identities of their customers and to create a model that visualizes this process. Method: An exploratory study has been conducted by the authors to investigate the influencer marketing and brand co-creation activities of the firm as to address the purpose of this paper. A single case study was performed where NA-KD was the primary subject of research. Semi-structured interviews with key employees working within marketing, collaborations and content creation was the primary source of data collection.    Conclusion: The empirical findings demonstrated the processes which employees at NA-KD created to develop their influencer marketing and brand co-creation strategies. The findings showed that the social identities of customers in an influencer-born firm are able to be directed through the activities within influencer marketing and brand co-creation. From these findings a conceptual model representing the process and management of social identity direction and producer-consumer relationship formation. This process includes influencer marketing, brand co-creation and brand experience, managed by methods of CRM and circle mapping to allow for self-brand connections and continued firm growth to occur.

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between city branding and community sport focusing on the role of citizens. Community sport means more than just organized sport events, covering all of physical activities, recreation, and leisure that are based on the region. Therefore, Community-based Sport and Recreational Physical Activity (CSRPA) is closely related to urban experience and quality of life of local residents. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to: (1) evaluate the perceptions of internal stakeholders of city branding through CSRPA; and (2) examine the possibility of considering CSRPA as branding opportunities. Participatory city branding theory provided the most relevant theoretical frameworks to shed light on co-creative image building process by leveraging citizens’ participation to CSRPA. The methodology used in the study was case study with the city of Ottawa, Canada. City representatives (n=17) took part in semi-structure interviews to elucidate their perceptions and lived experiences associated with Ottawa city branding. Citizens (n=127) participated in an online survey to express their voices surrounding city brands and sport participation. The findings of the study suggest that CSRPA constitutes an interesting opportunity to contribute to co-creative city branding by incorporating citizens’ voices and promoting collaborative public governance.

Africa has been identified as an upcoming market in which luxury brands should secure future growth opportunities. A review of related academic literature, however, reveals that limited research has been conducted which focuses specifically on the continent’s luxury consumers. This gap in the literature highlights the need to further the body of knowledge on luxury consumer behaviour in this context. However, as the continent comprises a vast number of countries with diverse consumer profiles, it was decided that this study would focus on the assessment of the behaviour of the members of luxury consumer segments in the South African market. The specific areas that require research in order to establish an understanding of luxury consumer segments’ behaviour commenced from a review of different trends and developments in the South African market. The core trends, along with calls for further research on luxury brands in the international academic literature were combined to identify numerous avenues for further research. This eclectic approach aimed to not only contribute to an enhanced understanding of the behaviour of luxury consumer segments in the South African market, but to develop and extend the existing body of academic knowledge and literature on luxury brands. Four research questions were developed from both the identified avenues from the review of the trends in the market, and the calls for further research in the academic literature. Each of these questions was then addressed by four individual papers.  This thesis makes a number of contributions to the related body of knowledge as it details the behaviour of different luxury brand consumer segments in the South African market, thereby serving as a step towards addressing the gap in the literature on luxury consumers on the African continent. / <p>QC 20170411</p>

The purpose of this research was to understand the creation of a brand composed of four individual elite athletes and how stakeholders involved used social media to co-create the brand. The study examined the unique context of the FAB_IV; four individuals divers branded as a team. Semi-structured interviews were performed with participants from Diving Canada, its athletes, member of the COC and sponsors. The sample was built through a purposeful and snowball sampling method that added to stakeholders identified from the literature. Archival data of organizational documents, FAB_IV microsite, social media accounts, news outlet content and online content were also gathered in order to complement the data from the interviews. The deductive and inductive data analysis highlighted four main themes: brand strategies and implementation - sponsorship and sponsorship activation - media and fan interest - stakeholder’s relationship. Specifically regarding social media, the research showed that in order to use social media as a brand co-creation tool, organizations and athletes need to have a strategy in place, use them with consistency and be creative in what they publish. Additionally, fostering relationships with followers was identified as a key contributor of building a brand on social media. Researchers and future researches should focus on organizations who, along with their stakeholders, are using social media as the main tool to co-create their brand. Moreover, having the fan or follower perspective, when doing a research pertaining to brand and value co-creation on social media, would also be a possible avenue for future researches.

Abstract This study explores the phenomenon of brand co-creation from a communicative perspective. The study investigates how Finnish SMEs operating in international B2B markets use English as a business lingua franca (BELF) for brand communication. The purpose of the study is to contribute to brand co-creation theory by illustrating how using BELF affects spoken brand co-creation discourse and increase our understanding of brand co-creation communication by applying a discursive approach. The theoretical framework of the study is based on branding literature, BELF research, discourse theory and social constructionism. The study introduces an analytical framework for exploring BELF in spoken brand co-creation communication through the discourse dimensions of verbal language use, the communication of brand meanings and face-to-face social interaction among stakeholders. The empirical data was collected by implementing a business communication simulation designed for the study. It was used to analyse how internal stakeholders use verbal BELF to communicate brand meanings in face-to-face social interaction. A discursive approach was also applied in the analysis. In the study, three spoken brand co-creation discourses were identified: informative, credible and emotional discourse. This study shows that brand co-creation is a phenomenon intertwined with language. When the language of business communication is BELF, it can both enable and impede brand co-creation communication. Efficient and informative communication is often regarded as essential in business communication but from brand communication perspective informative communication may not be sufficient to create an interesting and a memorable brand. The study also shows that spoken brand co-creation communication with BELF requires versatile language and communication competence; especially emotional brand discourse may require more versatile BELF competence than previously has been acknowledged. From a managerial viewpoint, it is important to understand that internal stakeholders are continuously communicating about the brand to external stakeholders with spoken language. Thus, the brand is visible in the daily operations through language, although not necessarily as intended by the management. / Tiivistelmä Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan brändin yhteisluomista yritysviestinnän näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään, miten suomalaiset yritystenvälisillä markkinoilla (B2B) toimivat pk-yritykset käyttävät liike-englantia lingua francana (BELF) suullisessa yhteisluomisviestinnässään. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä kielen ja viestinnän roolista brändin yhteisluomisessa ja kuvata, miten BELF vaikuttaa puhuttuun brändin yhteisluomisviestintään diskursiivisesta näkökulmasta. Tutkimus nojaa brändikirjallisuuden lisäksi BELF-tutkimukseen, diskurssiteoriaan ja sosiaaliseen konstruktionismiin. Tutkimus esittää brändin suullisen yhteisluomisviestinnän kolmiulotteisena ilmiönä, jota voidaan tarkastella sanallisen kielenkäytön, brändimerkitysten viestimisen ja kasvokkain tapahtuvan, sidosryhmien välisen vuorovaikutuksen avulla. Työn empiirinen aineisto kerättiin tutkimusta varten kehitetyn liikeviestintäsimulaation avulla, ja sen avulla analysoitiin, miten yrityksen sisäiset sidosryhmät käyttävät BELFiä viestimään brändimerkityksiä yrityksistään ja niiden tuotteista sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimuksessa hahmoteltiin kolme suullista brändin yhteisluomisdiskurssia: informatiivinen diskurssi, uskottavuusdiskurssi ja tunneperäinen diskurssi. Tutkimus osoittaa, että brändin yhteisluomisviestintä on kieleen kietoutunut ilmiö. Kun liikeviestinnän kielenä on BELF, vieraskielinen viestintä voi sekä mahdollistaa että vaikeuttaa brändin yhteisluomisviestintää. Tehokas ja faktaperäinen viestintä on usein tärkeää liikeviestinnässä, mutta brändäyksen näkökulmasta informatiivisesti painottunut viestintä voi olla riittämätöntä, jotta se herättäisi mielenkiintoa brändiä kohtaan tai loisi muistettavan brändin. Tutkimus osoittaa myös, että osallistuminen brändin yhteisluomisviestintään käyttämällä BELFiä edellyttää monipuolista kieli- ja viestintätaitoa. Erityisesti tunteita herättävä brändäysviestintä voi vaatia laajempaa kieli- ja viestintäosaamista kuin aiemmin on ajateltu. Liikkeenjohdon kannalta on tärkeää ymmärtää, että yrityksen henkilöstö viestii brändistä jatkuvasti jokapäiväisessä vuorovaikutuksessa eri sidosryhmien kanssa. Näin ollen brändi välittyy sidosryhmille kielen kautta, mutta ei kuitenkaan välttämättä sellaisena kuin yrityksen johto on tarkoittanut.