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By embracing new rules of (Internet) marketing a firm can become truly customer oriented.

The potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement Implementing participative market

orientation

Ann-Christin Hoffmann

Magistratsvägen 55X, Lund

Gim11aho@student.le.se

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Introduction

In current years, the internet has changed marketing profoundly. The world wide web has become an

“enabler of a global marketplace, characterised by equal access to information about products,

prices, and distribution” (Pires et al., 2006, p. 937) This development goes hand in hand with changes

in the competitive environment: “Competitive advantage is more likely to be derived from marketing

strategies focused on consumers’ perceptions of value1 and embodied in supplementary benefits

targeted to them” (Pires et al., 2006, p. 937). With the increasing demand to distinguish less about

physical, tangible aspects and more about immaterial, intangible aspects (De Chernatony, Dall ’

Olmo Riley, 1998), the brands2 enter the focus of attention. “The potential of brands to play a pivotal

role in a company’s value generation has been widely acknowledged (Aaker, 2002; Ind and Bejerke,

2007; Kapferer, 2004; Keller, 2007)” (Burmann et. al, 2009, p. 113). Building and communicating the

brand, however, has changed. Web 2.03 and its interactive technologies such as blogs, social

networking and video-sharing sides have empowered customer to take an active role in delivering,

accessing and sharing brand–related content (Chua, et al., 2010; Burmann, 2010). Christodoulides

(2008 in: Arnohold, 2008, p.13) sees the “new age of branding shifting from a predominant emphasis

on top-down marketing communications to an emphasis on relationships: Instead of passive

recipients of marketing messages consumers had to be appreciated as equal partners in mutual

value-building relationships with brands and joint creators of brand meaning.” This poses a new

challenge for companies. They need to understand how they can incorporate the empowered

customer and his brand- related content into brand management while at the same time

safeguarding their own purposes (e.g. boosting brand equity4, financial aims).

Literature on customer orientation suggests that putting the customer at the strategic focus of a

company is linked to the enhancement of business profitability (Narver, Slater, 1990). Despite the

extensive academic literature in this field, the concrete implementation of customer orientation in

the company has often been neglected. Moreove, only few sources examine the concept against the

background of brand building (Nwankwo, 1995; Ind, Bjerke, 2007). Ind and Bjerke (2007) contribute

to fill this gap with their participatory market orientation (PMO). They suggest that including the

1 In this paper, value is understood as defined by the customer and co-created between the company and the customer.

Value for the customer is unleashed ‘in –use’ of a product or service that enables him/her to reach a desired end-state. This understanding builds on the new service dominant logic developed by Vargo and Lusch (2004). 2 “Referring to the identity based brand management approach [see below] a brand is understood in the following as a

bundle of benefits with specific characteristics (In terms of communications, customer service, packaging, technological innovation, etc.) causing a sustainable differentiation regarding other bundles of benefits which meet the same basic needs from the perspectiveof relevant target groups” (Arnhold, 2008, p.2) 3 Web 2.0 is an umbrella term for vehicles such as blogs, podcast sites, video and photo sharing sites and social networking

sites which support the communication, interaction and collaboration in the internet (Arnhold, 2008, p.5) 4 Brand equity in this paper is refereing to Aakers (2004) definition: awareness, loyalty, perceived quality, associations

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organization and customers equally in the brand building process can enhance brand equity. The

researchers outline measures through which the concept is successfully executed in an organization

offline. However, they do not provide the same insight in depth for the online environment. So it is

not clear which tools companies can use to implement customer orientation in Web 2.0. In this

context Arnhold (2010, p.1) examines “how brand-owning companies may involve consumers in

interactive programmes such as corporate blogs, brand communities and online challenges in order

to strengthen the consumer's relationship to the brand.” As this is mostly examined under the

generic term ‘user generated branding’, specific advantages and challenges associated with the

respective tool underlying this concept are not in depth covered. This is, however, important for

brand managers as there still seams to be a gap between the potential of the Web 2.0 technologies

and the efficacy of its usage, which can partly be traced back to a lack of knowledge. The 2011 Social

Media Marketing Industry Report e.g. found that 69% of the 3300 polled marketers wanted to learn

more about blogging. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential and challenges

of blogs as a tool to implement customer orientation from a company’s perspective. Therefore,

first the concept of customer orientation in a branding context is outlined. As a second step, the

management approach ‘user generated branding’ (UGB) is introduced. As a third step, the two

concepts are linked by examining the underlying research question.

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Theoretical framework

Customer orientation and participative market orientation

Customer orientation is extensively discussed in the literature. It has been explained in various ways,

often associated with different terms e.g. marketing concept and market orientation. Kohli and

Jaworski (1993, p. 53) describe the concept as “the organization wide generation of market

intelligence, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization wide

responsiveness to it“. Narver and Slater (1995) see customer orientation as a facet of market

orientation besides competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination. They describe market

orientation (including customer orientation) as an organizational culture and a long-term focus the

company assumes. “[…] The primary focus of a market orientation is on creating superior customer

value, which is based on knowledge derived from customer and competitor analyses” (Naver and

Slater, 1995, p. 68). By constantly collecting information about customers and competitors the

company engages in a learning process that improves its understanding of the latent and expressed

customer needs. Sharing this gained knowledge throughout the organization and acting on it can

provide the company with a competitive advantage and an enhanced business

performance/profitability (Narver and Slater, 1990). A point for criticism raised by marketing

practitioners and academics is that it is often no clearly distinguished between customer orientation

and market orientation which frequently leads to an interchangeable application of the terms

(Nwanko, 1995).5 However, all concepts share “the goal of putting customers at the center of

strategic focus” (Nwanko, 1995, p.6 ).

Ind and Bjerke (2007) see several limitations in the concept of market orientation as outlined by

Naver and Slater: While market orientation has been linked to overall business performance, it has

not been explicitly connected to brand building capability— i.e. seen as a source to build a strong

brand in terms of brand equity. Furthermore, the entire side of the concept’s implementation has

been neglected. Building on this criticism, they develop the concept of participatory market

orientation (PMO). It is defined as a “philosophy that aims at building brand capability and brand

equity by involving employees, customers and other stakeholders in the development of the brand.”

The central principle of PMO is the idea of entrainment i.e. the direct engagement of the

organization with its customers in ongoing dialogues and the belief in the value of participation.

5 The core literature in the following paragraphs uses the term participative market orientation, with reference

to Narver and Slater (1995), neglecting, however, the aspect of competitor orientation.

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Referring to Eric Raymond, they describe their approach connected to the ‘Bazaar model’ of a brand:

“ A bazaar model approach to branding lets consumers, retailers, press and public take a peek behind

the scenes and have a say when decisions are made” (Mack,2004, in: Ind, Bjerke, 2007,p. 140).The

customer’s role herein is that of a “ natural partner in a collective process of product and brand

development” (Mack,2004, in: Ind, Bjerke, 2007,p. 140). Developing PMO in brand building requires

as a first step to carry out market intelligence in order to form an idea about the customer needs and

to ‘bring the customer inside the organisation’. This should be achieved by getting “[…] genuinely

close to customers, so that the acquisition of knowledge is direct and unmediated” (Ind, Bjerke,

2004, p.141). As a second step people in the organization have to be involved in order to develop a

response. It can be described as a process of ‘externally sensemaking’ by engaging in open and

ongoing dialogues with customers and ‘internally sense sharing’ between managers and employees

organization wide. PMO thereby recognizes the importance of both the internal and external facet of

market orientation. “ […]the value of this is in building brand equity and delivering customer

experience”(Ind, Bjerke, 2007, p. 141)

Another limitation Ind and Bjerke (2007) highlight is that the outlined marketing orientation models

do not cover how the organization can practically implement market orientation. In their PMO

approach they outline several measures through case studies in an offline context. With the concept

of user generated branding Arnhold (2010, p.1) examines “how brand-owning companies may

involve consumers in interactive programmes such as corporate blogs, brand communities and online

challenges in order to strengthen the consumer's relationship to the brand”. Thus, she delivers a

theoretical basis and possible tools to implement PMO in an online context.

User generated branding

“UGB can be defined as the strategic and operative management of brand related user-generated

content (UGC) to achieve brand goals. That is, UGB is understood as the handling of all kinds of

voluntarily created and publicly distributed brand messages undertaken by non-marketers – from

original user comments to reviews, ratings and remixes with corporate messages, to even full artistic

work. This UGC might represent both expression of customer complaint and brand fan dedication. It

might be visualized as text, image, audio or video and distributed not only via Web2.0 platforms such

as blogs, review, video sharing and social networking sites, but also via mobile devices” (Arnold,

2010, p.5).

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UGB is rooted in the theoretical frame of identity based brand management (Burmann, 2010). This

“[…] takes into account both the brand perception by external stakeholders – referred to as brand

image – and the self-reflection of a brand by internal stakeholders – called brand identity. By

considering the inside-out perspective as equally relevant to the outside-in perspective” this

approach differs fundamentally from the preceding one-sided image-oriented models” (Burman,

Hegner, Riley, 2010). Herein, it shares a dynamic two dimensional understanding of the brand that

implicitly can also be found in Ind and Bjerke’s (2007) internal/external view of brand building in

PMO. It combines the sales market perspective with internal resources and competences of the

organization.

There are two key UGB approaches that can be distinguished: non-sponsored UGB can be defined as

the monitoring of naturally occurring unprompted brand related UGC and the incorporation of the

won insights by adapting operative brand management tools. On the other hand, brand management

may actively stimulate brand related UGC through blogs, contests, selected fan contributions or

other forms of campaigns. The management of this form of UGC is called sponsored UGB (Arnholt,

2010). Sponsored user generated brand related content, if “promoted as symbols of open brand

communication, highlighting the brand transparency and responsibility principles” (Burmann,

2010,p.3), are found to be a very effective branding tool and for actively fostering consumer-brand

relation ship (Burmann, 2010). Hence, sponsored UGB seems to provide opportunities for a company

to genuinely become entrained with the customer, one of the fundamental criteria of participative

market orientation. One such tool of sponsored UGB is a corporate blog. In the following, the

potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement customer orientation from a company’s

perspective will be examined.

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The potential of corporate blogs as a tool to implement PMO

What are corporate blogs and why are they relevant?

“A blog is defined as a type of webpage usually displaying date-stamped entries in reverse

chronological order” (Gill, 2004; OECD, 2006a, in: OECD, 2007, p. 36). It is updated regularly and can

consist of text, images, audio, video, or a combination of them (OECD, 2007, p. 36). Corporate blogs

additionally are characterized by three criteria. “Firstly, they are usually maintained by individuals

who post in an official or semiofficial capacity at a company (known as the corporate blogger); the

blog content is explicitly or implicitly endorsed by that company and lastly, entries are posted by a

person perceived to be clearly affiliated with the company” (Chua, 2010, p. 2). In part corporate

blogs overlap with brand communities; however a point of distinction for this paper is that brand

communities can be rather understood as a market place for per-to-peer storytelling, while

corporate blogs are more positioned as forums for customers to talk to the company (Arnhold,2010).

Despite the enormous growth of corporate sites on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, blogs

also represent an important tool for companies: among the Fortune 500 firms about 23 % adopted

corporate blogs in 2011, a number that has been growing since 2008. Especially in branding,

corporate blogs provide two important advantages compared to social networks. Firstly, the latter

have predefined interfaces which limit the possibility for the corporate’s visual branding.

Furthermore, corporate blogs provide a better format for extensive storytelling (i.e. sharing legends

from inside the organization) which presents an important “hook for brands to be understood

internally and externally” (Yan, 2010, p. 693). In the following the advantages and limitations

associated with corporate blogs as a tool for implementing PMO should be examined from a

company’s point of view.

Getting close to the customer

As outlined in the theoretical framework an important basis for PMO is to gain genuine information

and acquire knowledge by learning about customer needs. Chua et al. (2010) argue that corporate

blogs facilitate the company-customer knowledge exchange given their dialogical nature. They are

effective in obtaining direct access to customer groups for unmediated market research purposes

(Barwise, Meehan, 2010) and thus help companies to develop a deeper understanding of their

customers’ interests and concerns. Due to the fact that many blogs are anonymous, customers likely

provide uncensored opinions and insights. Numerous customers of the Italian moped manufacturer

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Vespa for example contribute with their product reviews on the blog to the company’s

understanding of customer preferences (Singh et al., 2008). An important aspect for a successful

learning process is the existence of trusting and open customer-company relationships which PMO

stresses as a crucial point in its approach (Ind, Bjerke, 2007) Corporate blogs have the capacity to

build these relationships. An example of a corporate blog that practices radical disclosure to their

customers is Zappos’ blog ‘Insight’ where the shoe fabricant shares everything from internal memos

to e-mails. This openness has fostered strong bonds between customers and the company (Fournier,

Averey, 2011). Furthermore, co-operate blogs establishing strong customer relations is by providing

them a platform to engage in the co-creation of the brand. Thus, “ they satisfy a need: the desire of

engagement with a brand they wish to be associated with, or to put it in Engeseth’s terms to feel

‘one’ with the brand” (Yan,2011). Through their participation, customers identify with the brand and

become involved. The deeper the resulting relationships are the more they will create opportunities

for acquiring knowledge, hence make the company more flexible in adapting to the customers’ needs

and giving their brands greater relevance (Chua et al, 2010; Yan, 2011). “If the organization goes

online with these ideas in mind, then it is a modern sign of its market orientation: it becomes a

learning organization, getting data from audiences directly, providing it with competitive advantage.”

(Yan,2010, p. 692 ). An example for this provides Patagonia’s corporate blog. The brand is known as a

producer of apparel outdoor clothing and gear. On their blog, they feature customers’ stories of high-

end adventure journeys. Thus, they not only enable customers to carry the company’s brand promise

through to their personal experiences but at the same time allow the company to learn about the

customers’ interests and new outdoor trends.

Corporate blogs are also useful tools for revealing the thinking of the people behind the brands

(Yan,2010). This corresponds to the ‘Bazaar model’ that is key in PMO. BBC’s ‘The editor’s blog’ for

example ‘aims to explain the editorial decisions and dilemmas faced by the teams running the BBC’s

news service’. Weighing in these information customers then can decide how news should be

covered. The Disney Parks Blog provides another example of how to take customers behind the

scenes. It features posts about dance rehearsals, sneak peeks at new construction sites, interviews

with employees etc. Posts like this humanize a company and give the customer valuable insights

(Singh, 2010).

As PMO is a bi-dimensional approach with an internal and external perspective, after illustrating the

capacity of corporate blogs ‘to bring the customer inside the organisation’, now their potential for

internal response building will be examined.

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Being responsive

An important aspect of PMO in this context is to connect employees organization wide in order to

allow ’internal sensesharing’ of customer insights. Corporate blogs leverage this process. Corporate

blogs facilitate internal collaboration by allowing employees to share knowledge and experiences

(Sing et al.,2008). South Western airlines’ blog for example features stories of employees talking

about their job experiences, their customer encounters, company news etc. Thus, the blog serves as

an important platform for internal brand management. The stories around the brand foster the

employee relationships and strengthen their knowledge about activities in other departments.

Moreover, they help them to understand the brand and feel aligned to it (Yan, 2010, p. 693).

Employees who are ‘living the brand’ are better able to deliver positive brand experiences to

customers which is a vital prerequisite for creating brand equity (Ind, bjerke, 2007).

Furthermore, by applying data filtering methods the blog becomes an efficient tool for internal

knowledge management (Singh et al., 2010). Also important is that, blogs provide organizations the

opportunity to quickly respond to customers’ comments on the page “while setting the expectation

that their opinion will result in a better product or brand in the long run” (Sing et al.,2008, p. 286).

Starbucks, for example incorporates customer ideas in new product variants.

Challenges

Despite the advantages corporate blogs provide as a tool for PMO in branding, they also entail

challenges. A major challenge that companies are facing is the considerable loss of control over

brand messages and brand meanings, although to a less extent than other mediums (Arnhold,2010)

Customers are invited by such blogs to freely share brand related comments opinions and

interpretations. These, however, do not necessarily always overlap with the maketer’s concept of the

brand or are in favour of it.

Connected to this is also the challenge of anonymity. While it might grant valuable insights on the

one hand, it also makes it difficult for the marketers to assess the root of the problem and doesn’t

allow a targeted response (Singh et al., 2008).

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For some companies it can also become a challenge to maintain authenticity and transparency in the

perception of the customer. An illustration of this provides the Wal-Mart blog scandal. “Wal-Marting

Across America,” was a blog that spread positive information about the retailer and was ostensibly

created by a man and a woman traveling the country in an RV and staying in Wal-Mart parking. In

2006 customers revealed it as a fake blog sponsored by the company and organized by a public

relations firm. Subsequently, the Wal-Mart brand suffered a severe reputation crisis instead of

experiencing the intended image boost. Similar problems can arise if there is somebody else than the

claimed person behind the blog as in ‘ghostwritten’ CEO blogs for example (Founier, Averey, 200;

Yan,2010).

Summarizing the analysis of the potential of a corporate blog as a tool for implementing PMO it can

be said that they leverage both the external sensemaking and the internal sensesharing: They enable

unfiltered market intelligence while offering a unique personal manner to connect with the customer

and learn about him. Moreover, they can foster employees together and offer a convenient way to

built direct responses. Thus, corporate blogs can be seen as interactive tools that help to involve

both the customer and the employees in building the brand.

Conclusion

The new rules of branding in Web 2.0 have migrated the relationship between the customer and

company to an interactive level. Companies therefore face the challenge to encounter these

development and integrate the customer into its brand management. A customer focus in branding

has become imperative. However, the literature so far delivered hardly any tools for companies to

implement customer orientation in branding in an online context.

The purpose of this paper therefore was to discuss the potential and challenges of blogs as a tool to

implement customer orientation from a company’s perspective.

Corporate blogs were thereby found to fulfill both external sensemaking and the internal

sensesharing: On the one hand it connects the organization with its customer, making it more

relevant through better tailored offerings and eventually boosting brand equity. On the other hand it

also fuels internal collaboration leading to supreme value generation. Thus, corporate blogs can be

seen as interactive tools that help to involve both the customer and the employees in building the

brand. Nevertheless, also the challenges have to be taken into account with one of the biggest being

to establish a transparent and authentic dialogue with the customer.

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By analyzing the underlying purpose the paper made a contribution to the current PMO literature by

adding a concrete tool for companies to become more customer orientated in the online context.

Moreover, the insights gained are valuable with regard to closing the current knowledge gap of

brand managers who want to learn more about the potential and implications of blogging. Small and

medium enterprises’ benefit especially from the analysis as they can harness corporate blogs as a

relatively inexpensive tool for enhancing their customer orientation in branding and thus become

more competitive against big companies with higher media budgets. A limitation of this paper is that

the role of UGB programs in strengthening a brand ’ s organizational interaction capability is still

relatively uninvestigated which points out a field for further research.

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