Infilitrating an e-tribe: marketing within the Machinima [computerised games] community

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Management
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2009
Authors
Harwood, T.
Garry, T.
Abstract

Relationship marketing principals of co-creating value and interactivity through a process of co-production are fundamental (e.g., Ballantyne, Egan, et al) and yet there has been little investigation into how this translates to an online socially networked context. This paper examines one such online tribal community to investigate its characteristics and examine its relationship marketing potential. Drawing on the social psychology literature and in particular, the self and social identification and tribal marketing literature, this paper explores the concept of tribalism and tribal marketing within one such net based community. Machinima is the making of 3D animated films using computerised games engines in real time. Findings suggest the Machinima community exhibits many of the features of a tribal based community but in an online environment which is informed by the media and the message. Commercial organisations appear sensitive to the values of the community and their marketing activities may be described as both ‘covert and collusive’. Where this is successful, tribal members collaborate and become critical informants to the community. The implications of these findings suggest organisations will need to consider more subtle and sophisticated relationship marketing activities within some e-contexts than have been used in more traditional offline contexts if they are to be successful.

Description
Citation
Harwood, T., Garry, T. (2009) Infilitrating an e-tribe: marketing within the Machinima [computerised games] community. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 8(1), pp. 67-83.
Keywords
relationship marketing, virtual community, tribal marketing, co-creation
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Author Posting © Westburn Publishers Ltd, 2009. This is the preprint (pre peer-review) version of an article which has been published in its definitive form in the Journal of Customer Behaviour, and has been posted by permission of Westburn Publishers Ltd for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Journal of Customer Behaviour, 8(1), pp. 67-83, http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/147539209X414399