Varumärken är kalejdoskopiska - en studie om narrativ och motnarrativ i influencer marketing

Sammanfattning: According to cultural theorist Douglas Holt is a brand the sum of the narratives surrounding the brand. Recently, brand managers are increasingly using influencer marketing to affect these narratives in order to enhance brand equity. This study investigates how different narratives associated with a brand compete for being the dominant narrative. The study does this by analyzing the phenomenon of influencer marketing and how influencers can affect the dominant brand narrative as well as other narratives. Through a two-folded analysis; one ethnographic analysis of the practice and one narratological analysis of an influencer-cooperation the study examines how a brand is dynamic to its character and how it is understood differently depending on from which perspective one look at it. The study's conclusion is that understanding of brands as kaleidoscopic is fruitful, as well as practitioners who work with the strategy tend to focus on technological innovation rather than the brand's dynamic character in branding.