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Religiosity in the Abandoned Apple Newton Brand Community (2005)
| Venue: | Journal of Consumer Research |
| Citations: | 27 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Schau05religiosityin,
author = {Hope Jensen Schau},
title = {Religiosity in the Abandoned Apple Newton Brand Community},
journal = {Journal of Consumer Research},
year = {2005},
pages = {737--747}
}
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Abstract
This research explores the grassroots brand community centered on the Apple Newton, a product that was abandoned by the marketer. Supernatural, religious, and magical motifs are common in the narratives of the Newton community, in-cluding the miraculous performance and survival of the brand, as well as the return of the brand creator. These motifs invest the brand with powerful meanings and perpetuate the brand and the community, its values, and its beliefs. These motifs also reflect and facilitate the many transformative and emancipatory aspects of consuming this brand. Our findings reveal important properties of brand commu-nities and, at a deeper level, speak to the communal nature of religion and the enduring human need for religious affiliation. Religion is one of humanity’s most enduring creations.It has survived plagues, scientism, what Jung termed the “tyranny of reason ” (Jung 1961/1977, 217), and mo-dernity itself. Religion is fundamental to human existence. It endures. Also fundamental to human existence is the meaningfulness of material objects. There has never been a
Keyphrases
abandoned apple newton brand community human existence apple newton emancipatory aspect enduring creation powerful meaning important property magical motif material object brand creator religious affiliation grassroots brand community communal nature newton community brand commu-nities miraculous performance human need
