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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

Exploring emotional branding and online brand community by a case study of American Starbucks for Chinese

English Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the relationship between the Starbucks brand and its users. For most heavy coffee drinkers in China, Starbucks is not just about coffee in the traditional sense; it is about tasting coffee in a whole new way, which is embodied in an experience of a cup of coffee. People go to Starbucks not just for a drinking, but for a kind of feeling, which brings by Starbucks branch stores. Therefore, through a modified-life story interview and participant observation, the present research mainly attempts to explore how Starbucks connects their consumers with the brand name and how consumers maintain the relationship in brand community and online brand community. Interviews were conducted as a form of life story interview, then, their life stories were collected to illustrate the various connecting ways between Starbucks and its heavy coffee users. Online Starbucks China is the object for observation in order to analyze how the virtual communities’ members attach to the Starbucks. Ultimately, this research identified that emotional branding is not controlled by the brand owner, but co-controlled by the brand users. For online Starbucks brand community members, their mainly aims are information value, maintaining interpersonal connectivity, self-enhancement and entertainment motive. Social identification was employed to identify the Starbucks brand community members.

Issue date

2011.

Author

Xu, Ming

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

Department of Communication

Degree

M.A.

Subject

Branding (Marketing) -- China

Branding (Marketing) -- Case studies

Customer relations -- China

Consumers' preferences -- China

Supervisor

Chang, Wen Yu

Files In This Item

TOC & Abstract

Full-text (Intranet only)

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991000859289706306