UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)
- Title
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Exploring emotional branding and online brand community by a case study of American Starbucks for Chinese
- English Abstract
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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
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2011.
- Author
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Xu, Ming
- Faculty
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Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Department
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Department of Communication
- Degree
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M.A.
- Subject
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Branding (Marketing) -- China
Branding (Marketing) -- Case studies
Customer relations -- China
Consumers' preferences -- China
- Supervisor
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Chang, Wen Yu
- Files In This Item
- Location
- 1/F Zone C
- Library URL
- 991000859289706306