Consumidores em rede: comunidades de marcas e culturas do consumo na sociedade contemporânea

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Melo, Sharine Machado Cabral
• Orientador(a): Costa, Rogério da
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Comunicação e Semiótica
• Departamento: Comunicação
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: Internet; Consumo; Marcas; Comunidades virtuais; Marca registrada; Marketing na internet
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Internet; Consumption; Brands; Virtual communities
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::COMUNICACAO
• Link de acesso: https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/5288

This paper intent to present how virtual communities formed from brands alter consumer relations and how social networks are also affected by the culture of them. While most companies seek to build the brand image of products and services through strategies still very much rooted in widespread official communication from one to many others - as proposed by Aaker from the concept of brand equity - mainly the brand has built relationships with their customers, the way it interacts with products and with other brands, giving new semantics to official messages. As Martin-Barbero would say, if culture spreads all aspects of contemporary society, the brand can be seen as culture, as advocated by Ricardo Guimaraes in his articles on branding, because it encompasses habits, rites and the perception of products image and services. Assuming also that point of view, Everardo Rocha defines consumption as a social act, as it acquires meaning only in the processes of symbolic exchange. As a social act, consumer relations are affected by changes in the concept of community that in digital culture becomes more related to networks of contacts than geographical location, according to Barry Wellman. Formed around common interests, many of these communities have been focused on these brands. In The Cluetrain Manifesto, Christopher Locke argues that markets work as "conversations" and studies suggest that communication between consumers on the Internet strongly influence the image of brands, buying behavior, and therefore, consumer relations. This unofficial communication, performed by virtual communities and networks, has been implicated in the literature on the subject, as more and more significant over the officially established communication between the company and the market, which is the focus of this paper.The methodology, therefore, was based on literature research, and visiting the sites of virtual communities and consulting both qualitative and quantitative research on the internet´s profile users and access to digital media. It has tried to point the way to the study of contemporary culture, which are parts of the consumer relations