Hashtag community: charting consumer-brand community evolution through innovative netnographic research

The concept of community is an evolving concept within human society. The marketplace construct has evolved to include brand communities in online and offline contexts. Due to the importance of these collectives for strong brand equity and success, it is essential for research and practice to continuously track the changes in structure, influence and nature of community on consumer behaviour. Netnography is an innovative adaptation of the ethnographic methodology to investigate online communities. This method is appropriate due to the online nature of its techniques and its ability to incorporate a diverse range of methods to explore the variant online spaces e.g. social media brand communities. This study used a Netnographic methodology including participant observation and in-depth interviews, supported by social media monitoring to explore the role of the hashtag in social media as a tool of brand community and relationship. This paper shows how such studies keep the practice of Netnography innovative and relevant to management and consumer research.