convergence culture
here is a website: The Source for Ohio's IKEA News!
what is noteworthy about the site is not necessarily the content - which is good, but that it is created by an IKEA fan, not IKEA itself.
i stumbled across this site while i was reading convergence culture by henry jenkins of mit's convergent culture consortium
the book's premise is to consider the culture changes that are resulting now that technological advances have allowed consumers of culture to actively participate. while the book focuses on the entertainment world by discussing topics such as harry potten fan fiction, survivor spoiler bulletin boards, star wars fan videos, etc...
while the entertainment world provides many of the best examples of early adopters, the ikea site shows that this phenomenom will begin moving into other areas of business.
jenkins point is that no ne out there quite has everything sorted out regarding what the relationship between businesses and fans out to be. should businesses encourage it? hey, free advertising sounds good, huh... should they discourage it? what if the "fan" turns on the company, or misrepresents the product? do fans help companies stay true to their corporate ideals? will social networking sites like mySpace or user created video sites such as youTube lose their appeal to folks when they are co-opted by businesses...and what about buzz or viral marketing? effective tools, or will consumers perceive it as manipulation and resent it...
jenkins points out that organizations take conflicting views on these issues over time, and even sometimes between divisions... his focus is on the cultural impact as opposed to the technology. participatory culture truly is exciting for many reasons - marketing is just one of them. i strongly suspect that those organizations that do figure out how to effectively use it as a marketing tool will have a competitive advantage.
visit the convergence culture consortium blog for news/updates
what is noteworthy about the site is not necessarily the content - which is good, but that it is created by an IKEA fan, not IKEA itself.
i stumbled across this site while i was reading convergence culture by henry jenkins of mit's convergent culture consortium
the book's premise is to consider the culture changes that are resulting now that technological advances have allowed consumers of culture to actively participate. while the book focuses on the entertainment world by discussing topics such as harry potten fan fiction, survivor spoiler bulletin boards, star wars fan videos, etc...
while the entertainment world provides many of the best examples of early adopters, the ikea site shows that this phenomenom will begin moving into other areas of business.
jenkins point is that no ne out there quite has everything sorted out regarding what the relationship between businesses and fans out to be. should businesses encourage it? hey, free advertising sounds good, huh... should they discourage it? what if the "fan" turns on the company, or misrepresents the product? do fans help companies stay true to their corporate ideals? will social networking sites like mySpace or user created video sites such as youTube lose their appeal to folks when they are co-opted by businesses...and what about buzz or viral marketing? effective tools, or will consumers perceive it as manipulation and resent it...
jenkins points out that organizations take conflicting views on these issues over time, and even sometimes between divisions... his focus is on the cultural impact as opposed to the technology. participatory culture truly is exciting for many reasons - marketing is just one of them. i strongly suspect that those organizations that do figure out how to effectively use it as a marketing tool will have a competitive advantage.
visit the convergence culture consortium blog for news/updates
posted by Mike at 11:47 AM
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