Aiesec Brand Community
Module Code Module Name Lecturer Assignment Title
7SSMM503 Consumer Behaviour Dr. Chloe Preece An Alter-brand Brand Community Case Study: AIESEC Alumni Community
Candidate Number Submission Deadline Word Count
R05493 4 p.m 10th Dec. 2012 1456
R05493
7SSMM503
An Alter-brand Brand Community Case Study: AIESEC Alumni Community
Alter-brand community is a voluntarily formed group in which community members “create the physical offering, author the text, generate the experience and evolve the brand meaning” as “prosumers” (Pitt et al., 2006, p. 119)—the producers and consumers are actually the same group (Cromie and Ewing, 2009, p. 219). Normally, members in an alter-brand community are selfmotivated to develop and co-create a brand and in turn embed further and wider meanings in the brand. In this essay, AIESEC alumni community will be analyzed as a representative alter-brand community. It will begin with an introduction of AIESEC and its alumni community, followed by a presentation about a new market offering—theme conferences focusing on social issues— contributed by the alumni community, then the implications that this market offering and the change in brand meaning have posed on AIESEC and its alumni community will be addressed in detail, and ends up with suggestions for future research. Established in 1948, AIESEC is currently the largest international youth-run organization in the world. It aims to provide young students with international platforms, mainly through international exchange and internship programs, to develop their leadership and internationalized vision in order to cultivate leaders for tomorrow (AIESEC, 2012; Richter and Schäfermeyer, 2011). AIESEC alumni community is a “specialized” and geographically boundary-free community (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p. 412) founded voluntarily in 1986 by several exAIESECers aiming to form a group for experience sharing and network building with any individual who has had any experience with
7SSMM503 Consumer Behaviour Dr. Chloe Preece An Alter-brand Brand Community Case Study: AIESEC Alumni Community
Candidate Number Submission Deadline Word Count
R05493 4 p.m 10th Dec. 2012 1456
R05493
7SSMM503
An Alter-brand Brand Community Case Study: AIESEC Alumni Community
Alter-brand community is a voluntarily formed group in which community members “create the physical offering, author the text, generate the experience and evolve the brand meaning” as “prosumers” (Pitt et al., 2006, p. 119)—the producers and consumers are actually the same group (Cromie and Ewing, 2009, p. 219). Normally, members in an alter-brand community are selfmotivated to develop and co-create a brand and in turn embed further and wider meanings in the brand. In this essay, AIESEC alumni community will be analyzed as a representative alter-brand community. It will begin with an introduction of AIESEC and its alumni community, followed by a presentation about a new market offering—theme conferences focusing on social issues— contributed by the alumni community, then the implications that this market offering and the change in brand meaning have posed on AIESEC and its alumni community will be addressed in detail, and ends up with suggestions for future research. Established in 1948, AIESEC is currently the largest international youth-run organization in the world. It aims to provide young students with international platforms, mainly through international exchange and internship programs, to develop their leadership and internationalized vision in order to cultivate leaders for tomorrow (AIESEC, 2012; Richter and Schäfermeyer, 2011). AIESEC alumni community is a “specialized” and geographically boundary-free community (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001, p. 412) founded voluntarily in 1986 by several exAIESECers aiming to form a group for experience sharing and network building with any individual who has had any experience with