Global Conference 2019

It has been around half a century since enthography was used for consumer research by Sidney Levy (1959). With the development of information technique and social networks, netnography, which is suitable for online environment, is gaining increasing popularity among researchers, from consumer research to marketing management.

Firstly, this paper gives a general overview of netnography. It includes explaining the development process of netnography, comparing it with traditional ethnography, and analyzing its merits and demerits.

Secondly, this paper discusses the application of network ethnography in the field of marketing communication from both theoretical and practical perspectives. In the theoretical part, this paper reviews the previous research results from the perspective of Pragmatic and Critical respectively. Based on the framework of Kozinets (2015), relevant research is divided into four types: Auto, Symbolic, Digital and Humanist. Then each type is introduced one by one. In the practical part, this paper analyses how enterprises and marketing consultancies apply netnography to the actual marketing practices.

Thirdly, based on reviewing the existing achievements, this paper points out the research opportunities of netnography in the field of consumption culture and consumer behavior in the future.

At last, this paper summarizes the problems that may arise in the operation of netnography, such as ethical issues (i.e. informed consent) and value orientation (i.e. whether the research orientation should be based on the enterprise or the public) to provide implications for the future application of netnography in marketing communication area.