... interviews, observations, videos, photographs and secondary data) to study how they reconstructed their lives with a brand. Findings Consumers transform their existence through a distinctive form of brand appropriation that the authors call brand magnification, which unfolds: materially, narratively...

... provide a differentiation tool, aiding resisting organisations to compensate for their lack of resources. Originality/value While the appropriation practices that communities use to ensure distinction are well documented, there is little understanding of the journey that negatively contested practices...