– This study aims to examine the influence of fashion blogs on consumer brand preferences and investigate the emergence of “communities of style” associated with combinations of fashion brands.
– This study undertakes a netnography of Swedish fashion blogs, applying an ethnographic approach to information posted on the Internet.
– Right now, there are probably more people in Sweden reading or posting on a fashion blog than there are reading a newspaper. There were greater than 60 Swedish fashion blogs generating greater than 10,000 visits a week back in August 2009; ten of them each generated greater than 100,000 visits a week. It is an increasingly global phenomenon – the location of choice for internationally known elite fashion bloggers. This is a consumer-driven information platform publicizing the brand choices made by stylish people to an international audience – a development with considerable implications for fashion industry marketers.
– This study focuses on the Swedish blog network. Future research could use a similar netnographic approach to identify international communities of style and relate them to the global fashion industry.
– The study draws attention to the way this development shifts power over brand meaning toward consumers and away from marketers.
– The study shows that fashion blogs can demonstrate all the characteristics of a community and can communicate with and influence a wide audience.
– The study highlights the use of style as a way to bring consumers together in virtual communities involving the selection and combination of multiple brands.
