Brand management y tribu consumidora: un estudio de marcas de surf

Abstract

The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to understand the implications that consumer tribes constitute for brands in general, and for brand management in particular. Specifically, this project studies the Spanish surfers and their possible implications regarding the brands related to the surfing sport that they consume. The aim is to examine whether the existence of consumer tribes truly affects brands, their conceptualization and their management and, in that case, describing what kind of consequences and relationships are established between brands and tribes. To this end, in addition to reviewing the academic literature available on brand management, tribal branding and surfing, different research methods of a qualitative nature have been combined in order to contrast the hypotheses and answer the research questions. On the one hand, 11 indepth interviews were conducted with experts in the management of surf brands operating in the Spanish market, and, on the other hand, 4 focus groups were held with a total of 29 participants from those Spanish areas where the practice of surfing has a greater presence, that is, the area of the north coast of Spain. However, and in order to offer a study as representative as possible, we have chosen the north western area of Spain in La Coruña, the north central area of the Cantabrian in Asturias and the northernmost eastern part of the Cantabrian in the Basque Country. Likewise, the representativeness of Andalusia has been contemplated with a group held on the beach of El Palmar (Cádiz), which, due to its wide exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, is the beach that receives the most favorable waves for surfing in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The results indicate that the study of Spanish surfing consumers under the conceptual perspective of the consumer tribe is inadequate. The main reason for this inadequacy is that Spanish surfers do not configure themselves around an emotional bond that reveals the existence of a linking value. In this sense, it is possible that Spanish surfers can be studied under a sociological approach close to their configuration as an urban tribe, to manifest characteristics of this concept as their own style presented through specific identifying features, and a sense of ritual evidenced in the routine actions of individuals when it comes to surfing.