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Transition of self: Repositioning the celebrity brand through social media—The case of Elizabeth Gilbert
Journal of Business Research 69 (2016) 65–72
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Journal of Business Research
Transition of self: Repositioning the celebrity brand through social media—The case of Elizabeth Gilbert Raechel Johns a,⁎, Rebecca English b,1 a b
University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT 2601, Australia Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, 4059, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 1 September 2014 Received in revised form 1 February 2015 Accepted 1 April 2015 Keywords: Celebrity Celebrity brand Brand image Critical discourse analysis Social media Positioning Identity
a b s t r a c t Transitioning the personal brand from one representation to another is sometimes necessary, particularly within the public eye. Marketing literature regarding celebrities focuses on brand endorsement (see for example Till, 1998 or Erdogan, 1999), rather than the positioning of a celebrity brand. Furthermore, the role of social media in strengthening the celebrity brand has received limited attention in the literature outside of political marketing (see for example Crawford, 2009 and Grant, Moon and Grant, 2010). This study focuses on the brand of “Elizabeth Gilbert,” author of the bestseller memoir, Eat, Pray, Love (2006). Through critical discourse analysis, the way the author has used social media to reposition her celebrity brand at the time of the launch of her new novel, ‘The Signature of All Things’ (2013) is examined. This study focuses on the use of social media by celebrities to strengthen the celebrity brand. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The literature on celebrities has not focused on identity, despite transformation of a celebrity identity being important. Primarily the literature on marketing and celebrities focuses on celebrity endorsement of a brand. That is, an organization hires a celebrity to endorse a brand through the use of a product (e.g. An athlete wearing a particular item of clothing) or through testimonials in advertising (see for example Till, 1998 and Erdogan, Baker, & Tagg, 2001). Very limited attention has focused on the positioning on the celebrity and his or her representation alone (see Kerrigan, Brownlie, Hewer, & Daza-LeTouze, 2011 for an example of this). Furthermore, a literature search has indicated that no attention has focused on celebrity brands developed through the use of social media. The discussion in this paper, therefore, is focused on the positioning of a celebrity in the context of social media use and the transformation of this image of ‘self’. This paper examines the ways the celebrities, position themselves and their identity. It uses the theory of identity as a discourse to examine and the ways celebrities may position themselves through identity discourses to build a brand. Through the use of critical discourse analysis (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009), repositioning of a ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 6201 2726. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (R. Johns), [email protected] (R. English). 1 Tel.: +61 7 3138 3323.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.07.021 0148-2963/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
celebrity using a social media post is analyzed, with implications for marketers and marketing theory. In 2006, a bestseller memoir, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ was released, skyrocketing the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, into fame and media exposure. Academic researchers have explored ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ from a feminist perspective (Larasati, 2010), as well as neoliberal spirituality in females (Williams, 2011) and the focus on food (Olivier, 2012). ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ documents Gilbert's travels through Italy, India and Indonesia in an attempt to discover herself after her marriage collapse. Although Elizabeth Gilbert had written novels prior to her memoir, she was not particularly well-known. The memoir ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ made its way on to the New York Times' bestseller list, where it remained for over a year. In 2013, Gilbert released her first novel in 13 years, the first after the success of the memoirs (Alter, 2013). As critics reviewed her new novel, it became apparent that the celebrity, Elizabeth Gilbert, needed to reposition her personal brand from that of memoir writer back to that of novelist (Baum, 2013). To answer the research question “how can social media be utilised to position a personal brand?”, both literature and discussions in a Facebook community will be analyzed. This paper firstly examines literature on celebrities in marketing, including celebrity identity. Social media literature will then be discussed, to highlight ways to reposition a brand. The paper will then take a critical discourse analysis perspective to a social media post of Elizabeth Gilbert's, providing a contribution to the marketing literature.
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2. Celebrities and marketing—the literature Celebrity ‘meaning’ contributes toward the market's interpretation of the celebrity and, in the case of celebrity endorsement, can contribute toward brand associations. For example a ‘caring’ celebrity can result in the attribute of ‘caring’ being linked to the brand (McCracken, 1989), providing what is known as an ‘associative link’ (Klein, 1991). Celebrity endorsement is often used in promotional campaigns (Pringle, 2004), as it is believed that celebrities help break through advertising clutter (Magini, Honeycutt, & Cross, 2008), can be more memorable (Friedman & Friedman, 1979) and improve brand recognition (Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). The use of celebrity endorsement for health messages has been discussed in the literature (Chapman & Leask, 2001), including how celebrities experiencing health issues can result in an increase in screening (Chapman, McLeod, Wakefield, & Holding, 2005). In advertising, celebrities are known to capture the audience's attention (Misra & Beatty, 1990) and enhance memory of the brand (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995), ultimately contributing toward a positive perception of the product or brand (Misra & Beatty, 1990). The effective use of celebrities in promotion can improve a brand's competitive position (Till, 1998). Research exploring brand image has highlighted links between brand belief and celebrity endorsement (Batra & Homer, 2004) and their findings suggest that non-verbals are important in building brand imagery. In addition to the positivity about the role of celebrity endorsement, some skepticism surrounding celebrity endorsers has been examined, where consumers do not believe in the message from the celebrity endorser (Bailey, 2007). Although these varied studies have focused on celebrity endorsement, limited attention has been focused on the positioning of the celebrity as the brand itself. Celebrity through expertise has been considered in the literature – for example, expertise such as medical knowledge (Biswas, Biswas, & Das, 2006) or business skills (Boyle & Kelly, 2010). This celebrity through expertise focuses on someone who is not necessarily a celebrity, but can provide an expert opinion, offering testimonials. Through this role, they may become a celebrity or, at least, well-known.
3. Identity and celebrities In addition to celebrity endorsement, literature has considered celebrity identity. For example, Curnutt (1999) discusses the importance of authenticity and credibility in celebrity, on the basis of analyzing the work of author Gertrude Stein. He highlights the identity of author as celebrity and also the way media can be used to “fabricate and disseminate images of celebrity” (Curnutt, 1999: 305). Credibility of the celebrity image is also discussed by Tolson (2001) who explores the nature of ‘being yourself’. Tolson suggests that the ‘backstage’ focus provides fans with an indicator of the celebrity's private life, which may be manufactured to create an image. This fabrication of private life results in a dimension of the persona, enhancing credibility. Tolson (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of the way media can be used to demonstrate both the public and private life of a celebrity, in the creation of an authentic identity, or an identity perceived as authentic. The marketing literature, conversely, has focused on the celebrity identity in endorsing a brand (Till, 1998) and more recently has discussed relationships between the consumer and the celebrity (Banister & Cocker, 2014). Banister and Cocker (2014) suggest people develop relationships with celebrities akin to friendships and these ‘friendships’ can create influence in terms of purchase. Although this work does not specifically focus on the impact of the celebrity as the brand, it could be argued that the stronger the celebrity ‘brand’, the closer the friendship that could develop. In addition, the use of social media suggests a two-way communication between fan and celebrity, which may strengthen the fan's perception of a relationship.
The marketing literature, highlighting the advantages of celebrity endorsement may also apply to brand building. The advantages, identified by Erdogan et al. (2001), include: increased attention; image polishing; brand introduction; brand repositioning and underpinning global campaigns. Source credibility is based on attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise (Ohanian, 1990) and this credibility will also apply to the positioning of the celebrity as a brand. Halonen-Knight and Hurmerinta (2010) discuss the focus of celebrity as a brand, stating “as celebrities become brands, the original theories for explaining the persuasive process behind celebrity endorsement no longer provides a comprehensive view. Thus, a new perspective is needed: celebrity endorsers need to be considered as brands and consequently celebrity endorsement as one form of brand alliance” (p 457). Consequently, research is required exploring the celebrity brand. In particular, due to the increasing use of social media, it is important to consider how social media has been utilized to build the celebrity brand. Kerrigan et al. (2011) suggest that contemporary technologies can be used in celebrity brand building, and political marketing has utilized social media in strengthening the brand image of politicians (Crawford, 2009 and Grant, Moon, & Grant, 2010), but otherwise very limited attention has focused on the use of social media for the strengthening of the celebrity brand. 4. Social media The focus of celebrities represented in social media has been neglected by the academic literature to date. Despite the increased use of social media by celebrities, limited attention has been focused on the use of social media to position their brand image. Literature has focused on social media from a variety of perspectives. While researchers have explored the motivations of virtual community users (Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004 and Ridings, Gefen, & Arinze, 2002), the establishment of virtual communities by commercial businesses (Blanchard & Markus, 2004), life cycle (Alon, Brunel, & Schneier Siegal, 2004), trust (Abdul-Rahman & Hailes, 2000), the influence of social media on consumption (Johns & English, 2014) and even the social capital of knowledge sharing through social media (Chan, Bhandar, Oh, & Chan, 2004 and Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006), no attention has focused on celebrities and their representation on social media. Furthermore, there has been no theoretical agreement in the social media literature, as it is an emerging area of research. One theoretical framework proposed by Mangold and Faulds (2009) indicates that marketing communication has changed with the shift in reliance from traditional to social media. They indicate that traditional media is still being used by marketers, however social media is increasingly being used as it allows communication both from the organization to consumers but also between consumers. This inter consumer communication has been said to increase credibility. Similarly, an overall view of social media was Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011) ‘Honeycomb of Social Media’ (see Fig. 1). This provides a relevant perspective on social media: This figure indicates the functionality of social media in terms of some key areas: identity, presence, relationships, reputation, groups, conversations and sharing. While these functions occur in an offline group context, the online focus results in increased implications for the functionality. Online communities provide a space for open communication and contribute toward strengthening trust, because consumers prefer “to network with people who have interests and desires that are similar to their own” as a result, organizations are able to “leverage this desire by creating communities of like-minded individuals. These communities can center on shared interests and values” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009: 361). The like-minded nature of the members of the community means that social media is a powerful platform for encouraging
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Fig. 1. The honeycomb of social media. Source: Kietzmann et al., 2011.
purchasing behavior, as trust is present and conversation contributes to trust. The users in communities build relationships and groups through their use of social media (Kietzmann et al., 2011), and these relationships result in a co-creation between users. Social media use is popular for varying reasons related to social connections with new and existing contacts. One main reason may be the informal conversations that take place between friends, colleagues, business partners, and other contacts, resulting in relational and personal benefits (Zhao & Rosson, 2009). Users' personalities contribute to the way people interact on social media sites (Golbeck, Robles, & Turner, 2011), thereby contributing to the culture of the site. McNab (2009) states that social media users want to contribute to discussions and add value to the sites. Users of social media sites are seeking ways to participate and make a contribution toward the site's culture, progress and success. Over time, established community norms or ‘rules’ come into play, language is established, and a culture grows through time. Because of the importance of word of mouth in consumer-to-consumer communication, some brands develop an online strategy aimed at increasing word of mouth. A social media strategy is beneficial for an organization (Universal MCCann, 2009), as it can enhance relationships between organizations and stakeholders (Briones, Kuch, Liu, & Jin, 2011). Users tend to trust their networks, rather than marketers (Universal MCCann, 2009); therefore, user input into social media sites contributes to building credibility for the message and, ultimately, for the brand. This credibility has been in transition through the use of social media, as over a decade ago, trust was higher for static newspapers online and lower for online magazines and television shows with user input and interactive conversations (Kiousis, 2001). 5. Research objective Elizabeth Gilbert is a well-known memoir writer. Despite having written magazine articles and fiction prior to her autobiography, it was the memoir ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ which increased her popularity and made her a household name. Returning to her original roots as a fiction writer was a risky move given her audience of fans who commenced reading her work only once she became a memoir writer. This required a repositioning of her brand image. The objective of this research, therefore, was to explore how Elizabeth Gilbert developed her brand image at
the time of the launch of her 2013 novel, ‘The Signature of All Things’. The research is exploratory, exploring transformation through the use of social media, an under-researched area in the literature. 6. Method—critical discourse analysis As limited attention has been focused on celebrities and social media, exploratory research was utilized. To explore the way social media has been utilized by one celebrity, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) was undertaken. CDA is a method that examines the role of discourse in social practice (Diriker, 2004). It is concerned with relationships of causality and determination “between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes” (Fairclough, 2003: 135). Thus, the discourse practices that are of interest to CDA are: (a) evident in text and (b) related to wider cultural, social and relational processes. CDA's focus is with social situations, not with language itself (Titscher, Meyer, Wodak, & Vetter, 2000). It is concerned with the linguistic character of social and cultural processes through which discourses are constructed (Titscher et al., 2000). The specific type of CDA used by this paper is the discourse historical approach (DHA). The discourse historical approach (DHA) endeavors to “work with different approaches, multimethodically, and on the basis of a variety of empirical data as well as background information” (Wodak, 2001: 65). It applies multiple theories and methods to practical problems by examining the relationships between the symptoms (Wodak, 2002). Symptoms are defined as the evidence of discourse in social practice and are seen in the context of the discursive event, usually a linguistic utterance (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009). In the DHA, symptoms are the first stage of analysis. After exploring the symptoms, the second level of analysis is linguistic analysis, which describes the immediate context of the linguistic utterance (cf. Fairclough, 2004). At this level, there are several tools of analysis. In this paper, the tools of argumentation strategies, referential nomination and speakers’ perspectives are used. Argumentation is concerned with the argumentation strategies employed (Wodak, 2004). Referential nomination refers to the membership of specific groups that speakers assign to themselves and to others. Speakers' perspectives are the perspective offered by the speakers that reveals not only their bias but where they locate themselves in terms of specific narratives about a topic.
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The next level deals with theory (Wodak, 2004). This level examines broader socio-political and historical consequences that are embedded in the data (Wodak, 2004). In this paper, the theoretical level is concerned with theories of identity, both brand and individual. In order to examine how Elizabeth Gilbert was positioning herself to her fans in anticipation of the release of her novel, her Facebook page was monitored in the weeks prior to the launch of the new book. The author ‘chatted’ with fans through her Facebook page and did a countdown of days until the publication of the book ‘The Signature of All Things’. As the time elapsed, Elizabeth Gilbert posted photos of cakes, counting down the days, and also posted photographs of herself in various dresses worn to book reading events, allowing fans the opportunity to guess which dress she would wear to each event. Once the book was launched, the site was monitored closely, and one post, dealing with the identity of the memoirist and the author was analyzed. The post suggests Gilbert is revealing her identity, or brand image, as an author to her audience through social media. Facebook was selected as the social media site, as this is the author's main form of communication with her fans. One of the authors of this paper (Author 1) is a ‘fan’ of Elizabeth Gilbert, and follows the Facebook page. Author 1 conducted considerable analysis of Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook page prior to writing this paper. The other author (Author 2) had heard of the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ but had not read it, or known of Elizabeth Gilbert in any way. This meant that in the preliminary analysis there was some bias by Author 1 and therefore Author 2 conducted the analysis of the Facebook post, with no prior knowledge of Elizabeth Gilbert's identity or brand position. Author 1 supplied Author 2 with an electronic version of the post so that Author 2 did not need to visit Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook page. This ensured that Author 2's analysis of the post was based purely on the words used, rather than any other identity cues provided on the page. 7. Analysis Fig. 2 is the post placed by Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert on her Facebook page. The post was published on December 8, 2013. The numbers were added by the authors to support the analysis. This post was made available on 8 December, 2013. One month after the post, on 8 January, 2014, there were: 175 comments on the post, 184 ‘shares’ of the post (on people's own pages) and 1632 ‘likes’ of the post. The popularity of the post is a symptom that fans were engaging with the transformative identity Elizabeth Gilbert was creating for herself as memoirist and novelist. Referential/nomination is evident in several places in the text. It appears to work to position two groups, both the reader of Elizabeth Gilbert's books as well as authors, such as Elizabeth Gilbert. It is evident on line 7 where she uses the word ‘people’ for her readers and lines 8 and 10 in which she uses the word ‘they’. ‘People’ and ‘they’ are used to nominate her readers as a group who can be categorized as a homogenous category. In addition, Gilbert's post also nominates the position of the author. For example, on lines 24 and 33, she refers to the ‘writer’ and the ‘memoirist’ in the third person. The use of the third person suggests that there is a group of people who can be categorized as writers and as memoirists and, using the third person, nominates herself in this group separate from her readers. The use of the third person also suggests that Gilbert is able to distance herself from her personal beliefs and construct a truthful narrative about authors and writers. Argumentation is also evident. In much the same terms as her use of referential/nomination above, she uses argumentation to position herself as outside her personal beliefs and able to reveal a truth about herself. To illustrate, her choice of the word ‘herself’, in the third person on line 26, may be an attempt to give credence to her post because it takes the personal out of the statement and suggests Gilbert is able to step back and see her work impersonally and objectively. On line 26, the text states that she, as an author of fiction, “might very well accidentally reveal A LOT about herself”. The use of capitalization for A LOT is a type
of social media shorthand for shouting, which suggests she is emphasizing this point, thus she appears to argue that she reveals her true identity in the novel, perhaps more so than in the memoir for which she is famous. Further, on line 14, the text describes the “memoir [as] a very, very polished piece of sea glass”. The use of the phrase ‘sea glass’ suggests her work is both personal and able to be seen through, but it is weathered by the ocean of the writing style and genre. Finally speakers' perspectives are also evident in the text. The text refers to Gilbert as ‘I’ 20 times. These strategies position Gilbert in two ways, firstly as a person and also as a brand. In what follows, the personal and brand identity of Gilbert, as it is positioned through this text, are analyzed. This post, more broadly, indicates the importance of having fans perceive the novel to be at least as revealing as her memoir. 8. Elizabeth Gilbert: The cycle from fiction to memoir and back Analyzing the single Facebook post above enables researchers to gain a perspective on the positioning and repositioning of personal and brand identity. Gilbert's personal identity is positioned in particular ways in the text. Hall (1997: 608) argues that identity is “formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth”. Hall's work suggests that identity is not a finished thing, rather it is “an ongoing process … [arising from] … the ways we imagine ourselves to be seen by others” (Hall, 1997: 608). The use of references to herself, the author of both memoirs and novels, and the revealing of herself through the process, suggest Gilbert is hoping to construct an identity for herself through her writing, but this identity may not be her true identity. Similarly, the use of the argumentation strategy suggests she is endeavoring to position herself and her identity in particular ways. This identity was suggested through the use of speakers' perspectives in the third person, as well as in the nomination of herself as a writer and a memoirist which was a means of positioning herself in her novels as more truthful than in her memoir. Both Hall and Appadurai are key authors in the field of identity. Hall (1997) uses the word ‘imagine’ to describe the ways that individuals use identity positions to define themselves. For Appadurai (1996), imagination is central to the construction of an identity. He argues that imagination is work, drawn from a “specific, historically situated play of public and group opinions about the past” (Appadurai, 1996: 146). The term imaginations was used by Appadurai (1990) to refer to three major streams of thought, namely: (a) the idea of images, especially those that are mechanically produced; (b) the notion of an imagined community; and (c) the constructed landscape of aspirations reflected through images. Gilbert's social media posts are mechanically produced images which imagine a community or audience for her work as well as the community in which she resides. The post also alludes to the image Gilbert wants her readers to understand about her and her work. Gilbert's posting imagery of celebration cakes, countdown numbers and pictures of her in the dresses personalizes and naturalizes a relationship between the author and her audience. It implies that the audience can know her through her post; these images imagine a community for Gilbert's fans that is connected to Gilbert herself and is a constructed landscape of images that suggest the true Gilbert. However, it is likely to also be a polished piece of sea glass. Imagination has become a social practice that, in the sense that Appadurai (1990) described, has become ‘work’, so that it is no longer mere fantasy, escape, elite pastime or contemplation. Rather, imagination is “now central to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global order” (Appadurai, 1990: 5). The work of Appadurai suggests that, by imagining herself as a social actor in the way that Gilbert has in this post, she has constructed not only a personal identity but also a brand image for herself as an author. In the post, Elizabeth Gilbert appears to imagine and reimagine her identity as fixed in relation to the character of herself in Eat, Pray, Love while simultaneously imagining herself in relation to her fictional
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1 QUESTION OF THE DAY: What's the emotional difference between writing a 2 confessional memoir and writing a work of pure fiction? 3 4 SIMPLE ANSWER: Writing a novel is way more personal and revealing. 5 6 LONGER ANSWER: I've been asked this question a lot since "The Signature of All 7 Things" was published in October. And I think people are always surprised by my answer. 8 They (understandably) assume that the most vulnerable and exposing thing I ever wrote was 9 "Eat Pray Love". They want to know how I could possibly have shared such intimate details 10 about my life with the world, and they assume (again, understandably) that it was probably 11 a relief for me to then write an unrevealing novel of pure invention — to hide my true self, 12 as it is, behind fictional characters. 13 14 But here's the thing. My memoir is a very, very polished piece of sea glass. I didn't publish 15 several volumes of my private diaries, after all, but offered up a well-considered 16 compilation of stories about myself, all of them very carefully edited and selected. And 17 there is a great self-consciousness to writing a memoir: You must be extremely careful 18 about what you say not only about yourself, but also about other people. Also, as open and 19 honest as I tried to be with EPL, the fact remains that perhaps I don't know myself as well 20 as I think I do. (Who among us really knows ourselves?) I tried to be revealing, I tried to 21 show you exactly who I am...but maybe I am not who I think I am? Certainly legions of 22 other people see me differently than I see myself. 23 24 With a novel, on the other hand, the writer is lulled into this sense of safety and expansion 25 and utter liberty (thinking, "This has absolutely nothing to do with me, so I can go in any 26 direction I please!") and thus might very well accidentally reveal A LOT about herself. It 27 is only now, more than a year after finishing "The Signature of All Things" that I realize 28 how much of me is in there. Some of the most intimate details of my own deepest self 29 (things I would never dream of sharing in a memoir are) are casually littered all over this 30 novel — not only in the character of Alma, but in all the characters (all of whom, after all, 31 spring from different parts of myself.) 32 33 Think of it like a crime scene. The memoirist, aware of being watched, goes over each 34 page with white gloves and bleach, cleaning up every single bit of stray evidence. The 35 novelist, joyfully oblivious, leaves a trail of hair and fingernails and footprints and bits of 36 incriminating DNA all over her book. 37 Fig. 2. Post by Elizabeth Gilbert relating to the differences between memoirs and fiction.
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38 All of which is to say, as I have realized only very lately, you'll probably learn more a lot 39 more about me by reading "The Signature of All Things" than by reading "Eat Pray Love". 40 41 Crazy as it sounds. Crazy but true. 42 43 YIKES! 44 45 But there can be no art without revelation and vulnerability, my friends! To make art is 46 inherently to reveal. We must reveal courageously, even when we do it accidentally... 47 48 Happy reading, 49 LG
Fig. 2 (continued).
characters. At the same time, it seems she ‘others’ herself in relation to an identity position she has constructed in Eat, Pray, Love as a type of fiction disguised as fact. We see her as imagining her identity through the media scape, to construct a discourse of Elizabeth Gilbert the memoirist and author of fiction, where the reproduction of everyday life is becoming more difficult and complex (Appadurai, 1990). From a marketing perspective, sales may indeed increase through the promotion of the book in its revealing stance. Stating that the fiction work is more revealing and honest than a memoir urges those who were more interested in Elizabeth Gilbert, the person, to buy the book. The post reveals the ‘truth’ of her identity hidden in the character and by revealing it, as a secret, to all her Facebook fans, she is her encouraging her readers to believe something about the characters in the novel
being linked to her personal identity. This results in memoir fans becoming more interested in reading the novel as it is disguised as a type of memoir. Returning to the honeycomb of social media, it is possible to see that social media functionality applies in the celebrity context. Fig. 3 indicates the social media functionality on the left, with the altered functionality for celebrities on the right. As evident above, the social media functionality has been altered to fit into a celebrity brand building context. All aspects of the honeycomb of social media apply, however these must be expanded for the context of the reposition of the celebrity brand. In particular, identity is a key component because particular forms or discourses of identity are built through the use of sharing, conversations, presence, relationships, reputations and even groups.
Social media functionality applied: a celebrity branding context Fig. 3. Social media functionality applied in a celebrity branding context. Adapted from Kietzmann et al., 2011.
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9. Implications The Elizabeth Gilbert case study demonstrates a good example of a celebrity using social media to connect with her fans and therefore increase potential sales. In answering the research question ‘how can social media be utilised to position a personal brand?’, this study has also provided broader implications for marketers and for the literature. Firstly, for celebrity marketers there are implications about connecting with fans through the use of social media. Social media enables celebrities the opportunity to present themselves in a more personal way, increasing connection with their audience. For positioning of the celebrity, this allows fans the opportunity to personally converse with the celebrity, and therefore the celebrity is presented in such a way that they are more approachable and increase personal connections to the ‘brand’. The celebrity can utilize the first person when talking about themselves, but may also utilize the third person to demonstrate more objectiveness about themselves. Social media allows the celebrity the opportunity to provide a detailed, intentional and controlled post to their audience, while appearing casual and conversational at the same time. This is in direct contrast to a journalist written piece, in a magazine or newspaper, where the celebrity has little to no control over the content included in the article and which is a more formal piece of writing. Furthermore, social media enables the celebrity the chance to have an audience made up almost exclusively of fans, choosing to follow him or her. In contrast, a magazine or newspaper article may be read by people with little to no awareness or interest in the celebrity, and therefore must be written from a less personal perspective. Social media, therefore, gives celebrities an opportunity to present a particular controlled brand image to fans. The use of social media in this way may also create wider implications for marketers of all brands, in relation to both celebrity endorsement and also branding through social media. The conversation in social media enables buyers and potential buyers the ability to connect with the brand, in a similar way to connecting with the celebrity disguised as a real person doing identity work online. Furthermore, for any brands using celebrity endorsers, the opportunity presents itself for the sponsorship requirements to include conversation between the celebrity and the customers through the use of social media. For example, a soda brand with a celebrity endorser could require the celebrity to do a series of online chats during the promotional period, therefore connecting the fans to the celebrity and reinforcing the brand image of the soda, connected back to the celebrity. This would be particularly useful when the brand and celebrity are closely linked, such as an athlete endorsing sports products. Finally, for the academic literature on the use of celebrities in marketing, these findings have made a contribution toward understanding the use of social media in building a brand. Limited literature addresses the use of social media in building celebrity brands, and this paper provides an analysis of the use of social media. By examining just one specific posting, it has enabled the researchers the opportunity to critically analyze the words and phrasing used by the celebrity and how this represents the way her identity may be perceived by her audience. In particular, it is interesting to note the repositioning of her image through the use of the post. Further research could conduct similar studies with other celebrities, using critical discourse analysis to analyze words used in postings. Furthermore, research should empirically explore the benefits of social media on celebrity brand building. In terms of Elizabeth Gilbert, specifically, it would be useful to know what her sales figures were prior to the post and after the post, to determine whether sales increased through this specific post, highlighting to memoir readers that her novel was, in fact, revealing her personal identity. Finally, it would be useful to note how social media changes the different ‘friendships’ between fan and celebrity, identified by Banister and Cocker (2014). Despite the contribution toward understanding celebrity brand building and identity through social media, some limitations exist.
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Primarily the analysis explored just one post and although this is typical of the method of critical discourse analysis, it does limit the understanding of the author's brand identity in an overall sense. This was the objective of the research, however, to explore the use of social media in building the author's identity at the time of launch of her novel. Social media has impacted on communication and marketing considerably and can be used by both brands and celebrity brands to position and reposition their brand image and the celebrity identity, transforming beyond ‘self’. References Abdul-Rahman, A., & Hailes, S. (2000). Supporting trust in virtual communities. System aciences, 2000. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on, pages 9 pp. vol. 1. Agrawal, J., & Kamakura, W. A. (1995). The economic worth of celebrity endorsers—An event study analysis. 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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Business Research
Transition of self: Repositioning the celebrity brand through social media—The case of Elizabeth Gilbert Raechel Johns a,⁎, Rebecca English b,1 a b
University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT 2601, Australia Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, 4059, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 1 September 2014 Received in revised form 1 February 2015 Accepted 1 April 2015 Keywords: Celebrity Celebrity brand Brand image Critical discourse analysis Social media Positioning Identity
a b s t r a c t Transitioning the personal brand from one representation to another is sometimes necessary, particularly within the public eye. Marketing literature regarding celebrities focuses on brand endorsement (see for example Till, 1998 or Erdogan, 1999), rather than the positioning of a celebrity brand. Furthermore, the role of social media in strengthening the celebrity brand has received limited attention in the literature outside of political marketing (see for example Crawford, 2009 and Grant, Moon and Grant, 2010). This study focuses on the brand of “Elizabeth Gilbert,” author of the bestseller memoir, Eat, Pray, Love (2006). Through critical discourse analysis, the way the author has used social media to reposition her celebrity brand at the time of the launch of her new novel, ‘The Signature of All Things’ (2013) is examined. This study focuses on the use of social media by celebrities to strengthen the celebrity brand. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The literature on celebrities has not focused on identity, despite transformation of a celebrity identity being important. Primarily the literature on marketing and celebrities focuses on celebrity endorsement of a brand. That is, an organization hires a celebrity to endorse a brand through the use of a product (e.g. An athlete wearing a particular item of clothing) or through testimonials in advertising (see for example Till, 1998 and Erdogan, Baker, & Tagg, 2001). Very limited attention has focused on the positioning on the celebrity and his or her representation alone (see Kerrigan, Brownlie, Hewer, & Daza-LeTouze, 2011 for an example of this). Furthermore, a literature search has indicated that no attention has focused on celebrity brands developed through the use of social media. The discussion in this paper, therefore, is focused on the positioning of a celebrity in the context of social media use and the transformation of this image of ‘self’. This paper examines the ways the celebrities, position themselves and their identity. It uses the theory of identity as a discourse to examine and the ways celebrities may position themselves through identity discourses to build a brand. Through the use of critical discourse analysis (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009), repositioning of a ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 6201 2726. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (R. Johns), [email protected] (R. English). 1 Tel.: +61 7 3138 3323.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.07.021 0148-2963/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
celebrity using a social media post is analyzed, with implications for marketers and marketing theory. In 2006, a bestseller memoir, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ was released, skyrocketing the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, into fame and media exposure. Academic researchers have explored ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ from a feminist perspective (Larasati, 2010), as well as neoliberal spirituality in females (Williams, 2011) and the focus on food (Olivier, 2012). ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ documents Gilbert's travels through Italy, India and Indonesia in an attempt to discover herself after her marriage collapse. Although Elizabeth Gilbert had written novels prior to her memoir, she was not particularly well-known. The memoir ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ made its way on to the New York Times' bestseller list, where it remained for over a year. In 2013, Gilbert released her first novel in 13 years, the first after the success of the memoirs (Alter, 2013). As critics reviewed her new novel, it became apparent that the celebrity, Elizabeth Gilbert, needed to reposition her personal brand from that of memoir writer back to that of novelist (Baum, 2013). To answer the research question “how can social media be utilised to position a personal brand?”, both literature and discussions in a Facebook community will be analyzed. This paper firstly examines literature on celebrities in marketing, including celebrity identity. Social media literature will then be discussed, to highlight ways to reposition a brand. The paper will then take a critical discourse analysis perspective to a social media post of Elizabeth Gilbert's, providing a contribution to the marketing literature.
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2. Celebrities and marketing—the literature Celebrity ‘meaning’ contributes toward the market's interpretation of the celebrity and, in the case of celebrity endorsement, can contribute toward brand associations. For example a ‘caring’ celebrity can result in the attribute of ‘caring’ being linked to the brand (McCracken, 1989), providing what is known as an ‘associative link’ (Klein, 1991). Celebrity endorsement is often used in promotional campaigns (Pringle, 2004), as it is believed that celebrities help break through advertising clutter (Magini, Honeycutt, & Cross, 2008), can be more memorable (Friedman & Friedman, 1979) and improve brand recognition (Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). The use of celebrity endorsement for health messages has been discussed in the literature (Chapman & Leask, 2001), including how celebrities experiencing health issues can result in an increase in screening (Chapman, McLeod, Wakefield, & Holding, 2005). In advertising, celebrities are known to capture the audience's attention (Misra & Beatty, 1990) and enhance memory of the brand (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1995), ultimately contributing toward a positive perception of the product or brand (Misra & Beatty, 1990). The effective use of celebrities in promotion can improve a brand's competitive position (Till, 1998). Research exploring brand image has highlighted links between brand belief and celebrity endorsement (Batra & Homer, 2004) and their findings suggest that non-verbals are important in building brand imagery. In addition to the positivity about the role of celebrity endorsement, some skepticism surrounding celebrity endorsers has been examined, where consumers do not believe in the message from the celebrity endorser (Bailey, 2007). Although these varied studies have focused on celebrity endorsement, limited attention has been focused on the positioning of the celebrity as the brand itself. Celebrity through expertise has been considered in the literature – for example, expertise such as medical knowledge (Biswas, Biswas, & Das, 2006) or business skills (Boyle & Kelly, 2010). This celebrity through expertise focuses on someone who is not necessarily a celebrity, but can provide an expert opinion, offering testimonials. Through this role, they may become a celebrity or, at least, well-known.
3. Identity and celebrities In addition to celebrity endorsement, literature has considered celebrity identity. For example, Curnutt (1999) discusses the importance of authenticity and credibility in celebrity, on the basis of analyzing the work of author Gertrude Stein. He highlights the identity of author as celebrity and also the way media can be used to “fabricate and disseminate images of celebrity” (Curnutt, 1999: 305). Credibility of the celebrity image is also discussed by Tolson (2001) who explores the nature of ‘being yourself’. Tolson suggests that the ‘backstage’ focus provides fans with an indicator of the celebrity's private life, which may be manufactured to create an image. This fabrication of private life results in a dimension of the persona, enhancing credibility. Tolson (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of the way media can be used to demonstrate both the public and private life of a celebrity, in the creation of an authentic identity, or an identity perceived as authentic. The marketing literature, conversely, has focused on the celebrity identity in endorsing a brand (Till, 1998) and more recently has discussed relationships between the consumer and the celebrity (Banister & Cocker, 2014). Banister and Cocker (2014) suggest people develop relationships with celebrities akin to friendships and these ‘friendships’ can create influence in terms of purchase. Although this work does not specifically focus on the impact of the celebrity as the brand, it could be argued that the stronger the celebrity ‘brand’, the closer the friendship that could develop. In addition, the use of social media suggests a two-way communication between fan and celebrity, which may strengthen the fan's perception of a relationship.
The marketing literature, highlighting the advantages of celebrity endorsement may also apply to brand building. The advantages, identified by Erdogan et al. (2001), include: increased attention; image polishing; brand introduction; brand repositioning and underpinning global campaigns. Source credibility is based on attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise (Ohanian, 1990) and this credibility will also apply to the positioning of the celebrity as a brand. Halonen-Knight and Hurmerinta (2010) discuss the focus of celebrity as a brand, stating “as celebrities become brands, the original theories for explaining the persuasive process behind celebrity endorsement no longer provides a comprehensive view. Thus, a new perspective is needed: celebrity endorsers need to be considered as brands and consequently celebrity endorsement as one form of brand alliance” (p 457). Consequently, research is required exploring the celebrity brand. In particular, due to the increasing use of social media, it is important to consider how social media has been utilized to build the celebrity brand. Kerrigan et al. (2011) suggest that contemporary technologies can be used in celebrity brand building, and political marketing has utilized social media in strengthening the brand image of politicians (Crawford, 2009 and Grant, Moon, & Grant, 2010), but otherwise very limited attention has focused on the use of social media for the strengthening of the celebrity brand. 4. Social media The focus of celebrities represented in social media has been neglected by the academic literature to date. Despite the increased use of social media by celebrities, limited attention has been focused on the use of social media to position their brand image. Literature has focused on social media from a variety of perspectives. While researchers have explored the motivations of virtual community users (Dholakia, Bagozzi, & Pearo, 2004 and Ridings, Gefen, & Arinze, 2002), the establishment of virtual communities by commercial businesses (Blanchard & Markus, 2004), life cycle (Alon, Brunel, & Schneier Siegal, 2004), trust (Abdul-Rahman & Hailes, 2000), the influence of social media on consumption (Johns & English, 2014) and even the social capital of knowledge sharing through social media (Chan, Bhandar, Oh, & Chan, 2004 and Chiu, Hsu, & Wang, 2006), no attention has focused on celebrities and their representation on social media. Furthermore, there has been no theoretical agreement in the social media literature, as it is an emerging area of research. One theoretical framework proposed by Mangold and Faulds (2009) indicates that marketing communication has changed with the shift in reliance from traditional to social media. They indicate that traditional media is still being used by marketers, however social media is increasingly being used as it allows communication both from the organization to consumers but also between consumers. This inter consumer communication has been said to increase credibility. Similarly, an overall view of social media was Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011) ‘Honeycomb of Social Media’ (see Fig. 1). This provides a relevant perspective on social media: This figure indicates the functionality of social media in terms of some key areas: identity, presence, relationships, reputation, groups, conversations and sharing. While these functions occur in an offline group context, the online focus results in increased implications for the functionality. Online communities provide a space for open communication and contribute toward strengthening trust, because consumers prefer “to network with people who have interests and desires that are similar to their own” as a result, organizations are able to “leverage this desire by creating communities of like-minded individuals. These communities can center on shared interests and values” (Mangold & Faulds, 2009: 361). The like-minded nature of the members of the community means that social media is a powerful platform for encouraging
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Fig. 1. The honeycomb of social media. Source: Kietzmann et al., 2011.
purchasing behavior, as trust is present and conversation contributes to trust. The users in communities build relationships and groups through their use of social media (Kietzmann et al., 2011), and these relationships result in a co-creation between users. Social media use is popular for varying reasons related to social connections with new and existing contacts. One main reason may be the informal conversations that take place between friends, colleagues, business partners, and other contacts, resulting in relational and personal benefits (Zhao & Rosson, 2009). Users' personalities contribute to the way people interact on social media sites (Golbeck, Robles, & Turner, 2011), thereby contributing to the culture of the site. McNab (2009) states that social media users want to contribute to discussions and add value to the sites. Users of social media sites are seeking ways to participate and make a contribution toward the site's culture, progress and success. Over time, established community norms or ‘rules’ come into play, language is established, and a culture grows through time. Because of the importance of word of mouth in consumer-to-consumer communication, some brands develop an online strategy aimed at increasing word of mouth. A social media strategy is beneficial for an organization (Universal MCCann, 2009), as it can enhance relationships between organizations and stakeholders (Briones, Kuch, Liu, & Jin, 2011). Users tend to trust their networks, rather than marketers (Universal MCCann, 2009); therefore, user input into social media sites contributes to building credibility for the message and, ultimately, for the brand. This credibility has been in transition through the use of social media, as over a decade ago, trust was higher for static newspapers online and lower for online magazines and television shows with user input and interactive conversations (Kiousis, 2001). 5. Research objective Elizabeth Gilbert is a well-known memoir writer. Despite having written magazine articles and fiction prior to her autobiography, it was the memoir ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ which increased her popularity and made her a household name. Returning to her original roots as a fiction writer was a risky move given her audience of fans who commenced reading her work only once she became a memoir writer. This required a repositioning of her brand image. The objective of this research, therefore, was to explore how Elizabeth Gilbert developed her brand image at
the time of the launch of her 2013 novel, ‘The Signature of All Things’. The research is exploratory, exploring transformation through the use of social media, an under-researched area in the literature. 6. Method—critical discourse analysis As limited attention has been focused on celebrities and social media, exploratory research was utilized. To explore the way social media has been utilized by one celebrity, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) was undertaken. CDA is a method that examines the role of discourse in social practice (Diriker, 2004). It is concerned with relationships of causality and determination “between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes” (Fairclough, 2003: 135). Thus, the discourse practices that are of interest to CDA are: (a) evident in text and (b) related to wider cultural, social and relational processes. CDA's focus is with social situations, not with language itself (Titscher, Meyer, Wodak, & Vetter, 2000). It is concerned with the linguistic character of social and cultural processes through which discourses are constructed (Titscher et al., 2000). The specific type of CDA used by this paper is the discourse historical approach (DHA). The discourse historical approach (DHA) endeavors to “work with different approaches, multimethodically, and on the basis of a variety of empirical data as well as background information” (Wodak, 2001: 65). It applies multiple theories and methods to practical problems by examining the relationships between the symptoms (Wodak, 2002). Symptoms are defined as the evidence of discourse in social practice and are seen in the context of the discursive event, usually a linguistic utterance (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009). In the DHA, symptoms are the first stage of analysis. After exploring the symptoms, the second level of analysis is linguistic analysis, which describes the immediate context of the linguistic utterance (cf. Fairclough, 2004). At this level, there are several tools of analysis. In this paper, the tools of argumentation strategies, referential nomination and speakers’ perspectives are used. Argumentation is concerned with the argumentation strategies employed (Wodak, 2004). Referential nomination refers to the membership of specific groups that speakers assign to themselves and to others. Speakers' perspectives are the perspective offered by the speakers that reveals not only their bias but where they locate themselves in terms of specific narratives about a topic.
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The next level deals with theory (Wodak, 2004). This level examines broader socio-political and historical consequences that are embedded in the data (Wodak, 2004). In this paper, the theoretical level is concerned with theories of identity, both brand and individual. In order to examine how Elizabeth Gilbert was positioning herself to her fans in anticipation of the release of her novel, her Facebook page was monitored in the weeks prior to the launch of the new book. The author ‘chatted’ with fans through her Facebook page and did a countdown of days until the publication of the book ‘The Signature of All Things’. As the time elapsed, Elizabeth Gilbert posted photos of cakes, counting down the days, and also posted photographs of herself in various dresses worn to book reading events, allowing fans the opportunity to guess which dress she would wear to each event. Once the book was launched, the site was monitored closely, and one post, dealing with the identity of the memoirist and the author was analyzed. The post suggests Gilbert is revealing her identity, or brand image, as an author to her audience through social media. Facebook was selected as the social media site, as this is the author's main form of communication with her fans. One of the authors of this paper (Author 1) is a ‘fan’ of Elizabeth Gilbert, and follows the Facebook page. Author 1 conducted considerable analysis of Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook page prior to writing this paper. The other author (Author 2) had heard of the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ but had not read it, or known of Elizabeth Gilbert in any way. This meant that in the preliminary analysis there was some bias by Author 1 and therefore Author 2 conducted the analysis of the Facebook post, with no prior knowledge of Elizabeth Gilbert's identity or brand position. Author 1 supplied Author 2 with an electronic version of the post so that Author 2 did not need to visit Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook page. This ensured that Author 2's analysis of the post was based purely on the words used, rather than any other identity cues provided on the page. 7. Analysis Fig. 2 is the post placed by Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert on her Facebook page. The post was published on December 8, 2013. The numbers were added by the authors to support the analysis. This post was made available on 8 December, 2013. One month after the post, on 8 January, 2014, there were: 175 comments on the post, 184 ‘shares’ of the post (on people's own pages) and 1632 ‘likes’ of the post. The popularity of the post is a symptom that fans were engaging with the transformative identity Elizabeth Gilbert was creating for herself as memoirist and novelist. Referential/nomination is evident in several places in the text. It appears to work to position two groups, both the reader of Elizabeth Gilbert's books as well as authors, such as Elizabeth Gilbert. It is evident on line 7 where she uses the word ‘people’ for her readers and lines 8 and 10 in which she uses the word ‘they’. ‘People’ and ‘they’ are used to nominate her readers as a group who can be categorized as a homogenous category. In addition, Gilbert's post also nominates the position of the author. For example, on lines 24 and 33, she refers to the ‘writer’ and the ‘memoirist’ in the third person. The use of the third person suggests that there is a group of people who can be categorized as writers and as memoirists and, using the third person, nominates herself in this group separate from her readers. The use of the third person also suggests that Gilbert is able to distance herself from her personal beliefs and construct a truthful narrative about authors and writers. Argumentation is also evident. In much the same terms as her use of referential/nomination above, she uses argumentation to position herself as outside her personal beliefs and able to reveal a truth about herself. To illustrate, her choice of the word ‘herself’, in the third person on line 26, may be an attempt to give credence to her post because it takes the personal out of the statement and suggests Gilbert is able to step back and see her work impersonally and objectively. On line 26, the text states that she, as an author of fiction, “might very well accidentally reveal A LOT about herself”. The use of capitalization for A LOT is a type
of social media shorthand for shouting, which suggests she is emphasizing this point, thus she appears to argue that she reveals her true identity in the novel, perhaps more so than in the memoir for which she is famous. Further, on line 14, the text describes the “memoir [as] a very, very polished piece of sea glass”. The use of the phrase ‘sea glass’ suggests her work is both personal and able to be seen through, but it is weathered by the ocean of the writing style and genre. Finally speakers' perspectives are also evident in the text. The text refers to Gilbert as ‘I’ 20 times. These strategies position Gilbert in two ways, firstly as a person and also as a brand. In what follows, the personal and brand identity of Gilbert, as it is positioned through this text, are analyzed. This post, more broadly, indicates the importance of having fans perceive the novel to be at least as revealing as her memoir. 8. Elizabeth Gilbert: The cycle from fiction to memoir and back Analyzing the single Facebook post above enables researchers to gain a perspective on the positioning and repositioning of personal and brand identity. Gilbert's personal identity is positioned in particular ways in the text. Hall (1997: 608) argues that identity is “formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth”. Hall's work suggests that identity is not a finished thing, rather it is “an ongoing process … [arising from] … the ways we imagine ourselves to be seen by others” (Hall, 1997: 608). The use of references to herself, the author of both memoirs and novels, and the revealing of herself through the process, suggest Gilbert is hoping to construct an identity for herself through her writing, but this identity may not be her true identity. Similarly, the use of the argumentation strategy suggests she is endeavoring to position herself and her identity in particular ways. This identity was suggested through the use of speakers' perspectives in the third person, as well as in the nomination of herself as a writer and a memoirist which was a means of positioning herself in her novels as more truthful than in her memoir. Both Hall and Appadurai are key authors in the field of identity. Hall (1997) uses the word ‘imagine’ to describe the ways that individuals use identity positions to define themselves. For Appadurai (1996), imagination is central to the construction of an identity. He argues that imagination is work, drawn from a “specific, historically situated play of public and group opinions about the past” (Appadurai, 1996: 146). The term imaginations was used by Appadurai (1990) to refer to three major streams of thought, namely: (a) the idea of images, especially those that are mechanically produced; (b) the notion of an imagined community; and (c) the constructed landscape of aspirations reflected through images. Gilbert's social media posts are mechanically produced images which imagine a community or audience for her work as well as the community in which she resides. The post also alludes to the image Gilbert wants her readers to understand about her and her work. Gilbert's posting imagery of celebration cakes, countdown numbers and pictures of her in the dresses personalizes and naturalizes a relationship between the author and her audience. It implies that the audience can know her through her post; these images imagine a community for Gilbert's fans that is connected to Gilbert herself and is a constructed landscape of images that suggest the true Gilbert. However, it is likely to also be a polished piece of sea glass. Imagination has become a social practice that, in the sense that Appadurai (1990) described, has become ‘work’, so that it is no longer mere fantasy, escape, elite pastime or contemplation. Rather, imagination is “now central to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global order” (Appadurai, 1990: 5). The work of Appadurai suggests that, by imagining herself as a social actor in the way that Gilbert has in this post, she has constructed not only a personal identity but also a brand image for herself as an author. In the post, Elizabeth Gilbert appears to imagine and reimagine her identity as fixed in relation to the character of herself in Eat, Pray, Love while simultaneously imagining herself in relation to her fictional
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1 QUESTION OF THE DAY: What's the emotional difference between writing a 2 confessional memoir and writing a work of pure fiction? 3 4 SIMPLE ANSWER: Writing a novel is way more personal and revealing. 5 6 LONGER ANSWER: I've been asked this question a lot since "The Signature of All 7 Things" was published in October. And I think people are always surprised by my answer. 8 They (understandably) assume that the most vulnerable and exposing thing I ever wrote was 9 "Eat Pray Love". They want to know how I could possibly have shared such intimate details 10 about my life with the world, and they assume (again, understandably) that it was probably 11 a relief for me to then write an unrevealing novel of pure invention — to hide my true self, 12 as it is, behind fictional characters. 13 14 But here's the thing. My memoir is a very, very polished piece of sea glass. I didn't publish 15 several volumes of my private diaries, after all, but offered up a well-considered 16 compilation of stories about myself, all of them very carefully edited and selected. And 17 there is a great self-consciousness to writing a memoir: You must be extremely careful 18 about what you say not only about yourself, but also about other people. Also, as open and 19 honest as I tried to be with EPL, the fact remains that perhaps I don't know myself as well 20 as I think I do. (Who among us really knows ourselves?) I tried to be revealing, I tried to 21 show you exactly who I am...but maybe I am not who I think I am? Certainly legions of 22 other people see me differently than I see myself. 23 24 With a novel, on the other hand, the writer is lulled into this sense of safety and expansion 25 and utter liberty (thinking, "This has absolutely nothing to do with me, so I can go in any 26 direction I please!") and thus might very well accidentally reveal A LOT about herself. It 27 is only now, more than a year after finishing "The Signature of All Things" that I realize 28 how much of me is in there. Some of the most intimate details of my own deepest self 29 (things I would never dream of sharing in a memoir are) are casually littered all over this 30 novel — not only in the character of Alma, but in all the characters (all of whom, after all, 31 spring from different parts of myself.) 32 33 Think of it like a crime scene. The memoirist, aware of being watched, goes over each 34 page with white gloves and bleach, cleaning up every single bit of stray evidence. The 35 novelist, joyfully oblivious, leaves a trail of hair and fingernails and footprints and bits of 36 incriminating DNA all over her book. 37 Fig. 2. Post by Elizabeth Gilbert relating to the differences between memoirs and fiction.
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38 All of which is to say, as I have realized only very lately, you'll probably learn more a lot 39 more about me by reading "The Signature of All Things" than by reading "Eat Pray Love". 40 41 Crazy as it sounds. Crazy but true. 42 43 YIKES! 44 45 But there can be no art without revelation and vulnerability, my friends! To make art is 46 inherently to reveal. We must reveal courageously, even when we do it accidentally... 47 48 Happy reading, 49 LG
Fig. 2 (continued).
characters. At the same time, it seems she ‘others’ herself in relation to an identity position she has constructed in Eat, Pray, Love as a type of fiction disguised as fact. We see her as imagining her identity through the media scape, to construct a discourse of Elizabeth Gilbert the memoirist and author of fiction, where the reproduction of everyday life is becoming more difficult and complex (Appadurai, 1990). From a marketing perspective, sales may indeed increase through the promotion of the book in its revealing stance. Stating that the fiction work is more revealing and honest than a memoir urges those who were more interested in Elizabeth Gilbert, the person, to buy the book. The post reveals the ‘truth’ of her identity hidden in the character and by revealing it, as a secret, to all her Facebook fans, she is her encouraging her readers to believe something about the characters in the novel
being linked to her personal identity. This results in memoir fans becoming more interested in reading the novel as it is disguised as a type of memoir. Returning to the honeycomb of social media, it is possible to see that social media functionality applies in the celebrity context. Fig. 3 indicates the social media functionality on the left, with the altered functionality for celebrities on the right. As evident above, the social media functionality has been altered to fit into a celebrity brand building context. All aspects of the honeycomb of social media apply, however these must be expanded for the context of the reposition of the celebrity brand. In particular, identity is a key component because particular forms or discourses of identity are built through the use of sharing, conversations, presence, relationships, reputations and even groups.
Social media functionality applied: a celebrity branding context Fig. 3. Social media functionality applied in a celebrity branding context. Adapted from Kietzmann et al., 2011.
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9. Implications The Elizabeth Gilbert case study demonstrates a good example of a celebrity using social media to connect with her fans and therefore increase potential sales. In answering the research question ‘how can social media be utilised to position a personal brand?’, this study has also provided broader implications for marketers and for the literature. Firstly, for celebrity marketers there are implications about connecting with fans through the use of social media. Social media enables celebrities the opportunity to present themselves in a more personal way, increasing connection with their audience. For positioning of the celebrity, this allows fans the opportunity to personally converse with the celebrity, and therefore the celebrity is presented in such a way that they are more approachable and increase personal connections to the ‘brand’. The celebrity can utilize the first person when talking about themselves, but may also utilize the third person to demonstrate more objectiveness about themselves. Social media allows the celebrity the opportunity to provide a detailed, intentional and controlled post to their audience, while appearing casual and conversational at the same time. This is in direct contrast to a journalist written piece, in a magazine or newspaper, where the celebrity has little to no control over the content included in the article and which is a more formal piece of writing. Furthermore, social media enables the celebrity the chance to have an audience made up almost exclusively of fans, choosing to follow him or her. In contrast, a magazine or newspaper article may be read by people with little to no awareness or interest in the celebrity, and therefore must be written from a less personal perspective. Social media, therefore, gives celebrities an opportunity to present a particular controlled brand image to fans. The use of social media in this way may also create wider implications for marketers of all brands, in relation to both celebrity endorsement and also branding through social media. The conversation in social media enables buyers and potential buyers the ability to connect with the brand, in a similar way to connecting with the celebrity disguised as a real person doing identity work online. Furthermore, for any brands using celebrity endorsers, the opportunity presents itself for the sponsorship requirements to include conversation between the celebrity and the customers through the use of social media. For example, a soda brand with a celebrity endorser could require the celebrity to do a series of online chats during the promotional period, therefore connecting the fans to the celebrity and reinforcing the brand image of the soda, connected back to the celebrity. This would be particularly useful when the brand and celebrity are closely linked, such as an athlete endorsing sports products. Finally, for the academic literature on the use of celebrities in marketing, these findings have made a contribution toward understanding the use of social media in building a brand. Limited literature addresses the use of social media in building celebrity brands, and this paper provides an analysis of the use of social media. By examining just one specific posting, it has enabled the researchers the opportunity to critically analyze the words and phrasing used by the celebrity and how this represents the way her identity may be perceived by her audience. In particular, it is interesting to note the repositioning of her image through the use of the post. Further research could conduct similar studies with other celebrities, using critical discourse analysis to analyze words used in postings. Furthermore, research should empirically explore the benefits of social media on celebrity brand building. In terms of Elizabeth Gilbert, specifically, it would be useful to know what her sales figures were prior to the post and after the post, to determine whether sales increased through this specific post, highlighting to memoir readers that her novel was, in fact, revealing her personal identity. Finally, it would be useful to note how social media changes the different ‘friendships’ between fan and celebrity, identified by Banister and Cocker (2014). Despite the contribution toward understanding celebrity brand building and identity through social media, some limitations exist.
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