1. One Brand, Many Trajectories: Narrative Navigation in Transmedia
- Author
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Dina Rasolofoarison, Cristel Antonia Russell, Hope Jensen Schau, Stephanie Feiereisen, Montpellier Business School, Dauphine Recherches en Management (DRM), Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Pepperdine University, Partenaires INRAE, and University of Arizona
- Subjects
Marketing ,Economics and Econometrics ,05 social sciences ,ComputingMilieux_PERSONALCOMPUTING ,L - Industrial Organization::L8 - Industry Studies: Services::L82 - Entertainment ,Media ,050109 social psychology ,narrative transportation ,JEL: L - Industrial Organization/L.L8 - Industry Studies: Services/L.L8.L82 - Entertainment • Media ,JEL: M - Business Administration and Business Economics • Marketing • Accounting • Personnel Economics/M.M3 - Marketing and Advertising/M.M3.M31 - Marketing ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Aesthetics ,Anthropology ,0502 economics and business ,[SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration ,050211 marketing ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Narrative ,brand storytelling ,Business and International Management ,narrative brand ,Psychology ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS - Abstract
In an era of unprecedented consumer access to media and the tools to control narrative delivery, speed, and exposure to transmedia content, there is no longer the illusion of a cohesive narrative managed by a recognized singular author or unified authorial voice. Instead, consumers carve their own trajectories through brand narratives. Our multimethod inquiry of television series viewing, based on a combination of interviews, diaries, video recordings followed by member-check interviews and online forum analyses, identifies two key forces that guide narrative navigation: how consumers manage a text’s gravitational pull and its permeability to transmedia content. We find that consumers shape their own trajectories by adopting and/or moving between nine documented narrative positions. This more nuanced understanding of narrative consumption in a transmedia environment offers new insights for the study of narrative brand spaces and brand storytelling.
- Published
- 2021