CONSUMER TRIBES: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS IN A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY OF BRAND

Abstract

With the main objective to verify how the set of social representations builds the meaning of tribes at a virtual community of brand, this netnographic study analyzed in a virtual community called peladeiro.com, the discourses patterns that reflecting the feelings. The analysis was based on the intensity of interactions between Insiders and Devotees, where, in the Theory of Social Representations, the process of anchoring originated the Collective Subject Discourse. It became clear in that community, a tribal behavior dependent on the informal soccer game, where the found elements emerged from the social relations of virtual community that transform it in a tribe.

Keywords
Theory of social representations; Consumer tribes; The collective subject discourse; Netnography