Discursive Brand Solidarisation - An Action Net Perspective

This article combines literature on consumer brand engagement with Action Net Theory in order to understand the discursive construction of brand solidarisation in the case of a traditional, national chocolate producer. Brand-related online discourse reveals four main discursive threads that solidarise through setting boundaries to the object of solidarisation, discussing who to solidarise with and how, and linking solidarisation to market mechanisms and grand societal and political discourse. These findings suggest going beyond individual engagement behaviour and add a social level of solidary action to engagement literature. Complementary discourse attempts to nonsolidarise or terminate solidarisation.