Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

The Life Cycle of Mavens
Lynne Freeman, School of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Luke Greenacre, School of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Natalie Herenda, The Australian Institute of Music, Australia
Abstract
The importance of the role of Mavens in driving both brand and product success is widely recognised in both academic
and industry circles (Walsh, Gwinner, & Swanson, 2004). Whilst considerable knowledge has been gained regarding
their individual behaviour and their motivations to act as social leaders and pseudo brand ambassadors little if any of the
previous research has examined the effect of time (Brancaleone & Gountas, 2006; Feick & Price, 1987; Hazelwood,
Lawson, & Aitken, 2009). An important part of employing mavens in marketing strategy is that their use and integration
must be sustainable. The relationships formed with mavens must be long term, yet little is known about how maven
behaviour forms and evolves over time.
Drawing on parallels with theories of the product life cycle this paper explores the life cycle of a maven. Long term
mavens were identified within the Sydney rave community. This context was chosen due to its highly diverse social
structure and membership offering representative results of much larger communities (Goulding & Shankar, 2004). In
addition, the behaviour of members of the rave community are similar to those in other branded communities. This
offers generalisability to other brand types.
In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 subjects, of which 2 have been selected for analysis here. The in-depth
interviews adopted a co-creationist approach to knowledge generation providing extensive insight into the phases a
maven goes through from market novice to fully emerged maven and beyond. The scope of this paper extends the focus
of present research to include an examination of the transition away from this critical social role (Elliott, Watson, &
Harries, 2002). The co-creation method involved peer based interviews by junior researchers highly integrated with the
relevant music culture and social scene (Silverman, 2006). Peers offered the ability to obtain a much greater depth of
knowledge as raving was, and in many regards still is, an underground phenomenon that often uses illegal behaviour to
obtain venues and run parties or ‗raves‘ (Elliott, et al., 2002). Peers provided a trust essential for successful data
collection.
Upon review of the interviews a number of clear phases in a maven‘s life cycle were identified. The phases of the
maven life cycle are: (1) initial social inclusion, where the future maven enters a brand community through relational
bonds; (2) becoming a punter, during which the future maven gains acceptance and integrates into the community; (3)
social leading, where the maven starts to emerge as a dominant social figure in the community; (4) phenomenon
leading, instead of focusing on leading the people in the brand community the maven starts to emphasise the
advancement of the foci of the social scene, that is, the brand; (5) phenomenon drift, which involves the maven starting
to expand beyond the initial brand that is focus of the social scene to explore parallel brands with their associated ideas
and phenomenon; and (6) shifting, the eventual move of the maven to a new branded community that allows them to
reflect a new personal focus, that the maven views as reaching their ‗maturity‘. These phases chart the evolutionary
process of mavens within a social and branded community. The main theoretical bases for the transitions between each
phase are the maven‘s desire for control and socialisation, both of which form essential foundations for identity
construction.
The desire for control and socialisation played a critical role in motivating the maven to pursue a new part of their life
cycle. In early stages of the maven life cycle the desire for socialisation is critical. It forms the necessary basis for social
cohesion to form and a social structure to emerge. By phase three though the impact of a desire for control emerges with
the maven seeking control over their own social environment. This results in them taking a leadership role within the
brand community. By phase four the desire for socialisation begins to decrease at the same time as the desire for control
is increasing. This sees the maven refocus away from controlling the community to controlling the phenomenon which
is the focus of the community, the brand. As the desire for socialisation continues to diminish, the bonds with the
original community start to break freeing the maven to drift into parallel communities where they still retain control
over the brand phenomenon that is the focus of their personal interest. This dual role of socialisation and control marks
a considerable departure from literature that considers both social and control processes. Literature largely only
considers how a social group exerts control over individuals. Socially dysfunctional behaviour, such as criminal acts,
and how community pressures can be used to reduce or control such behaviour is often the primary focus of the
research (Warner, Beck, & Ohmer, 2010). In this case the social status of the maven allows them to exert control over
the community providing a stark contrast to this literature. It suggests that when an individual has social status the
direction of control can invert. The data also suggests that with this focus the maven can inadvertently bring about the
destruction of the very phenomena or brand they have engaged with.
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