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

Social Construction of Meaning:
On the Notion of Africa as a Continental Brand
Penelope Muzanenhamo, Warwick Business School, UK
Temi Abimbola, Warwick Business School, UK
Abstract
This exploratory study seeks to advance the notion of a continental brand. Construing brands as clusters of meanings,
we draw on the paradigm of social construction to inquire into the constitutional processes through which ideas and
conceptual categories associated with a continent are established as its accepted universal interpretations. Through
netnography, we investigate the virtual discourses of two online communities that relate to the continent of Africa. Our
selection of Africa as the object of inquiry is partly motivated by the growing interest in place branding, and in part,
fuelled by some academic inquisitiveness concerning the ontology of brands in the era of co-creation. The research
findings reveal that despite immense diversity, Africa is ascribed with collective meanings as a continent, which derive
from experiences with the continent and/or its associated semiotic entities. We also highlight the attitudes communities
appear to develop towards the continent, based on their meaning perception. Our study is deemed relevant in its
endeavour to stress the concept ‗continental brand‘, and accounting for the conceivable development of such brand in
the era of virtually embedded brand meaning co-creation.
Key words: Continental brand, brand meaning, social construction, online communities, virtual discourse.
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