This chapter outlines a non-violent ethical approach to human brand co-creation. By analyzing the relationships between influencer brands and their followers on the brand platforms goop and Yoga Girl, the contribution demonstrates how such approach challenges a number of key assumptions prevalent in the brand co-creation literature. First, it suggests that the relation between human brands and followers is non-oppositional and relational. Second, the approach challenges the idea of the autonomous human brand by suggesting that its existence depends on institutional arrangements and structural conditions. Third, it poses a critique against brand co-creation practices relying on exploiting followers' need for recognition and provides means of how to resist the reproduction of norms of success and wellbeing according to market mediated claims of tolerance and interdependency. The main implication of the non-violent approach is that human brands and their followers have relationally defined institutional responsibilities towards one another and society.
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Front Matter
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Part I: THE ONTOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY OF BRAND CO-CREATION
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Part II: CO-CREATION OF INTANGIBLE BRAND ASSETS
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Part III: CO-CREATION OF BRAND OFFERINGS
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Part IV: ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF BRAND CO-CREATION
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Part V: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF BRAND CO-CREATION
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Part VI: CASE STUDIES ON BRAND CO-CREATION
