The flash mob movements in London, UK
The perceptions and attitudes of participants and audience towards the urban movement in relation to the commercial use of this urban movement
©2009
Masterarbeit
143 Seiten
Zusammenfassung
Inhaltsangabe:Abstract:
Flash mobs are an urban movement in which it seems that random people meet at a random place and do something out of the ordinary to amuse people as well as to make them think, What just happened? They begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as participation in real life, and with the growing popularity of flash mobs, corporations are starting to use this urban movement for commercial purposes. This research seeks to understand the perceptions and attitudes of both participants and the audience of flash mobs and will also examine the impact that commercial use has on this movement. The research is divided into three parts.
The first part involves interviewing the audience of an actual flash mob organized by the author in London and will examine their perceptions towards the event they have just watched.
The second part involves a questionnaire sent out to the general public, including a video of a real flash mob and a video of a commercialized flash mob. This questionnaire is divided into two parts, whether the interviewee knows what a flash mob is or not.
The third part of the research involves interviewing the participants of the flash mob movement and examining their perceptions towards the commodification of the flash mobs by a corporation and the possible impacts of this commercialization on the urban movement.
The analysis shows that the majority of the interviewees can detect the commodification of the real flash mob and the agents see the possibility that the urban movement may become mainstream through the commercial use by corporations. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents:
AbstractIII
Table of ContentsIV
List of Figures1
List of Appendices2
Introduction3
1.Literature Review5
Chapter Outline5
Flash mob5
The development of a flash mob6
Word-of-mouth7
Viral Marketing9
Online Communities11
Community Marketing12
Authenticity13
2.Research Methods17
Chapter outline17
Problem Statement19
Objectives of this research19
Defining the Research Method21
Philosophies23
Data analysis27
Limitations27
Ethics27
3.Empirical Findings & Analysis28
Chapter outline28
Audience survey28
General public survey29
General Public A29
General Public B42
Agent Survey54
4.Conclusion & Recommendations81
Chapter outline81
Conclusion81
Recommendations83
Future Research83
References List84
Appendices87 Textprobe:Text Sample:
Chapter 2, Philosophies:
This part of the research onion consists of […]
Flash mobs are an urban movement in which it seems that random people meet at a random place and do something out of the ordinary to amuse people as well as to make them think, What just happened? They begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as participation in real life, and with the growing popularity of flash mobs, corporations are starting to use this urban movement for commercial purposes. This research seeks to understand the perceptions and attitudes of both participants and the audience of flash mobs and will also examine the impact that commercial use has on this movement. The research is divided into three parts.
The first part involves interviewing the audience of an actual flash mob organized by the author in London and will examine their perceptions towards the event they have just watched.
The second part involves a questionnaire sent out to the general public, including a video of a real flash mob and a video of a commercialized flash mob. This questionnaire is divided into two parts, whether the interviewee knows what a flash mob is or not.
The third part of the research involves interviewing the participants of the flash mob movement and examining their perceptions towards the commodification of the flash mobs by a corporation and the possible impacts of this commercialization on the urban movement.
The analysis shows that the majority of the interviewees can detect the commodification of the real flash mob and the agents see the possibility that the urban movement may become mainstream through the commercial use by corporations. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents:
AbstractIII
Table of ContentsIV
List of Figures1
List of Appendices2
Introduction3
1.Literature Review5
Chapter Outline5
Flash mob5
The development of a flash mob6
Word-of-mouth7
Viral Marketing9
Online Communities11
Community Marketing12
Authenticity13
2.Research Methods17
Chapter outline17
Problem Statement19
Objectives of this research19
Defining the Research Method21
Philosophies23
Data analysis27
Limitations27
Ethics27
3.Empirical Findings & Analysis28
Chapter outline28
Audience survey28
General public survey29
General Public A29
General Public B42
Agent Survey54
4.Conclusion & Recommendations81
Chapter outline81
Conclusion81
Recommendations83
Future Research83
References List84
Appendices87 Textprobe:Text Sample:
Chapter 2, Philosophies:
This part of the research onion consists of […]
Leseprobe
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Thomas Töppel
The flash mob movements in London, UK
The perceptions and attitudes of participants and audience towards the urban movement
in relation to the commercial use of this urban movement
ISBN: 978-3-8366-4103-6
Herstellung: Diplomica® Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2010
Zugl. London Metropolitan University, London, Deutschland, MA-Thesis / Master, 2009
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II
Acknowledgments
The progress of finishing my thesis has been long and difficult. The topic has changed a few
times until I finally decided with the support of my tutor and mentor, Mr. Justin Lance, to
finish my thesis on the topic of the flash mob movement. Many people have inspired and
encouraged me in finishing it, and I will attempt to express my feelings to them.
Firstly, I would like to thank Mr. Justin Lance, as he helped me developing this research and
gave me throughout the research guidelines and supervision. I would not have been able to
finish this research without his support.
Secondly, I would like to thank my family, who not only provided me the opportunity to do my
Master in London but also gave me a lot of spiritual succor throughout my study.
Thirdly, I would like to thank all my friends and relatives for their support, especially Jennifer
O'Bryan, who has been a great help already during my Bachelor Thesis and again for my
Master Thesis.
III
Abstract
Flash mobs are an urban movement in which it seems that random people meet at a random
place and do something out of the ordinary to amuse people as well as to make them think,
"What just happened?" They begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as
participation in real life, and with the growing popularity of flash mobs, corporations are
starting to use this urban movement for commercial purposes. This research seeks to
understand the perceptions and attitudes of both participants and the audience of flash mobs
and will also examine the impact that commercial use has on this movement. The research is
divided into three parts.
The first part involves interviewing the audience of an actual flash mob organized by the
author in London and will examine their perceptions towards the event they have just
watched.
The second part involves a questionnaire sent out to the general public, including a video of
a real flash mob and a video of a commercialized flash mob. This questionnaire is divided
into two parts, whether the interviewee knows what a flash mob is or not.
The third part of the research involves interviewing the participants of the flash mob
movement and examining their perceptions towards the commodification of the flash mobs
by a corporation and the possible impacts of this commercialization on the urban movement.
The analysis shows that the majority of the interviewees can detect the commodification of
the real flash mob and the agents see the possibility that the urban movement may become
mainstream through the commercial use by corporations.
IV
Table of Contents
Declaration
... I
Acknowledgments
...II
Abstract
...III
Table of Contents
... IV
List of Figures
...1
List of Appendices
...2
Introduction
...3
1.
Literature Review
...5
Chapter Outline
...5
Flash mob
...5
The development of a flash mob
...6
Word-of-mouth
...7
Viral Marketing
...9
Online Communities
... 11
Community Marketing
... 12
Authenticity
... 13
2.
Research Methods
... 17
Chapter outline
... 17
Problem Statement
... 19
Objectives of this research
... 19
Defining the Research Method
... 21
Philosophies
... 23
Data analysis
... 27
Limitations
... 27
Ethics
... 27
3.
Empirical Findings & Analysis
... 28
Chapter outline
... 28
Audience survey
... 28
General public survey
... 29
General Public A
... 29
General Public B
... 42
Agent Survey
... 54
4.
Conclusion & Recommendations
... 81
Chapter outline
... 81
Conclusion
... 81
Recommendations
... 83
Future Research
... 83
References List
... 84
Appendices
... 88
1
List of Figures
Fig. 1 Real/Fake Matrix ... 14
Fig. 2 Conceptual Framework ... 19
Fig. 3 Research Onion ... 23
Fig. 4 - Do you know what a flash mob is? ... 30
Fig. 5 Ethnicity of General Public A ... 31
Fig. 6 Martial Status of General Public A ... 32
Fig. 7 Age of General Public A ... 33
Fig. 8 Finishing full-time education of General Public A ... 34
Fig. 9 Occupation of General Public A ... 35
Fig. 10 Gender of General Public A ... 36
Fig. 11 Inspiration of General Public A ... 40
Fig. 12 Authentic video, General Public A ... 41
Fig. 13 Ethnicity of General Public B ... 42
Fig. 14 Martial Status of General Public B ... 43
Fig. 15 Finishing full-time education of General Public B ... 44
Fig. 16 Occupation of General Public B ... 45
Fig. 17 Age of General Public B ... 46
Fig. 18 Gender of General Public B ... 47
Fig. 19 Inspiration of General Public B ... 51
Fig. 20 Authentic video, General Public B ... 52
Fig. 21 Ethnicity of Agents ... 53
Fig. 22 Martial Status of Agents ... 54
Fig. 23 Finishing full-time education of Agents ... 55
Fig. 24 Occupation of Agents ... 56
Fig. 25 Age of Agents ... 57
Fig. 26 Gender of Agents ... 58
Fig. 27 Length being an Agent ... 59
Fig. 28 Amount of Pranks ... 61
Fig. 29 Effect of Banner advertisement ... 62
Fig. 30 flash mobs organized in UPN ... 63
Fig. 31 T-Mobile dance is a real flash mob ... 64
Fig. 32 Sound of Music is a real flash mob ... 65
Fig. 33 Positive impact by T-Mobile ... 66
Fig. 34 T-Mobile made flash mobs mainstream ... 67
Fig. 35 flash mobs are now less original ... 68
Fig. 36 T-Mobile is a fake reproduction... 69
Fig. 37 T-Mobile has made the public more interested in flash mobs ... 70
Fig. 38 Association with T-Mobile is positive ... 71
Fig. 39 Losing interest in flash mobs ... 72
Fig. 40 Encouragement to join the flash mob movement because of the T-Mobile dance ... 73
Fig. 41 Number increase of agents in UPN is positive ... 74
Fig. 42 Feeling special being part of the unique movement ... 75
Fig. 43 T-Mobile has made the unique activity more commercial ... 76
List of Appendices
Appendix 1 Questionnaire for the Audience of a real flash mob
... 88
Appendix 2 Questionnaire for the General Public
... 90
Appendix 3 Online Questionnaire for Agents
... 100
Appendix 4 Responses of General Public A
... 109
Appendix 5 Responses of General Public B
... 117
Appendix 6 Responses of Agents
... 131
3
Introduction
Flash mobs have been introduced by Charlie Todd, who is based in New York City, USA and
the largest as well as the most flash mob happened since its first appearance in 2003 in New
York City but the movement spread around the world and flash mobs happen also in London.
The flash mob movement is an urban movement whose activities, as practiced in the UK, are
primarily staged by full-time, single students between the ages of 16 and 20 in London.
Flash mobs are usually done for leisure purposes without any overarching philosophy, but
corporations have seen a potential in using this movement for commercial purposes. Due the
fact that no research has been done to examine what effect this commercialization has on
the movement, the following Problem Statement has been developed:
Problem Statement
Combining the purposes of this research with the gaps in the literature review, the following
problem statement has been composed:
Does the use of Urban Movements in a commercial context alter the perception and attitudes
of the participants and audience towards the Urban Movement?
This statement includes several issues, which will be discussed separately. Therefore, the
following research questions have been compiled in order to answer these issues.
Objectives of this research
1. To explain the nature of the flash mobs
2. To examine the difference in perceptions of the audience at the actual event and the
general public, interviewed via e-mail, in order to see if the commercialization of the
original flash mob by T-Mobile has an impact on the agents and the real flash mob
3. To analyze the different perceptions related to the demographics and what influence
a commodification has on the real flash mob
4
The following research is based on the following conceptual framework, which will be
discussed in detail in the Research Methods:
As aforementioned, the research contains three sample groups: the audience at an actual
flash mob, the general public interviewed by a questionnaire sent out via e-mail, and
participants of the flash mob movement in London, UK.
5
1. Literature Review
Chapter Outline
Flash mobs begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as participation in real life.
This section will give information about the history and development of flash mobs. Flash
mobs combine various attributes of new media, such as viral marketing, which is the online
equivalent of word-of-mouth; online communities; and community marketing. These
attributes will be discussed in this section. Flash mobs have been used by corporations such
as T-Mobile and the Belgian TV station vtm. This section will also discuss authenticity and
commodification to give an understanding of how and also why something perceived as
"authentic" has been commodified by the industry.
Flash mob
Charlie Todd is one of the founders of the flash mob phenomenon, and according to an
interview with "New York Magazine" in June 2008, the idea started after he moved to New
York City in 2001. A flash mob, generally speaking, is a ,,spontaneous" gathering of people,
,,suddenly" doing something very unusual or even weird. A definition by the New York Times
is "a rotating cast of comedians, actors and other interested participants that travels around
New York to carry out what he (Charlie Todd) calls "missions" bizarre, anonymous
happenings such as staffing the restroom of Midtown McDonald's with a bathroom attendant,
or performing a synchronized swimming routine in the fountain at Washington Square Park."
(ImprovEverywhere: 2009). Other examples of flash mobs are pillow fights, freezing in place
for a predetermined amount of time, and no pants rides on tubes.
To spread the word about his new movement, Todd created ImprovEverywhere, a web site
with pictures, movies and reviews about past flash mobs. In the beginning, he used a mailing
list, which users subscribed to through the ImprovEverywhere homepage, to send e-mails
with information about possible and confirmed flash mobs and to ask for responses to get an
idea about how many people would participate (ImprovEverywhere: 2009). Later on, Todd
designed another web site, "The Urban Prankster Network" (UPN), in which anyone can
subscribe for free as a member and become active in flash mobs. With this web site, Todd's
idea spread around the world. Within the UPN, every member gets a personal profile and
may become a member of one or more existing groups, is able to create a new group and
can discuss within these groups past, current or future flash mobs.
6
The development of a flash mob
The pillow fight in Trafalgar Square in London on December 6, 2008, will be used as an
example of how the idea of a flash mob became a reality.
Three agents and members of UPN used this network to establish the idea of a pillow fight
by exchanging e-mails. Issues discussed were date, time, meeting place and place of the
actual event. Some of this information was posted in the London group at UPN, telling all
agents the theme of the flash mob ("pillow fight"), the date and time of the event, and the
meeting place. The meeting place did not match the place of the actual event, as is typical in
flash mob planning. As discussed earlier, flash mobs give the impression of a seemingly
random group of people, who appear to have nothing in common, coming together to
undertake a seemingly random activity, which is one the reasons why there are two places.
Another reason is to give organizers the opportunity to explain how the event will unfold and
to ensure participants are all on board. In this example, two female agents were asked to
start an argument to draw attention from the public and to start the pillow fight when the
argument reached its climax, which then was the sign for the other agents, standing around
Trafalgar Square and pretending to be part of the real audience, to join in.
Thirty agents participated in this event. The organizers published the details of the event
three weeks in advance on UPN and on Facebook. The interest in this event seemed to be
very high, especially because the number of members in the Facebook group quickly grew to
300.
The pillow fight in Trafalgar Square lasted for five minutes and the agents disappeared into
the audience from where they had come.
Flash mobs are highly dependable on the Internet and in the online community (UPN). This
online community brings people together who have nothing or very little in common to do
something extraordinary. Within online communities, the communication, coordination and
the economies are different to actual life, where people talk face-to-face (Smith, Kollock,
:2001), flash mobs combine both. Flash mobs begin as a communication in cyberspace and
end as participation in real life. Random people meet to have one thing in common: to create
a flash mob.
7
Word-of-mouth
Word-of-Mouth (WoM) is said to be "the world's first form of marketing" (Fiore: 2000). People
have seen, experienced or have heard something which was in their opinion worth telling
other people, one of the most efficient ways to do marketing.
Sernovitz (2006) defines WoM as "Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and
making it easier for that conversation to take place." There is even a WoM association, which
defines it as "The Art and Science of building active, mutually, beneficial consumer-to-
consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications." Another very brief definition is
"Everything you can do to get people talking" (Sernovitz: 2006).
WoM is a marketing tool, consisting of at least two people, interacting directly with each
other. These two parties have within the conversation different roles, one party is the
communicator or also called opinion leader (Litvin:2007), whereas the other party is the
receiver. These roles may change during the conversation. Direct feedback can be given due
to the deep relation, between the participating parties, this interaction is characterized. In
case there are arising questions during the conversation (Dressler: 2008), WoM can answer
them directly, whereas answering questions directly is almost impossible by using the viral
marketing tool as this takes part in the emotional free cyberspace, which means there is no
face-to-face conversation and therefore no personal interaction between the parties is
possible.
Reasons for people/consumers to use WoM are mainly to share positive or negative feelings
associated with a product and/or service but elements such as satisfaction, pleasure, and
sadness are also motivations for consumers to share their experiences with others
(Litvin:2007).
There are two types of mediating variables to WoM: the first variable influences the message
originator and the second variable influences the listener. An example could be customers of
a bank. If the customers have been treated nicely by the employees, it is more likely that
customers spread positive WoM about the firm (Litvin:2007).
8
Concluding, WoM happens on a daily basis and can be either positive or negative and
companies have a limited influence on WoM. In general it can be said that negative WoM is
usually worse than positive WoM because negative news tend to spread much faster than
positive ones. Even though WoM in its original sense is still very important to firms, a new
form of WoM has evolved through the development of the Internet. Viral marketing will be
discussed in the following chapter.
9
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing as a term is new compared to other marketing strategies. It was developed in
the late 1990s and is used for carefully prepared information, published online and with the
purpose that people talk about it. The term viral marketing is used for marketing campaigns
within the World Wide Web and arose from the word ,,virus", as this marketing strategy is
used to spread as fast as a virus. The efficiency and effectiveness of communication can be
improved by marketers in cyberspace as well as new ways on how to reach customers,
simply because of the possibilities the Internet provides. It is much easier for marketers to
reach its target groups, i.e. within platforms such as Facebook, and marketers have the
possibility to reach people around the world within a very short time. Viral marketing includes
all informal communications (provider-consumer and consumer-consumer) directed at
consumers through Internet-based technology (Litvin: 2007).
Compared to other marketing strategies, viral marketing is a new strategy for organizations
to advertise and promote their products and/or services by using the traditional WoM
marketing strategy in the relatively new environment of the World Wide Web (Lagner:2007).
Cyberspace offers new platforms for communication, such as Instant Messaging, online
meeting places such as Facebook or MySpace and Twitter. The communication between the
consumer and the provider can be much easier and faster as well as with the communication
between consumer and consumer (Litvin:2007).
If an organization creates a marketing campaign that grabs the attention of potential
customers and they then spread the campaign further without any influence from the
organization, the organization is making use of viral marketing (Epstein: 2006). The concept
of viral marketing is to spread exponentially (Langner: 2007).
Viral marketing uses the phenomenon of online interpersonal influence (Litvin:2007), which is
the spreading of information and the personal interactions among consumers in the virtual
world.
10
Within a very short time, a very large amount of people know about the service, product or
any other information a company wants to spread. The disadvantage of viral marketing
comes with the same context. It cannot be directed as other marketing strategies typically
are, and that is why viral marketing is nowadays still questioned. This marketing strategy only
affects a specific target group, which have to be reached somehow and therefore the way of
transmission has to be chosen very carefully (Epstein: 2006).
There are different ways to use viral marketing. Some are synchronous, such as the use of
Instant Messengers (IM) and others are asynchronous, such as e-mails and blogs
(Litvin:2007). Firms can use e-mails, IM's and blogs to spread their messages as tools.
There are many more ways to spread the message, such as banner advertisement on web
sites; pop-up windows; and creating groups on online communities, such as Facebook or
MySpace.
Concluding, viral marketing is the online equivalent to WoM with the same positive or
negative impacts on a company. Both WoM and viral marketing spread exponentially, the
main difference between those two is the speed of spreading the word. With the help of the
Internet and its tools, a message can reach within seconds a massive number of people
around the world, through i.e. mass e-mails, whereas it takes much longer with the original
WoM. As stated above, viral marketing has an effect on a specific target. That is why
companies use online communities to promote their products/services in order to reach their
target group. Online communities will be defined in the following chapter.
11
Online Communities
The term community is rather comprehensive and is used to describe a gathering of people
for a certain purpose. This community stays together only as long as there is sufficient
information, inspiration or social dynamic. Despite this, members of a community have a
major location in common and/or an organization, by which a common cause is represented
(Bryan: 2004). Communities can be characterized by having similar issues but can be very
different, caused by specialization. These principles of the real world are very much the
same in cyberspace (Keillor: 2007).
The first definition for an online community was done by Rheingold in 1993 in his book "The
Virtual Community", stating "virtual communities are cultural aggregations that emerge when
enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace". This very broad definition
has been more and more specified over the years. A more detailed definition of online
communities is a "group of people, that may or may not meet together face-to-face, and who
exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards, chat rooms, or
other electronic network mechanisms" (Piskurich: 2003). It can be said that the definition of
the term ,,online communities" becomes more specific over the years also due the
development of new possibilities in cyberspace, such as communication devices (Instant
Messaging, Facebook, MySpace) which die not exist in the early 1990's.
The first approaches to cluster definitions about online communities were done by Wilberg in
2004 into three groups. The first group, containing the broadest definition of online
communities: "a descriptor of a group of people who share characteristics and interact in
essence or effect only". This definition is not used any more due to its superficiality. The
second group, clustered by Wilberg, is mainly related to "computer-mediated discourse
spaces". It can be argued that this definition is difficult because online communities cannot
be equated with community spaces because one happens in the cyberspace and the other in
the real world. The third group defines online communities as "a set of individuals with
partially overlapping personal social networks tied together by computer technology" (Wilber:
2004).
After defining viral marketing as a marketing strategy and online communities in general, the
next chapter will take a look into the implementation of viral marketing in online communities.
12
Community Marketing
The following paragraph discusses the ways of advertising in (online-) communities.
Community marketing consists of two parts. The first part deals with the so-called ,,opinion
leader" and the second part addresses the market via communities (Beltz et al.: 2007). The
main purpose is to build a trustworthy contact to the potential customer. The ,,opinion leader"
is transferring information from the organization to the community, therefore they can be also
described as ,,door opener" to the communities (Belz et al.: 2007). ,,Opinion leader" can be
described as persons with a high level of respect, are innovation driven and even trend-
setters. The most important aspect for community marketing is that the opinion leader knows
exactly how to get access to the communities and what the best way is to communicate with
the members of the community.
Arguably, forwarding information by using WoM in the real world and viral marketing in
cyberspace plays an essential role for community marketing. Furthermore, it can be said that
the success factor is highly dependent on how much the community is attracted to the
marketing campaign. A possibility to increase the success factor is to foster WoM and/or the
viral marketing.
In general, it can be argued that large communities with an interlaced network have the best
condition for WoM or viral marketing, independent of which medium of communication is
used (Beltz et al.: 2007), but the quality of the networks used within the community
influences WoM and viral marketing in quality and speed, which enables or hinders proper
community marketing.
The opinion leader plays an important role in community marketing. This person needs to be
convinced of the service and/or product to become a successful campaign. Only if the
opinion leader is convinced, the community can be convinced. The product and/or service
needs to fulfill two criteria. It needs to have community potential and it needs to be adjusted
to a specific community (target group). If these two criteria are not met, the success of the
campaign is very likely doomed to fail (Belz et al.: 2007).
Having explained the marketing strategies and the ways to use them online, the following
chapters will take a closer look at the flash mobs and the use of those in a commercial way,
i.e. by T-Mobile. First of all, authenticity will be explained in order to distinguish between what
is real and what is fake, or commodified, explained in the following chapter.
13
Authenticity
According to Pine & Gilmore (2007) people see the world today in terms of real and fake
because of the shift to the Experience Economy. The reason for buying or not buying goods
or services depends on how real the consumer perceives these goods or services.
An example of defining Authenticity is: "Authenticity is a quest for that unity between the self
and the societal institutions, which endowed pre-modern existence with reality" (Berger, in
Cohen, 1988). Authenticity does not mean being authentic but depends on the perception of
the viewer as to its authenticity. A commodified area like the centre of Brussels can be
perceived as authentic by the visitor, even though it has been commodified by the city by
refurbishing the inner city from a grey, dark place into a bright and golden but still old-looking
centre. This relates to the ,,front and back regions", where a ,,front region" is the meeting
place of hosts and guests, and the ,,back region" is the place where local people retire
between performances to relax and prepare (Kadijk: 2000). Urry (1990) argues that particular
fascination is shown to the viewer (i.e. tourist) in the real live others, which somehow
possess a reality that is hard to discover in their own experiences. In today's modern world, it
can be difficult to differentiate between what is real and what is fake. Tourists on a safari
might think they are travelling to an authentic place and meeting authentic tribes with
authentic traditional costumes and dances but in reality those tourists might only see the
,,front stage". An example of this is the Hula Dance in Hawaii, at least those Hula dances the
tourists see. The core of the thing or activity usually stays the same but if commodified (see
commodification), it loses its authenticity, even though the viewer may sees it as authentic.
Concluding it can be said that a continuum leading from complete authenticity, through
various stages of partial authenticity to complete falseness exist (Cohen: 1988). Authenticity
can also be very subjective. The tourist watching a commodified Hula dance, perceives it as
authentic, therefore the perceptions of the receiver plays an important role.
14
Pine & Gilmore (2007) established the "Real/Fake Matrix" (see Fig. 1), a 2x2 Matrix including
all stages from totally real and authentic (real-real) to absolutely fake (fake-fake) and the
stages in between, real-fake and fake-real.
Fig.
1
Real/Fake Matrix
The two axes are, according to Pine & Gilmore (2007), the two standards of authenticity. It
compares the relationship of the company and its goods and services"Is what you offer true
to itself and to your company?" and the relationship between the company and its customers-
-"Is what you offer what you say it is and not false to any customer?"
Due the fact that this Matrix can be easily misleading and the fake-real and real-fake can be
switched around by arguing, the author decided to focus only on the real and the fake issues.
Even though ImprovEverywhere is not a company in the original sense of directly selling a
product or service to consumers, it still offers a service to its "customers", i.e., the agents.
ImprovEverywhere offers the possibility of fun to its members/customers but receives no
direct financial benefit by doing so. Therefore, the flash mobs done by ImprovEverywhere are
real, whereas the flash mobs done by T-Mobile and vtm are fake. The T-Mobile dance has
nothing to do with the products and services of T-Mobile. Furthermore did T-Mobile and vtm
use the original idea of a flash mob for their own promotion, arguably it is a reproduction of a
real event.
15
Companies like T-Mobile in the UK and the Belgium Television vtm used the original,
authentic flash mob to promote their brands. Authenticity can be related to Pine & Gilmore's
four realms of Experience: Entertainment, Education, Esthetics, and Escapism. As
mentioned above, the world today is about real and fake, if people are entertained by
something extraordinary, i.e. a dance, suddenly happening at a public train station, are
educated by that entertainment (the brand and its goods and services), are immersed in the
environment by that event, and can escape from their daily routine, and be it just for a some
minutes, either in real life or in front of the television, radio or computer, the real/fake
perception vanishes and fake may become real and vice versa.
The use of something real and authentic and changing it to be more attractive, i.e. for
customers, is called commodification, which will be explained in the next chapter.
16
Commodification
The definition of commodify according to the Oxford English Dictionary is "the action of
turning something into, or treating something as a mere commodity; commercialization of an
activity, etc., that is not by nature commercial." In other words, something which is unique
and accessible to only a few people can be transformed into a mass product. These unique
things or activities are special and according to Strasser (2003), the transformation into a
mass product can get a culture into trouble because it may looses its uniqueness. Another
definition was made by Watson and Kopachevsky (1994): ,,a process by which objects and
activates come to be evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange value in context of trade,
in addition to any use-vale that such commodities might have", in other words, things or
activities are looked at by the industry and tried to commercialize it if possible to gain profit.
Examples therefore are the city centre of Brussels, the Hula dance in Hawaii and the flash
mob. All three examples existed in their original form as part of the natural evolution of
cultures but their authenticity was commodified to gain profit.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) defines commodification in terms of
tourism as: ,,Tourism can turn local cultures into commodities when religious rituals,
traditional ethnic rites and festivals are reduced and sanitized to conform to tourist
expectations, resulting in what has been called 'reconstructed ethnicity' (UNEP: 2002)".
Commodification of things or activities may bring profit, maybe even for a whole region but
the authenticity of this thing or activity might be lost forever.
The process of commodification can be found almost everywhere, simply because
consumers seek authenticity, not only in tourism but more and more in their daily life. In
tourism, cultural elements are sold as commodities, implying that marketing and
advertisement play a role in commodification. T-Mobile and vtm commodified the original
idea of the flash mob to promote and advertise their brand. Advertising is said to be the most
powerful instrument of commodification (Watson and Kopachevsky: 1994) and can create
specific sign-values for commodities, something T-Mobile particularly is trying to achieve with
its slogan "Life is for sharing" in combination with the company's commodified flash mob in
which hundreds of artists performed a musical dance at Liverpool Street Station in London.
The message of T-Mobile seemed to be that only with T-Mobile will you be able to share
extraordinary experiences with your loved ones.
17
2. Research Methods
Chapter outline
In the following section, the research methods will be explained. First, a conceptual
framework will be presented, which visually illustrates the research. Next, based on the
literature review, the problem statement and objectives of the research are outlined. The
research design follows, including how the sample groups were defined and which research
methods have been used to collect the data. Furthermore, the limitations of the research
methods are delineated and ethical issues are discussed.
Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is the most important, most difficult and weakest part of most
research (Veal, 1997: 44). Veal (1997) describes that a conceptual framework is about
concepts, it puts the pieces together and reflects the big picture of the research. Additionally,
he claims that it should reflect relationships between the different concepts. The main
concepts studied in this research are the ideas of flash mobs, its development and the
commodification of the original flash mobs. Since the research takes place in London, UK,
everything is focused on the flash mobs in London. The main concept studied in this
research is the flash mob and the impact on it due to commodification. The conceptual
framework can be seen in Figure 2.
There are three parties identified: the viewers of the (commodified) flash mob, the industry
and the agents. All parties have some impact on the effect of the original flash mob.
18
Fig.
2
Conceptual Framework
19
Problem Statement
Combining the purposes of this research with the gaps in the literature review, the following
problem statement has been composed:
Does the use of Urban Movements in a commercial context alter the perception and attitudes
of the participants and audience towards the Urban Movement?
This statement includes several issues, which will be discussed separately. Therefore, the
following research questions have been compiled in order to answer these issues.
Objectives of this research
1. To explain the nature of the flash mobs
2. To examine the difference of perceptions of the audience at the actual event and the
general public, interviewed via e-mail, in order to see if the commercialization of the
original flash mob by T-Mobile has an impact on the agents and the real flash mob
3. To analyze the different perceptions related to the demographics and what influence
a commodification has on the real flash mob
20
Research Design
The research has three stages. One stage involves a real flash mob in which the surrounding
audience is interviewed (see App. 1) about their perceptions towards the event.
The second stage involves a questionnaire (see App. 2), including a video of a real flash mob
and a video of the T-Mobile dance. This questionnaire will be sent via e-mail to the general
public and is divided into two parts, separating the interviewees into those who know what a
flash mob is and those who have never heard of this term.
The third stage involves the agents of UPN and their perceptions towards the
commodification of the real flash mob through the use of banner advertisement on the UPN
portal and the use of the flash mob idea by organizations like T-Mobile or vtm. To carry out
this research, an online questionnaire (see App. 3) has been developed and all agents of the
London group in the UPN have been invited to take part in this survey.
Defining the Sample Group
No evidence of research has been found on the perceptions of audience and agents of flash
mobs and the commodification of it by the industry. This research will take a first step in
understanding what flash mobs mean to the public and to the agents involved.
The research contains three sample groups. The first group is the audience watching a real
flash mob. This sample group will be confronted with the event without knowing what
happens and what that event is about, resulting in creation of perceptions of this sample
group.
The second sample group will be random people around the world. An e-mail with an
attached questionnaire has been sent to 50 people, asking each one to spread the
questionnaire to friends and/or relatives. The questionnaire contains a link to a video of a real
flash mob and to a video of the T-Mobile dance.
The third sample group involves the agents of the real flash mobs. By watching the
commodified example of a real flash mob, this sample group will have perceptions and
opinions about the commodification of the original idea of a flash mob. The questionnaire
consists of two commodified flash mobs: The T-Mobile dance and Sound of Music by vtm.
21
Defining the Research Method
Three types of research are advanced, which are quantitative, qualitative and mixed
methods. It is difficult to draw a sharp line between qualitative and quantitative methods
because every research uses tools of each one, therefore it can be said that a study tends to
be more qualitative than quantitative and vice versa (Creswell: 2009).
This research will focus on the qualitative research methods as it is "a means for exploring
and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem"
(Creswell: 2009). The aim of the research is to understand the perceptions of the three
previously mentioned sample groups. Qualitative research also means interpretations of the
collected data of the participants by the researcher with a focus on individual meaning
(Creswell: 2009). The ,,Worldview", as Creswell calls it, used for this research is focused on
,,Constructivism" as it "hold[s] assumptions that individuals seek understanding of the world in
which they live and work" (Creswell: 2009). The goal for this research method is to rely on
the participants' view (or perceptions) as much as possible. The interviews with the
participants are very broad, with general questions to give the interviewees the opportunity to
talk freely about their opinions, and they tend to become an open discussion or interaction.
The intention of this research method is to make sense or interpret the meanings others have
about the world, rather than starting with a theory (Creswell: 2009).
The qualitative research method in combination with the constructivism has been chosen for
this research paper as the author wants to explain the meaning of real flash mobs, the
perceptions of the audience and agents towards the real and the commodified flash mob.
The following paragraph will explain the research methods used in depth by using the
"research onion" by Mark Saunders (Saunders:2007)
22
Fig.
3 shows six parts of the research philosophy, including Philosophies, Approaches,
Strategies, Choices, Time horizons, and Techniques and procedures. By using the ,,research
onion" as a tool to develop a research, it starts broadly on the outside with Philosophies and
ends in the centre with Techniques and procedures.
The following chapters will define each part and relate it to the current study.
Fig. 3 Research Onion
23
Philosophies
This part of the ,,research onion" consists of Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism, and
Interpretivism.
According to Saunders (2007), Pragmatism argues that the most important determinant of
the epistemology, ontology and axiology you adopt is the research question one may be
more appropriate than the other for answering particular questions.
Ontology is related to the nature of reality and can be divided into objectivism, which is the
existence of social entities in reality external to social actors; and subjectivism, which is the
creation of social phenomena from the perceptions and consequent actions of social actors
(Saunders:2007)
In order to the current study, the ontology of subjectivism is used as it studies the details of
the situation in order to understand the reality or perhaps a reality behind them
(Saunders:2007). In this case, the perceptions of an audience watching a real and a fake
flash mob are investigated as well as the impact of a commercialization of an urban
movement to its members.
Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study
(Saunders:2007). According to Saunders (2007) there are two different researchers, one who
is researching objects, the ,,resources" researcher; and the ,,feelings" researcher, who is
more interested in the feelings and attitudes.
Regarding the current case study, the ,,feeling" researchers has been used, as feelings and
attitudes have been researched in order to collect data for a social phenomena, which has no
external reality (Saunders:2007).
Positivism and realism adopt the philosophical stance of the natural scientist and does not
play a role for this study.
Interpretivism, on the other hand, plays an important role, as it is used to understand
differences between humans in our role as social actors (Saunders:2007). Interpretivist
researchers enter the social world of the research subjects and understand their world form
their point of view. The author of this research paper has entered the world of flash mobs and
became an agent, organized several flash mobs and took part in different flash mobs to
understand this urban movement.
24
Relating Saunders (2007) definition, the philosophy of this research is Axiology, "the
researcher's view of the role of values in research" in combination with Interpretivism, as the
research is value but the researcher is part of what is being researched and cannot be
separated and so will be subjective.
The next "onion-ring" is the research approach. Two approaches are possible, the deductive
and the inductive.
The deductive approach involves the development of a theory, which consists of five stages:
·
Deducing hypothesis
·
Expressing the hypothesis in operational terms
·
Testing this operational hypothesis
·
Examining the specific outcome of the inquiry
·
If necessary, modifying the theory
The inductive approach makes first the research and then develops, with the help of the
findings, a theory (Saunders:2007).
Regarding the flash mob research, the deductive approach has been used. The hypothesis
for this research is:
"Urban movements, such as the flash mob, are used by companies to promote their
products/services and therefore these urban movements become mainstream and loose its
originality."
The expression in operational terms can be found in the three surveys, developed for this
research. One questionnaire has been developed for the audience at a flash mob taking
place (see App.1); another questionnaire for the general public, which has been sent out via
e-mail (see App.2); and a third questionnaire, which was published online and done by the
Agents of ImprovEverywhere (see App.3).
Both questionnaires were tested with two test persons of each group and necessary
changes, such as spelling mistakes or unclear questions were undertaken.
The examination can be found in the Chapter "Findings".
25
The research strategy, the first inner circle in Saunders (2007) Research Onion, used in this
research is the Survey, as three different questionnaires have been developed. This
research strategy has been chosen to understand the phenomena of a flash mob and to
evaluate the impacts upon the urban movement due the commercial use by companies such
as T-Mobile and vtm.
The time horizon for this research is a cross-sectional study, the study at a particular time,
which is June 2009 until September 2009. Within this time this research paper will be
executed.
The data collection for this research is only primary data as there was no secondary data
found on the subject of flash mobs.
As mentioned above, the research is divided into three primary researches.
The first one will be a flash mob organized by the author and the audience of this flash mob
will be interviewed. The questions can be found in App. 1. The research target is 20
interviews.
The author organized a meeting with two other agents of UPN and discussed the strategy for
the flash mob. It was agreed on a double flash mob on one day. The first one will be at
Trafalgar Square in London and will be a "Staring flash mob", in which the first agent starts
freezing at a random spot on Trafalgar Square and stares at a random spot. Other agents
will join that agent one by one until a whole group of agents stand at the same place and
stare at the same spot. This flash mob will last for approximately 5 minutes and the sign for
the agents to spread out again will be a whistle blow by the author. While this flash mob is
happening, the author will conduct the research and interview the audience the people
standing around and watching the flash mob.
After the first flash mob is done, all the agents will gather again and move together to
Piccadilly Circus, where the second flash mob will take place. This flash mob is called "Traffic
Light Party". There are a lot of traffic lights at Piccadilly Circus and the agents will stay
together at the first traffic light and will be very sad that the traffic light is red. As soon as the
traffic light turns green, all agents will cheer and make a big party. Every participant will be
asked to bring noise making items, such as whistles. This flash mob continues for several
times, as the traffic lights for pedestrians go around the whole Piccadilly Circus and a lot of
tourists will be there.
Details
- Seiten
- Erscheinungsform
- Originalausgabe
- Jahr
- 2009
- ISBN (eBook)
- 9783836641036
- Dateigröße
- 2.9 MB
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Institution / Hochschule
- London Metropolitan University – Marketing, Studiengang (MA) Events Marketing Management
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 2014 (April)
- Note
- 60%
