Netnography

Following these considerations and considering that interviewers are either among the authors circle of friends or shop owners, having a genuine passion for streetwear, it is decided not to give any financial incentive. A copy of the research is promised to every candidate, in order to allow them to understand how their interview impacted the results.

4.2.2.3 Brand Grouping Test

To acquire a comprehension of the participants understanding of luxury and streetwear fashion brands and to support future research, a brand grouping test is conducted during the semi-structured interviews.

The participants task is to split up 14 different brands (in form of a logo printed on a piece of paper) into two groups. There are no restrictions on how to divide the brands, except of dividing them into two groups.

Eight luxury fashion brands and six streetwear fashion brands are initially chosen. According to the report “Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2017” the brands, D&G, Chanel, Dior, Hermes, Prada, Versace and Rick Owens are considered luxury fashion brands (Arienti, 2018). To identify relevant streetwear fashion brands, the authors have conducted a preliminary online research. In the light of this, Supreme, Yeezy, Gosha Rubchinskiy, A Bathing Ape, Fear of God and Off-White are considered streetwear fashion brands (Supreme Leaks News, 2018).

(Kozinets, 2002, p.62). Netnography is “based primarily on the observation of textual discourse”, qualitative content analysis was used to code and analyse data (Kozinets, 2002, p.64).

Applicability

Having many active social media users online today, delivers the perfect base to conduct a netnography. Online conversations often take place across multiple social media platforms and involve several community members. This applies to the investigated field and delivers valuable data to help answering the proposed research question, as Supreme is having a major online communities of brand advocates.

A non-participative netnography, as a qualitative method, ensures a high probability that relevant topics, related to the field of interest, are being discussed through social media (Belk, Fischer, & Kozinets, 2013),

Considerations

Advantages and disadvantages are hereafter presented in Table 11 and are further discussed.

Table 11: Advantages & disadvantages of Netnography (Kozinets 1997)

Advantages Disadvantages

Compared to traditional qualitative method it is more expeditious.

Focus on textual data.

More likely to generate candid and honest accounts.

Difficulties to generalize results.

Access to a broader group of respondents. Ethical issues of using archival data.

Cost-effective. Instability of group of respondents.

Having a clear overview of pro and contra, allows authors to be confident that netnography is the best available strategy. Undertaking a thorough and vast research, is a key to generate

Considering disadvantages in terms of generalizability, the authors acknowledge that the investigated topic has a strong subjective notion and that netnography is not mainly undertaken for the outcome of generalizability. However, the authors perceive a netnography as a crucial method to help answering the proposed research question.

Participation

Following Kozinets (2002), authors adopt the point of view that participation in a Netnography can have many different forms. The chosen participative acts for our netnography include:

• Reading archives of messages applying topical pattern;

• Following communally shared links to other sources;

• Following community relevant postings on to other sources.

The authors adapt a stance regarding participation: there are many different ways to engage with social media and online communities while undertaking a netnography. Participation is simply an appropriate behaviour within a community, not necessarily an extremely active behaviour (Belk, Fischer, & Kozinets, 2013).

Ethical Considerations

The following ethical considerations are taken into account, following (Kozinets, 2002)

• Informed consent for data usage is sought from participants. The authors have typed the consent into the underlying chat (e.g. direct message on Instagram) and sent it to the participants.

• The authors follow privacy guidelines of the platforms investigated.

• Taken heed of sex, ethnic, sexuality and class, making sure that no discrimination is involved in the choice of candidates.

Sampling

The methodology is built upon the recommendations of Kozinets (2006), who critically discusses about the best practices to implement during a netnography. Netnography provides global sampling frames, as participation online is virtually ubiquitous.

To identity and qualify a sample for the netnography, the authors apply seven sampling criteria.

Table 12: Sampling Criteria Netnography (Kozinets, 2006)

Sampling Criteria Meaning

Relevant They can inform and clearly link to your stated research focus and questions.

Active Possessing both recent and regular communications between members.

Interactive Manifesting a flow of questions – answer or posting – comment responsive communications between participants in the group.

Substantial Offering a critical mass of communicators and a lively, energized cultural atmosphere.

Data rich Offering data that is significantly detailed or descriptively rich.

Heterogeneous Indicating a good number of different participants.

Data Collection

Netnographic studies, naturally, have no restraint regarding what type of online content can be used as data (Kozinets 2002). The type and amount of data collected can variegate and is largely dependent on the investigated field of research.

The data collection for the non-participative netnography comprises gathering of archival data. Archival data is directly copied from pre-existing data sources. It is created and shared by social media and forum community members, thus being purely “observational” data.

A two-step procedure is employed during three consecutive days to find qualified online discussions about the brand Supreme. First, a search for appropriate online communities is conducted. To start with, an Instagram search with the term “Supreme” is conducted. By also searching Google with the terms “Supreme Communities” and “Supreme Forums”, additional online communities with one or several threads on Supreme and streetwear fashion are found. Except Instagram, a social media platform, only online communities with an internal search engine are considered, since a search engine is essential to find threads discussing Supreme.

Second, for an online community to be considered, sampling criteria are applied. There must be a minimum of ten valuable postings (data rich, active) in one or several threads discussing Supreme (relevance, substantial and interactive) among different participants (heterogeneous).

As an outcome, eight online communities are selected for data collection. The discussed topics of the selected communities cover everything from designs, new releases, reselling, quality, collaborations and buying Supreme. Mostly young adult men are active contributors to online discussions.

It has to be acknowledged that data saturation is reached when no new ideas or topics emerge.

Recording

The archival data, in form of comments and postings of participants, of the investigated platforms is recorded in the form of transcribed comments in the Appendix 8.1 section.