When customers create the ad and sell it – a value network approach

Within marketing research, the notion of “vigilante marketers” has been offered to describe consumers' increased participation in the production of marketing messages and processes of value co-creation. Using a value network approach, the purpose of this study is to explain the role of vigilante marketers in their interaction with firms seeking to impose managerial control and influence processes of co-creation of brand values. A netnography of the content produced by 18 market-leading fashion bloggers in Sweden was conducted during 2009. This study revealed that these fashion bloggers are part of an emergent value network and have realised the value that they co-create for brands using various forms of vigilante marketing. The findings presented in this paper challenge the notion of vigilante marketing as an independent and unpaid activity, illustrating how a value network approach can facilitate the study of the borderlands emerging between consumers and producers.