Browsing by Author "Bulmer S"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Co-creating sustainability: Transformative power of the brand
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-07-17) Palakshappa N; Bulmer S; Dodds S
    We explore marketing activity at the micro level as it contributes to the co-creation of sustainability and leads to transformational shifts towards sustainable futures. Utilising a value co-creation lens our study implements a novel four phase case research process. Three sustainable fashion brands are analysed via brand-generated content on their Instagram accounts, through interviews with thirty self-confessed brand enthusiasts and using consumer focus groups. Analysis provides insights into how sustainability is co-created between brands and consumers demonstrating that marketing and brands have the power to harness sustainability and instigate change. The paper contributes an innovative ‘Co-creating sustainable futures’ framework providing a platform to implement marketing activity and future research by marketing/brand managers and researchers committed to sustainability and initiating transformation towards sustainable futures.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Decolonising public service television in Aotearoa New Zealand: telling better stories about Indigenous rurality
    (SAGE Publications, 25/10/2022) Fountaine S; Bulmer S; Palmer F; Chase L
    In settler-colonial countries like Aotearoa New Zealand, television programmes about rurality are fundamentally entwined with the nation’s colonial history, but how this context impacts on locally made, public service television content and production is seldom examined. Utilising data collected from interviews with programme makers and a novel bi-cultural friendship pair methodology, we examine how a high-rating mainstream programme, Country Calendar, conceptualises and delivers stories about Indigenous Māori and consider the extent to which these stories represent a decolonising of television narratives about rurality. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating Indigenous voices and values, the impact of structural limitations and staffing constraints on public service television’s decolonising aspirations, and challenges reconciling settler-colonialism with the show’s well-established ‘rosy glow’. While rural media are often overlooked by communication scholars, our study demonstrates the contributions they might make to the larger task of decolonising storytelling about national identity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Sustainability, brand authenticity and Instagram messaging
    (Elsevier Inc, 2024-03) Bulmer S; Palakshappa N; Dodds S; Harper S
    The role of Instagram brand messaging as a force for good is examined when a brand’s mission is creating societal change and where being authentic can also lead to controversy and negative responses. A depth study of an exemplary brand is used to explore brand authenticity in the context of sustainability, brand activism messaging and consumer responses to brand posts on Instagram. We offer a unique perspective by focusing on authentic brand sustainability activism. 104 brand messages and 5541 consumer responses to Patagonia, an activist brand renowned for supporting environmental and social issues, are analysed. An extended ‘activist sustainability view’ of brand authenticity is proposed including the conceptualisation of authentic brand sustainability activism. Eight types of consumer response to brand sustainability posts that encompass both positive and negative sentiment are identified. Theoretical and managerial implications, and avenues for future research are offered.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Telling stories about farming: Mediated authenticity and New Zealand's Country Calendar
    (SAGE Publications, 2022-01) Fountaine S; Bulmer S
    Mediated authenticity in New Zealand’s Country Calendar (CC) television program is explored from the perspective of its producers, and rural and urban audiences. Paradoxically, CC is understood as both “real” and “honest” television and a constructed, idyllic version of the rural good life in New Zealand. Techniques and devices such as a predictable narrative arc, consistent narration, invisible reporting and directing, and naturalized sound and vision contribute to the show’s predictability, ordinariness, spontaneity and im/perfection, mediating an authentic yet aspirational view of farming life. We elucidate how factual, primetime television contributes to a shared national sense of “who we are” while navigating different audience experiences and expectations. At stake is New Zealanders’ attachment to rural identity, which underpins public policy commitments to the farming sector, at a time when new agricultural politics are increasingly contested.