The integration of netnography and text mining to investigate representation of brand image in fashion blogs

The primary objective of this study is to propose an interdisciplinary and innovative methodological approach to investigate the relations among brand, market actors and company decision-makers. The methodology is seen as an instrument that can contribute to the generation and representation of market knowledge from the viewpoint of company policy makers. Moreover, the paper illustrates an initial application to specific brand realities in the fashion industry. The innovation of the study lies in its integration of netnography with techniques of text mining to analyze perceptions of brand image in fashion blogs as a form of social media. The results are interpreted from the perspective of fashion industry decision-makers. In other words, the authors experiment a new methodology to determine if and how it may constitute a valid instrument for gaining insights into the market and for making decisions about brand management. We underline that because the aim of our paper was to develop and experiment a new methodology, we did not formulate specific research hypothesis.