Authenticating by re-enchantment: The discursive making of craft production

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the way brand authentication operates through discursive enchantment as a series of ongoing negotiations among different market actors. We suggest that one specific type of enchantment, the concept of craft production, has been given too sparse attention in conceptualisations of authenticity. Through a qualitative multi-method inquiry based into the guitar subculture and a brand genealogy of the pseudo-Swedish guitar brand Hagstrom, we show how the rationalising trajectories of modernity can not only have disenchanting effects, but can also be dis-authenticating. We illustrate how various marketplace participants collectively engage in brand re-enchantment processes that provide the springboard for re-authenticating rationalised production through five enchanting craft discourses:

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“…The above-mentioned online platforms are customer-dominated, in the sense that users generate the content, but netnographic data can also involve company websites (Mkono, 2012) and other online platforms where firms generate the content (Sigala, 2012). Hartmann and Ostberg (2013), for example, included content from the official website of Swedish guitar manufacturer Hagstrom in their analysis of discursive struggles over brand authenticity.…”

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“…Considering that identity change is a key motivation for ayahuasca tourists (Dean, 2018), unpacking this journey may allow strategies to be developed to allow tourists to more easily reintegrate into their former mundane lives and potentially undertake further tourism. As such, this ethnographic study examined sixty-three Dr Andrew Kristoffer Dean akd26@kent.ac.uk 4 either by magic wielding marketers (Belk, Ger & Askegaard, 2003), or through self-sorcery (Belk, 2001;Belk et al, 1997), but that homogenously framed products and services often limit the extent to which enchantment is viewed as plausible (Hartmann & Ostberg, 2013). So, while consumers can be thrilled, enchantment is often temporary at best, with longer lasting episodes being linked to unpredictable, immersive and magical tales (Ritzer, 2005).…”

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