Netnography for Crisis Communication Management and Recovery: the case of Chiara Ferragni

Introduction. The Web is today characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects like never before: the speed and depth of Social Media implicate a crisis can explode and instantly spread across all the touchpoint, online and offline. In this digital scenario, Influencers play a pivotal role in Marketing investments, and this is why they attracted so many attentions by Academics and Practitioners. And, of course, netnographers (Patterson and Ashman, 2020). However, even if critical aspects such as credibility (Thomson, 2006; Ki et al., 2020; Brooks et al, 2020; Kim et al., 2021) and impact on company results (Singh et al., 2020; Kim and Kim., 2021) have been investigated, to date there is not an extensive contribution that connects the research stream of Influencer Marketing with the one of Crisis Management (Sng et al, 2019) and Recovery. Aim. The purpose of this paper is to examine followers’ reaction to the recent Chiara Ferragni’s Pandoro affair. Shortly before Christmas 2023, the worldwide famous influencer was involved in a critical investigation by the Italian Antitrust on suspicions of inappropriate behavior in relation to a charity campaign. Understanding Chiara Ferragni’s community reactions, feelings and interactions becomes the starting point for 1) managing the crisis and 2) ferrying the influencer, and the brands close to her, out of the crisis by identifying the best recovery strategies among those highlighted by the literature (Coombs, 2022), trying not to completely disperse the intrinsic value of the Community. The RQ pointed out is: considering Influencers peculiarities and the depth personal connection with their community, which are the most suitable recovery strategies? The originality of the contribution consists precisely in using Netnography to measure the crisis and understand if and which recovery actions need to be undertaken, with reference to the influencer’s closest community. Methodology. Netnography powerfully reflects the immersive time and strong involvement (Kozinets, 1999) that followers and fans invest in striking up a relationship with influencers. Considering the level of participation of the researcher, the method refers to the “observational netnography”, defined and applicated in Brown, Kozinets and Sherry (2003), trough the content analysis (Langer and Beckman, 2005). The research project followed Kozinets (2010) instructions: definition of research question, community identification and selection, community participant observation and data collection and, lastly, data analysis and iterative interpretation of main findings. Starting from Rheingold’s (1993) definition of virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the net when enough people carry on ... public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationship in cyberspace”, the Instagram account of Chiara Ferragni and her main community have been considered. More than 5 thousands of comments were extracted with exportcomments.com, and then systematically analyzed in the light of SCC Theory. Data collection is composed by: (1) dataset: the data directly collected on Instagram, and (2) fieldnotes: the data that the researcher inscribes regarding observations of the community, its members, interactions and meanings. Screenshots/recordings of influencer’ videos/post were also taken. Findings and originality. With analysis yet to be completed (the crisis is still ongoing), findings in this study so far indicate four major themes, which deserve further investigation: breakdown of the trust relationship, unconditional support, attack from outside the community, role of other influencers/brand (re)actions. In conclusion, for each mapped theme, a specific recovery strategy is proposed, maintaining a holistic perspective. Netnography revealed reality from the perspective of the culture member: the immersion in the CF community, paradoxically brought out that 1) the crisis is outside of it 2) the recovery strategies adopted towards other stakeholders can be counter-prudent for the community. From the point of view of theoretical and practical implications, the study adds a degree of awareness to the topic of recovery strategies coordination and cross influence. Keywords. Crisis Management, Influencer Marketing, netnography, recovery strategy.