ABSTRACT
It is non-controversial to note that brand communities often evoke the magico-religious. Traces of the ethereal have been seen in brand communities centered on Apple Macintosh (Belk and Tumbat 2002; Kahney 2004), Apple Newton (Muñiz and Schau 2005), Saab (Muñiz and O’Guinn 2001), Star Trek (Kozinets 2001), Star Wars (Brown et al. 2003), Xena: Warrior Princess (Schau and Muniz 2004), the X-Files (Kozinets 1997) and in celebrity fan communities centered on Barry Manilow (O’Guinn 1991), Tom Petty (Schau and Muñiz 2007) and Cliff Richard (Caldwell and Henry 2006). Looking at the extant exemplars, some patterns begin to emerge. Our knowledge of these
phenomena in such contexts is thorough though there still are some obvious gaps. First, as has been noted previously (Schau and Muñiz 2007), many of the magico-religious evoking brands, when initially investigated, were small share, marginal entrants in their respective product categories. The Apple Newton was abandoned and the Apple MacIntosh had less than a 10 percent share of the PC market. Saab was, and is now, low share and imperiled. Still, there are exceptions. Apple has gone on to dominate not one but two electronics categories and is moving toward dominance of a third and yet traces of the magico-religious are still evident there (as the beatification of Steve Jobs in the weeks following his death would attest). Star Wars and Star Trek have been large market-share brands. From this, we can divine that while marginal, low-share and stigmatized brands can help make a brand capable of producing a community with magico-religious overtones, it is by no means required nor will such a brand absolutely do so. In fact, Muñiz and Schau (2007) detail the presence of magico-religious elements in the community surrounding the mainstream and non-stigmatized rock act, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The second common theme centers on the categories themselves. Computers and electronics
are amply represented, as are cars, science-fantasy dramas and charismatic performers. Some of these brands contain aspects of the magico-religious in their narrative DNA. Xena: Warrior Princess was set in an anachronistic fantasy world replete with the supernatural. Star Wars, Star
Trek and the X-Files, too, routinely evoked ethereal themes. Similarly, the propensity of magico-religious themes to adhere to technology, which figured prominently in these shows, have been amply noted (Davis 1998; Noble 1999). One could argue that the appearance of ethereal themes in such categories was almost pre-ordained. One category largely unexplored in this realm is toys. The capacity of some toy brands to sustain
communities has been suggested before (Kimmel 2010; Park et al. 2007; Schau et al. 2009). Still, no evidence has been offered of the presence of magico-religious themes in brand communities centered on toys. Thus, such brands are ripe for further investigation, both as hosts for communities and ethereal motifs and themes. In this chapter, we are going to detail the presence of magico-religious themes in the community centered on the LEGO brand. In particular, we are going to show magico-religious themes among the so-called AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO). LEGO is ostensibly a global toy company that manufacturers children’s creative construction
toys that are comprised of multi-colored, interlocking building elements. The LEGO System comprises several thousand different elements which are sold as stand-alone elements, or as parts of themed LEGO sets. It is a successful brand that has increasing mainstream awareness and acceptance, including as a hobby for adults (Antorini 2007; Muñiz and Antorini 2011). The high level of involvement with these creative processes probably facilitates the transcendence leading to magico-religious themes found here.
