Merchandising/Marketing/Retailing: Branding

Exploring Outdoor Lifestyle Brands within the Americana Music Festival Marketplace

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Abstract

While Americana music festivals have traditionally sought to avoid corporate brand involvement in their marketplace offerings, preferring instead to support vendors offering locally-made or artisan produced products for sale, this has begun to change as more corporate brands are participating as vendors in the festival marketplace. This research explores outdoor lifestyle brands within the Americana music festival marketplace, specifically in terms of how its marketplace offers festivalgoers not just handmade products, but exposure to outdoor lifestyle brands in an experiential setting. An ethnographic approach was employed, wherein fieldwork was conducted at ten Americana music festivals throughout the southeastern US. In-depth interviews were conducted with a variety of participants across the festivals, including festivalgoers, organizers, and festival vendors. Findings of this study offer insight into how outdoor lifestyle brands have begun to recognize the Americana music festival marketplace as a way to incorporate the brand experience into the festival experience.

How to Cite:

Turner, T. & Hodges, N. J., (2017) “Exploring Outdoor Lifestyle Brands within the Americana Music Festival Marketplace”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 74(1).