Value creation versus destruction: The relationship between consumers, marketers and financiers

Increasing consumer power, accelerated by the meteoric rise of social media, threatens the foundations of branding. In the wake of this affirmation featured within the Journal of Brand Management Call for Papers, the question we ask ourselves is twofold: On the one hand, how can interactions between a brand and its most enthusiastic consumers be transformed into bankable shareholder value for investors; and on the other, how can brand orchestration - specifically supported by stimulating collaboration among consumers grouped into communities - increase or, conversely, endanger shareholder value? Thus, the aim of the article is to focus on the connections between three types of actors who build the new world of brands: consumers, marketers and financiers. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.