Amanda Palmer.pdf

8/19/2019 Amanda Palmer.pdf

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MBM422 - SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Crowdfunding. Case of Amanda Palmer’s project on

Kickstarter


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Abstract

This paper is written in order to further explore the crowdfunding phenomenon and

understand the key elements for backers to participate in it. The aim of this term paper is to

analyse the different motives that bring people to fund an artist through crowdfunding

platforms. Also, the critics and reasons to not invest in crowdfunding projects are studied.

Kickstarter and more precisely the Amanda Palmer’s music project have been our grounds for

thought. The research is done using a netnographic approach according to Kozinets’ book. It

was found that the main motivations to fund are “supporting the cause” and “be part of a

community”. The identified motivations not to fund are personal animosity, rejection of the

cause and rejection of crowdfunding principles.

The paper first explains the reasons for studying the phenomenon and choosing the

case. Then, a theoretical part explains the concepts that are further broached in the core text.

The focus is made on crowdfunding aspects, but also community drivers and social

movements. In the “method” chapter, we describe the methodological approach and

framework for the online community analysis. Then, the analysis of the data is presented.

Eventually, the paper presents discussion of the findings and draws conclusions about the

backer motivations and what a creator could do to reach more efficiently the community and


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Table of contents

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4

2. Theory ........................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Crowdfunding ......................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Communities ........................................................................................................... 5

2.2.1 Participation in online communities ................................................................ 5

2.2.2 Trust and brand authenticity ............................................................................ 6

2.2.3 Participation in crowdfunding campaigns ....................................................... 6

2.2.4 Diffusion of responsibility and deadline effect ................................................ 7

2.3 Social movements ................................................................................................... 7

3. Method .......................................................................................................................... 8

3.1 Overview and research questions ........................................................................... 8

3.2 Choice of a crowdfunding platform ........................................................................ 8

3.3 Methodological approach through Netnography .................................................... 8

3.4 Data collection and analysis ................................................................................... 9

3.5 Ethical issues and considerations ............................................................................ 9

4. Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 10

4 1 K l t f it 10


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1. Introduction

Crowdfunding means raising money from many people to fund a project. It is means to

connect people having interesting ideas with those wanting to support them. It enables passing

through barriers imposed by the traditional financial institutions.

We chose the case of Amanda Palmer’s Kickstarter project, who turned towards

crowdfunding and achieved enormous success. With $1.2 million of $100 000 requested,

Palmer had a great impact on the platform and people funding such artists. With a relatively

small initial fanbase (previous album sold in 36 000 copies), she succeeded in building a

strong devoted community on Kickstarter, eager to fund her.

Because of the overwhelming success of the campaign, the reasons of individuals to fund are

of special interest. Therefore, the research question of the paper is «What drives people to

fund an artist on a crowdfunding platform? What are the reasons not to fund her ? ». To

answer the questions, the paper focuses on analyzing the online community created on

Kickstarter, and gives some insight into the environment outside Kickstarter. The topic is

relevant from theoretical and business perspectives, as there are relatively few researches on

the topic, while crowdfunding is becoming increasingly more common. Therefore,

understanding the motivation factors could lead to more efficient creator-funder relationship.


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on one of them) uses the reward-based system, and assumes that the reward is a tangible

product or specific experience (Gerber et. al, 2012).

2.2 Communities

Lawton and Marom (2012) state that crowdfunding platforms became a specific form of

social networking, where participants form online social communities. Kraut and Resnick

(2011) define online communities as “virtual space where people come together with others

to converse, exchange information or other resources, learn, play, or just be with each other”

(p. 1). Communities share 3 common features: consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions,

moral responsibility (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001).

Consciousness of kind is a feeling of belonging a member has towards the community.

Members feel connected not only to the central figure, but also to one another. That is a

feeling of being unified with the community and being divided from others. Even though the

members of the community could have never met, they share some values and interests that

unite them to some extent.

Rituals and traditions are the repeated, common actions that members of the community

perform in the appropriate situations. Performing the rituals and traditions validates the

feeling of belonging to the community and strengthens the community culture.


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Relationships in the communities vary depending on how intense the communal relationships

are and how strong the consumption is. Cruising communities are characterized by low

centrality of the activity and weak relational ties. Bonding communities unite people having

strong ties, but not focused on central activity. Geeking communities are high on centrality of

activity, but the social part is not central for those. Finally, building communities have both

high centrality of the activity and sense of community.

2.2.2 Trust and brand authenticity

“Trust is a particular level of the subjective probability with which an agent assesses that

another agent or group of agents will perform a particular action, both before he can monitor

such action (or independently of his capacity ever to be able to monitor it) and in a context in

which it affects his own action” (Gambetta, 2000, p. 217). Cooperation depends on the trust

level between agents, and is influenced by the potential negative loss if refraining from the

cooperation (Gambetta, 2000). To be perceived as trustworthy and worthy of acceptance, the

brand should be perceived as authentic (Cappannelli & Cappannelli, 2004). By being

authentic, the brand devotes itself to the timeless values rather than being driven by

commercial motives (Beverland, 2005), and therefore becomes more appealing to customers.

2 2 3 P ti i ti i df di i


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pre-order, it is important that the product has exclusive characteristics connecting it to the

crowdfunding campaign. Knowledge of getting reward in the future leads to the decrease of

perceived risk, which makes the process of making decision to fund easier.

Funding to support creators and causes is usually done because of the funders’ consistency

with the idea of the project or an effort and motivation behind creating the project. Also, this

reason covers the support given to friends, family or other people funders know.

Finally, people fund the projects, because they feel as a part of the community, and they

follow the rituals and traditions common for their online community.

2.2.4 Diffusion of responsibility and deadline effect

Studying the backers’ behavior, Kuppuswamy and Bayus (2013) discovered the reverse

relationship between the past support of the project and further support from members. They

link the phenomena to the diffusion of responsibility effects. After initial excitement the

support rate fades, as people assume other backers will give enough to fund the project. The

perception of responsibility is also influenced by the deadline effect. On the early stages of

the project potential backers feel money will come from others, as there is much time left.

With the deadline approaching, feeling of personal responsibility rises, as they see the needed

i ht t t ll b id d


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3. Method

3.1 Overview and research questions

In this chapter we present methodological approach we used. The research design follows a

plan that leads from the initial hypothesis to the set of findings answering these questions.

Our topic deals with the crowdfunding platforms. We find it would be interesting to get a

deeper understanding of this phenomenon and more precisely understand the motives driving

people to invest money in crowdfunding project. Passionate about art and music, we decided

to focus on an art project. We chose to look closer upon questions: What drives people to fund

an artist on a crowdfunding platform? What are the reasons not to fund her?

3.2 Choice of a crowdfunding platform

After looking for different crowdfunding projects, we settled upon Palmer. Our choice was

based on Kozinets’ criteria (2010), according to which online communities should fulfill

several conditions:

relevant for research focus,

active, with recent and regular traffic

interactive, there is a flow of communications between members

b t ti l ith h t f d t


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research hypothesis. Then we had to enter the community to understand its culture and

customs. Afterwards, we began to collect data that could be relevant for our topic. Next, we

have gone into data analysis and interpretation while remaining ethical with respect to privacy

protection. Finally, we are presenting findings that confirm or disconfirm our previous

hypothesis.

3.4 Data collection and analysis

We began by creating an account on Kickstarter, but it was not useful because Palmer’s

project had already ended. Despite recommendations of Kozinets to enter a community to

analyze and understand it correctly, we did not participate in the conversation flow, mainly

because the project had been in effect for one month in May 2012. The conversation flow is

no longer active because the project raised enough money within the allocated time, therefore

we cannot participate actively in community. Thus, we collected only archiving posting from

backers and Palmer. By doing this, we adopt an “observational netnography” point of view

(Beaven and Laws, 2007). We firstly copied the most relevant posts within the funding period

among more than 1300 comments. We focused on the longest or/and emotional posts that are

more detailed and precise, and preferably express the reasons driven commenters to fund.

After collecting posts that seem to be relevant for our research question, we proceeded in


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harmful or embarrassing information, we hide the embarrassing part of the post or do not use

this comment.

4. Analysis

4.1 Key elements of community

To find the motivational drivers of backing, we started by looking at Palmer’s Kickstarter

video, first thing potential backers see, to analyze audience’s perception and response. We

verified the correspondence of the audience to special community, and analyzed its culture in

line with the features of communities.

In the video, Palmer complains on unfairness of music industry and encourages people to

fund the project independently. She appeals to people with similar opinion about music

industry, stressing the importance of belonging of each person to the project by frequently

using word “we”. She invites them to create value together as partners, united by thecampaign, thus creating a triad connection Palmer ↔ people↔people (Owyang et al., 2013)

The content of comments identifies that the community is centered on the campaign, as all

mention Palmer or the campaign. It is a geeking community. Broadly geographically

distributed backers engage in communication, however, direct communication is limited.

H i hi h t lit f ti it th d t l ti th


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Fix phrases in this quote are commonly used in other comments (Appendix,#3, 4) and the

video. Those are community rituals and traditions, enhancing community experience.

Community jargon (“AFP”, “GPO”) could not be understood by people outside the

community, but do not require additional explanation for members. Rebellious and

oppositional direction of the community is revealed through jargon phrases like “we are

the…media”.

Moral responsibility is based on achieving the campaign goal and personal responsibility

people have for the project success. The video stresses the importance of every individual in

the case and enhances the feeling of moral responsibility. The commenter emphasizes she

“backed her when she was only 22% funded”, showing personal relevance of this for her. In

other comments (Appendix, #3, 8, 9), people commonly and frequently use wording like “we

are”, “we do”, “we get there” to express the feeling of belonging, personal involvement and

contribution.

4.2 Different motives to fund an artistic project

Through quote analysis, we found that backers have different motives to fund an art

crowdfunding project. In line with reasons by Gerber et al. (2012), we checked the relevance

of the motives in the case. We pointed out four drivers explaining why people support


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confident and understood. In the community the backer finds what he misses in life: love,

happiness (2times) and friends.

Feeling moral responsibility, backers encourage others to participate in the project more

actively together (Appendix, #10) to reach the common goal, thus strengthening the

consciousness of kind and making the community more dynamic. They seek for extending the

community beyond Internet, increasing involvement and strengthening relationships by

suggesting uniting for the house parties and meeting before concerts (Appendix, #10, 12).

Backers mention they are “won over” by being the part of the campaign (Appendix, #2, 6),

that they lose sense of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). That is another example of underlying

intrinsic motivation for being part of the community and funding. Becoming captivated by

activity, they stay for the joy and excitement of being a part of the creative process.

Contributing to creation together with others, they consider it rewarding (Füller, 2006).

Even though oppositional in origin, through comments the community reveals to be positive

and friendly. It attracts potential backers, promising to give joy and happiness they were

missing through being involved and building ties with other backers.

4.3.2 Support the cause, being against established music industry

Th ’ hift t d i b i f h th th th th h


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The attention on the picture is on the paper, which the girl has in front of her, due to the light

contrast between background and foreground. The point of focus is on intersection lines

(Rowse, n.d.), where the banknote drawing is. The smiley on the banknote causes positive

emotion, even though the phrase written evokes pity. Phrase near smiley is community jargon,

expressing the girl’s belonging to the community and her attitude to the consumer power. The

aim is to express support to the project, even though the person cannot afford it. Addressing

the picture to Palmer, she expresses desire to give money directly to the person producing,

and to avoid the control of middleman industry. Backers adore that the non-transparent costs

of music industry are avoided (Appendix, #3), and criticize the industry fiercely (Appendix,

#4, 7) by calling them swear words. The opposition is strengthened by the usual community

jargon words like “we are the media”, “this is the future of music” as well as less common

“AFP army” (Appendix, #3). Calling themselves an army, they see Palmer as a fighter leading

the movement through the campaign to the common goal. Therefore, they are led by theextrinsic motivation, seeing the project as a mean to an end.

4.3.3 Support creators

Palmer has succeeded in building community before launching the project. Many funders

supported the project because she was the creator. Some comments are very Palmer-centric,


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comment, as she shares personal subjects such as budget (“don’t have thousands”). This

behavior shows trust for the artist, which is also visible in other comments explaining

financial conditions (Appendix, #1,11) and through using words like “genuinely”, “honestly”

(Appendix, #5). They are delighted by Palmer (“fantastic”, “amazing”), and find inspiration

in her (“YOU are an inspiration” - Appendix, #5). Perceiving her as authentic and sharing her

values, they have positive attitude and desire to fund her.

4.3.4 Get a reward

For some backers, campaign rewards are the focus. Here, we are talking about particular

compensatory rewards offered for funding rather than the perception of crowdfunding

experience as rewarding. Generally, rewards were in form of a physical object or Palmer-

connected experience. For those wanting a physical reward, the reward quality is essential.

Downloading music for this commenter is not enough, it does not represent a real value. He

l li k h f l d d d h li f h ill h i


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Th hi i l d h h i l d (“bl


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Through the comments we monitor different backer dynamics over the time. According to

comments, first funders are mostly people close to Palmer. Then they are extended by new

people, attracted to the project through word-of-mouth, visibility on Kickstarter, and other

sources. For the active community members, the question of funding is not affected by others’

behavior, however, sums were increasing when they questioned if they would fund enough in

time (Appendix, #12). Less involved needed some initial funded level to engage. The original

goal was pledged in one day, and then perceived by community as an opportunity to launch

new goals for the project. Most people backed in the beginning and in the end of campaign.Commenters were more active in commenting and updating pledges by the end, illustrating

the deadline effect. The deadline enhanced moral responsibility and encouraged the

community to seek for funding more actively, including reaching to people outside

community.

4.5 Criticism reasons

Since there are no negative comments on the project’s page on Kick starter, the comments

were collected from the side source – an article discussing the controversy of Palmer’s project

(Ronson, 2013), which caused a rich discussion (288 comments) in comment section. The

commenters there did not fund the project, express mostly negative emotions about the case,

d i l d l i h h Ki k Th h h


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why he says that, and summarizing by stressing “insincerity”. Here arises the problem of

authenticity perception, which affects trust and consequently the desire to engage in funding

(Gambetta, 2000). The person knows how Palmer is positioning herself, and shows enough

interest to get familiar with details of the campaign (“play for free”, “gig at a fan’s house -

$5,000”), but for him there is a gap between the desired and real image. He doesn’t express

much negativity towards the personality, but it is of more importance for him to see how the

money is spent. He doesn’t see the logic of the rewards offered in the campaign, contrasts the

request and outcome (“play for free” against “Ritz”), and forms strongly unfavorable attitude,even though originally he was not opposing her. This is also relevant for other posters

(Appendix, #15), who negatively assess the correlation between the money being collected

and the actions (“gathered 1.2 million from fans”, “cannot insist she’s a niche outsider

artist”). However, the distrust is deeper for this person: it is not limited to campaign, but

extends to personality. He also engages into contrasting, extensively and thoroughlycomparing facts of Palmer’s life to the image she’s trying to make. He concludes by saying

that she is a “bigger commodity than the struggling artist she made herself out to be”,

meaning that there is maximum level of distrust.

Another case present is animosity not linked to trust, but caused by personality opposition

(A di #14) I h d d i l i i h h


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endanger other artists’ survival. Therefore, for people like him (Appendix, #15) only the

support of beginners through crowdfunding is justified, while making this way of funding

common is inadmissible.

4.5.3 Rejection of crowdfunding principles

Due to newness of crowdfunding broad prevalence, crowdfunding concept could be perceived

as a form of innovation, thus requiring time for the late majority of adopters to accept it

(Rogers, 1983).

Through the composition of his comment (question-answer), we see the commenter is

rationalistic, self-assured and conservative. Preferring to keep control, he doesn’t trust in

people’s support (“bunch of strangers”), and praises traditional ways of funding, seeing

crowdfunding as begging (“asking for handouts”). Therefore, participating in crowdfunding is

seen as wrong behavior.


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brand representing opposition to big music labels and mainstream culture. Therefore, funding

due to “will to support the artist” is related to finding due to “will to support a cause”, which

is to provide an alternative to funding through big music labels. The community of funders

shares the oppositional attitude, which relates this reason to “support the cause”. The rewards

in the campaign are related to the artist, as they most valuable for Palmer’s appreciators. The

overarching motivation in this case turned out to be supporting the cause and being a part of

community, even though we originally expected rewards to be more important. We attribute

this to the project being an oppositional social movement. The project was not limited to promoting Palmer’s music, but represented the fight with commercial institutions, also

outside music industry. Therefore, having broader aim, it was able to gather larger supporter

community.

However, it was discovered that being a part of a social movement could be an obstacle, as

some people don’t accept the idea. Therefore, they are unwilling to fund and don’t perceive

the community as appealing. The personality of the creator turned out to be an obstacle in

some cases, meaning that negative attitude could be transferred to the project. This reason is

highly related to consistency of personality and participating in crowdfunding campaign, the

lack of which leads to mistrust and negatively affects the outcome. Also, some people

l d b i d i i i i i df di i l h f h i


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5.2 Managerial implications

We believe that discovered prevailing motivation (supporting the cause) would be less

relevant for other crowdfunding (music and other) campaigns, as the majority of projects

would not hold the social movement element. However, socially relevant underlying reason

attracts more people, so creators should consider this when launching projects. Creators

should monitor the current social trends to ensure project fit. Particularly art projects illustrate

people’s desire to connect to artists directly, avoiding the music corporations, which makes

funding through crowdfunding more appealing to people. The creation of a community

around the campaign is easier to implement than social element, as anything could be the

central activity. However, people might be reluctant to participate if the activity is

controversial. To support the community, the creator should connect with it, starting by

addressing the audience correctly and following by being present in discussion and giving

updates.

6. Conclusion

The paper gives insight into the reasons of funders’ behavior, with desire to be a part of

community and to support the campaign cause being the prevailing motives. The creator was

an active participant of the campaign, turning the campaign into a social movement while


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7. References

Amanda Palmer: The new RECORD, ART BOOK, and TOUR. (2012). Retrieved March 13,

2015, from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-

new-record-art-book-and-tour

Beaven, Z., & Laws, C. (2007). ‘Never let me down again’: Loyal customer attitudes towards

ticket distribution channels for live music events: A netnographic exploration of the US

leg of the Depeche Mode 2005 – 2006 World Tour. Managing Leisure, 12(2/3), 120 –

142

Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T., & Schwienbacher, A. (2014). Crowdfunding: Tapping the right

crowd. Journal of Business Venturing, (29), 585-609.

Beverland, M. (2005). Brand management and the challenge of authenticity. Journal of

Product and Brand Management, 14(7), 460-461.

Cappannelli, G., & Cappannelli, S. (2004). Authenticity: Simple Strategies for Greater

Meaning and Purpose at Work and at Home. Ohio: Emmis Books.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002), Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention

(1 ed.). New York, NY: HarperPerennial.

Daily Data. Backers Per Day. (2012). Retrieved April 26, 2015, from

h // ki k / j / d l / d l h d


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Kozinets, R. (2010). Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. Los Angeles, Calif.:

SAGE.

Kraut, R., & Resnick, P. (2011). Building successful online communities evidence-based

social design, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Kuppuswamy, V., & Bayus, B. (2013). Crowdfunding creative ideas: The dynamics of project

backers in Kickstarter. 1-37.

Lawton, K., & Marom, D. (2012). The crowdfunding revolution: How to raise venture capital

using social media (1st ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.Owyang, J., Tran, C., & Silva, C. (2013). The Collaborative Economy. Retrieved April 25,

2015, from http://popsop.com/wp-content/uploads/collabecon-draft16-130531132802-

phpapp02.pdf

Rogers, E. (1983). Diffusion of innovations (3 ed.). New York: Free Press.

Ronson, J. (2013, June 22). Amanda Palmer: Visionary or egotist? Retrieved April 25, 2015,from http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/22/amanda-palmer-visionary-

egotist-interview

Rowse, D. (n.d.). Rule of Thirds. Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://digital-photography-

school.com/rule-of-thirds/,


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23

Appendix


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1

Appendix

# Post Quoteanalysis

Link with

theory

Synthesis

1 Afford,money is tight

Even though person can’t

afford to givemuch,

supporti ng the

artist and

getting thereward wasmore important

than money.

Main reasson

is supportingthe artist

Project big

and important

Intrinsic

motivation

Cd set, vinyl Reward

Sincere Authentisity

2Part of this

Conciousness ofkind

Is addicted tothe project and

the process, is

very involvedin everythingabout it.

Doesn’t care

much about the

reason, justwants to be a

part ofcommunity .

Uses it for

entertainment,communication

and learning

Watching,

studying,drinking;

Thrill ride

Intrinsicmotivation

Learn moreExtrinsic

motivation

New CD Reward


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2

3future of

music, we are

the media

community jargon

community jargon

community

Supports the

cause , but also

enjoys being a part of

community

AFP Armyconsciousness

of kind

Direct ability Support thecause

4 community

every peoplehelps each

other

consciousnessof a kind

Supports the

common cause of fighting the

industry, butalso backs to

support

collaborativeeconomy

trend for the

future,withoutcontrolling

Support thecause

AFP jargon

5 one of 10,325 Consciousness

of kind

Even though

the person

mentions other participants(community),

the message is

aimed at

Amanda only.Person seems

obsessed withher. Support

the artist

You High centrality

Genuine Trust


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4

10

Fans community

This person isshowing that a

new fan

community has

been created.

We supposehe/she funded

the project to

show his/her

attachment tothe communi ty

11

Fucking (3)

Amazingexited (2)

fantastical

community jargon

This person

seems reallyclose toAmanda

Palmer, He/she

knows herreally well.

He/she fundedher because

he/she find her

fantastic. It’sthe love of the

artist that

drives him/herto give money

to such a project.

12

chat before

knowing at

least a few people

via theinterwebs

communityinvolvement

self-sacrifice

this backer isusingKickstarter to

create

relationship

and meet withother fans ofAmanda

Palmer. More

than a socialmedia to

support the


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5

artist,Kickstarter can

be a place tomeet new

people within

the communit

y

13

fanlove(2)

inspire

fantastireal/really (3)

fucking(2)gift

devotion

openness(2)honesty

community -moral

responsibility;

ritual;

community jargon

trust

inspire to do

admires and

have passionfor Amanda

Palmer . Likes

being a part of

it, likes howshecommunicates

with the

communityand how she

makes music.it is personal

for him, close

to him andmotives him to

go beyond

himself.

support the

creator; al so,

reward and

supporti ng the

cause .

14


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6

15

AuthenticityDistrust

Contrasting

Lack of trust -

> attitude

Documents

Amanda Palmer.pdf