This discussion may require critical thinking skills.
It has been a quiet day for this blog so far, but I shan't falter in my resolve: We're bringing this blog back! For now, a quick discussion after the break. (this is also a backup nightly, in case no mods get the nightly)
One possible criticism of Hasbro's relationship relative to the brony community is that if they had done more to foster it, they would have had an even more profitable IP. Seems logical, but Hasbro didn't do that. I did some research and found that there really hasn't been any substantial/extensive research into the effect of fan communities on IP value, sales, et cetera. So it looks like Hasbro's been acting in the absence of knowledge here: they don't know if their fan community is worth much, so they're understandably hesitant to do much for or against it.
I passed an email or two to Dr. Redden of Brony Study about this and she mentioned that it's very difficult to get the detailed financial records from a company neccesary to measure the value added to/subtracted from an Intellectual Property by a fan community, so an alternative source of data would be neccesary.
So tonight, let's brainstorm study designs. How would you go about accurately measuring
- The size of a fan community
- how much a company fosters or stunts the growth of its fan communities
- How much fan communities effect profitability of an IP
Good luck: If we actually get some good study designs and can prove to Hasbro that fostering the growth of the brony community is in their best interest, it could change the fandom forever.
