Market Creation as Social Movement:

Kogi BBQ’s Founding of the Gourmet Food Truck Market

RusselP. Nelson

University of California, Irvine

Revised Abstract Submission

Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit 2012

Introduction

This study explores how the introduction of Kogi BBQ, a gourmet food truck that advertised its location on Twitter, restructured Southern California’s food truck markets. Although mobile food trucks had operated in California for decades, these “roach coaches” had traditionally parked at construction sites or bars and served blue-collar customers. Selling utilitarian food, they operated alone, with fixed locations and regular schedules. In 2008, Roy Choi co-foundedKogi, a truck selling Korean-barbecue tacos. Rather than have a fixed location and set hours, Choi announced the truck’s location on Twitter and allowed fans to track its whereabouts in real-time. This experiment was a success: Kogi grossed $2 million its first year and imitators quickly followed. As hundreds of trucks joined Kogi on the streets of Southern California, they began cooperating, parking together in temporary groups to attract more customers. These food truck roundups last only a few hours, but Twitter allows truck owners to connect with their customers and also cross-promote their temporary alliance partners to their Twitter followers. What can account for the rapid change in the prevailing attitudes towards food trucks and the corresponding growth in the number of food trucks and food truck markets? What was the role of technology in enabling the creation and adoption of this new market form?

Literature Review

This research builds upon much previous work in marketing and sociology in developing a theoretical account of the role of technology in the market creation process. Within the field of marketing, researchers have generally theorized that new markets are formed when a new product fulfills an unmet need or a company develops a new technology. This theorization is limited because it views technological innovation as an exogenous variable, overlooking the role of broader culture, norms, and social structures. Recently, scholars have moved to conceptualize market creation as a process of institutional legitimation, whereby entrepreneurs deploy cultural frames to “fit in” with prevailing social structures (Giesler 2012; Humpreys 2010; Press and Arnould 2011). This article introduces De Clercq and Voronov’s (2009) theory of innovative legitimacy to account for entrepreneurs’ role as change agents who also “stand out” from or challenge existing institutions. In examining the role of technology, the author returns to the original meaning of the Greek root, techne, meaning “skill, art, craft, expertise” (Roochnik 1996). The author uses a social-historical analysis (Golder 2000) of the Los Angeles food truck market to explore how Kogi BBQ’s founders combined framing with other strategies. The author finds that Kogi’s use of both techne skill—or the ability to craft gaps—and strategic social skill (Fligstein2001)—or the ability to induce cooperation—allowed them to gain the balance of institutional legitimacy and innovative legitimacy necessary to create a market.

Contribution

Kogi has been lauded in popular accounts as a “Twitter success story” (Bergman 2009; Steinhauer 2009; Weisfeldt 2009); the present analysis suggests that the focus on Kogi’s use of social media limits its potential as a learning tool. For entrepreneurs and marketing managers, Kogi’s example shows the importance of other types of innovations and tactics, including developing a new cultural frame and promoting themselves by breaking norms and utilizing strategic social skill. Recommendations for creating or transforming markets also include the need for entrepreneurs to balance both institutional and innovative legitimacy. Like chefs crafting new menu items, entrepreneurs need to have an understanding for how to create and market innovations that are simultaneously novel and accessible.

Citations

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De Clercq, Dirk and Voronov, Maxim. (2009). “The Role of Domination in Newcomers’ Legitimation as Entrepreneurs.” Organization, 6: 799-827.

Fligstein, Neil. (2001). “Social Skill and the Theory of Fields.” Sociological Theory, 19: 105-125.

Giesler, Markus. (2012). “How Doppelgänger Brand Images Influence the Market Creation Process: Longitudinal Insights from the Rise of Botox Cosmetic.” Journal of Marketing.76 (November), forthcoming.

Golder, Peter N. (2000).“Historical Method in Marketing Research with New Evidence on Long-Term Market Share Stability,” Journal of Marketing Research, 37: 156–173.

Humphreys, Ashlee. (2010). “Megamarketing: The Creation of Markets as a Social Process,” Journal of Marketing, 74: 1-19.

Press, Melea and Arnould, Eric J. (2011). “Legitimating Community Supported Agriculture Through American Pastoralist Ideology.” Journal of Consumer Culture, 11: 168-194.

Roochnik, David. (1996). Of Art and Wisdom: Plato’s Understanding of Techne. University Park: Penn State University Press.

Steinhauer, Jennifer. (Feb. 24, 2009). "For a New Generation, Kimchi Goes With Tacos". New York Times.(accessed July 2012), [available at

Weisfeldt, Sara. (June 1, 2009). “Twitter Chase to Hottest Dining Spots.” CNN.(accessed July 2012), [available at