Brand community - Marketing Management - Manu Melwin Joy

Brand CommunityMarketing Management

Prepared By

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Manu Melwin Joy

Assistant ProfessorIlahia School of Management Studies

Kerala, India.

Phone – 9744551114Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

Brand Community

• A brand community is acommunity formed on thebasis of attachment to aproduct or marque. Recentdevelopments in marketingand in research inconsumer behavior resultin stressing the connectionbetween brand, individualidentity and culture.

Brand Community

• A brand community can bedefined as an enduringself-selected group ofactors sharing a system ofvalues, standards andrepresentations (a culture)and recognizing bonds ofmembership with eachother and with the whole.

Brand Community

• The term "brandcommunity" was firstpresented by AlbertMuniz Jr. and Thomas C.O'Guinn in a 1995 paperfor the Association forConsumer ResearchAnnual Conference inMinneapolis, Minnesota.

Brand Community

• Muniz and O’Guinn saidBrand Communitiesexhibit three traditionalmarkers of community:

– Shared consciousness

– Rituals and traditions

– A sense of moralresponsibility.

Brand Community

• Many brands provideexamples of brandcommunities. In computersand electronics: Apple Inc.(Macintosh, iPod, iPhone),Holga and LOMO cameras,and Palm and Pocket PC Ultra-Mobile PCs. In vehicles: FordBronco, Jeep, Miata, MiniCooper, Saab, Saturn andSubaru automobiles, andRoyal Enfield and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In toys:Barbie and Lego

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #1 :A brand

community is a marketing

strategy .

• THE REALITY: A brand

community is a business

strategy.

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #2: A brand

community exists to

serve the business.

• THE REALITY: A brand

community exists to

serve the people in it.

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #3: Build the

brand, and the

community will follow.

THE REALITY: Engineer

the community, and the

brand will be strong.

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #4: Brand communities

should be love-fests for

faithful brand advocates .

• THE REALITY: Smart

companies embrace the

conflicts that make

communities thrive.

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #5: Opinion leaders

build strong communities .

• THE REALITY: Communities

are strongest when

everyone plays a role.

Myth & Reality

• MYTH #6: Online social

networks are the key to a

community strategy.

• THE REALITY: Online

networks are just one tool,

not a community strategy.

Examples of Brand Communities

BEING GIRL (PROCTER & GAMBLE)

• The site was created in 2000 as a

destination for young, teenage

girls. P&G includes content

provided by experts and

encourages open discussion with

expert advice on topics such as

menstruation, eating disorders,

acne and dating.

BEING GIRL (PROCTER & GAMBLE)

• They take a big-sister approach.

They also advertise the

companies products, Always and

Tampax. Being Girl is now

available in over 25 countries. It

has been cited in the book,

Groundswell, as delivering 4X

the Return on Investment (ROI)

of traditional marketing.

FIGMENT (RANDOM HOUSE)

• This is an online writing

community owned by Random

House, the biggest general-

interest trade book publisher

in the world. It was founded

by Jacob Lewis and Dana

Goodyear in 2010. It currently

has over 300,000 users.

FIGMENT (RANDOM HOUSE)

• The target group of the community is

mainly teenagers between 13 and 18

years old. It’s succeeded because

they gave the community something

to do, write and share novels. This

isn’t just a community of interest, it’s

a community of practice too. They

highlight the best contributions of

the community.

H & R Block

• Tax preparation is a highly

seasonal business. H&R

provides immediate access to a

tax professional for Q&A through

the “Get Answers” section of

their website but also connects

you to learn and share

experiences with others through

their H&R Community.

H & R Block

• The effort secured

1,500,000 unique visitors

and answered 1,000,000

questions for a 15% lift in

business versus the period

before H&R Block created

the community.

HARLEY OWNERS GROUP (HOG)

• This is a sponsored

community, operated by

Harley-Davidson for

enthusiasts. The HOG is “the

grandaddy of all community-

building efforts,” serving to

promote not just a consumer

product, but a lifestyle.

HARLEY OWNERS GROUP (HOG)

• The HOG has also served to open

new revenue streams for the

company, with the production of tie-

in merchandise offered to club

members. Membership is

1,000,000+. The Harley Owners

Group was created in 1983 as a way

to build longer-lasting and stronger

relationships. At that time, the

company was facing bankruptcy.

LUGNET (LEGO)

• When Lego Group set out to

develop Mindstorms NXT, the

latest version of its game for

building programmable robots, it

enlisted help from a group of

adult enthusiasts whom it found

on Lugnet.com the largest

unofficial community of Lego

fans.

LUGNET (LEGO)

• While the marketing target for

Mindstorms is mainly teenage boys, the

people that Lego reached out to were a

group of men in their 40s and 50s who

knew each other from communicating

and working together on elaborate Lego

projects on Lugnet.com.The group’s

members, according to a Lego

spokesman, contributed “incredibly

valuable insights” in hardware, software,

design and usability based on their own

experiences.

MY STARBUCK IDEA

• This is now 6+ years-old and

remains the gold standard of

crowd sourced tip boxes that

have actually worked for a brand

and delivered ideas from

customers (150,00 plus) with

innovations (277) that have

actually been implemented.

MY STARBUCK IDEA

• Customers today can order a “skinny”

beverage and a cake pop, garner digital

rewards for using their Starbucks Card

and enjoy free Wi-Fi – all thanks to

suggestions from fans. “Our passionate

customers and partners have been

sharing their ideas with us on My

Starbucks Idea, and we have listened and

acted upon many amazing innovations

that we have received from this online

community,” said Alex Wheeler, VP

global digital marketing for Starbucks.

ORACLE COMMUNITY (ORACLE)

• This is s a site for people

interested in Oracle

Corp.’s database and

software products.

Members share personal

stories, pictures, videos

and birthdays.

ORACLE COMMUNITY (ORACLE)

• They can create blogs on

the site, form groups

around themes and build

networks of designated

friends. Members can also

schedule meetings and

events both online and in

person.