Brand communities

Brand communities

“A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand.” (A. M. Muniz).

People within Brand communities share different set of “patterns and attitudes”. The first of them is consciousness, which means that members feel empowered by one another, and  they will be able to think collective in this individual society when it comes to their peers.  

They also share rituals and traditions, meaning that people within those brand communities, lookalike one another, they know what the other knows but what the outside doesn’t know; a great example of ritual and tradition within brand communities is the brand Supreme, or as it is called today “the Supreme Cult”, it is a new York street wear clothing company, that because of it’s history, became the “diamond” of the skaters and youth culture, it quickly became extremely popular, as Supreme was placing consumer first, always, indeed, as a Skateboard company, they place their first store in a completely deserted street so “people could skate first and shop second”. This strategy helped Supreme to have a “customer centric image” but also to raise this exclusivity around the brand itself, the store being in an unusual area. For its “brand lovers”, supreme, and its clothes quickly became a kind of creative and innovative expression, people considered that “Supreme product are something culturally valuable and worth a premium price”(Bondaroff)

Finally, people within brand communities share a sense of moral responsibility. People within a brand community feel like they owe something to their peers, probably because those one are fulfilling both their belonging needs but also their esteem needs. Belonging to a brand community makes you feel unique and people constantly want to prove they are good enough to one another. It is like stepping up to say “I am worth it, you made the right choice, I am the perfect fit for you.”

Brand communities are all about giving people, and particularly peers, people that look each other, a purpose. It is making people look in the same direction, carrying the “holy grail”: their beloved brand to success.

Issue

Brand communities are all about putting individual and consumers first, setting their need up front and chose all together, companies and their customers,  a similar direction and a goal to reach.

In the world we are living today, internet has become a great way to fulfill people’s belonging need. There is no more the need to go outside and talk to people in real life when the web allows you to talk to whoever, whenever and wherever. People are able to find people that look like them and share their same interests and passions.

        The world is moving fast and people expect companies and their marketers to use medias that are closer to them. They are done with the traditional TV and radio and are currently asking for more personalized ways to reach them, especially is this marketing clutter when people are “attacked” by messages wherever they go. As the Buggles mentioned in their song in 1980, “Video kills the radio star”, we are now 40 years later and social medias is on their way to kill the “video star”.

        Many companies have understood this issue and are nowadays turning themselves to less conventional and traditional medias. By 2020, Generation Z will represent 40% of US consumers (Rip, Empson), but the way to reach and retain their attention is way different from the way to reach Baby boomers. Companies are smartly using snapchat to promote their products and services and there are a lot of advantages using this platform. Indeed, it account more than 100 milion users daily, using this platform is a way for companies to excite and engage with their consumers. The use of Snachat, among others, is a great way for companies to convey the following message: “we understand you, your habits, your interests…”. It’s all about creating a big family, a cool gang and a huge herd. As a Smack article mentioned: “successful businesses have one thing in common, a loyal following of everyday consumers”.

Being closer to their followers, companies will be able to adopt a consumer centric product-development strategy. Thanks to this, we are now entering in a new era: the co-creation.

Back in 1940, Maslow was already talking about belonging and self esteem need, but looking at the society today, those needs are taking more and more space, when you consider that people restrain themselves from eating properly to buy products from their favorite brand (7% of the American population is considered having shopping addiction).

Currently, the market is crowded with new products and services, so it is becoming harder and harder for brands to create concepts that are both new and that consumer will like. So the real problem for them is to stand out of this marketing clutter as people are constantly attacked by information and do not retain half of these. In order for brands to raise desirability in the eyes of their customers, companies need to understand that they are the key for long term success as they represent the users of tomorrow. Nowadays, more and more brands are co-owned and co-created. Brand communities are all about surrounding themselves with people who believe in their ideas. Today, customers are “the greatest source of intelligence”(Elisa Fink), so by co-creating with people, you will came up with better ideas and ensure your own success.

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