Why Community Matters for Businesses & Brands
Effective marketing in today’s world means having conversations. Conversations between the brand and one customer, or multiple customers, and conversations between the customers themselves. These connections and conversations are what build brand advocacy, loyalty, and even visibility.
Consumers enjoy interacting with a brand when they feel the brand understands what they want or need, and that they are being heard. When a brand begins to just spit out branded, sales-y content, consumers quickly learn to avoid the brand and the brand’s content — even if it could be valuable.
Because of that, we are seeing more and more successful brands build their marketing strategies around nurturing communities. They’re asking for and implementing feedback from their customers, and connecting customers to each other, and showcasing user-generated content (UGC) as part of their marketing plan.
Why Should Companies Build a Community?
Communities are vital to brand loyalty, visibility, awareness, and overall long-term success. A strong and engaged community will lead to improved products, learning, and innovation, as well as company growth. However, to be truly impactful, companies and brands need to build communities that go beyond selling a product to providing value and support for their members.
Communities generate tangible value for brands and companies. This value can be seen in content, events, brand affinity, and digital advocacy. It also becomes clear in marketing, technology, customer support, and educational opportunities.
These tangible benefits have been studied at length. In fact, in a report on the benefits of brand communities produced by Dialogue, 58% of UK consumers between the ages of 25 to 34 said that being part of a brand community meant they would be likely to spend more money on that brand’s products and services.
However, it is the hard-to-measure, intangible value that brands, customers, and community members gain from being a part of an active brand community — and that is what makes them truly “sticky.”
Psychological research has taught us that people crave a fundamental sense of connectedness, belonging, purpose, and meaning.
Brands such as Nike have proven that companies can help consumers satisfy some of these social and individual needs in a way that is personal, not just transactional, through communities.
Communities look different from what they did in the past. While membership in civic societies is declining, today’s communities are built around businesses and brands.
In fact, a 2009 Harvard Business Review study argued that strong brands engineer their community first, and then build the brand around the community!
Brands with Strong Communities
An active, engaged brand community can drive innovation and increase revenues and customer loyalty, all while providing a way to connect with other members. These 5 brands are leading the way:
Sephora’s community was designed to make customers feel connected with their online community, make-up and skincare professionals, and other customers. The design of their community has allowed almost anyone to become a brand advocate or brand ambassador by uploading photos of their looks and listing the make-up that made those looks possible, asking questions about beauty products, join groups tailored to their interests, and more.
HITRECORD
Founded by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this online community is all about connecting actors, artists, filmmakers, and writers with each other. With more than 750,000 members this vibrant community actively collaborates on new productions inside the community. In fact, many of these collaborations have been shown at Sundance!
Few brands inspire as much loyalty and affinity as Harley-Davidson. Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) boast more than 1,400 local chapters around the world for enthusiasts to get together both in-person and online to discuss their bikes;
Harley-Davidson also prints its H.O.G. magazine with reviews and member stories — infusing its fan base into every part of its community — often using the stories from its community in its advertising campaigns and social media.
FitBit quickly became a household name. But, unlike other wearable devices, their longevity can be attributed to their ability to build engaging FitBit Communities. FitBit describes their Fitbit Community as “a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight.” As of 2017, their community peaked at just over 25 million members.
Now, AirBnB might be community-driven by nature, but they still managed to create a branded community the helps travelers and home-owners feel connected. Using their “Create AirBnB” platform, the brand invites renters, travelers, and owners to design their own logos, expressing what makes their homes and communities so special. They’ve also added online experiences so that you don’t have to leave home to experience other cultures, foods, shows, and languages.
Bottomline
Each one of these brand communities offers unique features, focuses, and ways to engage. However, in varying degrees, each one also possesses ways for their members to offer feedback, ask questions, and share their own thoughts and ideas. They also offer both advocacy, and support, two things that have come to define a thriving brand community.
