It’s about the community you build that makes the brand stick…..

Even though it may seem a simple marketing concept, building brand communities that resonate with loyal clients is indeed an immense task. To me, there four key defining characteristics that allow companies to actively involve clients in creating communities around their brands. Each is essential in building which is termed brand communities.

1.     Is your story strong? : Brands in today’s world are not “things” but living, breathing entities with identities and personalities, they are the personification of the company to which they represent. The brand allows clients to express themselves through its use. As such, to attract clients to it and encourage them to actively participate in varied branding activities, brands must have a great back story that clients can easily identify and relate to. A story not only provides authenticity to the brand but also allows clients to express their sense of self through the consumption of the brand. They have to relate the brand, if they see themselves in the brand; they want to join the party.

2.     It’s a village - Create a need for collaboration among consumers: For a community to be actively adopted, clients must feel a need to connect with each other in the context of the brand’s consumption. A need to connect with other brand users can arise for a number of reasons such as:

Ø  Sharing information – For example, many online gamer communities, technical products communities become members in the first instance because such communities allow members to share information with others and learn many technical details easily.

Ø  Validation – Members of the brand community seek validation from fellow members about their choice of the brand, its usage situations and its superiority over other brands in the market. The validation factor is huge for brands – it allows consumer to feel comfortable knowing they are among friends and they get very comfortable with the brand.

Ø  To express one’s personality – The Apple brand community feel a strong sense of expressing their unique personality by embracing Apple and rejecting the market leader Microsoft.

Ø  Identify with a specific segment – The Starbucks brand community are part of the community because of their need to be identified as part of the global ‘cool’ segment that is in tune with the latest in music and fashion. Therefore companies should decide the main reason for which they want to build communities around their brands is in line with the segments that it wants to target.

3.     Create identifiable brand elements: As with any community, brand communities must be able to offer its members unique, identifiable community elements in terms of terminologies, icons, symbols and spokespersons. Such elements will not only help the community distinguish itself from others but also offers the members solid tools to identify themselves with the community. These community elements should be in line with the brand’s underlying identity.

4.     Make the Culture Unique and Interactive:  One of the fundamental reasons for the growing popularity of brand communities is that they offer companies real time feedback about the brand. Brand communities allow companies to co-create value with clients on a continuous basis. As such, companies must create a culture that allows clients to interact with the brand, other users and the company simultaneously. Such an environment allows clients to experience the brand in a memorable manner as they are a part of the value creation process.

With the four steps outlined this blog; I hope the takeaway is that it  will assist you and your company in framing a healthy structure to build a brand community. As with any venture, the success of a brand community depends on how proactively you engage your clients on a continuous basis. The more time you into the community engagement, the more benefits you reap.

Brand communities are proving to be an extremely effective tool in tackling the fluid, ever-changing, competitive, marketplace to which brands operate today. The rise above the noise level and be a unique voice to allow your clients to interact with you in your brand community. Brand communities give clients the ability to collaborate in all phases of value creation – product design, pricing, places of availability, and phases of promotion – but also provide companies a valuable platform on which to engage clients and create loyalty towards the brand. Brands that master this ability with community create will be those are built on strong fundamentals centered on the brand identity and support the brand strategy.