Brand Community – Stay Connected Even After the Credit Has Passed

Have you recently joined a new online community? Great. A digital community has huge benefits: advice, collaborations, information exchange and often also a transition between online and physical in meetings, lectures and discussions on the concept of the community.
Take this, and the brand you love the most and connect them together: A brand community is a community created based on the connection to the brand (Wikipedia) and focuses on the connection between consumers and between consumers and the brand. The concept of a “brand community” was first introduced by marketing professors Albert Munitz Jr. and Thomas G. O’Ginn in 1995, who defined it as: “A specialized, geographically unrelated community based on a structured system of social relationships among brand fans” (Wikipedia).

A loyal brand community is made up of people, most of whom are already customers, who continue to be interested in the brand even after purchase.
To make this happen, you will need to provide the reason(s) that will make them join the community, interest them and provide added value, and of course, make sure they share the community with others so that it grows.
Here are some brands that run a “By the Book” brand community…

stories.starbucks.com

Coffee & Company – Starbucks

Baristas? Here they are called partners. The Starbucks coffee chain (starbucks@) is much more than the usual cup of coffee in the morning. Social initiatives, assistance and volunteering for the local and international community, ongoing communication between community members and “Open Mic” evenings in coffee shops, have created one of the strongest, most fun and talked about communities in the world.

The growth engine of the Starbucks community is the people and the content they provide. The brand gives customers a platform in which they take a major part, such as focusing on regular customers and tagging them on the main pages, international online competitions or activities to strengthen community ties and build trust, such as “Coffee with a Cop” in Seattle.

Furthermore, connecting the community with the brand provides purchasing benefits, such as the Starbucks Rewards program, where customers can earn stars for purchases, winning games and participating in events that grant bonus points. Add to this the design diversity on the cups that the brand takes care to update, for example before the holiday season, experiential social activities and fine coffee, and you have a great aroma that lasts.

stories.starbucks.com

Share the chips and the criticism – McDonald’s

One of the most important things in managing a community is to first understand and accept that control needs to be shared, between the community manager and the community members. This is also the beauty of the community and its essence, no matter its size.

McDonald’s (McDonalds.com@) allows for open and honest dialogue with the online community, and does not hide the complaints and requests behind the world-famous burger. This strategy of direct appeal at the level of the poor contributes to creating a healthy community and a real connection with customers. Choosing the right platform plays a role here. For example, on Instagram it will be a little less relevant to share a photo of an eaten hamburger with a customer complaint in the feed compared to Facebook. In addition, not all platforms tend to be pro-organizational, and some, like the Imgur website – for uploading photos from a group with an added comment, will only accept a certain type of content.

targetinternet.com@

Cartoon Community – The Walt Disney Company

What’s more experiential than a Disney park or movie? Being a member of the Disney Fan Club community.

Under the global brand, there are several web pages full of community activities and for the community, one of which is DisneyWorldCommunity@ which features exciting brand-sponsored contests, special days of the year, and photos of community members. Like other experiential brands, Disney also established a fan club to strengthen the community:

The D23 Expo fan club is actually a three-day physical gathering, which has been held in California since 2009.

As a VIP member of the community, you can experience the magic before everyone else, with teasers for upcoming Disney movies, one-off celebrity appearances and additional surprises and drawings. The idea is to create a community that starts online but takes place physically during a visit to Disney, with annual VIP events, discounts and even an annual gift that is updated according to the concept.

Want to bring the whole family? Go to the website and look for the mouse.

d23.com@

!Come on, Barbie, let’s go party For the community…

If we talk about designing and updating the brand/product according to the community, then Ken, Barbie (@barbie) completely falls into this category. You can clearly see this in recent years, the public discourse and the influence of Barbie’s fan community have been updating the doll since 1959 when she first came out. The visibility, the discourse around her, and her status have changed according to the diverse community discourse and social issues that concern the entire public, such as disabilities, sexual orientation, and female empowerment. As they said in Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility,” so this is exactly it: important community initiatives like Barbie’s The Dream Gap, which was launched in 2018, to provide support and resources to girls up to the age of 15. This initiative was translated into a global network campaign sponsored by Barbie, designed to create awareness and a place for the dreams of young girls and women. The relationship between brand and community is mutual, and your power as a big brand can be harnessed in an inspiring way, as in this case.

barbie.mattel.com

Don’t miss this amazing video >>

Creating a healthy community for your brand can set you apart from the competition. Every online advertising platform has the potential to unite and create a community for your brand, you just have to choose what to focus on.

Experiences, shared activities that transition between online and physical, discounts and of course open dialogue, form the basis for creating a community around the brand in a way that promotes it and creates memorability.

And remember, this time the ball is not only in your hands.