Evolving Brand Communities

Brand communities are a fairly new concept, but have become a great marketing tool for promoting various products and brands as well as receiving customer feedback.  A brand community is simply a forum where consumers come to share information about branded products and have traditionally used mass media outlets like the Internet. One special aspect of these communities is that they bring  large groups of consumers together who share similar wants and needs. These consumers then interact with each other, sharing opinions and tips about the product. Online brand communities are great for advertisers because there are no geographical limitations, meaning that users can easily connect from all over the world.  Unlike other forms of advertising that try to create a link between the company and the consumer, the purpose of a brand community is to connect consumers with other consumers, fostering a sense of shared values and standards among them. Within these brand forums, there is also some level of consumer responsibility. This means that it is up to the consumer to share with others if they have had a bad experience with a product, or conversely if they find a really great product, they have a responsibility to pass that information along as well in order to help out their fellow consumers.

A brand community also provides a place for consumers to share brand stories, whether they reflect well on the brand or not. When visiting a brand community it is common to see many enthused and pleased brand members, but it is also common to see complaints about the brand from various users. While this is one drawback of the brand community as a marketing concept, the fact that people are able to see others first hand positive experiences will most likely override the few bad comments. This is because people are much more likely to trust other consumers that they believe to be similar to themselves, rather than a large corporation with a business agenda. One, example of a brand that has done a good job in creating a community for its product admirers is Harley Davidson. On the Harley website homepage there is a link to the community, where users are lead to a welcoming forum where they can interact with other members. They have even broken down the communities into more specific forums offering separate forums for Women Riders, Harlistas, Harley Owners, Iron Elite, and Military and Veteran rider groups to come and share their stories. Because Harley has developed their brand so well, users can come to the website and feel as if they are at home because they are able to interact with others who share a similar identity or sense of self as they do.

Today, with the rise of social networking popularity, many brands are able to expand their social online presence by creating brand community pages on websites like Facebook and Twitter, where brand fans can interact further. This type of strategy is best for targeting youthful age groups since they are so heavily involve  in social networking. Essentially, if a product or brand wants to have a favorable impression from youth they should create a brand community on the social networking websites that teens use most. While these brand communities were initially created with an advertising motive, now they are starting to evolve into a customer service and product support tool.  By doing this, a company can erase some of its own customer service responsibilities when problems arise by providing an outlet for consumers to help each other by posting product questions and answers. For instance, the Apple website prompts users to “join the conversation and share tips and solutions with Apple product users all over the world” in their product support community.