How brand communities create value. 

This week’s blog is based on a 2009 article by Shau, Muniz & Arnold . Don’t be put off because it’s from the pre-IPad era: The way people behave now is still the same.

Brand Communities

There are 12 value creating practices across the nine brand communities of study. The 12 practices are organized into four categories: (1) social networking (2) impression management (3) community engagement and (4) brand use.

(1) social networking – creating, enhancing and extending ties among brand community member

 IA) – welcoming

1B) – empathizing

1C) - governing

(2) impression management – have an external, outward focus. Want to create favourable of brand and community in the social universe beyond the brand community.

(2A) – evangelizing

(2B) – justifying

(3) Community engagement practices reinforce members’ increasing engagement with brand community.  Brand is secondary here.  Practices are competitive.

(3A) - staking

(3B) -  milestoning

(3C) -  badging

(3D) - documenting

(4) Brand use

(4A) - grooming

(4B) - customising

(4C) - commoditising

Each practice exhibits three things:

(1) understandings - knowledge and tacit cultural templates

(2) procedures or explicit performance rules, and,

(3) emotional engagements

Practices generate consumption opportunities. For example, by documenting commodisation, others are able to copy, thus generating consumption. Trying to achieve milestones likewise generates consumption. Grooming creates value by preserving appearance and performance. The empathetic nature of a brand community adds to the switching cost and means members are more likely to stay with that brand community. In fact, Muniz et al, argue that all practices are an act of value creation, and that if people have the opportunity to construct brand communities and the freedom to modify products, they will.

Implications for Marketers

Actions that marketers should take are to plug the gaps in the brand community, thereby making it stronger.  For example, perhaps a brand community has developed brand use practices but has little social networking practices. This is where the company should foster or sponsor social networking practices.  Perhaps a brand community has developed various customising techniques but has developed no milestoning practices. Perhaps the Marketeer could offer a branded book or emblem to commemorate the milestone. Perhaps the company website could also host ideas from other companies about how to customize a brand.  The company can also get the brand community in designing new products:  Feedback about new flavours or looks; If marketers support and nourish brand communities they have access to a community dedicated to the brand and how to make it better.

Do you agree that all practices are an act of value creation? Comments welcome!

Schau, H.J., Muniz Jr., A.M. & Arnould, E.J. (2009). How Brand Community Practices Create Value. Journal of Marketing 73(Sept), 30-51.

Passive, Active or Later?: Your company’s involvement with SMM

 A company can be either actively or passively involved in social media marketing, says Efthymios Constantinides.  But before you even think about social media, make sure the back end of your company is in good shape.

Does your product have a ‘unique selling proposition’?  Is it good value?

It is very easy for customers to compare your offering with that of others, and be vociferous online about it.

Do you have a good marketing department and a robust, customer-oriented website that can cope with increased orders and traffic resulting from your foray into social media?

Production, logistics, customer service, sales and procurement might be traditional but they’re vitally Important.

Lastly, does your company have the staffing resources to position itself in social media marketing?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions: Get your company in order, social media marketing can come later.

If you answered YES to all the questions, then your company is ready.  You now need to choose whether your engagement with social media is active or passive.

The aim of the PASSIVE approach, or ‘Listening-In’, is to provide marketers with information about market needs, customer experiences, competitive movements and trends. The social media marketing tools you can use includes blogs, forums and content communities.  Content communities are websites that organise and share content such as YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and TripAdvisor.

An ACTIVE approach to social media marketing, can result in direct communication with customers, the acquisition of new customers and the retention of old ones.  An active approach can involve the use of: Blogs, social networks (ie, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), content communities and forums.

Forums & bulletin boards are interactive sites for exchanging information about sharing particular types of content.  Forums & bulletin boards can also be aggregated around selling such as eBay and Gumtree. Content aggregators can also be used to actively interact in the social media world. Content aggregators are apps that allow users to access customized web-content, or apps such as Google maps which contains content from various sources and is customisable by the user.

I want to have an ACTIVE voice in social media marketing so please comment on this blog!

Constantinides, E. (2014). Foundations of Social Media Marketing. Procedia - Social & Behavioural Sciences, 148, 40-57.

Porter, M.E. (2001). Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, 79(3),62-78.