• Understand relevant marketing concepts and explain the concepts through application to the specific marketing problem;?
• Analyze and evaluate information in a marketing context;?
• Using appropriate information sources, analyze information gathered to provide depth and breadth to recommendation; and?
• Demonstrate effective written communication skills and use of correct referencing method. ?
A brand community is a business strategy that is crucial for the improvement of the business. The brand is required to exercise its presence in the market through implementation of effective marketing strategies. In this regard the brand plan also plays an important role in recognition. The brand symbol is in the form of a picture or text or specific sign of the company that will represent the particular brand and help the customers to identify them easily. The brand symbol helps every organization to build brand image and develop distinct brand communities for the customers as well as the potential customers (Altaf Khan, 2011).
The case study provided is based on the brand management of the different companies. The role of brands and the importance of the brand community is the basic building block of the case study. Brand community is community derived from the attachment to a particular product. Several researches on marketing strategies and consumer behavior have proved that there is s strong connection between the brands, individual identity and culture. Organizations are alarmingly making improvements in the brand community to develop the connection between the target customers and the brand or the product.
The markets for many companies have become customer oriented and that the customers have developed consumptive identity. The consumptive identity was something which was discovered by the marketing analysts which states that it is new form of sociality that focuses on brand communities (Wiegandt, 2009). The article has highlighted the issues of defining the brand communities. The definitions are derived from the post modern concepts that deal in the formation of identity. There were contradictions in describing the brand communities (Sohn & Korzenny, 2005). According to O’ Reilly and Maffesoli, brand communities depend upon the consumer tribes and the neo-tribes. The concept of neotribe is described in this article as the characteristics of a group of consumer that changes with the change in the event or product type or brand type. The example that is mentioned in this article is different type of movie fans. One set of fans may be inclined towards Star Wars and the other group of fans may be towards Star Trek. The article helps to relate the brands with the totems in consumer tribes which states that the ignoring brands would means overlooking a critical part of the tribal culture.
In the case of Coca-Cola, it is rather difficult for the marketing managers to distinguish between the brand followers and the brand communities. The brand followers are the brand enthusiasts according to the author who may not necessarily be a part of the brand community. Thus, the problem of building a brand community is important for Coco-Cola (Bjerke & Polegato, 2006). In this case, building brand communities are crucial for the company but what is more important is the enhancement in the brand among the target customers. This building of brands is interconnected to building brand communities (Investors et al., 2015). Coke has been facing issues related to obesity and infrastructural issues which can be dealt partially with the help of blogs, commentaries, tweets and the role of the media. These are the traditional marketing strategies. In this regard the problem can be solved using the building of virtual brand communities through the social media marketing (Medium, 2014). But the online marketing is just a tool in building blocks where the CEOs demand for a Web 2.0 strategy (Bowen & Ozuem, n.d.).
Harley Davidson engaged in community based brand development which promoted the brotherhood rider who possess shared ethos (Das, 2014). The strategic repositioning was taken up by the company which depicted close-to-the-customers strategy where the employees spend time with the customers in the field and conveyed the insights to the company. It was recommended that the company must reform the organizational design and the structure which will enable the marketing managers to understand the costs and benefits of the brand communities. The company initiated 77-person stand alone organization that enhanced infrastructure and cultivated relationships augmenting brand. There are brand communities that are resistant to mainstream as in the case of Apple (Borja de Mozota, 2003). The company promoted media stories for brand building which forms the basis of the symbolic convergence theory by Ernest Bormann, John Cragan and Donald Shields where the customers’ perception about brands are guided by the stories that are intended for them to believe (Trendafilov, 2015). There are certain columnists that promote the negative side of Apple which affects the brand. The characteristics of the brand community of Apple include individualism, independence and a strong loyalty to the Apple brand (Heracleous, 2013). The company has a Macintosh Users group (MUG) which is crucial for the success of the brand communities. The marketing manager can also incorporate the Brandfest strategy which implies high quality interaction within the dissimilar brand communities (Buss & Strauss, 2009).
The article also states that Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) argue that the brand community is characterized by rituals and traditions. This is unique feature within companies can be promoted using the community engagement through documenting, staking etc. One of the greatest example of brand communities success is the Manchester United which has emerged not only as sport team but has gained international brand recognition through Manchester United Television, club merchandize and soccer schools etc.
This article firstly throws light on the fact that brand communities are different from other types of communities that exist in the society. It is argued that communities are secondary rather than being primary. It can be said that brand as a symbol comes before the brand community. We learn that brand communities consist if a unique type of characteristics that differentiates them from other types of communities. Advancement in mass production had made it easy for the streamlining of consumer goods into the western countries. This article helps us to know that whether intentionally or not, the producers had extended their functions to the consumers well beyond their knowledge. The societies that had emerged recently were centered around “brand communities”. This case study reveals that many groups of consumers made the utmost use of brand communities and used it as the base of social interactions.
This article provides examples of Harley Davidson Motorcycles, the MG car company, magazines, Nutella, Liverpool Football Club, theme parks, etc to demonstrate the rich experiences that brand communities offer which are simultaneously powerful and provide a complex culture for the members. The article also draws the attention of the readers by saying that brand communities function more often in a symbolic way. As authors previously have failed to understand, how brand communities are represented only in a symbolic way, they have never been properly classified.
The article highlights the similarity brand communities share the findings of the anthropologist, Anthony Cohen, who was of the opinion that collectives that are formed on a shared basis usually serves the society. In the same way, another anthropologist of high repute named Emile Durkheim stated that clans too use totems as a form to represent themselves collectively and also as a basis of their unity (Elliott, Percy & Pervan, 2011).
The article brings to our attention that the concepts of brand communities have been drawn recent concepts of post modernism. These concepts emphasize largely on the forms of identity. In this article, we find that authors have tried to differentiate brand communities from consumer tribes that are also called neo-tribes by some (Gunelius, 2009). Brand communities have different origins, and their purpose too is different from consumer tribes. The article clearly points out that the difference between neo-tribe and brand community is best understood as the contrast between a social grouping (akin to a tribe) and a cultural grouping (akin to a subculture). The brand community thus is said to possess the stability that is not dependent on any social group.
According to the article, we can come to the conclusion that brand communities are formed by members who are united by their loyalty towards one particular brand and consumer tribes are formed by those members that take part in specific interactions that are solely based on groups like forum or club meets. The case study also throws light upon the fact that it is important to differentiate between a general brand consumer and members of the brand community. For example, just because a person may enjoy a bottle of coke would he be considered a member of the Coca-Cola brand community? It is the sense of belonging to a community that makes brand community membership different from other followers of brands. In brand communities, the sole important element is the brand. If the brand ceases to exist, the brand collective community would also dissolve (Harvard Business Review, 2009).
This article summarizes that the common process associated with brand communities are social networking, managing of the impression, engaging the community and use of a brand. Brand communities are also perceived to be multi-vocal in meaning by this article that is they attach meanings to other brands as well for example Apple vs. Microsoft, Ferrari vs. Porsche, etc (Meierer, 2011).
The basic idea of the article was to examine the role an impact of brands and brand communities. It can be said that the brand communities are beneficial for the bottom lines of the companies as it helps to lower the operating cost, enhancing the brand value thereby increasing the sales of the company. The different strategies that the companies can implement to promote the brand communities are discussed in this paper with the help of the branding communities of Harley Davidson, Coca-Cola and Apple. Thus, the branding communities must be constructed within the companies using right strategies and business models.
Altaf Khan, M. (2011). Brand management. New Delhi: Enkay Pub. House.
Bjerke, R., & Polegato, R. (2006). Differences in Value Orientations of Coca Cola Drinkers and House Cola Drinkers: A Cross-National Investigation. Journal Of Euromarketing, 15(4), 7-33. doi:10.1300/j037v15n04_02
Borja de Mozota, B. (2003). Design management. New York, NY: Allworth Press.
Bowen, G., & Ozuem, W. Computer-mediated marketing strategies.
Buss, A., & Strauss, N. (2009). Online communities handbook. Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders.
Das, K. (2014). ‘Harley Davidson’ Success Speaks- Brand Image and Culture: An HR Perspective. BIJIEMS, 4(2), 48-56. doi:10.9756/bijiems.4808
Elliott, R., Percy, L., & Pervan, S. (2011). Strategic brand management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gunelius, S. (2009). Building brand value the Playboy way. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harvard Business Review,. (2009). Getting Brand Communities Right. Retrieved 20 August 2015, from https://hbr.org/2009/04/getting-brand-communities-right
Heracleous, L. (2013). Quantum Strategy at Apple Inc. Organizational Dynamics,42(2), 92-99. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2013.03.002
Investors, Company, Page, Brands, Videos, & Sustainability, et al. (2015). 10 Things Every Brand Can Learn From Coke. The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved 20 August 2015, from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/coca-cola-unbottled/10-things-every-brand-can-learn-from-coke#TCCC
Medium,. (2014). Brand Economics & Solving the Coca-Cola Problem. Retrieved 20 August 2015, from https://medium.com/@goonth/brand-economics-solving-the-coca-cola-problem-b2de4f06f0c2
Meierer, M. (2011). International corporate brand management. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag.
Meister, S. (2012). Brand communities for fast moving consumer goods. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
Schroeder, J., Salzer-Mörling, M., & Askegaard, S. (2006). Brand culture. London: Routledge.
Sohn, Y., & Korzenny, F. (2005). Opinion leaders and seekers in online brand communities.
Trendafilov, D. (2015). Chasing the myth: A Harley-Davidson story(telling).Semiotica, 2015(204). doi:10.1515/sem-2014-0085
Wiegandt, P. (2009). Value creation of firm-established brand communities. Berlin: Springer.
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