Fostering Brand Loyalty Recruiting New

Fostering Brand Loyalty

Recruiting new members

Brand enhancement

Brand Community

A brand community is a community formed on the basis of affiliation to a product or products of various companies. Muniz and Thoma (2001), further describe a brand community as "a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand." A brand community can also be defined as an enduring self-selected (consciously or otherwise) group of actors sharing a system of values, standards and culture and recognizing bonds of membership with each other.

In line with studying consumer behavior, the concept of a brand community focuses on the connections between consumers themselves. It enables consumers to express and share a common passion that exists among them. Consumers will use brands as symbols to associate with others who share that passion (Kalman, 2005). It is with this in mind that many leading companies invent motivational drivers to keep their consumers participating in the brand communities. These motivational drivers can be categorized into four as below.

Motivational Drivers

Create a strong brand myth: companies, being well aware that brands are entities with personalities that enable their consumers to express themselves through using them; they form an authentic myth around a brand that will enable the consumer to easily identify with it (Muniz and Thomas 1995). The Coca-Cola Company has successfully created a myth around their soft drinks to be the only and best way to refreshment and it has worked out for them.

Create a sense of partnership among consumers: for a brand community to be readily accepted, the consumers must feel a need of affiliation to each other as far as consumption of a brand is concerned. This sense of partnership can be achieved through sharing information among consumers, for instance Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft make it easy for their communities to share technical information hence strengthening the brand community. Consumers will also seek sense of approval about the brand they share hence companies like Mercedes-Benz will ensure they make their clients have a sense of superiority and validation of the S-Class brand they share. Companies will as well encourage consumers to express their personality as a brand community, this serves to explain why some consumers would still embrace Apple and disregard the widely used Microsoft. Ultimately in partnership consumers will want to identify with a segment and hence Samsung will create the notion of being the top in electronics design.

Create identifiable brand elements: consumers are motivated by identities such as logos, mottos, icons, terminologies, symbols etc. These act as tangible aid for the consumer to identify themselves with the brand community hence companies will use these as a motivators and retainers to the brand community members.

Create unique culture: brand communities offer companies prompt feedback about the brand. Companies together with the consumers create value for the brand hence there is need for companies to help bring a culture that will motivate the consumers to identify with the brand (Antikainen, 2007). Nokia will always want to inculcate the unique culture of connectivity among its brand community members. Marlboro will want to maintain the culture of exclusive and fashionable cigarettes and these acts as motivators to belonging to a brand community.

Having seen how companies can motivate their brand community members to remain loyal, it imperative to look into the significance of brand communities to consumer and marketers. Brand community has proved to be an essential tool in keeping afloat in the ever competitive market. Brand communities will therefore be significant in the following:

Fostering brand loyalty.

The brand communities act as a precursor to loyalty to a particular brand. Muniz and O'Guinn (2001), write "members feel an important connection to the brand, but more importantly, they feel a stronger connection to one another." Hence the brand loyalty will be fostered by the shared consciousness. This fact helps marketers in ensuring their company sales remain on top of the market always.

Recruiting new members

Once consumers become members of brand communities, they feel the moral responsibility to that particular community. Muniz and O'Guinn (2001), find that there is "a sense of duty to the community as a whole, and to individual members of the community." Which will include sharing information with outsiders and possibly recruiting new members to the community? A BMW owner will always urge others to join the BMW class citing all the pros that he or she has. This will in effect help marketers recruit more clients and possible brand loyalists increasing their sales in effect.

Brand enhancement

On brand communities members rituals and traditions Muniz and O'Guinn (2001), say they "represent vital social processes by which the meaning of the community is reproduced and transmitted within and beyond the community. These typically center on shared consumption experiences with the brand," This helps enhance the brand further each time the brand loyalist talks about the brand. Every proud Mercedes-Benz owner will want someone else to know about it and will want to speak to as many people as possible about it. This acts as a free advertisement to companies. This can only be achieved through brand communities.