The document discusses the concept of brand communities, defined as non-geographically bound social groups centered around a shared brand identity, emphasizing their shared consciousness, rituals, and moral responsibility among members. Key case studies including Sephora and Lego illustrate how brands effectively engage with their communities both online and offline, fostering strong consumer loyalty. The evolution of brand communities is also explored, noting the shift towards online platforms and the challenges they present for brand ownership and management.

1. Karthik Jeganathan
PGDAM 2018-2019
karthik@purplemango.co.in

2. What is Brand Community?
Characteristics of Brand Communities
Predisposition to Brand Communities
Brandfests
Advantages of Brand Communities
HOG Case Study
The Internet
Sephora: A Case Study
Lego: A Case Study
The Future

3. In a 2001 article titled "Brand Community,"
published in the Journal of Consumer Research
(SSCI), Muniz and O’Guinn state that a brand
community can be defined as “a specialized,
non-geographically bound community, based on
a structured set of social relationships among
admirers of a brand. It is specialized because at
its centre is a branded good or service.”

4. This 2001 paper has recently been
acknowledged by Thomson Scientific &
Healthcare to be one of the most cited papers
in the field of economics and business.

5. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) state that like other
communities, brand communities are “marked
by a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions,
and a sense of moral responsibility… brand
communities are participants in the brand’s
larger social construction and play a vital role in
the brand’s ultimate legacy.” (Muniz and
O’Guinn, 2001).

6. Consciousness of a Kind
“… the innate connection that members feel
toward one another, and the collective sense of
difference from others not in the community…”
(Gusfield, 1978; cited in Muniz and O’Guinn
2001)

7. Consciousness of a Kind
In the case of Saab owners, the brand
community members felt an important
connection to the brand as well as to other Saab
owners and clearly differentiated between
themselves and owners of other cars.
Oppositional Brand Loyalty: Saab vs. Volvo
Legitimacy in terms of truly believing in the brand
and using it the way it is meant to be used

8. Rituals & Traditions
Shared rituals and traditions provide legitimacy
to community membership by helping to
exclude those who are not “in the know” and
thus not true brand enthusiasts (Smack Inc.,
2007).

9. Rituals & Traditions
For example, among the Saab brand community,
greeting rituals involve public recognition of one
another and include a knowing nod, honking,
waving and asking them about their brand
model (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001).

10. Moral Responsibility
Moral responsibility is felt as a sense of duty or
obligation to the community as a whole, and to
its individual members. “The sense of moral
responsibility is what produces collective action
in times of threat to the community and is
primarily evident in (i) integrating and retaining
members and (ii) assisting brand community
members in the use of the brand.”

11. Moral Responsibility
In the case of the Saab brand, integrating and
retaining members involved such activities as
deriding those who changed from Saab to
another brand while assisting brand members
related to helping other Saab drivers with car
trouble.

12. A strong brand image, a rich and lengthy history,
the ability for the product to be publicly
consumed and the threat of competition are
some of the factors mentioned that make a
brand more predisposed to community
formation (McAlexander et al, 2002; cited in
Davidson et al, 2007).

13. Patterson and Malley (2006) have a similar
proposition and argue that brands that perform
well—in terms of fostering the development of a
community — tend to be “characterised by an
aura of religiosity, utopianism, authenticity and
a preponderance of narratives.”

14. McAlexander (2002) states that brand
communities “may be either geographically
concentrated (Holt 1995) or scattered (Boorstin
1974) or may even exist in the entirely non-
geographical space of the Internet (Granitz and
Ward 1996).” However, even this geographic
location can be dynamic. A normally scattered
brand community can occasionally be
geographically concentrated such as in the case
of a brandfest.

15. The research conducted by McAlexander et al
(2002) was done during Jeep brandfests such as
Jeep Jamborees, Camp Jeep and Jeep 101, and
revealed several interesting findings. Newer
Jeep owners for example did not automatically
feel a part of the community and it was only
upon the action that older members took to
guide newer members that this fear of not
belonging was dispelled.

16. In addition, brandfest participation led to more
positive relationships with the product, brand,
company and other Jeep owners. And brandfest
participation led to significant increases in
overall integration with the Jeep brand
community.

17. “Members of brand communities are more forgiving
than others of product failures or lapses of service
quality. They are less apt to switch brands, even when
confronted with superior performance by competing
products. They are motivated to provide feedback to
corporate ears. They constitute a strong market for
licensed products and brand extensions. In many
cases, customers who are highly integrated in the
brand community are emotionally invested in the
welfare of the company and desire to contribute to its
success.” McAlexander et al (2002)

18. The Harley Owners Group (HOG) brand
community, like many others, is actively
nurtured by the company. Upon buying a
motorcycle, Harley owners are invited to join
the local HOG chapter, attend its meetings and
participate in various events.

19. HOG chapters often meet at local dealerships
and receive funding from the Harley Davidson
Company. Furthermore, participation in HOGs
has been found to increase members’ affection
for the Harley brand, making them committed,
dependable, and in many cases, even
evangelical consumers (Algesheimer et al, 2005).

20. Though there are differences between physical
and virtual brand communities, more and more
firms are recognizing the advantages of web-
enhanced brand communities. So far, because
creating and developing brand communities
required a certain critical number of enthusiastic
users there have been few brand community
activities.

21. In addition, corporations themselves were
reluctant to organize such activities because
doing so often involved a significant amount of
logistics and an extensive commitment of
resources. Virtual participation on the other
hand is usually less resource-dependent and
might facilitate more frequent participation in
the community (Devasagayam and Buff, 2008).

22. From a consumer perspective, the internet holds
several advantages. It reduces the effort needed
to find and join a community, supports
communication over time among community
members, makes it possible for discussion
groups to form and disband easily and even
frees the community formation process from
geographical constraints (Devasagayam and
Buff, 2008).

23. Sephora does an amazing job of helping customers feel
connected with their online community, Beauty Talk – a
massive, well-organized forum where users can ask
questions, share ideas, and have their beauty
quagmires solved by other enthusiasts. Their Beauty
Board offers another way to engage with the products
and the community. Users upload pictures of
themselves wearing Sephora products. The photos then
link to the product page of all the items used.

25. The customers become instant brand ambassadors,
inspiring others to use the products. Meanwhile,
Sephora never has to lift a finger; all they did was
create the platform for customers to share. And, the
brand’s marketing team can use the forum to find out
which products customers are interested in and what
their pain points are. They also can respond to
customer service issues, putting a lot of their customer
relations work into one channel.

26. What could be more enticing to a Lego enthusiast than
having their design idea on the shelves – and being
awarded a percentage of the product sales? With Lego
Ideas, anyone who loves Lego, from age 5 to 95, can
check out proposals, vote on their favorites, leave
feedback, and submit their own ideas. The most
popular ones go to market.

28. While there are positive aspects to the growth
of this phenomenon, the virtualization of brand
communities also poses new challenges for
organisations—especially so in terms of brand
ownership. “Brand community members often
play an active role in the social construction of
brand meaning and in many cases the marketer
is often regarded as having too much say in the
brand's future” (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001).

29. Consumers now increasingly see brands as
shared cultural property rather than as privately
owned intellectual property (Holt, 2004; cited in
Cova and Pace, 2006) and even going so far as
to create their own advertisements.
Example: Kirkland Light Beer Commercials from
Randy Colpek

30. Consumer-generated content has, for instance,
been created by fans of the Apple iPod, Coca-
Cola, Firefox (web browser), Molson (beer),
Nike, and Volkswagen, among other brands
“Across the globe, millions of insightful,
passionate and creative people are helping to
optimize and endorse breakthrough products
and services, sometimes without the companies’
buy-in” (Wipperfurth, 2005).

31. Successful branding on the Internet will
increasingly come from organisations who do
not manage market conversations, but rather
join in and they will be managed by people
comfortable with the notion of brand
management as values management.

32. “Such brand managers will need to regard
themselves as conductors, providing brand
leadership, leaving the orchestra of their
customer community to interpret and co-define
the brand meaning” (Chernatony, 2001).
Though frightening from the perspective of the
organisation it is the likely future path of brand
communities and one that organisations will
increasingly have to learn to coexist with.

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