Marc Roberts On Building a Community Around a Brand
With the evolving expectations in terms of customer experience from brands by consumers, companies have to look into developing deeper and more meaningful relationships with their target audience. Some of the main decision-making factors in the last year that were even more popularized by the pandemic were social justice, inclusion, diversity, and sustainability. Now, consumers are looking for brands that share similar values to their own.
The most successful companies are able to communicate their values through their decision-making actions as well as through the communities they’ve built up on various social platforms. These days, it’s not enough for consumers to get a great product or service and a seamless transactional experience, as they’re also looking to support purpose-driven companies that share the consumers’ own values.
To be able to build a rich, effective, and authentic brand community, companies need to have a consumer-centric growth strategy, and should nurture the emotional connection that consumers have to a brand. One of the biggest driving factors in customer retention is brand loyalty, which can be further boosted by a brand’s community. Aside from all that, companies can benefit from brand communities with user-generated content, customer-driven feedback, product ideas, and improved SEO efforts.
Mission and Values
The first thing that companies that are trying to build loyal communities around themselves have to do is define their brand’s mission and values. These two elements, along with a brand’s general personality, provide a strong foundation for a brand community, because at the core of the community is going to be the brand itself. That’s why companies have to invest time and effort into making sure that a brand’s values and mission are going to be effectively communicated with the consumers through their buying journey.
Specific Focus
After a company’s mission and values have been established and well-defined, it should avoid diluting its own brand message by promoting causes that fall outside of the scope of the company’s mission. For example, a company that champions healthy living and constantly promotes eco-friendly efforts and products shouldn’t align itself with values outside of those scopes, such as with initiatives on saving stray animals, as that will detract from the company’s core message.
Content and Content Hub
Learning more about a company’s consumers will benefit that company in many ways, including learning about the types of content that the customers really enjoy. That information can then be used to create and distribute similar types of content, and encourage the consumers to participate in the content and to create more of their own. Additionally, the content can be shared in a centralized space where all of the members of that communication can convene and share information or experiences. Creating content that’s valuable for the consumers, as well as a space where all of them can find interesting and helpful content that appeals to them emotionally, means those consumers are going to keep coming back to the business.
About the Author: Marc Roberts is a Miami based entrepreneur.
