Brand Community

During the last fifteen years, there are umteen best- exchangeing(predicate) subjects family merchandise and cross building,etc.These hot subjects encourage interaction and speed up the incubation of new sources of disciplinary growth betray Relationship(the relationship in the midst of consumer and blemish).In Brand Relationship theory sysytem, to a greater extent than scholars focus on the relationship between consumer and sign, nevertheless Muniz and OGuinn(2001) did more look for on the relationship among consumers, and position forward a new blemish concept Brand Community.This concept comes from consumption society,which was first proposed by historian Daniel Boorstin(1974), in the modern era of high mobility, deal look non and to communality of consumption behavior but in addition to neighborhood as a basis for feelings of residential area. The same as consumption conjunction, stigma company is also initiative and drive of individuals co operating at the beginning, after that, enterprise start to take advantage of the power of fire scar community to build mail loyalty and send equity, therefore, stag community is becoming a new weapon of marketing.In this essay, I make literature critique surveys on scholarly articles, books relevant to brand community, providing a description, summary and critical evaluation of brand community. Firstly, discuss the origin and comment of brand community. Secondly, summary the research status and the dynamic natures of brand community which are antithetical from consumption community, briefly introduce three main disports of brand community. Thirdly, illustrate evolution of brand community influence. Fourthly, case study, use case of Starbucks to explain the implications of brand community. Finally, conclusion and the prospect of research.1 Demarcation of Brand community1.1 Origin of Brand communityDuring the last few years, there is a trend that academic research on consumption activities m oved away from considerations of individual to a focus on communal. The word community was used frequently. consumption community (Boorstin, 1973). Subcultures of consumption (schouten and McAlexander, 1995). Band community (Muniz and OGuinn, 2001 McAlexander et al., 2002).These communities are referred to as social collectives (Greenwood, 1994). Life-mode communities (Firat and Dholakia, 1998) andneo-tribes (Cova, 1997).Brands provide the linking value to rough individuals who takes to become member of these communities. These communities seize the idea that people have relations with new(prenominal) people and such relationships are constructed around a fulcrum acted by brands. Harley Owners group(HOG)is a good example of the brand providing such linking value(Fournier et al.,2001).There are more and more descriptive studies detailing the features of such communities Star Wars fans (Brown et al.,2003) Suns Java have-to doe with community (Williams and Cothrel,2000) and Nutella (Cova and Pace, 2005).In a word, communities are expected to provide benefits for the organisation they affect brand equity and create a stable base of loyal, vehement consumers (Muiz and OGuinn, 2001 McAlexander et al., 2001). Actually, it is not easy for a brand to establish a community.Brand-centred communities may typify themselves to open up a utopian place in the contemporary world.Kozinets (2001) historied that impossibility and dreamness together with deep motivational power and desire While utopianism enables clients to engage with reality rather than merely escape into fantasy (Geoghegan, 1987).Which means transform and subvert are the two abilities of utopian (Maclaran and Brown, 2001).Members and the relations among them compose a community. McAlexander and Koeing (2002) identify communities on the basis of identification among community members(a neighborhood, a leisure pursuit, an occupation and devotion to a brand).Brand community is a new type of community, differe nt from traditional community, can form a strong image, a lengthy history around brands.Actually,it is a community established with brand-centric1.2 Definition of Brand communityBecause brand community is a new concept, there is nounified definition in academia, but we can define it from two parts narrow and commodious meanings. Narrow meaning is represented by Muniz and OGuinn. Based on the research on approximately brands, such as Ford Bronco, etc.Muniz and 0Guinn (2001) noted a brand community is a no-geographically bound and specialized community based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand. It highlight the point connection of brand community is brand not region, and brand community has three essential markers (Muniz and OGuinn, 2001).Bagozzi (2006) noted that brand community is consumption community with common enthusiasm for a certain brand or certain good social cognition (environmental protection), the members realize collective objective or express the common emotional and commitment through common action. goodthis is as the same as Muniz and OGuinns definitionthey both emphasize the expressions of emotion and action from a certain brandMcAlexander (2002) expended this conceptthe broad meaning of brand community is a connection network with focal customer as centre, besides brand relationship, there are many separate relationships. This concept emphasizes the Consumers all-round experience of brand. Upshaw and Taylor (2001) made a broad explanation to this conceptthey documented that all the stakeholders who have relationship with the brand (including employeecustomerstockholdersupplier and strategic partnered) compose brand community.2 Basic theory and concept 2.1 Research Status Brand community is becoming an increasing popular topic in brand management research however, the short-lived time leads to its present research is preliminary, and mainly focused on the concept, features, origin, impact and modes, etc. Fo r example,Muniz and OGuinn(2001)claimed that brand community has three essential features of community intelligence of kind, rituals and traditions and moral responsibility.Schau and Muniz (2002)reported the value of brand community image is important to consumers identify centifiedSchmitt , Rogers and Vrotsos (2003)described the performance of brand community in Jeep,BMW and many other vehicle brandsHoeffler and Keller (2002)noted the improving consciousness of brand community is in privilege of enhancing brand equity based on consumers McAlexander , Kim and Roberts (2003)researched the relationship between brand community and consumers satis incidention, consumers loyalty, and claimed that consumers loyalty is not only affected by customer satisfaction, but also by brand community.Belk and Tumbat noted that it is not easy for a brand to establish a community.(Schouten and McAlexander, 1995 Kozinets,2001Muniz and Schau,2005).There are many scholars focusing on virtual community, documented the classify of community and marketing strategy (McWilliams , 2000 Monica , 2000 Wind , Mahajan and Gunther ,2003). All above research en loaded the brand community theory, but there is a serious problem research only stays on statical concept ,feature and primary implication phase.Muniz and OGuinn said the future of research is to know how brand community change in different social situation.2.2 Dynamic Natures Consumption community and brand community are different on several dimensionsfirstly,Muniz and OGuinn(2001)noted that brand community is non-geographically bounded, they may be either scattered(Boorstin,1974),or geographically concentrated (Holt,1995).Geographical concentration is the dimension of social context.To be more exact, interactions within a brand community may be rich in social context. Communication may be predominantly face to face,nediated by electronic devices(Boorstin,1974).Members may have a number of information close for each one other(gend er,age and background).There is little instinct of movement along this dimension. The temporal stability of a community can be asset to marketers in as untold as legerity equates with a long-term, stable valuable market communities can share useful consumption experiences. (Arnould and Price, 1993).2.3 Three main features 2.3.1 Consciousness of kind This feature includes two sides legitimacy and oppositional brand loyalty.Muniz and OGuinn noted that members feel an significant connection to the brand and toward each other, even they are strangers, members feel they know each other, the link is more important than the thing (Cova,1997,p307).They also can distinguish who is the real member by judging whether he is familiar with and in favor of the brand, not just because of chasing fashion to use product of the brand.Sometimes,brand community members build community to share common experience and brand connotation to fight with other brands. That means community exit become more so lidarity when facing with threats (Muiz and OGuinn, 2001).2.3.2 Shared rituals and traditions The main point of this feature is shared consumption experience. It consists of celebrating the history of the brand and sharing brand stories. The transmission of brand community is life-affirming to establish its culture. At the same time, brand history is brand communitys cultural equity. share brand stories contend a significant role in brand building and maintaining. It strengthens consciousness of kind among brand members and contributes to imagined community. It also reinforces members identity to the brand and attend members learn more about communities value. Ads play a significant role in brand community rituals and traditions. Members are concerned with ads as they display the brand to those outside of the community, and themselves (Muiz and OGuinn, 2001). 2.3.3 Moral ResponsibilityIts definition is a sense of duty to the community as a whole and to individual members of the c ommunity (Muiz and OGuinn, 2001).There are at least two traditional communal missions the first one is integrating and retaining members, there is the presence of a social moral consciousness in traditional communities, they recognize the bounds of what is appropriate and inappropriate, right and wrong. Another is assisting in the use of the brand. Assistance is to help community members, both known and unknown, revive the product or solve problems. Assisting is one of the places in which computer-mediated communication offers a great deal of information (Muiz and OGuinn, 2001).According to the primary nature of the relationship, the assistance offered between individuals sharing a communal bond is specialized (Wellman, 1990 Wellman and Wortley, 1990)3 Evolution of Brand Community model3.1 Traditional Brand community Model Boorstin punctuate the relationship between product (brand) and customer in consumption community model (figure 1).Customers look brand as the promise enterpris e made for the products shape value and image. Enhancing brand means the contract between enterprise and customer. To satisfy different needs from different target market, different brands need different brand positioning, even the same brand, with the changing of customers need, also need change brand positioning. Therefore, Boorstin took the perspective that consumption community is customer-centric, the development of brand should stick to customers need as the guide.3.2. Triangle Brand community model Muniz and OGuinn ,who are the initiator of the theory of brand community, enrich the relationship model of customer-brand, emphasized brand as intermediary (figure 2).With the development of social economy, customers are not confined to need for product (material level), they are not only concentrating on the function value of products own, more concentrating on consuming the product can give them typic significance and emotion interests.The similar experience and shared emotion among community members give them more emotion value than product function value. Brand community Triad Model break through the single dimensionality in traditional customer-brand, concentrate on the relationship among customer-customer. Weakness is that the brand will be influenced not only by customers belong to itself, but also by customers belong to other brands. For example,Many customers will interview the website and forum before purchasing products, they can prevail information about many other brand customers.3.3. Brand stakeholder relations model Upshaw and Taylor came up with a new Masterbrand Community model based on Brand community Triad Model. Their opinion is all the stakeholders with brand should include employee,customer,stockholder,supplier and strategic partnered.compose brand community(figure 3).A good brand image is the base of community, while these stakeholders play an significant role in maintaining brand image and reputation, only be kind to these stakehold ers ,can brand have attraction. It is the motivation of brand community.This model organizes many factors which can influence brand to build and maintain the harmonious relationship between them. Although this model emphasizes that many kinds of stakeholders are important to brand building, it involves too many complicated relationships which is not easy for analysis and research. Besides, this model strengthens brands core position, neglect customers acting an important role in brand building.3.4. Focal customer model Based on Muniz and OGuinns brand community theory (2001), McAlexanderSchouten and Koening (2002) put forward Focal Customer Model. This model emphasizes brand, product, customer and marketer are important factors to compose brand community, and bring four relationships into brand community customer and enterprise, customer and product, customer and brand, customer and customer. This models feature is highlighting the focal customer playing linking role in brand commu nity. Besides Munizs relationship among customers, they added product, brand and marketer. Although this structure is more comprehensive, it has drifted brand community raised by Muniz, which studied the relationship among customers.McAlexanders opinion actually is another well-nigh related topic-brand relationship. A research specialist in brand relationship field, Fourier (2001), expended the relationship between brand and customer to four relations as McAlexanders model. Based on new product diffusion theory, focal customer is playing an opinion leader during product diffusion process, they are the base of enterprise. So, when enterprices want to attract new customers, also should pay more attention to focal customers satisfaction and loyalty.3.5 conclusions The premise of research on brand community is better understanding of brand community models. From the focus of the study,Munizs and McAleXanders models focus on customer, while Upshaws model focus on brand, the difference i s that former model studied the role customer playing in brand building, the later studied all the factors can influence brand. From the range of the study, Upshaws mode is genuinely comprehensive, but too complex it is difficult to consider all types of relations in one study at the same time. That is the reason why it is rarely used.Munizs and McAlexanders models are more useful, but from the logicality of study, their models did not distinguish the importance of all types of relations, that is to say, they did not tell us which relation playing an important role in brand community. 4 Case study The success and failure of StarbucksFounded in 1971, Starbucks has the fastest growth rate of any alliance in the history of retailing. (George and Pierce, 2007)Starbucks sells mainly hot chocolate, and even were it the best coffee in the world it would still only be coffee. The question spontaneously arises, however, why is Starbucks instantly a brand to be counted among the elite o f mythical brands? What has made the consumer pay a premium price for something they would normally have paid significantly little for? The answer can be found in the fact that Starbucks marketing approach goes far beyond the tangible component of the product by infusing coffee with new symbolic set and brand community. A high quality of coffee, widespread locations and commercial partnership agreements have undoubtedly contributed to the companys growth, but these elements are not sufficient to make a brand a global myth, an authentic icon of postmodern society.An exchange from the movie Duplex illustrates the gipsy image Starbucks has acquired as a place where writers and other intellectuals are welcomed as part of a specific community. In the film, a young wife, played by Drew Barrymore, turns to her writer husband and says Well, what if you got out of the house for a little while and went to write at, like a Starbucks or something? It would be nice not to have to write at Sta rbucks with all the other novelists, replies the young man, played by Ben Stiller.It is precisely this which is the true essence of Starbucks a place which evokes symbolic values and brand community values which go beyond coffee and the products sold and which makes a sign a metropolitan legend. It is feeling part of a community like that of the writers looking for success quoted in the film, and many morebesides,which makes consumers identify with a place where, when it really comes down to it, what you mostly do is just drinking coffee.A person who habitually goes a sort of community to do so not just to drink a cup of coffee but to entranceway a sort of community where they find values, models and behaviors which they tend to recognize themselves in. While Starbucks continued to enrich its context with new meanings and values, other competitors continued to simply sell coffee (Shu-pei Tsai, 2005), Starbuckss performance demonstrates how, by enhancing the atmosphere and making th e place of consumption a space linked to trendsetters and not the minority fringe of the population, by creating a sense of belonging and community, it is possible to achieve success even when satisfying routine needs.As Volli says, Starbucks is together closed and secret but also open and public, it shows and hides at the same time, it simultaneously exercises modesty and seduction, the secret and the recall(Volli,1998).Starbucks has known how to invest a new way of communication ,strongly centered on the communicative processes among members of its brand community and between its members and the outside world.There is no perfect in the world,with the development of society,economy and many other aspects,Starbucks also should face with some shortage and challenge.The greater standardization of the structures has slowly made them lose the bohemian charm which the first points of sale had, and that aroma of coffee which represented the heart of the brand community offering in Starbuc ks has progressively weakened. The sensory connotation which immediately hits you when you enter a Starbucks and which creates around it a relaxing atmosphere similar to that snarl in a club of people who share the passion for coffee, is gradually getting weaker.But the problem is not limited to reduced olfactory involvement, if anything it involves the fact that the chain is losing its soul of the past, becoming more and more like a conventional chain and losing that atmosphere which was so dear to its founder of a grim neighborhood ship, whose emotive warmth can generate particularly intense experiences. We could say that this is one of the risks which companies which have been able to build real communities around their brands find them having to face. When the brand becomes as developed as Starbucks, its audience widens and new consumers, with characters different from those of the communitys original members, take possession, thus reducing the initial pursuit feeling of belo nging.Infact, belonging to a community satisfies the desire of individuals to share common aspects with other individuals and in that way express their distinctiveness from other social groups. When those very people they are trying to distinguish themselves from try to become part of the community, it is necessary to know how to manage this process by trying to preserve the symbolic consistency of the brand rather than adapting it to the new context. This is a natural process the company does not live so as to remain in the ghetto of the nook it is in development a growth that we find the preservation of its vital functions, but the process must be handled with extreme care, avoiding compromising the good and the extraordinary that has been built.