Brand, as stated by Cayla & Eckhardt (2008) contributes in creating new identities for consumers and make consumers feel connected with each other by consuming the same products, which relates to the sense of living in a ‘global village’, the term in which established by McLuhan (2001), where the people in the separate places easily connect with each other through the help of media and technologies. The feel of being connected by shared interest is what forms brand community.

Through social media, the concept of brand communities can be appropriated by the business (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001 cited in Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 64). Brand communities refer to consumers’ communities in whereby they manage to connect and identify with one another through certain brand’s consumption (Kalman, 2009, p. 1). Those in a brand community consume or use the same brand and are likely regular customers of that brand. They also interact or communicate with the fellow customers.

People do not only use social media for their daily life update. It is also common that they use their account to post stuff related to a brand they consume or use. For example, they write up about their experience flying with an airline, or the latest café they visited. Furthermore, other than simply writing and sharing their brand experience, consumers also use online media to seek information they want to find out. They would post a question in a forum or bulletin board, and someone with the knowledge will come and respond to their question. It also happens in social media sites. Now with a lot of businesses setting up their own social media account, consumers can post their enquiry directly to their account.

Social media encourage many interactions and exchanges of ideas or opinion. The conversations when people talk about a brand, and the connection among people grown from shared interest formed a community. Consumers form the community because of the shared bond they have from using the same brand. In other word, they relate to each other by their shared experienced of using the brand. One example of the online brand community is Starbucks Facebook page which currently has over 36.5 millions of ‘likes’. Those following or liking the page or account share the same interest towards the brand, and would like to get updates on it.

Brodie, et al. (2011, p. 3) stated that the existence of their social media account can evoke higher interaction between the consumer and the brand, which means it will affect the level of consumer engagement. The consumers also participate in sharing content related to the brand through social media. The existence of brand community can be used by the businesses to reach out and interact with their consumers. Furthermore, by engaging with the consumers, the company can obtain suggestions or ideas to improve their product or service quality, especially since consumers do often share their opinion, positive or negative, online. Consumer or customer engagement, when done properly, can build good relationship, which will lead to loyalty and trust.

Brand community provides opportunity for businesses to engage more with their consumers, especially with the existence of social media. Consumers are actively looking for information and sharing their knowledge on brands they consume online. As a result, businesses have to pay attention in managing their social media account so that it will reflect positively to their brand. Besides, the way the company engages with the consumers may affect their perception towards the brand. Therefore, maintaining the relationship with the consumers in the community is as important as maintaining the brand image.

Sources:

Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., Hollebeek, L., 2011, ‘Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis’, Journal of Business Research, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.07.029

Cayla, J. & Eckhardt, G. M., 2008, ‘Asian Brands and the Shaping of a Transnational Imagined Community’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 35(2), 216–230.

Kalman, D. M., 2009, Brand Communities, Marketing, and Media, viewed 24 February 2017, available at: http://www.terrella.com/bcmarketingwp2.pdf

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M., 2010, ‘Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, 59-68.

McLuhan, M., 2001, Understanding Media, Routledge Classics, London.