When you have a brand community, you have a group of customers that are invested in your brand and want to see it succeed.
Brand communities are valuable because they provide valuable feedback and insights, and can be marketed to.
Being able to build a community around your brand means that your customers will stay in touch and remain engaged.
This extra contact allows for more chances that customers will buy from the company again, tell others about the company, and remain loyal to the company.
If you’re looking to build a community around your brand, read on for some tips. We’ll also provide some examples of successful brand communities for some inspiration.
What is a brand community?
A brand community is a group of people who are united around a business and have a shared interest or passion for its products, services and values.
Brand communities help businesses keep their customers by making them feel connected and encouraging them to buy into the brand’s way of doing things.
You probably already belong to several brand communities without even realizing it. Some of the most influential and active brand communities turn into lifestyle communities, making the brands a way of life for many people.
Whether you’re talking about the latest iPhone release or tagging Nike in your Instagram workout stories, brand communities are all about creating a buzz around a brand.
Having a strong brand community creates customer loyalty and helps with business growth.
4 Key Benefits of a Brand Community
If you want to create a strong and engaged brand community, you need to be patient, creative, and committed to building something valuable for your customers. This takes time and cannot be done overnight. However, the benefits to your business will be huge.
1. Boost brand affinity
The first thing on the list is brand affinity. Having a brand community creates a closer connection to your brand values for customers which leads to them having a greater affinity for your brand.
When customers feel like they share common values and beliefs with a brand, they’re more likely to engage with it on a regular basis. A strong bond with your customers can boost the chances that they’ll buy from you in the future. Brand affinity allows customers to see their purchases as an investment rather than an expense.
Consumers are constantly being bombarded with marketing messages from different brands, but if they identify with your brand’s vision, they will choose your products over your competitors. Creating a brand community is a great way to achieve this, and it’s important to know how to build a community around your brand.
2. Generate brand advocates
Family and friends are still the biggest drivers of brand choice, even though influencer marketing has grown a lot in recent years. Somebody you know recommending a brand carries twice as much weight as an influencer or celebrity. So the more word-of-mouth publicity your business can get, the better.
A brand community is a group of customers who are loyal to a brand. This community is effective in turning customers into brand advocates. By posting regularly in the brand community space, the brand stays visible in people’s minds, which increases the likelihood that they will tag a friend or share a post with others.
Make it easy for your customers to share your products and brand with social sharing buttons, and include calls-to-action in your marketing copy encouraging them to do so.
3. Drive up customer lifetime value
While it’s important to focus on monthly sales reports and increasing your customer base when you’re first getting your brand up and running, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can be a more important metric for your business in the long term.
When you take on a new customer or student, ask yourself:
- How long will they be a customer?
- How often will they make a purchase?
- How much will they spend in total?
CLV can be calculated using three questions: 1. How much does a customer spend during each visit? 2. How often do they visit? 3. How long do they stay a customer? Answering these questions lets you calculate the Customer Lifetime Value for different types of consumers.
If you want to increase your customer lifetime value, you should focus on building a strong community around your brand. Having a community gives you the opportunity to get closer to your customers and encourage them to keep buying from you. It also provides a way for you to get feedback from customers so you can learn how to improve their experience and make your relationship with them even stronger.
The best way to ensure the success of your business is to make sure your customers remain loyal and keep coming back. By building a community around your brand, you can keep your customers engaged and committed, which will in turn increase your customer lifetime value.
4. Get inspiration for future products
It is a good idea to create new products based on what members of your brand community are saying they want. This way, you can be sure that the products you create will be popular with your target market.
Big game companies like Electronic Arts (EA) provide excellent examples of how to utilize fans to inspire future products.
EA is asking their community to help test new game releases before they come out. This gives members a chance to see the game early and be part of the development process. Lego has a similar community where people can submit their ideas for new Lego products. Many of these ideas are turned into actual products that are sold.
A strong brand community with their own creative input can give you the chance to take a more dynamic, successful course for your brand.
How To Build Your Own Brand From Scratch in 6 Steps
1. Research your target audience and your competitors
Before creating a business brand, you should research the current market to understand your potential customers and current competitors.
There are many ways to do this step of how to make a brand:
- Google your product or service category and analyze the direct and indirect competitors that come up.
- Check subreddits that relate to your customers and eavesdrop on their conversations and product recommendations.
- Talk to people who are part of your target market and ask them what brands they buy from in your space.
- Look at the relevant social media accounts or pages your target audience follows and are receptive to.
- Go shopping online or offline and get a feel for how your customers would browse and buy products.
2. Pick your focus and personality
You can’t make your brand be everything to everyone, especially when you are just starting out.
The most important aspect of creating a successful brand is finding a clear focus, and making sure that all other aspects of the brand fall in line with that focus.
The following are some questions and exercises to help you focus on the tone and message of your brand.
What’s your positioning statement?
Your positioning statement should help answer the following: What do you do? A positioning statement is a one or two line statement that claims your place in the market. Who is your target market? This isn’t something you necessarily put on your website or business card, but it’s designed to help you answer the right questions about your brand and create your brand’s tagline. What makes you different and/or better? Your positioning statement should help answer what you do and who your target market is.
Your unique selling point is what makes you stand out from the competition. Find it, focus on it, and make it part of your brand’s messaging.
Or, if the company you want to create is based on a certain belief (like a social enterprise), you can also write this out as a mission statement that promises something specific to your customers or to the world.
What words would you associate with your brand?
If you imagine your brand as a person, what kind of personality would your customers be attracted to?
The way you present yourself online will shape how people see you and the image you project. Make sure that everything you post is in keeping with the image and personality you want to convey.
One way to come up with a new brand is to brainstorm three to five adjectives that would describe the type of brand that would be appealing to your target audience.
3. Choose your business name
It’s best if your store name is unique and not easily confused with other businesses. If you think you might expand what you sell in the future, it’s better to choose a name that is broad and can be easily changed, rather than one that is specific to your current product.
You can use a business name generator to brainstorm some names, or try one (or a combination) of the following approaches:
- Make up a word, like Pepsi.
- Reframe an unrelated word,like Apple for computers.
- Use a suggestive word or metaphor, like Buffer.
- Describe it literally (caution: easy to imitate),like The Shoe Company.
- Alter a word by removing letters, adding letters, or using Latin endings, like Tumblr (Tumbler) or Activia.
- Create an acronym from a longer name,like HBO (Home Box Office).
- Combine two words: Pinterest (pin + interest) or Snapple (snappy + apple)
You should ask close friends for their opinion on your name choice to make sure it doesn’t have a hidden meaning or is too similar to something else.
4. Write a slogan
A catchy slogan is a concise and descriptive phrase that can be used as a tagline in social media bios, website headers, and custom business cards. It is an asset that can make a big impact with very few words.
You can always change your slogan to reflect new marketing angles – Pepsi has done this over 30 times in recent decades.
A good slogan is short, catchy, and makes a strong impression to boost brand awareness. Here are some ways to approach writing a slogan of your own:
- Stake your claim. Death Wish Coffee: “The World’s Strongest Coffee”
- Make it a Metaphor. Redbull: “Redbull gives you wings.”
- Adopt your customers’ attitude. Nike: “Just do it.”
- Leverage labels. Cards Against Humanity: “A party game for horrible people.”
- Write a rhyme. Folgers Coffee: “The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.”
- Describe it literally. Aritzia: “Women’s fashion boutique.”
5. Choose the look of your brand (colors and font)
After you have chosen a name for your company, you will need to decide on a color scheme and what fonts to use. This will be helpful when you begin to use a website builder to create your own website.
Choosing your colors
The colors you use for your brand can say a lot about the company and the feeling you want customers to have. Different colors can help set you apart from competitors while also staying consistent. You’ll want to be thoughtful about the colors you choose in order to achieve the right look and feel for your brand.
There is no definitive science of color psychology, although there is lots of theory. In any case it can be helpful to think about the impacts of color in guiding the decisions you make, particularly with regards to choosing a color for your brand’s logo.
6. Apply your branding across your business
It is important to have a cohesive brand story across your business so that customers know what your business is about and what it stands for. This will help to create positive interactions with customers both in-store and online.
Shopify’s research shows that customers who are new to an online store often look to see if the store’s mission and purpose align with their own values. They will go to the store’s About Us page to learn more about the store and, for socially conscious customers, how the store is operated. If your store has a brand story, it is important to share it because it can help new customers feel reassured that your store is legitimate.
When building a new brand, your positioning statement can get you started, but you’ll want to ask yourself a few questions for your brand story:
- What motivated me to start my business?
- Why does the company exist?
- How do we contribute to the world?
- What is the story behind my business the customer should know?
Evolve your brand as you grow
Consistency is key, and once you’ve built a strong brand identity, it’s important to maintain it.
Your brand is more than just a logo or slogan–it’s an extension of your company that should be consistent across all customer touchpoints.
Whether it’s your website, marketing materials, or product packaging, make sure your brand identity is strong and consistent.
As you introduce your brand to more customers and learn more about them, you will continue to adapt and improve your brand design and identity.
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