It is a fundamental need as well as a luxury to belong to
a community. Through the divergence of social media, community marketing or
belonging to a community has become a lot easier. Initially people receive
community support from home starting from their family and friends and slowly
it gets dispersed by including the people a company is targeting for providing
service.
What is Community Marketing?
Community marketing is quite similar to local area
marketing where the only difference stays is that the first one comprise of
global scale. It is a strategic approach to educate customers interactively
about certain brands and develop a community of existing and new customers. Social
media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have eased up this process where the
members in the community get live interaction opportunity with each other as
well as the concerning company. Unlike all other types of marketing, a
one-to-one interaction is possible here whenever it is required and thus the
companies get an opportunity to make their client feel important. According to
Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, acquiring a new customer is five to
six times more expensive than retaining an existing one and thus more focus is
needed to give on customer retention approach. The rule of thumb for the best
marketing approach to this day suggests to focus on meeting the needs of
current customers so that businesses can avoid the expenditure on advertising
and all to attract new customers.
As history suggests, some of the world’s pioneer brands
were originally developed through low-cost community-based marketing like
Amazon, Starbucks, Nike, Coca Cola and it goes on. Their primary target was to
stay as close as possible to their targeted community and thus they never
needed and extensive market research to tell them what people want.
A good example could be Kiehl, a supreme body-care
product makers adored by the models and the elites. People around the world
would come to New York City to visit their store for the original product. Now
this is what we know as L’Oreal and their packaging has always been plain; even
its stores are basic since its establishment. Their success was driven by the
products that were tailored to customers’ needs. The constant research and
upgrade of their products, complimentary in-store product trials and the
personal affiliations have kept this brand to form a strong and active
community that stands even to this day.
Community Develops Loyalty and Maintains
Authenticity
The human minds are pre-programmed with certain
characteristics. The chief among these are felling understood and privileged
and these needs are often met through clubs communities and families. When the
companies started focusing on individual customers- reaching out the existing
customers or motivating a new one has been a powerful impact that forges
emotional attachment. An establishment of a new community makes people feel
kindred and when an existing community is strengthened, people once felt
rationalized now feel privileged.
Community brands are mostly persistent as they’re
regularly adapting to the changing clients’ interests and values. The best idea generating source of
growth and innovation is actually the passionate brand community. If we
consider all the world leading consumer brands, within each of those
businesses, new products, services & features and ways of marketing were
initialized through a continuous flow of ideas coming from the grassroots.
In a nutshell, community drives innovation and supports
natural reinvention.
Apart from this, certain community groups has helped
people to meet their desired businesses. Some of these groups also arrange
fundraising approach within their members to host local events or for a good
cause. In other words, ”community” has a very strong stance in today’s world
and should be considered an important aspect of business.
