Brand Communities: Can they Work? 2008 Beckons
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As we near the year-end, one trend that seems to be catching up with marketers is that of building communities online through brand related social networks. The question is – will they/ can they be leveraged effectively by marketers.
I just came across a few Stats with respect to India’s 1st full-fledged Brand Community – Sunsilk Gang of Girls.
There were 6 lakh members
35, 000 Groups or ‘Gangs’
Hits in excess of 2 million (remember ‘hits’ does not say anything – have a look at my article on ‘Web Metrics’)
Average Time Spent – 15 Minutes (Pretty close to Facebook!)
9, 500 Bloggers
So the numbers are impressive and it seems like a worthwhile investment because brand related networks essentially:
- Permeate the brand into consumers’ lives
- Participative Belonging. Closeness to the brand is achieved
- Share connections and experiences. Winner is the Brand
- Consumers drive the attitude of the brand (this may not always be a good thing)
Even thought the Gang of Girls figure was impressive, HUL has not really revealed the cost of marketing Gang of Girls, which had a pretty huge media budget.
I understand that Gang of Girls was a trendsetter and that is why it may have spent large sums of money on media but expect other social networks to get popularized virally over the Internet. It makes more sense, is more cost effective, and guarantees impressions, well almost. WATConsult would be more than happy to help 
.
In 2008, I think brands have essentially 2 ways t capitalize on Social NetWorks:
1) Build Networks that are not directly related to the brand but are related to the category.
2) Build Networks related to the Brand. Eg. Gang Of Girls
The idea of building social networks related to categories has been largely unexplored. This essentially allows brands to extend the pie and subliminally push the brand and its values and attitudes.
Often users may be skeptical to associate themselves completely with brands. GoG was successful but I don’t think we’ll see those kind of numbers for too long. Consumers are extremely aware and are not looking to ‘sell their souls’ to every brand they see.
Even social networks that are completely associated with brands will have to generalize content with respect to the product/ service category. “Engagement” and not “push” is the name of the game.
Expect to see a lot more brand related social networks in 2008 but expect them to have niches and smaller, more engaged audiences.
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Hi,
Yes, brand communities are the ‘hot-new-it-should-workmakessense’ kids on the block.
I do disagree with the Sunsilk GoG analysis though. As a community manager I’ve spent some time on GoG and found that almost ALL the groups, blogs, etc to be either 1-visit creations or Seeds by the Comm. managers themselves.
There’s a sense of hollowness in it, which tells me that the community has almost no stickiness in it.
What are the repeat visits like? Is it really a 15 minute average or 15 minutes for the first visit with little or no returns?
And, really, where are the real girls?
‘Girls’ looking for meaningful relationships as friends with other girls, all the while leading the conversation with “will u have sax with ure boyfrand’…
I thought it would be a great place to tap into online female communities… Woops.
So,… yeh.. Not as successful as it seems.
While you’re at it, Zapak girls doesn’t seem to full of girls either… Maybe it’s just going to take a lot more time for online all-female communities to come of age.
I think the number of blogs was also too low. There were members but true i did not look at the qualitative aspect of the conversations.
I think its fine it marketeers seed conversations – i just dont think sunsilk seeded the right conversations probably.
Zapak girls is pretty ordinary. Btw thanks for the insight – i didn’t really think about the number of boys who may be on the GoG Community.
HUL has stated that its a 15 minute average. But as you would know – thats not something thats visible to everyone. On the other hand they would’nt fabricate such stuff – its not really in their interest.
Will they be able to retain the members and at what cost ? With more competion on the way, this may be difficult.
retaining members is indeed difficult – thats why its important to get the most relevant members on board and giving them benefits beyond conventional social networks. The good thing is that with such a strategy, the costs aren’t that high. The is also why generic category related social networks can work if they enter early and position themselves well.