When we look closely at so-called communities, all too often we find what we call Mirage Community. When we ask individuals inside organizations how they define community and how they themselves understand its importance for their roles, most are hard-pressed to define the term for their work. Often the best they can conjure is: “Community is good for people.” That’s hollow at best and meaningless at worst. In 2018, the unhelpful misuses have become more widespread than ever. In fact, the term community has been used by brands to refer to so many ideas over the past 20 years that the word has lost whatever meaning it once had - a loss for the organizations as well as the individuals within these so-called communities. There is nothing wrong with audiences or customer groups. They just don’t constitute a community without additional and appropriate investments. Too many companies use the term haphazardly and sometimes carelessly. To avoid shaming, we’re not listing them here.īrands often use “community” as a catch-all label to describe an audience or group of returning customers. But a closer look reveals that most (and sometimes all) of the community-building measures are superficial (even irrelevant) for real community. Marketing departments and C-suites continue to use the term, “ community,” to label wide-ranging organizational investments, including neighborhood events, charity partnerships, online forums, and even simple email lists. #Mirage definition how to#How to create that infrastructure is a deeper conversation for another time. Typically, specific infrastructure must be in place to both build and support authentic brand community elements. It is no surprise then that both members and the organization get value, even if it always takes years to see that value. Each organization has invested in tying stakeholders (customers and staff) together, which grows all three of the above elements. Consider Salesforce’s “Trailblazer’s Community” for users, Harley Davidson’s “Harley Owners Group” for riders, and Lady Gaga’s “Little Monsters” community of fans. Successful brand communities serve both members and organizational goals. Members who participate in shared experiences reflecting the shared values. Members who share an identity founded in values (at least one value). Members who share a mutual concern for one another’s welfare. This can include a for-profit, non-profit, political or otherwise driven organization.Īn authentic brand community includes all of these elements: In this context, a brand means any identifiable organization. In our work and the work of those before us (Muñiz, Albert, and O'Guinn, 2001), a “brand community” is, first, a community that is, second, inspired, created, or influenced by a brand. Hundreds of brands, from Glossier to Starbucks and Walmart to LinkedIn, built transformative and supportive communities in cities around the world from soup to nuts in 2018. You can also find a modified version on CMS Wire. This article was co-written by Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl and originally posted on LinkedIn.
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