If you don’t have the time to read to the end, please remember one statement: BRAND COMMUNITY IS ALL ABOUT THE SUBSCRIBER RATHER THAN WHAT YOU ARE SELLING.
A Subscriber, in this post, means: someone who is interested in what you do as a Business. Whether they buy or not. The main idea is that you have their attention.
If you stay through this post, you will ultimately agree that if you get the subscriber right, there is nothing under the Sun that you cannot sell.
The term “Brand Community” is not new. It dates as far back as early 40’s with several theories powering the principle. Some theories include “social impact theory”, “social identity theory” and also “self-determination theory”, etc.
Here are 3 scenarios to buttress this message.
An Optometrist in Abuja is a go-to brand for eye care and reliable medical glasses. Their services are tremendously appealing. Late last year, the Founder confirmed the Centre has served over 15,000 active users. When asked “how often do you engage these people? She said ‘we don’t.’
A Medical Diagnostics Brand has, in their database of customers, around 240,000 email addresses. Again, Zero contacts. No interactions. Only ‘transactions’ with those who ever return.
A Tech Brand that designs processes and enterprise resource planning softwares (ERP). Huge clientele list, massive goodwill potential they’ve got; but NO ACTION ENGAGING ANYONE.
So, here’s the trick. To build a strong Brand Community, you must MOVE your buyers, prospects and fans into a RELATIONSHIP that makes them TRIBE MEMBERS.
Have you ever heard of “myPadi” by AquaFina? Or “Mother’s Tribe” by Dano Milk? Now, that’s a semblance of what Brand Communities are about.
A Brand Community is a virtual (and offline) tribe of people who are primarily ‘in love’ with your Brand because of the impact it is spreading and these members choose to own your Brand enough to become AGENTS for your Brand.
To build a strong Brand Community, you should take note of the following critical success factors:
- Every individual is a Gate to a world of subscribers. The individual may not be a buyer but can bring buyers.
- Every prospective buyer is related and associated with families, friends, and loved ones. The Brand Community must aspire to not only convert the buyer, but inspire the buyer to convert everyone he or she is associated with.
- The Community must bait, educate, empower, reward and leverage each member; one member at a time. This is called a 5-Step Hierarchy in building a strong Brand Community.
This 5-Step Hierarch is the core service that is designed by Cerca Africa so as to help organizations secure their brand longevity, regulate their marketing costs, increase their longterm sales and sustain a huge brand goodwill.
At Cerca Africa, we work with Founders and their teams to guarantee the returns of strategy and processes. We do this by deploying Brand Community models.
Stop treating buyers as pedestrians and start treating buyers as Tribe Members. Send us an email now for help with this: services@cercaafrica.com or Call/WhatsApp us on +2347035953367.
Sam Obafemi
CEO, Cerca Africa
www.cercaafrica.com