Comments on: Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist

By: Hyper-Social Innovation | Human 1.0

Hyper-Social Innovation | Human 1.0 — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:05:22 +0000

[...] They instead become 100% customer, employee or human-centric, like Fiskars, Jeep or Mini (see this blog post). @bpluskowski disagreed with that point and listed microfinancing and venture funding as examples [...]

By: Hyper-Social Innovation

Hyper-Social Innovation — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:36:50 +0000

By: Quick links de la semana (25-oct-2009) | blog

Quick links de la semana (25-oct-2009) | blog — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:52:05 +0000

[...] Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist Interesante reflexión sobre el poco éxito que están teniendo las comunidades creadas por las propias marcas. [...]

By: Spotlight Ideas » Top 250 Blog Posts – Advertising, Marketing, Digital, Media and PR

Thu, 13 May 2010 10:10:16 +0000

[...] Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist – Emergence Marketing – Oct ‘09 [...]

By: Andacar

Andacar — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:54:37 +0000

I very much enjoyed your article, and I see what you are saying. I do however, feel you missed one point. I have met some of the really off the deep end Mac or Harley zealots (I wasn’t aware of Fiskars fanatics but it doesn’t surprise me), and I can’t explain their behavior any other way than to equate it with being similar to a religion. I was once told by a Mac guy that touching a PC left him physically soiled, like a fanatic Bhraman touhing someone of lower caste. I know Harley guys who have told me sincerely that they would rather die than ride anything else. They sre immune to any kind of rational discussion about the brand they love (performance comparisons, cost, etc.). They have riuals, troll the internet looking for heresy, annual gatherings, sometimes even gurus. They have established devils that are responsible for every ill and who are limitless in their evil despite any view to the contrary (Japanese bikes, Microsoft). I could go on and on but you get the idea. I see very little difference between the behavior of the really comitted brand loyalists and that of members of a cult.

By: Gibt es Brand Communities? | Leander Wattig

Gibt es Brand Communities? | Leander Wattig — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:54:42 +0000

[...] Gossieaux hat einen interessanten Beitrag zum Thema Brand Communities geschrieben. Er ist der Ansicht, dass es diese nicht geben könne, da [...]

By: „Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist“ « Commercial Communities

„Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist“ « Commercial Communities — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:50:13 +0000

[...] anschliessende Debatte ist ungewoehnlich rege. Warum [...]

By: » Top 150 Blog Posts – Marketing, Branding, Advertising, Social Media Spotlight Ideas

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:36:56 +0000

[...] Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist – Emergence Marketing – Oct ‘09 [...]

By: Powered.com - AaronStrout

Powered.com - AaronStrout — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:07:56 +0000

[...] week’s post was written by Francois Gossieaux titled, Why Brand Communities Don’t Exist. Notice he refers to “Brand” communities, not “Branded” communities. [...]

By: Beth Harte

Beth Harte — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:45:35 +0000

Francois, thanks for the comment. In my mind, because Jeep and Fiskars created communities, they are inorganic. The Hermes group is organic because a group of brand evangelists started them and the brand is not involved at all. Perhaps it’s just semantics on my end (even though there are studies around these types of groups. Thanks for the link to the Cova paper.).

At the end of the day, I think the irony lies in the fact that we are trying to neatly define a community for marketing purposes. Most [organic] communities don’t even know they are ‘engaged in social media’ or a ‘community.’ They tend to call themselves online groups.

I am not trying to simplify the educational or intellectual aspect of what we are discussing, but I do think, however, that marketers tend to like nice, tidy buckets. As you know, communities are not nice and tidy because they involve a lot of sociological factors. As I tell other marketers: If you want to truly understand social media, don’t engage as a marketer, engage as a person.

Looking forward to more discussions around this area.