It is interesting to observe how from time to time new words appear on the Internet that refer to the most varied concepts that one can imagine: new business strategies (e-procurement, e-sourcing), business models and technologies (business to business, e -goverment, peer to peer), etc. In this sense, in recent months a “new” concept has come down to us, the Virtual Community (they will allow me to write “new” because the idea of community is surely older than any other that swarms around the net).
As always, on the Internet the ideas that are attractive are directly engulfed without, on many occasions, an analysis of what is really behind them being carried out, evidently causing serious damage to the most reckless investors. For all these reasons, I have thought it convenient to clarify what exactly a Community is.
What is a Community?
A community is a set of individuals who, due to the bonds of union between them, interact in a stable way (forgive sociologists for the definition of this ignorant economist). The concept of Community, and especially its opposition to the idea of Society, is very old, in fact, there are studies that date back to the 19th century and that characterize the Community as something familiar, emotional and rural. This is really interesting because somehow it brings the idea of community closer to social groups with strong emotional ties, such as the family, and obviously from a mercantile point of view, a stronger degree of union, in short, a greater commitment, allows for more lasting and profitable relationships. At the end of the day, what is intended is to make a Community profitable, right ?.
There are different types of communities but I am going to focus on what researchers usually call Brand Communities (hereinafter CM). A CM is a structure of relationships sustained around admiration for a brand, specialized and not geographically limited. That is, we are talking about a group of individuals who voluntarily relate to each other according to the interest they profess in a certain trademark.
Determinants of a Community
Once we have defined, I hope clearly, what a community is, and especially what a CM is, we must delimit what are the elements that determine the bonds of union, and therefore the degree of commitment of each member of the community with the rest and with the brand.
The following factors are usually highlighted in the literature:
- Class awareness:
It is the most important factor when defining a community. It refers to the feeling by which each individual in the group feels attached to the others and to the brand (for example, admiration for Elvis).
Class consciousness is determined by two factors: Legitimation (process by which a distinction is made between "true members" and "false members", that is, those who have opportunistic behavior and those who do not) and Opposition to others Trademarks (identification with the rest of the group is made according to an opposition, that is, the CM is usually defined as an opposition to another brand). An example we have in the followers of the Beatles. Surely those fans, who live in a certain city, and who know the Liverpool band's discography, their biographies, their current chores, make up a small group of people who consider themselves more "authentic" than those that, like 95% of the population, simply say that they like their songs. On the other hand,we all know the "confrontation" that has traditionally occurred between fans of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, in this sense, perhaps many groups of followers feel united by their opposition to the other band
- Rituals and Traditions:
They are those processes carried out by the members of the community and thanks to which its meaning is reproduced and transmitted within and outside the community.
It usually takes the form of two elements: Recalling certain events (Celebrating the Brand's History) and Telling Stories about the Brand, either among community members or others.
These processes allow to reinforce brand awareness and improve instruction in communal values.
- Moral responsibility:
It is the feeling by which community members feel morally committed to each other. This allows the appearance of joint behaviors and the cohesion of the group, and it is specified in two aspects: Integration and Retention of Members, to guarantee the survival of the community (for example by spreading bad experiences suffered by those "daring" who consumed another brand at some point); and Assistance in the Correct Use of the Brand, for example with the sharing of information resources.
Conclusions
Well, so far we have explained the scientific meaning of the word Community. From now on, any business strategy that raises the creation and / or exploitation of a community must take into consideration each and every one of the factors that I have mentioned and others that need to be specified, that is:
- That the community is made up of people who voluntarily decide to admire a certain brand.That that admiration creates strong bonds between them that can bring them substantial benefits, for example greater bargaining power (be careful with trying to impose rules on a community) or Affective social returns. That the community is supported by three fundamental pillars that must be developed: Class Consciousness (why do they feel united?), some Rituals and Traditions (what are the behaviors that develop within the community?) and Moral Responsibility (what mechanisms exist to avoid the “flight” of members and retain or attract others?). And very important, that in the positioning of a brand in the market, that is, in the creation Users participate actively in it.There are therefore strategic elements in the environment of the company and related to the brand that must be considered when designing business plans.
A small advance, a virtual community is not a website with free webmail and discussion forums, as many believe. It is something else, the conjunction of cheap, accessible and simple means of interaction, and mainly, the existence of a community raison d'être, of a group of individuals who wish to relate and to whom the precise infrastructure is offered, either either online or offline.
. For many years it has been considered that the arrival of modern society (mass consumption, mass production, etc.) would cause the loss of communities as they were defined (more personal and natural)
. Relational Marketing theories often influence the importance of commitment as a determining factor in maintaining and developing long-term relationships
. According to authors like Morgan & Hunt (1994), the commitment could be delimited according to factors such as the values shared by the parts of a relationship. In my opinion, the determinants of a community can be equivalent to the idea of shared value, and somehow extrapolate these results to the determinants of commitment. That is to say, class consciousness, the practice of rituals or traditions and a sense of moral responsibility, can be conveniently transformed, delimiting the degree of commitment existing in a relationship.
. This is the case of the community of individuals who use the Linux operating system, whose community is defined as opposition to Windows users.
. Some authors often refer to this as Normative Commitment.
