Importance of a Brand Community

Fresh off of my most recent semester at Temple and my course in Consumer and Buyer Behavior, I have gained some insight into both the purpose and the importance of Brand communities in today’s world.  As we all know, it is vital to stress the connection between a specific brand, individual identities as well as the overall culture of a community to fully gain the trust and loyalty of today’s often transitory consumer.  Popular brand communities are found in cars (Jeep, Saab, and VW), computers, and even movies (The Godfather, Star Wars, and X-Files).  At times, participants in these brand communities not only forge a connection with a specific brand, but also strong relationships with each other.  This sense of community promotes both the continued success of the brand and also provides the consumer with a sense of belonging, fulfilling an all important human need.

During my studies, we briefly discussed the Apple Newton Brand Community. In a nutshell, the Newton was introduced by Apple in 1993 as the first PDA but never really reached a critical mass. It met strong competition from Microsoft’s Palm Pilot in 1998 and was subsequently cut by Apple. However, the product and the strong brand community that had formed around it did not die.  Researchers Albert Muniz and Hope Schau studied the online brand forum where Newton users share stories, aid fellow users and attempt to recruit new Newton users.  They found that this brand community in particular was defined by powerful and transformative experiences members had with their product that created an almost cult-like following of the Newton device. Through their research, Muniz and Schau discovered some major themes in the narratives, two of which include:

Tales of Persecution: Members of the Newton Brand Community often feel persecuted for their affiliation with the product.  They compare their community to that of a marginalized religion where they are being stigmatized because they use the Newton.  Members stick to the mantra: The Newton product did not fail, Apple failed to market it correctly and the mainstream consumer failed to “get it.”

Tales of Resurrection: Here the overarching theme is that the Newton will one day return.  Users call for the community to create a new product on its own or they go into lengthy predictions of a reintroduction to Apple (iPhone?). An optimistic tone is seen in this theme as members of the community feel they deserve the “return of their creator.” (Wink, Wink Steve Jobs!)

If you were to ask me, I would say that most of this is a little far-fetched.  Tales of Persecution and of Resurrection seem to be a little over the top when referring to an outdated piece of technology. Nonetheless, the strength of the Apple Newton brand community can not be overlooked. The special thing about this community that sets it apart from others of its kind is that the Newton Community is entirely self-sustained. The community narratives play a significant role in acts of consumption allowing users to understand, structure and share their experiences’ with the device.  The stories reinforce the bond between community members and the parent company, even though they are no longer directly affiliated with Apple.  This strong bond will keep the customers going back to Apple time and time again, thus the importance of strong branding!

Here is the full report from Muniz and Schau if you would like to read more…

A Penning Prank Played on Penning

So not only is Stephen Penning (of the Believin’ Stephen fame) able to accurately predict babies’ births, but he also can be a bit of a prankster. SP has played many a prank on the Operations department, and we resolved that we had to get him back. But how? Sadly, it took us a while for inspiration and timing to all coincide – but last week they all fell into place.

SP announced that he and his wife are expecting their first baby (so now we will have to see how accurate he is on predicting his own child’s birth). With this announcement, we now had a theme for our prank – congratulations on the baby!

On Friday when SP was out of the office, two of us in the Ops dept put our gift wrapping skills to the test to entirely wrap SP’s office in Sesame Street gift wrapping paper. And it only took two hours! To top it off, we also bought a little (kind of scary actually) dollie for his chair.

I think the piece de resistance was gift wrapping the antlers on the bunny trophy mounted on his log cabin wall and sprucing the little feller up with a cute bow tie (why he has a bunny with antlers on his faux log wall is another long, Penning story). I have to give a shout-out to Liz Henry, an AE intern, for creating the bow tie!

Moral of this Story: Do not cross Operations or you just might get pranked!

They paved paradise…(part due)

Every silver lining has a cloud, so of course as I was chronicling unexpected moments of suburban American beauty, I also experienced this penultimate moment of suburban American douchebaggery. A Ferrari 612 Scaglietti enjoying service at the Sonic Drive-In. If you have a hankering for cheesy tots, please spare the Rossa Corsa paint and Atelier leather and take the Hummer instead. Grazie mille.

They paved paradise…

We’ve experienced some pretty unique, tropical paradise-like weather during the past week, especially over the river and through the woods where I reside. So please enjoy a couple of quick (iPhone) photos taken from suburban New Jersey parking lots over the past several days. Who needs Hawaii when you have Haddonfield in the summer?

Lost in translation in Bel Air

Dear readers, do you remember “The Fresh Prince” tv-show? I bet all of you can sing the whole opening theme, or at least who is over 21, as Mike suggests. Well, me too. But because my rickety Country even today doesn’t speak that much of English, all the movies and tv-shows were/are dubbed, often including the titles too. So “The Fresh Prince” became “Il Principe di Bel Air” (= The Prince of Bel Air), and exceptionally featured a translated theme, that I re-translated into English (after the jump).
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160over90 Versus

At the hour of 7 of the clock in the land where Libertines hail from a Northerly direction in Penn’s Green Country Towne of Philadelphia, the One Hundred and Sixty over Nine-Zero Table Tennis Battalion will battle wits and forehanded volleys with The Print Liberation Squadron. The victorious party will be the recipient of adulation, as well as three (3) hectares of land (non-marsh), a flagon on mead, and an unshorn male sheep. Much like Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece in order to restore legitimate rule to Iolcos, the participants in tonight’s inaugural match are determined to set a tone that will ring throughout the Piazza’s square.

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The location: Print Liberation’s flagship store located in the Piazza in Northern Liberties

Look for an update following this evening’s shenanigans.

Thanks to Brendan Quinn for co-authoring this piece.