How 20 Executives Turn 'Community' From Buzz To Business
The leaders behind brands including Gymshark, Humanrace, Ganni, and Story MFG spoke the language of their communities long before their brands existed.
This article is part 8/12 of The Next Big Bang: The Brand Universe Solution to Growth, the inaugural research thesis by edition+partners, distributed here on SOTA. In the ever-evolving landscape of brand development, the concept of a Brand Universe emerges as both a tangible entity and a strategic methodology, offering a dynamic approach to brand survival and growth.
Last Tuesday, in ‘Part 2: The Brand-Community Constellation’, we explored how a Brand Universe’s depth is shaped by the dynamic customer segments who exist in the brand’s orbit. Collectively, their profound influence impacts both fellow community members and, by extension, the brands themselves.
In that context, a Brand Universe doesn’t merely send nor does it dominate its brand perception. Instead, the makeup, cultural authenticity, and commercial development of a Brand Universe hinge upon immediate and ongoing contributions from diverse customer segments.
Therefore, the opinions, advocacy, feelings of belonging, and purchasing behaviour progressively outweigh any predefined brand strategy, underscoring the evolving landscape where credible community engagement is instrumental to the prosperity of a brand.
A start would be for brands to reimagine segmentation criteria when identifying, engaging, and converting customer cohorts. For example, by extending beyond lifestyle considerations of each individual group while remaining truthful to its singular brand message that has collectively attracted each customer group in the first place.
More importantly, by building a sense of community co-creation, brands actively involve their audience in the future universe-building process. This not only enhances customer loyalty but also establishes a reciprocal relationship where beyond transaction the brand understands the culture their audience lives in and creates a ‘life-system’ of its own that matches the life-system of its audience by giving back more value than it asks for in return.
Updated loyalty programmes are certainly one way of engaging new customers. More than half (59%) of respondents in our survey expressed interest in loyalty programs, saying they’d sign up for initiatives that reward their advocacy for their favourite fashion brands. Yet, as mentioned, a new segmentation and reward approach must look beyond each individual group’s spending power alone.
While the majority of the 40 brand founders we interviewed for our research said they still focussed on a single customer cohort to drive this loyalty with, instead of a network of various customer segments, they recognised the growing importance of actively developing new tactics to drive loyalty and speaking to various segments at once. Here’s what they had to say.
Steve Lesnard (Brand Executive)
“True consumer studies give brands the opportunity to identify patterns and commonalities that can cross over various segments. It uncovers real insights that brands can build differentiated strategies against. Then to expand your brand, you first need to truly understand your brand DNA. You can then leverage new consumer behaviours, platforms, and technologies. It also can lead to the creation of new product offerings, categories, as well as services.
The latter feels like a big opportunity in the near future as the ability to provide information, coaching, advice in real time and in the most personal way has never been stronger to capture consumer’s attention in new ways. I also believe that experiential marketing will continue to play a critical role in engaging consumers whether it’s virtually, physically or both.”
Gary Aspden (Curator, adidas Spezial)
“Culture needs hubs and good quality [third party] retail offers a physical hub for the communities that culture is born out of. Both culture and community are assets that many brands crave connection to in a way that is legitimate and meaningful — especially in a post social media influencer landscape.”