What is the Groundswell?
In order to understand how to energize a brand community, you first need to understand the phenomenon known as the Groundswell.
"A social trend in which people use technology to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations”
-Groundswell
Essentially, the Groundswell represents how people are leveraging new technologies in order to communicate and collaborate. Rather than relying on corporate messaging, consumers are turning to blogs and reviews to make their purchase decisions.
Rather than sitting idly by as the Groundswell impacts your brand (whether you like it or not), managers can leverage the phenomenon in order to energize their communities and drive sales.
Rather than sitting idly by as the Groundswell impacts your brand (whether you like it or not), managers can leverage the phenomenon in order to energize their communities and drive sales.
Energizing by building brand communities: Fiskars
One way that a company can energize its community is by building a dedicated online brand community. This allows consumers to communicate and collaborate around your brand in a way that plays into the Groundswell.
The Crafts division of Fiskars Corp caught onto the trend early in 2006 when it identified four key influencers and asked them to recruit an active online brand community in exchange for a welcome craft kit.
In just five months, online discussion of Fiskar's products increased by over 400% and was made up of more than 1,400 ambassadors.
By simply finding a way to leverage how consumers are naturally interacting and by providing a small, relevant incentive, Fiskar was able to bring new life to its brand by energizing its community.
The Crafts division of Fiskars Corp caught onto the trend early in 2006 when it identified four key influencers and asked them to recruit an active online brand community in exchange for a welcome craft kit.
In just five months, online discussion of Fiskar's products increased by over 400% and was made up of more than 1,400 ambassadors.
By simply finding a way to leverage how consumers are naturally interacting and by providing a small, relevant incentive, Fiskar was able to bring new life to its brand by energizing its community.
Energizing by employing brand ambassadors: Keurig
More recently, Keurig took a more aggressive approach to energizing its brand by launching its "K-Cup Ambassador" program in 2012 where it sent free brewers to key influencers in the mommy blogger and coffee community, followed by a monthly coffee samplers for a year. The campaign did not force the bloggers to do anything in return; it simply requested that the recipients blog about their experience with the brewer and coffees (+ve or -ve) in their own words.
This program led to countless positive reviews, created conversation around the brand, provided opportunities to disseminate coupon codes, and offered access to influencers' relevant communities when launching promotional contests.
This program led to countless positive reviews, created conversation around the brand, provided opportunities to disseminate coupon codes, and offered access to influencers' relevant communities when launching promotional contests.
Promotional material K-Cup ambassadors shared with their communities
The K-Cup Ambassador program energized the brand by inspiring conversation around the product in an organic and collaborative way, as opposed to forcing corporate messaging out from traditional marketing channels. To this day, Keurig users are fanatical about their brewers and vocal across the web.
What can you do for your brand?
So what can we take away from these two case studies? You can energize your brand by tapping into the already existing Groundswell and leveraging your consumer's instinct to collaborate and communicate with their peers.
Before you pour more marketing dollars into your next traditional campaign, consider the energy you might inject into your brand community if you take the time to create something that comes from the consumer, like building an online community or developing an ambassador program.
Before you pour more marketing dollars into your next traditional campaign, consider the energy you might inject into your brand community if you take the time to create something that comes from the consumer, like building an online community or developing an ambassador program.
RSS Feed
