Article Analysis Marker of Brand Communities

Question: Discuss about theArticle Analysisfor Marker of Brand Communities. Answer: Introduction Marketing and Brand Management has seen several changes over the years. In this era of globalization and digitization, few of the most widely used marketing and brand management concepts are relationship marketing, social media marketing, brand equity etc. It is rightly said that the veneration of brands as part of brand communities reflects the expansion of consumerism in advanced capitalism (Stratton Northcote, 2014). Simply defined, A brand community can be defined as an enduring self-selected group of actors sharing a system of values, standards and representations (a culture) and recognizing bonds of membership with each other and with the whole. The objective of this paper is to discuss and analyse the paper, When totems beget clans: The brand symbol as the defining marker of brand communities. This paper would discuss the paper and its implications for brand managers. The paper would also discuss the lessons learned from this paper. Analysis The paper is about brand community and the way brand managers can use the concepts of brand community to reach out to end consumers. There was a time when corporations and brand managers used to manage the operations in a small territory or domestic market (Laroche Habibi, 2012). However, with Internet, technology and advancements in the corporations, the brand managers have started to explore the international market. There is also a change in the overall definition of marketing. In fact, the brand managers have seen a transformation from the traditional selling concept to marketing concepts. With the concepts like brand community, brand identity and brand equity, the focus of the brand managers is to change the PUSH marketing philosophy to PULL marketing philosophy. In the article, authors mentioned that there are significant differences between the brand community and other forms of community (Stratton Northcote, 2014). It is important for leaders, brand managers and marketers to understand this difference between brand community and other forms of community. It is argued that brand communities differ from other types of communities in one important respect the community is a secondary, rather than primary, effect of brand community association. It means that brand is a symbol before its get its space in brand community. In other communities, the symbol is the after affect or the aftermath of the work being done (Kuo Feng, 2013). Authors also argued that brand communities have unique dynamics that are typically not observed in the communities. The concept of brand community is still a new concept and it is expected that this concept would further evolve in the coming time. The marketers of various brands have a lot to learn from these concepts. One of major learning from this article is that different brands can have different brand communities. For example, the brand communities for Unilever may not be same as the brand communities for Southwest Airlines (Shaomian Heere, 2015). It is also important to mention that a big corporation can also have different brand communities for its different products. For example, Unilever may have a different brand community for its soap product and different brand community for its tea product. Therefore, it is important to mention that marketers should think twice before selecting their brand community. Another important discussion or the learning is in the way brand communities are developed. In the article, authors argued that the brand managers or the marketers may not always have the direct control over the way brand communities are developed (Stratton Northcote, 2014). There are times when the brand communities are build or developed as the people spread the news about the brand. Therefore, it would be correct to say that the people or the consumers have a great impact over brand communities. In the article, authors referred the brand identity or the brand symbol as the maker of brand community. Authors argued that in various case, the brand symbol could be considered as a totem that acts as a sign board for the brand (Stratton Northcote, 2014). It would be correct to say that the brand symbol or brand identity is of utmost importance for corporations. The entire marketing effort of organizations can go in vain if the brand is not able to establish its reputation in the market. In fact, this is one of the reasons that it is recommended that the marketing mix of the product should be in synchronization with the overall brand message. Every element of marketing mix (product, price, place and promotion) conveys a message and it is important that these messages should be in line with the overall message being communicated by the brand. The brand may not be a tangible thing like a product. However, the brand identity or the brand positioning can have a high impact on the sale of products. It would be correct to say that for organizations, brand identity or brand community should come first and then it should be followed by the core principles of marketing like segmentation, targeting, positioning and marketing mix (Brodie Juric, 2013). In fact, the marketing strategies of the organizations would depend on number of internal and external factors. The internal factors can be managed by the organization. However, the external factors like political, social, economical, legal, technological, etc. are not under the direct control of organizations (Zhang Zhou, 2013). Conclusion The above paper discusses the article When totems beget clans: The brand symbol as the defining marker of brand communities. With the above discussion, it can be said that the organizations should have a proactive approach towards marketing and brand management. The brand community could only be a step towards the effective marketing strategies of organizations. It is important that the organizations should keep a watch while the brand communities are being developed. The brand communities are typically based on the brand symbol and therefore, it is crucial that the brand communities should echo the brand promise. References Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., Hollebeek, L. (2013). Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 105-114. Kuo, Y. F., Feng, L. H. (2013). Relationships among community interaction characteristics, perceived benefits, community commitment, and oppositional brand loyalty in online brand communities. International Journal of Information Management, 33(6), 948-962. Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M. O., Sankaranarayanan, R. (2012). The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1755-1767. Shaomian, A., Heere, B. (2015). The Path to Loyalty Among Theater Patrons: The Importance of Interaction and a Sense of Brand Community. MEIEA Journal, 15(1), 13. Stratton, G., Northcote, J. (2014). When totems beget clans: The brand symbol as the defining marker of brand communities.Journal of Consumer Culture Zhang, N., Zhou, Z. M., Su, C. T., Zhou, N. (2013). How do different types of community commitment influence brand commitment? The mediation of brand attachment. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(11), 836-842.