Section: Organisational and Strategic Communication
EXPLORING A (FAIRLY) NEW INSTRUMENT FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATION IN THE SOCIAL WEB: ONLINE BRAND COMMUNITIES
Clarissa SCHÖLLER, LMU Munich
The rise of social media challenges companies to develop new approaches for addressing their target groups online (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2010; Ashcroft & Hoey 2001). Since the use of social media for corporate communication requires a comprehensive approach, marketing, PR and customer service divisions need to unite their competencies and create appropriate instruments for strategic communication (Gurău 2008). One of these instruments is the online brand community (BC).
First described around ten years ago by sociologists (Muniz & O’Quinn 2001; McAlexander, Schouten, Koenig 2002), BCs were then rather uncommon (offline) gatherings of fans that proactively supported a certain brand. As they are fairly easy to initiate online, BCs have enjoyed growing popularity among companies and spread rapidly. However, the strategic purpose pursued by this enthusiastic use of BCs remains unclear: Little is known both about BCs’ potential uses and their roles within wider corporate communications.
This study explores the uses that BCs may fulfill for companies, aiming to systematize theoretical findings and to identify companies’ strategic intentions. Existing models from communication, business studies and sociology were used to develop a BCcentered communication model. The model identifies different types of protagonists and their roles within BCs and explains communication processes in and around BCs. Based on this model, we proposed a new, more precise definition of the term ‚brand community‘: “A brand community is an interest-based, non-geographically bound community that is focused on one specific brand. A BC creates an environment that is characterized by high identification potential. It interactively unites adherents and admirers of the brand, customers with general interest in the brand, and/or a company’s stakeholders sharing a professional interest in the brand. Brand communities exist in offline and/or online surroundings. Brand communities are initiated by users or companies and may be strategically used by companies as tools for corporate communication.” (Fröhlich & Schöller 2012)
Departing from this re-specified theoretical model, we designed an exploratory study aimed to identify and explain companies‘ strategic intentions when implementing BCs. In summer 2010, we conducted several semi-structured interviews with German communication professionals. Respondents were selected based on (1) company-size (2) social software used with BC and (3) obvious target group(s) of BC. The interview covered the entire process of strategic communication (e.g. target groups and goals) and also addressed how respondents dealt with social mediaspecific phenomena such as anonymity, criticism and word-of-mouth-communication. Based on the collected data, we identified four dominating strategic approaches for the application of BCs as a PR tool: (1) Fan Communities, (2) Service Communities, (3) Multi Purpose Communities and (4) Special Interest Communities. All approaches share one strategic goal (image and brand management) but differ markedly when it comes to specific strategic intentions. To name one example, only Fan Communities aim to use innovation potential provided by its users. Depending on the purpose intended, companies use different social software for their communities. The typology thus provides a systematic starting point for further research into specific uses of BCs and may also serve as a guideline for professional users.