In today's marketplace, it really does take a community, not a cleverly made campaign to raise a brand. Whether its a wiki, fan club, online network or fully fledged brand community, the brands geared for the new business and customer environment are embracing their stakeholders in neat and inventive ways. Inside you\'ll find out the who, how, why and whats of building brand communities, the steps involved and 51 examples of interesting brand community platforms.

1. It Takes a Community to Raise a Brand A Presentation By: Sean Moffitt President & Chief Evangelist Agent Wildfire Inc.

2. “ Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi

3. “ Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction” Antoine De Ste-Exupery

5. “ Creating a vibrant community is all about creating a critical mass of good minds and spurring them to spark off each other.” Barry Libert/John Spector WeAreSmarter.Org

7. What’s a Brand Community?

12. A Brand Community is: A group of people with a set of shared interests attached to a company/brand/product/idea, having the intention to improve its business operations for themselves and/or the brand’s benefit

13. Running - Nike Plus Finance- Wells Fargo Stagecoach Island Hospitality – My Starbucks Idea B-to-B - Intuit Quickbooks Community Automotive - Camp Jeep Travel – Starwood’s The Lobby Tech – Dell ideastorm eCommerce – eBay Powersellers Mobile – Virgin Insiders

17. Common Misnomers of Brand Communities: Members – not always top fans or best customers Origination – not always created/owned by companies Organization – not always open-source, open invite Goal Orientation – rarely exclusively company-motivated or member-motivated Place – not always structured online

18. Why Build a Brand Community?

24. Brand Communities Can Tap Four Valuable & Untapped Market Forces Peer Content Peer Engagement/ Fanship Peer Collaboration Peer Advocacy

25. Why You Should Play “ Host” not “Master” To Your Customers?

26. “ The Customer is in The Driver’s Seat”

27. “ Customers are Reinventing Industries…”

29. “ Customers trust, rely and act on advice from people they know”  90% of people trust their spouse, 82% their friends and 69% their work colleagues but …  only 27% trust manufacturers/ retailers, 14% advertisers and 8% celebrities” (Henley Centre)

30. The Internet Keeps Customers In Touch With The People We Know

31. “ Word of mouth drives choice” – 70% of word of mouth conversations have an impact on brand purchase (37% buy it/try it, 24% consider it, 9% avoid purchase based on WOM ) (Keller Fay) Key Fact:

34. “ Some customers really want to connect with brands” -A word of mouth Influencer will average 184 brand word of mouth conversations every week (Keller Fay)

35. A New Brand Paradigm “ Something you Buy” “ Something you Trust” “ Something you Want” “ Something you Prefer” “ Something you Love” “ Something you Participate In”

39. The Mission – Realigning The Roles of Your Customers Turning Users, Customers and Consumers Into Authors, Producers, Scouts, Testers and Collaborators & Broadcasters Into Community Members, Advocates, Ambassadors and Evangelists Thinktank/ Sounding Board Scout/ Mystery Shopper Advisory Council/ Cause Torchbearer Seeded Adopter/ Beta Tester Customer User Consumer Collaborator/ Producer Evangelist/ Ambassador/ Advocate Community Member/ VIP Insider Person

41. Types of Brand Communities

44. WD-40 - Fan Club Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - Low http://fanclub.wd40.com/login.cfm

45. Intuit Quickbooks - Brand Forum Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - Mid http://quickbooksgroup.com/

46. Jones Soda - Brand Network Exclusivity - Low Depth of Involvement - High http://www.jonessoda.com/files/community.php

47. Nike Plus - Brand Nation Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - Low http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

48. Maker’s Mark - Ambassador Program Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - Mid http://www.ambassador.makersmark.com/LogIn.aspx?url=/Default.aspx

49. Firefox’s “ Spread Firefox” - Brand Meritocracy Exclusivity - Mid Depth of Involvement - High http://www.spreadfirefox.com/

50. lululemon Ambassadors - Influencer Clique Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - Low http://www.lululemon.com/community/

51. Dell Ideastorm Advisory Panel Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - Mid http://www.dellideastorm.com/

52. Harley-Davidson Harley Owner’s Groups (HOGs) - Brand Cult Exclusivity - High Depth of Involvement - High http://www.harley-davidson.com

53. How To Plan a Brand Community

59. 3. Set The Tone

60. 4. Build The Plan – FLIRT Crowdsourcing Model Source: Sami Viitim ä ki, Flirt Crowdsourcing Model

65. Focus – Scale/Nature of Collaboration Collaboration Exclusivity Brand Benefit Fan Club Low Low Brand Affinity Brand Forums Mid Low Brand Use Brand Nation Low Mid Brand Values Brand Network High Low Brand Participation Ambassador club Mid Mid Brand Advocacy Influencer Group Low High Brand Influence Brand Meritocracy High Mid Brand Solutions Advisory Panel Mid High Brand Innovation Brand Cult High High Brand Evangelism

67. Who are the Natural Forming Groups

69. Interplay Among Audiences

80. Amazon - Designed for Socialness

83. Evaluating a Great Digital Brand Experience Source: Logic+Emotion

84. How To Build a Brand Community

91. Seeding The Influencer Curve “ The Ones Who Create Ideas” “ The Ones Who Spot & Scout New Stuff” “ The Ones Who Sell and Lead Opinions” “ The Ones Who Provide Credibility” “ The Ones Who Attract Attention” “ The Ones Who Connect & Spread the Word”

92. Recruiting A Potential Word of Mouth Army The Law of The Few: “The answer is that the success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.” Malcolm Gladwell, the Tipping Point

97. How To Maintain a Brand Community

98. How to Avoid This…

110. Community Success Drivers

128. Sub-segment Your Community Identify strategies and resources to harness each segment High self-centrality of consumption Strong social ties to community Low self centrality of consumption Weak social ties to community Devotee Tourist Insider Mingler

130. 51 Brand Communities

131. 1. Nike Plus

139. 3. Brewtopia

140. 4. Method “People Against Dirty”

142. 5. eBay Powersellers

143. 6. Amazon

144. 7. BMW Mini Owner’s Lounge

145. 8. Lego Ambassadors Programs

147. 9. Threadless

148. 10. BBC

149. 11. Innocentive – P&G

150. 12. CrowdSpirit

151. 13. Fast Company

152. 14. A Swarm of Angels

153. 15. Red Bull

154. 17. Ben & Jerry’s

155. 18. WD-40 Fan Club

156. 19. Virgin Insiders (Sugar Mama)

157. 20. American Express- Member’s Project

158. Chris Matthews, Specialized’s Marketing Guru 21. Specialized Rider’s Club

160. 22. MyCoke.com

161. 23. Maker’s Mark Ambassador Embassy

162. 24. Electrolux Design Lab

163. 25. Mastercard – Priceless.com

165. 26. Domino’s - BFD Builder

166. 27. Starbucks - My Starbucks Idea

167. 28. Oracle OpenWorld

168. 29. My Football Club

169. 30. Lomographic Society International

170. 31. Mozilla Firefox

171. 32. Toyota Hybrid

172. 33. VanCity – Change Eveyrthing

173. 33. Chapters/Indigo

174. 34. NetFlix

176. 35. Obama’08

177. 36. Ron Paul

179. 37. Zopa

180. 38. Cambrian House

181. 39. Big Rock Brewery - Friends of Big Rock

182. 40. Jones Soda

184. 41. Fiskars

186. 41. Ducati

187. 42. Jeep Community

188. 43. Innocent Drinks

189. 44. Marketocracy

190. 45. Current TV

191. 46. Starwood’s The Lobby

192. 46.Intuit Quickbooks

193. 47. Lululemon

194. 48. Stormhoek Wines

195. 49. Effem Foods – M&Ms mBassador program

196. 50. Freshbooks

197. 51. The Ikea Fans Club

199. Inquire: smoffitt (at) agentwildfire.com URL: www.AgentWildfire.com Blog: http://BuzzCanuck.typepad.com/ Explore: The Buzz Report Newsletter Signup at www.AgentWildfire.com Take a sip from the grassroots, don’t keep gulping from the mainstream…