Brand Community,fandom and Prosumption

PRODUCT AND BRAND MANAGEMENT

BRAND COMMUNITIES, FANDOM

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PROSUMPTION

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Group 11

APURV SRIVASTAVA MANORANJAN DASH SHIVANG SARASWAT !

B15076 B15087 B15111

INDEX

Brand Community 3 Online Brand Communities 4 Consumer Behaviour 4 New Product Development 5 Community Enabling Mechanisms 6 Examples in Indian Sectors

Metrics 7 What is Fandom? 8 Fandom: Through the ages 9 Uses and Gratification Theory application in Fandom 9 Conclusion 10 Metrics 11 Examples for India 11 Prosumption 12 Digital Prosumption 13 Conclusion 15 Examples from the Indian Scenario 15 Metrics 16

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Brand Community

Brand communities are for consumers of similar interests to share their experiences with one another. It encompasses the fans, consumers, customers, opinion leaders and even promoters of the brands. These communities maybe both online and offline. An online brand community can be a Facebook page of a brand while an offline community can be a Harley Davidson biker group. Communities can be of different types depending on the membership and their purpose and vary from friendly to even hostile. Brand communities effect its members’ perceptions and actions and act as sources of new ideas or innovations and have an important impact on the customer relationships within the brand. Hence, firms need dedicated social media teams to monitor the brand communities to protect itself from threats as well as find new opportunities.

There are three main characteristics of a brand community: shared consciousness, common rituals and traditions and moral responsibility. Shared consciousness means strong following of the brand while hatred towards the competing brand. They will have a sense of belonging towards their community while they would be away from outsiders. Through common rituals and traditions, the members define the community and their brand loyalty towards it. Moral responsibility towards the community and other members of the community is the final characteristic for a brand community.

For the purposes of marketing, brand communities have several advantages. The members of the community have a variety of ideas with regards to products. The trending discussions could help a brand easily identify what new products those customers need or what new elements could be added to a particular service. They can give ideas for marketing communication and even help in new product development.

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