2023-10-07 06:03:10
Brands, large and small, are increasingly succeeding in carving out a niche by promoting belonging to a community and sharing its values, beyond the idea of owning a product, without compromising customer loyalty.
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In a gymnasium in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, French outdoor and boardwear brand Picture, founded in 2008, organized a special “European Community” day this fall.
The day’s program included a round table on sustainability and economics, a workshop on recycling using fabric scraps, and a documentary film about the adventures produced by the company was shown.
“We have entered a new era”
For Julian Doran, one of the company’s founders, Picture was fundamentally built on the concept of community, coming together around specific values. “We wanted a brand dedicated to outdoor activities, with an environmental dimension, while at the same time producing technical products with style,” he says.
After 15 years, Picture has customers in about forty countries, and achieved sales of 42 million euros last year. They offer recycled materials and have a lifetime repair program for their products. “The way a brand engages is the value that suits” consumers, explains Julian Durand.
Community, which in this case is defined as a group of people who share similar values, now reflects a modern concept reinforced by social networks. Indeed, according to a recent report from McKinsey, it is “the big marketing idea of the 2020s.”
According to the report, “we have entered a new era,” in which new technologies allow “marketing professionals to connect with consumers in their communities.”
Brands specialized in producing sportswear are at the forefront of this path. The famous American company “Patagonia” offers more than just products on its website, as it allows them to commit to issues that are important to them. The American sports shoe brand Saucony organizes races that collect waste while running.
“While communities were previously used to sell products, reliance on them is now aimed at developing the brand’s values and involving the end consumer in working on the brand’s missions,” says Gachosha Kretz, professor of marketing at the Higher College of Commerce in Paris.
Brands aim to use this strategy to gain customer loyalty. “Communities are tied to the values of one or two brands, and they are very loyal (…) We no longer build customer loyalty through discount coupons,” says Julian Durand.
The attractiveness of brands and their values
The sports world isn’t the only one playing on this idea. There is also the Danish Lego company for building parts.
“For me, what builds community is the appeal of the brand and its values,” Sylvain Bouchis, marketing director of the company’s branch in France, told AFP. “The more we reinforce the brand’s values, the more we keep this community with us.”
Lego has also just marketed games for visually impaired children that use the Braille language for the blind, which it had initially developed for specialized institutes.
In the age of corporate social responsibility, cosmetics – which are often accused of being harmful due to their use of plastic packaging and environmentally unfriendly harvested natural ingredients – also highlight concepts such as respect for the environment.
Although the values may differ greatly, the principle remains the same. American barbecue products manufacturer Traeger has thousands of followers on its Instagram account, where it posts lots of photos of perfectly cooked meat and videos of wild catch. This time, the concepts advocated by the “traegerhood” (community of users of the company’s products) revolve around the friendly atmosphere of barbecue parties and the taste of the products.
From now on, knowing what the consumer buys gives information not only about his social status, but also about his convictions… or at least a version of the values that allow the products to continue to be sold.
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