The Importance of Brand Communities: Report and event

Dialogue previewed a new report into brand communities at an event in London last night, Thursday November 9, 2017.

Attended by a wide-ranging audience from both brands and agencies, and introduced by Dialogue’s Agency Director, Zoe Francis-Cox, the evening kicked off with a preview of the report. The Importance of Brand Communities is based on the results of a survey undertaken by Censuswide during the summer, which focused on people’s attitudes to being part of a community and what that meant for sales, loyalty and brand trust.

For instance 37% of all people surveyed said being part of a brand community meant they were likely to stay as customers – rising to 51% of 16-24 year olds.

The full report is now available (and has subsequently been updated in 2019) but the event targeted discussion around this topic with a stellar line-up of industry experts on hand to discuss the topic of communities.

The panel session was moderated by Catherine Maskell, Managing Director of the Content Marketing Association and a former head of Global Marketing at Reed. It also featured Martin Ashplant, the former digital director of Metro and City AM where he oversaw digital, mobile, social, SEO and analytics; Dr Charles Seger from the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia, where he leads the Social and Embodied Cognition Research Group specialising in intergroup relations.

Member clubs were represented by Dialogue clients – Marjorie Rae, Consumer Experience Manager at Harley-Davidson where she leads all Harley Owners Group activities for the UK and Ireland, and Chris Seaward, General Manager of Porsche Club GB, the largest Porsche Club in Europe.

The discussion was animated with lots of questions from the floor, and some great advice for brands and organisations seeking to harness the power of communities.