This excerpt is from “Reworking Buyer-Model Relationships” by Christina Garnett ©2025 and is reproduced and tailored with permission from Kogan Web page Ltd.
If a model needs customers to like them and be their largest followers, they should give them one thing that’s worthy of that love and devotion. One has to turn into a fan of the followers.
Manufacturers are now not simply promoting services or products – they’re constructing communities, identities, and experiences. The emergence of brandoms (model fandoms) signifies a deeper stage of buyer engagement, the place customers don’t simply purchase from an organization however kind a deep emotional bond, much like how followers interact with leisure franchises or celebrities.
When a model achieves brandom standing, it signifies greater than buyer satisfaction; it represents the head of emotional loyalty, cultural connection, and advocacy.
Understanding Fandoms And Brandoms
Fandoms are passionate communities centered round shared pursuits, usually tied to leisure mediums like films, music, or books. These teams kind a powerful identification across the object of their devotion, actively selling and defending it.
When this idea interprets into the industrial world, it turns into what is named a “brandom,” the place followers of a particular model exhibit related passionate behaviors. Tesla fanatics, Apple devotees, and Nike sneakerheads, for instance, are extra than simply customers – they combine the model into their private identification, championing it as a necessary a part of who they’re.
At its essence, a brandom represents the final word aspiration for firms, signaling that they’ve surpassed mere transactional relationships to realize an emotional loyalty that’s uncommon within the market. In contrast to a typical loyal buyer who makes repeat purchases, members of a brandom advocate, evangelize, and generally even assist co-create the model’s future. This elevated type of loyalty means the model has turn into integral to the client’s private narrative and sense of self.
For Dr. Georgie Carroll, a fan tradition skilled, the distinction between fandom and brandom comes down to regulate. “Fandoms are natural and fan-led slightly than being created and managed by manufacturers. Take into consideration how followers construct neighborhood round tv exhibits or books that proceed years after they’ve been launched.
They’re partaking with the product, however in their very own, participatory areas. They don’t essentially want the model, and the model has no say over what they’re saying or doing (which is usually how followers prefer it – always remember the fourth wall!).
“Brandoms, nevertheless, are marketing-led areas the place manufacturers are in a position to management (to a level) the participation and engagement practices of their followers. This happens primarily via a model providing a ‘reward’ system that encourages participation. The precise nature of the reward varies based mostly on what precisely it’s that your clients worth, which is why understanding your viewers is so essential.
Taylor Swift followers, for instance, interact in her brandom within the hopes of receiving a social media like or reply, however that’s not going to work for everybody. You don’t wish to be the uninvited visitor amongst your clients: You want them to see you as including worth to the neighborhood, and giving them a motive to stay round.”
Dan Gingiss, buyer expertise skilled and writer, has spent years researching and exploring what makes clients really feel like they’ve a relationship with a model as an alternative of being handled like a transaction.
Surprisingly, the largest model followers he’s interviewed shared that their loyalty was constructed off one thing going mistaken. “I imagine that one of many core human wishes we have now, initially, we don’t have a look at it as a transaction. We have a look at it as a relationship. Corporations have a tendency to have a look at it as transactions. However in a relationship, in any relationship, you wish to be sure that the opposite individual has your again.
Conventional buyer loyalty usually depends on incentives like reductions or perks, aiming to encourage frequent purchases or model choice. A brandom, nevertheless, encompasses a far deeper, extra advanced relationship. A number of distinctive components contribute to this phenomenon. The primary is emotional funding: In contrast to loyalty applications, which reward frequent patrons, brandoms foster a real emotional connection.
Prospects turn into deeply invested within the model’s story, mission, and ethos, seeing it as an extension of their very own values. For example, Patagonia’s dedication to environmental activism has drawn a buyer base that views the model as a mirror of their dedication to sustainability, forming a loyal neighborhood round shared rules and function. By persevering with to purchase from Patagonia, they’re basically advocating for the model and its function of sustainability.
A second attribute of brandoms is identification and self-expression. Prospects in a brandom don’t simply purchase merchandise for his or her purposeful advantages; they select them as symbols of who they’re and what they worth.
Carrying an Apple Watch or using a Harley-Davidson bike goes past utility – it’s a press release of life-style, values, and self-image. For these clients, the model relationship is part of their private identification, serving as a visual marker of the best way they see themselves and want to be seen by others.
A 3rd very important element of brandoms is neighborhood and social belonging. Simply as fandoms thrive on collective experiences, brandoms additionally foster a way of neighborhood constructed round shared experiences, values, and pursuits. These communities kind each on-line and offline, creating areas the place followers can work together, share experiences, and even have a good time the model collectively.
Corporations like LEGO actively nurture these communities, recognizing the worth of areas the place followers can interact not solely with the model however with one another. This sense of belonging strengthens the emotional bond as followers really feel related not simply to the model however to others who share their ardour.
Lastly, an indicator of any robust brandom is advocacy and word-of-mouth. Followers inside a brandom naturally turn into model ambassadors, spreading the phrase via social media, user-generated content material, or private suggestions.
This sort of advocacy is invaluable to companies as a result of it’s perceived as genuine, reliable, and free from industrial bias – qualities that conventional promoting usually lacks. These model advocates function an natural, self-sustaining advertising pressure, attracting new clients whereas reinforcing their very own connection to the model.
Brandoms remodel buyer loyalty into an expertise rooted in emotional resonance, private identification, and shared neighborhood. By attaining this stage of relationship, manufacturers not solely safe long-term assist but additionally domesticate a bunch of people who see the model as a necessary a part of their lives.
This distinctive mix of private attachment, communal engagement, and natural advocacy positions brandoms as a robust pressure, driving each enterprise success and cultural relevance.
So, how do manufacturers flip a buyer’s “like” into “love”? Advertising strategist and best-selling writer David Meerman Scott sees two essential components. “The very first thing is that it looks as if it requires humanity. And what I imply by that’s it looks as if it requires that organizations have an method to the best way they do enterprise that feels genuine, it feels actual.
“It looks like there are folks behind it that care. That’s to not say that issues like AI or different applied sciences can’t assist as a result of I feel they will. However folks usually don’t wish to be handled like they’re a quantity. They don’t wish to be handled like they’re only a buyer to extract cash from.
“So, there’s that concept of humanity. The second factor, which type of was shocking once I was initially doing my analysis however in hindsight makes complete sense, is that all of us wish to belong to a tribe of like-minded folks.”
Authenticity and connection forge the street to affinity and brandoms.
Enterprise Relevance: Why Brandoms Matter
For manufacturers, constructing a “brandom” – a devoted neighborhood of passionate model followers – is greater than a badge of honor. It’s a robust enterprise technique with tangible advantages. A well-nurtured brandom drives natural development by lowering buyer acquisition prices. When followers share their enthusiasm, they create a wave of genuine word-of-mouth promoting that brings in new clients with out the necessity for intensive and expensive advertising efforts.
Prospects inside a brandom have greater lifetime worth, making repeat purchases and fascinating with premium or new merchandise. Their emotional connection to the model results in constant spending, seeing it as a part of their life-style slightly than only a buy. This loyalty provides manufacturers resilience in aggressive markets, the place others depend on reductions to retain clients. Apple exemplifies this, with customers selecting its merchandise regardless of lower-cost options as a result of the model feels integral to their identification.
Past loyalty, brandoms foster collaboration, turning clients into contributors. These followers actively take part in product growth, providing suggestions, concepts, and design enter. This co-creation strengthens the connection between model and client whereas driving innovation.
Passionate fan communities additionally elevate manufacturers past their trade, shaping tradition and embodying values that resonate deeply with customers. Nike, for instance, is greater than a sportswear model – it symbolizes empowerment and private achievement.
A robust brandom not solely gives a aggressive edge but additionally positions a model as a cultural icon, standing out in each its trade and broader society.
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