Marketing to communities
Letitia Hristodorescu, Radu Dimitriu and Simon KnoxUM London and Cranfield School of Management
Targeting communities can allow brands to tap into groups of like-minded and motivated individuals for brand-building and advocacy.
Marketing to communities refers to the shift in companies' focus from appealing to a general mass-market level toward greater involvement with communities of consumption. These communities are groups of people with common consumption patterns resulting from similar interests and concerns. They can be formed around action sports (e.g. skateboarders or surfers), music genres (e.g. ravers or hipsters), common hobbies such as travelling (e.g. CouchSurfing), or...