Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging, Hardcover

An authentic brand community is more than just people buying your product or working alongside one another. This book articulates the critical roles of mutual concern, common values, and shared experiences in creating fiercely loyal customer and collaborator relationships.

Smart organizations know that creating communities is the key to unlocking unprecedented outcomes. But too many mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships as a foundation for community, when really people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl argue that in an authentic and enriching community, members have mutual concern for one another, share personal values, and join together in meaningful shared experiences, whether online or off. On the deepest level, brands must help members grow into who they want to be.

Jones and Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Etsy, Twitch, Harley Davidson, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, and others to connect in a meaningful way with the people critical for their success. They articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, building transformational movements, and creating community forums. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is the first comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.

Carrie Melissa Jones is the founder of Gather Community Consulting and the former COO and Founding Partner of CMX. Her work has helped build communities with Google, Patreon, the American Medical Association, Coursera, and DoSomething.org. In 2016, Salesforce named her one of three experts to follow in community management.

Charles Vogl is an executive advisor and a regular guest lecturer at Yale School of Management and Yale Leadership Institute. His work is used to support operations within firms including Google, Airbnb, Twitch and Meetup. He is the author of the award-winning The Art of Community.