Product Description

Communities Dominate Brands: Business and marketing challenges for the 21st century is a book about how the new phenomenon of digitally connected communities are emerging as a force to counterbalance the power of the big brands and advertising. The book explores the problems faced by branding, marketing and advertising facing multiple radical changes in this decade. Communities Dominate Brands discusses how disruptive effects of digitalisation and connectedness introduce threats and opportunities. The authors compellingly illustrate how modern consumers are forming communities and peer-groups to pool their power resulting in a dramatic revolution of how businesses interact with their customers. The book provides practical guidance of how to move from obsolete interruptive advertising to interactive engagement marketing and community based communications, with dozens of real business examples from around the world. Communities Dominate Brands addresses its topic from a marketing (including advertising and branding) perspective and maintains a rigorous focus on business and profit dimensions of the issues involved. The book discusses such recent phenomena as blogging, virtual environments, mobile phone based swarming and massively multiplayer games. The book introduces a new generation of consumers called Generation-C (for Community). The book also discusses such new concepts as the Connected Age, Reachability, the Four C's, Alpha Users, and introduces Communities as an unavoidable new element into the traditional communication model. Combining the digital trends, modern management theories, and emerging new customer behaviour, Communities Dominate Brands arrives to its conclusion, that traditional marketing methods are increasingly ineffective and even becoming counterproductive. The power of the brands and the abuses by marketing have created a vacuum for a counterbalance, and digitally connected communities, the blogosphere, gamers, and especially the always-on connectedness of those on mobile phone networks, are emerging as the counterforce to redress the balance. The power of smart mobs and digitally enlightened communities will react rapidly to marketing excesses as the natural force balancing the power of the brands. The way a business can and must interact with the powerful new communities is through engagement marketing, by enticing the communities to interact with the brands. Communities Dominate Brands covers the major changes taking place in business and industry worldwide from leading digitally connected societies such as Finland, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, UK and the USA. The authors discuss the business relevance of such community related technologies and phenomena such as blogging, CANs, iPod, MMOGs, MVNOs, PVRs, Ringing Tones, SMS text messaging, swarming, VOD. This is the definitive business book on the impact of new technologies, not explaining how technology works, but showing what businesses need to do to make money in the new digitally converging environment. Communities Dominate Brands analyses early successes of engaging communities by global brands such as Adidas, Apple, Audi, BBC, Boeing, Coca Cola, eBay, Ford, Google, Guinness, Hush Puppies, Lonely Planet, MTV, Nokia, Orange, Philips, Red Bull, Sony, Tesco, Tony & Guy, Vodafone, etc. The lessons are amplified with insights from rough punishment by communities suffered by Hutchison/Three networks, Kryptonite locks, Mazda, the Philippines Government, etc. Fully indexed, impeccably researched with documented sources, offering over 50 current business examples and over a dozen case studies, Communities Dominate Brands is a hands-on practical business handbook on how to adjust marketing to deal with communities. With tools such as the Four C's and Reachability, the authors provide a competitive head-start to all who want to achieve customer satisfaction and return business in the 21st century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96606 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From the Inside Flap
The emergent consumer. No longer alone, connected, empowered and armed to the teeth with information from the internet and the mobile phone, digitally connected consumers are brand polygamists or worse. How will your business survive the Community Generation? Can you build passionate brand advocates or will you face an overwhelming community out to destroy you?

Communities Dominate Brands covers changes altering business and industry worldwide with lessons from leading connected societies such as Finland, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong as well as the UK and USA. The authors explain community behaviour in gaming and virtual worlds, among bloggers and the ever growing herds swarming with the mobile/cellular phones.

Archaic business models are under threat by the new world order of the new digital economics. Raiders are after your customers like never before. Communities Dominate Brands discusses disruption, convergence, cannibalisation and new marketspace. The authors explain the business relevance of CANs, iPod, MMOGs, MVNOs, PVRs, SMS text messaging, VOD. This is the definitive business and marketing book, showing what businesses need to do to make money in the new digitally converging environment.

Dominate through Engagement. Through the wholesale unbundling of the media audiences are now learning the benefits of two-way flows of information. Traditional interruptive advertising, branding and marketing isn't working anymore. A new way of customer engagement is needed, and the authors provide over 50 examples and a dozen case studies by global brands such as Adidas, Apple, Audi, BBC, Boeing, Coca Cola, eBay, Ford, Google, Guiness, MTV, Nokia, Orange, Philips, Red Bull, Sony, Tesco, Vodafone, etc.

Fully indexed, impeccably researched with documented sources Communities Dominate Brands is a hands-on practical business handbook on how to adjust marketing to deal with communities. Defining the next generation of consumer, Gen-C, and introducing tools such as the Alpha Users, the 4C’s and Reachability, the authors provide a competitive head-start to all who want to achieve customer loyalty and return business in the 21st century. The old way of doing business is over, the time of brands dictating and advertising interrupting is now being overtaken by interractive community-oriented engagement marketing.

This is the business book to read now.

Customer Reviews

Incredibly practical business book on hot topics of 2005
This is the first book I have seen to take a wholistic view of the disruptive forces in business and tie it together with the new emerging customer. While many books have examined mobile phones or blogging or gaming, this is the first to examine the connected customer community broadly and comprehensively.

The book continually impresses with vivid expert opinions, quotes and stats, and page after page of thoroughly documented examples. The book proceeds logically through the major trends in society from technology, disruptive forces facing business, the convergence and divergence opportunities and threats from fragmentation and media, to how customers are changing and evolving. The book discusses the current crisis in marketing communications, TV, press, advertising and branding. Then it proceeds to show the power of communities finishing with valid and practical advice on how to engage those new customers and communities. The last three chapters build on the earlier ones and leave the reader stunned by how extensive a change is already happening with global brands like Adidas, Red Bull, Boeing and Ford.

The authors manage to keep the book timely and incredibly insightful by examining three distinct groups of communities in great depth. They cover bloggers and the blogosphere as the most influential community right now. They discuss the virtual world and multiplayer videogaming communities which are most evolved into the community-spirit and new rules. And they explain the growing relevance of the largest digital community, the smart mobs connected by mobile phone.

The book includes insightful and immediately usable theories. I particularly liked the Four C's, Alpha Users, Engagement Marketing and Generation-C. And to top it off they have included 13 case studies that are remarkably revealing. Read the Oh My News Korea, Twins Hong Kong, or Habbo Hotel Finland cases and see what is obviously the near future of business.

The book is thought-provoking and as it proves every point with expert opinions and real live business examples, it makes a very believable case. When comparing it with say Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs or John Grant's After Image, this book is much more immediately practical, written by clearly practical business executives for business executives. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, am now rereading it, and recommend it to anyone in business.

An absolute cast-iron must-read
If you have anything to do with marketing, mobile, advertising or the media this is essential reading.
It's a wake-up call for anyone who thinks today is just like yesterday, just a little bit faster.
Read it and you WILL want to change the way your business functions.

a treasure trove of ideas and killer facts
As someone who works in the marketing communications industry, I've found this book a great source of ideas, killer facts and stealable quotes with which to pepper a presentation. More fundamentally it is a well argued, powerful case that the 'old world order' in marketing is being fundamentally changed. You may disagree with some or all of it you'll still have to deal with the themes they highlight.