CHAPTER 6

The Nature of Fandom and Shared Power in the Social Environment

Participating in a brand community has no barriers to entry; anyone can join in a brand conversation on social media channels. Not every brand fan will engage in consumption of the product. In the ­marketing ­literature, repeat purchase is equivalent to loyalty and requires brand ­managers to rethink the metrics they use to define brand success. Loyalty is defined as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred ­product or service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and ­marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior.”1 For necessity products, consumers repeat purchase for very different reasons than for other types of products, particularly luxury goods. High involvement product categories are relevant to the ­consumers’ sense of self. Brand communities are formed around products that are important to ­consumers.2 It is logical to assume that low involvement purchases such as home utilities likely do not result in brand ­community (in fact, any social media feedback will likely be negative due to lack of consumer ­alternatives). For brands that are relevant to consumers, participants engage with brands in social media as a foreshadowing of future purchase. In some cases ­fandom is solely aspirational and purchase is unlikely. In this case the brand may align with the consumer’s values but price ­prevents purchase for this particular consumer. Aspirational consumers play a unique role in the brand community as they serve to increase the confidence of owners of the brand and push those who are on the cusp of owning to strive for the future purchase.

Brands directed messages at consumers in the business relationship with one-way communication. With social media, this balance has clearly tipped the other direction. When consumers were dissatisfied they complained to the company. This negative word-of-mouth communication was face-to-face with family, friends, and neighbors. Today, however, consumers share their dissatisfaction on social media and have a much wider audience. ­Factors affecting the reach of word-of-mouth communication have fundamentally changed. If a brand is not monitoring the discussion in social media channels and participating in the discussion, they miss ­opportunities to position their brand effectively with the most influential consumers. Staying ever-present on social media and monitoring the state of the brand means resolving customer service issues publicly so that solving one person’s problem becomes an opportunity to gain brand fans. ­Consumers use rating sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Places as an integrated network with social media channels such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to find recommendations, interact with brands, and offer tips to others. Any consumer armed with a smartphone can record video and images of a positive or negative service encounter and share with his or her extended network in social media; in many cases, these encounters go viral.

In this chapter, we explore the differences between fans and ­consumers of a brand. Furthermore, we explore alternative strategies brands may pursue to convert brand fans to brand consumers. We also explore the common phenomenon of consumer feedback via social media and ways the brand can turn negative encounters into positive experiences with the brand. Finally, we discuss an emerging phenomenon of informal brand ambassadors, where consumers intervene in social media to help resolve customer experience issues.

Why Fans May Not Be Consumers

Brand loyalty encompasses both purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty.3 Although managers frequently measure repeat purchase and purchase intent to predict brand loyalty, it is only one component of consumer loyalty. Brands have wide fan bases ranging from consumers with ultimate loyalty—a consumer who is loyal against all odds. As already mentioned, aspiring consumers may possess strong attitudinal loyalty toward a brand. These consumers may never purchase a brand’s product or may purchase only once in a lifetime (depending on the cost point). However, they remain psychologically committed to the brand.

One brand family with a vast fan base is Virgin. Virgin’s portfolio contains more than 50 distinct business units. Within those are brands within the entertainment, health and wellness, leisure, financial, telecom and tech, travel, and sustainability industries.4 From Virgin Mobile to global airlines, consumers have the opportunity to become brand fans across a number of product categories. This affinity for one brand does not imply that consumers are true prospective consumers for all of the Virgin brands. A U.S. consumer may be a frequent flyer for Virgin ­America, but it is unlikely he or she will ever be a customer for the Virgin Galactic brand. Virgin Galactic provides the service of space flight and weightlessness to adventurous consumers. Consumers fly in a glider that piggybacks on a mother ship. Once at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere, the glider separates and provides passengers with a unique, out of this world experience. The price point (over $200,000 per flight) for Virgin Galactic’s services is likely to be too high for many of Virgin’s brand fans. However, even those consumers who will never experience space flight on Virgin Galactic possess psychological affinity toward the company and its services because of their existing affinity for the Virgin brand. As shown in Figure 6.1, Virgin Galactic has over 70,000 followers on Twitter, a number that far exceeds the number of actual purchasers for its services.

Figure 6.1 Virgin Galactic communicates with a community of 70,000+ followers on Twitter

While over 70,000 consumers follow Virgin Galactic on Twitter as of February 2014, most of these consumers will never convert to consumers of the brand. However, the brand does have products or services that are more accessible to consumers. The Virgin family brand ranges from ­Virgin Galactic to Virgin Mobile. The consumer may follow Virgin ­Galactic but gain entry into the brand through Virgin Mobile. While ­Virgin Mobile prepaid mobile phone service is an easy, cost-effective entry into the ­Virgin brand family, a seat on Virgin Galactic costs $250,000 per seat (six per flight) for a 2.5-hour flight with six minutes of weightlessness. Following the brand may signal support of the Virgin brand, identification with the brand, or aspirations for future experiences like the space flight (despite a lack of economic means to fund the desired experience). This fan base helps raise awareness of Virgin and its family of brands through word of mouth; converting fans to consumers is a more challenging proposition.

The Power of Complaining

Key Lime Pie, WIN! Hotel Wi-Fi, FAIL

Service recovery is a key initiative that most brand customer service departments are tasked with fulfilling. In the past, consumer ­complaints occurred out of the public eye; consumers complained directly to the brand via mail, fax, call, e-mail, website form submission, or chat. Another consumer’s exposure to consumer complaints was typically ­limited, coming from traditional word of mouth where consumers shared with their Wi-Fi Internet access about bad experiences. Today, customer complaining is public on social media which reaches a wide audience in most cases.

In the early days of Omni Hotels & Resorts’ participation on Twitter, the eCommerce team saw a tweet complaining about Wi-Fi failures at the Jacksonville, Florida (USA) location. This tweet praised the hotel’s key lime pie but labeled the Wi-Fi as a failure. The Omni team was ­monitoring Twitter for feedback on the brand and alerted the local team to the issue. Within minutes, the hotel management had contacted the customer to apologize and the Wi-Fi was restored. What Omni corporate did not know is that the tweeter was actually a speaker at a technology-­focused conference at the hotel. By listening to the conversation in social media, Omni was able to identify a problem, resolve it, and delight the customer. The result was a mention at the conference on the competence that Omni’s team showed in social listening, and the conference attendees generated positive word of mouth. In this case, a negative was quickly turned into a positive, resulting in a successful service recovery. Many more cases exist where this outcome is not as positive and a double failure results.

United Breaks Guitars or Band Breaks United’s Reputation

In 2008, Dave Carroll flew United Airlines while on tour with his band. From his window seat, he saw his $3,500 guitar handled roughly, which resulted in a total loss of the instrument. When United Airlines refused to resolve the issue after many touch points, Carroll decided to use his musical talent to share his story. Writing the ode “United Breaks ­Guitars,” Carroll shared his tale and released the accompanying music video on ­YouTube (Figure 6.2). The music video has accumulated over 13 ­million views as of January 2014.5 While word of mouth related to this incident is impressive, the possible impact on United’s market value is more ­staggering. According to the London Times, the stock price ­tumbled 10 percent during the time period of the media coverage; this change in value was equivalent to $180 million in market value.6 Although causation cannot be argued here, at a minimum, additional negative publicity likely exacerbated any other issues during this time.

Figure 6.2 United Breaks Guitars depicts the epic guitar toss

In this case, the company was focused on the timing of Carroll’s claim, which occurred outside of the 24-hour window for reporting an incident. This could have been resolved for $3,500 in the form of a reimbursement or replaced instrument. Instead, United encountered a maelstrom of negative publicity. With social media allowing incidents like this to snowball and go viral with the click of a button, firms like United may wish to consider the long-term consequences instead of the immediate policy issues. Exploring the potential fallout of these issues on social media will provide insights when incidents are worth resolving and when standard guideline rules should be disregarded or even changed. As a result of this incident, Carroll released a book, aptly titled United Breaks Guitars, which focuses on the power of social media and the consumer’s voice.7 This incident and Carroll’s response are now being used by companies across the world in setting policy, training employees, and investigating how to conduct business in the 21st century.

While both the Omni Hotels and United Airlines examples demonstrate social complaining, they depict two very different outcomes. Social complaining (and praise) raises significant marketing operational impacts that must be considered. First, addressing social media requires both financial and personnel resources. Not only must the social team interact with brand fans and create outgoing brand messages, the team must also be empowered to handle complaints and must possess ­knowledge of how to redirect complaints. Brands may use a separate Twitter account to monitor complaints on the primary brand account, as American Express does with their @AskAmex on Twitter. Secondly, competent handling of social service issues is critical; the brand must understand the factors at play in social media, including word of mouth, online customer ­recommendations or advocacy, and the megaphone effect of influential consumers. Resolving issues in an open forum can be tricky. ­Understanding where rules should be compromised is critical, and also recognizing when bending a rule could set a precedent for other customers is of consideration as well. Understanding a customer’s value to the firm is also critical, as those with the most influence have the potential to impact the brand more strongly than those who are not taken seriously by their network. As social media channels become integrated more seamlessly into more firm operations, processes for effectively resolving issues will be established. And, if the brand is endeared to consumers, resolving issues will serve to protect the brand.

Deputizing Brand Fans to Support the Brand

How May I Help You?

Many brand supporters may informally monitor information about a brand out of curiosity or in an effort to become expert on the brand. For other experienced customers, the brand may request them to become brand ambassadors to help reduce anxiety for new and ­potential ­customers. Online men’s clothier, Indochino, asks its past customers to advise prospective consumers on the quality and service provided by the company. Indochino also features photos of consumers wearing its brand on social media channels like Pinterest and Instagram ­(Figure 6.3). When a Twitter user requests information from others who have ­purchased an Indochino custom suit, the brand shares the tweet with its own followers to solicit tips and consumer experiences. This encourages prospects to interact with past customers. When purchasing menswear online, particularly a custom suit, seeing actual customers in their clothing helps alleviate worries. Again, the reference group becomes a powerful tool for marketers. When a potential customer of Indochino custom suits sees someone like himself or his body type, he identifies with that community member and gains confidence in his ability to wear ­Indochino’s ­clothing. Effectively, the brand uses its customers as models to show what real ­people look like in the clothing, as opposed to the professional ­models seen in traditional advertising.

Figure 6.3 Custom suit firm Indochino’s Pinterest Customer Wall of Fame

Informal Brand Ambassadors

Brand ambassadors and informal service providers provide companies with de facto employees at no cost. The mobile and desktop note taking application Evernote serves as an example. Passionate users volunteer to be Evernote Ambassadors, segmented by geography, expertise, and ­language. These passionate users volunteer both time and expertise to support the Evernote brand and resolve user issues (Figure 6.4).

Ambassadors receive no compensation but have strong ties to the Evernote brand and functionality. Through Ambassador biographies and blogs, these passionate users share various ways they use the software, which helps increase service adoption, improve user retention, and encourage premium subscriptions. The users highlight which devices they use with Evernote and how they capture, record, and organize information. See Figure 6.5 for an example of an ambassador blog.

Figure 6.4 The global Evernote ambassador community—Just a click away

Figure 6.5 Evernote blog from Evernote Ambassador8

Consumers have high service expectations and some brands may not have the resources to support a large service team. Limited resources make it impossible to react at the speed required for social media. ­Having a volunteer army of brand fans may be an effective strategy; however, ­several factors must be taken into consideration. First, ­ambassadors must have involvement at a high level to warrant a personal ­commitment. Second, ambassador recognition and status are important for fostering an engaged and responsive ambassador network. Thus, highly knowledgeable and respected opinion leaders are necessary. Third, to appear robust, there must be sufficient content generated and a high level of responsiveness. The perception of a lackluster effort can lead online consumers to infer that the brand does not warrant ­support. Fourth, some effort must be made to manage the ambassadors, as it can be difficult to monitor the accuracy of information shared, influence the tone of communication, and ensure that the process does not evolve into something completely out of the control of the firm. This requires minimal resources, but a well-thought-out strategy and continual monitoring.

Key Takeaways