Abstract:

In the last century brand building was entrusted to advertising, promotion, and personal selling. Brand building exercise has become more comprehensive where events like exhibitions, road shows, seminars, e-mail, and personal selling are all used in harmony. Perhaps the best way to build a brand is through word-of-mouth and public relations. Nowadays companies provide a little extra to the customers buying their product and starting word-of-mouth that keeps augmenting the brand value amongst the buyers.

Brand communities are groups of consumers who perceive each other to be very similar in aspects of self-expression or identity, have the same interests, and share similar ideas. In the article, the community funnel is discussed to understand what makes consumers become brand community members. The research methods used in this academic article include the literature review, systematic analysis, and generalization.

Brand communities provide a platform for members to share ideas, consumption experiences, preferences, and recommendations, and also promote customers' brand advocacy. Communities are primarily valuable to brands for two reasons:
1) They create a built-in source of real-time user feedback;
2) They foster friendships rooted in an affinity for the brand. The main types of consumer engagement in the brand community are - word-of-mouth, recommendations, helping other customers, blogging, writing, and reviews are discussed. User involvement in brand communities is divided into the following dimensions: identification, active effort, trust, commitment, connection, and social interaction.

Keywords:

Brand community, brand building, community value.