Social Advertising and Brand/Brand Communities

Running head: SOCIAL ADVERTISING AND BRAND/ BRAND COMMUNITIES
SOCIAL ADVERTISING AND BRAND/ BRAND COMMUNITIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL ADVERTISING AND BRAND/ BRAND COMMUNITIES
Introduction
Marketing has evolved tremendously over the last few years. With the changing
landscape of the media and new technological mediums, Marketing now aims to build strong
relationships between the marketer and the consumer. The given essay aims to examine how
the marketing topic of Social network sites is related to brand and brand communities. This
essay aims to define the topic Social Networking sites as an online platform which is utilized
build social relationships with people who share similar interests, background and connections
(Winer, 2009). Brands are defined as name, symbol, design and features that help to distinguish
an organization`s product from that of its rivals. Brand communities are described as the
attachment to a brand. This helps to form a connection between the product and the brand. This
essay relies on the use of secondary information from various academic and non academic
sources.
Review of Literature
Brand communities
Brand communities can be defined as the community which is formed on the basis of a
long term attachment with a particular product or a brand. Recent developments in marketing
often stress upon building a long term relationship between the consumers and the
organization. This can be done on the basis of adhering to the identity of the individual or the
culture of the individual.
A brand community can be essentially defined as the enduring and self elected group of
individuals who tend to share a similar value and representation with one another. These
communities tend to have a common consciousness, rituals and moral responsibilities (Brodie,
Ilic, Juric & Hollebeek, 2013). They are generally associated with a particular identity and
conduct activities together.

2SOCIAL ADVERTISING AND BRAND/ BRAND COMMUNITIES
In relation to advertising and marketing, brand communities can be defined as the fans of the
brands and the people who tend to act as loyal customers. Having a small community can
convert the brand into a popular one and can bring about the success for it.
Brand communities generally come from a similar perspective of a particular objective.
Although it is often believed that brand communities are relatively a new concept but this is not
the case, the concept has been there since a long time and there have always been people who
have had faith in a particular brand and shared this liking with various other likeminded people
(Luo & Zhong, 2015).
There are various brands that provide this brand communities concept like Apple
products like Mac, iPhone, Holga, Lomo.
In vehicles, Mini Cooper, Royal Enfield, Harley Davidson motorcycles. In toys, there are Barbie
and Lego. Among the perspectives, it is often believed that brand communities can emerge not
only with respect to one brand but various brands in combination (Goh, Heng, & Lin, 2013).
Brand
A brand can be described as a symbol, design, term and other relevant features which
help to distinguish a particular product or an organization from that of its competitors in the eyes
of the consumers. Brand is primarily a popular concept in the domain of business and
advertising.
The branding practice began a long time back in Egyptians who engaged in life stock
branding. They used to brand their stock in order to differentiate one cattle from another. This
term then developed to become the strategic personality of a particular company and thus brand
suggests the values that the company may have to offer to the customers (Baldus, Voorhees &
Calantone, 2015).