Introduction
Ever since the concept of e-commerce evolved Brand Community remains an interesting topic. Besides, the advent of internet has helped the fast growth of brand community to evolve in many ways. Encouraged by its profound possibilities many people have started deploying it as a source for innovation and creating unique methods for ensuring community participation and attempting fresh product ideas by utilizing its capabilities of Brand Community.
Studies conducted by Muniz et al (March, 2001) promulgated brand community as being a particular community which is universal, and unrestricted by geographical boundaries and it is the bond formed among the members by a structured set of social relations among people who are loyal to a particular brand. The research finds three advantages to the concept.
In the first place, brand communities symbolize a kind of customer forum. Customers have a greater say than, say in an individualistic or divisive scenario. (France and Muller, 1999). In the second place, brand communities have come to symbolize a significant database for consumers. Human constituents of the Community could depend upon each other for gathering a robust databank for knowledge about the brand. In the third place, brand communities offer broader societal advantages for their constituents.
Main Text
Through another study, Fuller et al (2006) came to understand about the inventive resource potential of computer customer clusters. Quite a few clients are not only seeking information. A few of the customers are not only possessing knowledge but are also capable of generating their own novel ideas. In the present context, internet assists massive, fresh, easy methods of interfacing amidst manufacturers and end users. Multi-media quality, international user-friendliness and reduces costs of interfacing and data dispensation make possible the implicit combination of consumers into novel product expansion.
According to Fuller, Matzler, and Hoppe (2008) creativity has come to mean proximity with the society, product obsession, product loyalty and product information, which have come to establish the consumer’s permission to distribute their wisdom with manufacturers. Furthermore, two personal characteristics, (i.e. sociability and transparency) are acknowledged to have important import on product obsession, imagination, and recognition within community.
They examined their tested their theory on a sample of 550 constituents of the Volkswagen Golf GTI car community. Utilizing formative mathematical model, the outcomes reveal that the consumer imaginative constituents—mission stimulus, talents, creativity and task participation—all these decide the agreeability of constituents to take part in transparent novelty assignments. Moreover, product loyalty also has affirmative consequences on constituent’s readiness to take part in transparent novel schemes of their favorite products.
Nevertheless, neither classification with the brand community nor product understanding has a major effect on customer’s readiness to employ transparent novel schemes of the favorite product. Additionally, even though constituents of the society display robust affinity towards brands and indulge in novel discussions, they do not although community members who identify themselves with the community normally show strong passion for the brand and engage in innovation-related discussions (Muniz and Schau, 2005), they do not essentially manifest greater acquiescence to take part in transparent novel schemes of their favorite brands. This also reaffirmed all theories regarding personal characteristics of consumers.
During the course of a broad based survey, Algesheimer et al (2005) conceptualized and projected a theoretical representation of how diverse features of clients’ interaction with the brand community persuade their motives and conduct. They further illustrate how association with brand community paves the way for greater community similar actions, which is very critical in assisting lively membership at the community level. Premised on their analysis assessment in European Car Clubs, they garnered that their investigation they found their study helped current brand community research in many areas. In the first place, they reckoned that several factors like different motives of conduct of members, as well as progression of relationship, proposals, major association and trust on the product transform into matching succeeding conduct. In the second place, they gathered that consumer’s brand familiarity and the community proportions restrain the brand community’s sway over its constituents. Customers who possess data about their products, not only sense greater levels who are knowledgeable about the brand not only experience higher levels of recognition, commitment, and demands but also make known robust routes in their forms than do first timers.
Moreover, blueprint of an online community also solicits contemplation. The works of Nambisan (2002) explains that the device of such Virtual Customer Communities (VCCs) for novel product improvement demands the usage of a knowledge-based perspective of the enterprise, such as systems theory. Consequently, he offers a hypothetical scaffold for inspecting the plan of such effective client scenario, targeting the four core theoretical subjects (interaction model, knowledge formation, client inspiration, and near customer community- novel items advancement team assimilation) and gaining their suggestions for essential customer scenarios. Here the writer also centers on the following three roles: client as source, client as co-author and client as consumer. The first aspect deals with clients as giver of creative ideas, the second narrates customer participation in product planning and progression and the third links to clients’ participation in testing and supporting products.
While there is sufficient hypothesis to validate that online groups could be an entry point of data on innovative processes, there are schools of thoughts who have misgivings about the practical aspects of these projects. They often question the rationale behind why they need to indulge in live product development schemes formulated by manufacturers and distribute ideas with them, if there are no straight gains for users. Moreover, investments in novel procedures do not assure that they would be in a position to hold data correctly. During year 2006, investigations were carried out by Fuller on 825 consumers joining in a live progressive scheme about their inspirations. The results of this study revealed that inquisitiveness, innate novelty interests were the fundamental causes for indulgence in live product development schemes.
Conclusion
Studies conducted by Thompson and Sinha (2008) reinforced the fact that greater further studied that higher degree of involvement in a product group not only enhanced the possibilities of selecting a novel product from preferred brands but would also reduce the probability of seeking out novel products from competitive kinds of product groups.