This article was originally published to WARC.

Sometimes, brands act as a badge or signal of affiliation – when we see others who make similar brand choices, we feel good. We feel a sense of identity; that means we wear the brand as a badge. Strong brands are desired as something to be owned because others own them too. Take car marques for example. Everything from exclusive clubs for Porsche owners and experiential events such as the Jeep Drivers Academy, to that simple wave we give fellow auto brand owners on the road – it’s all about acknowledging a common bond. Member-only clubs like the BMW car club are built on exclusivity. They exist because of brand identity – strong and distinctive brands hold inherent badge value.

So what can marketers learn from the success of brand clubs?

Firstly, brand advertising is key – it fuels the passion that keeps the fire burning. But what if you're not an obvious candidate for a “badge brand”? How do you leverage the idea behind brand clubs and the feeling of connection and belonging they bring?

Engagement is an action, connection is an emotion

Brands talk a lot about engagement as a proxy for the kind of affinity brand clubs offer. Definitions differ but engagement is generally measured by the volume or spread of customer touchpoints. The narrative is that the more engaged customers are, the more likely they are to be loyal, repeat purchasers and even possibly brand advocates. But this narrative is flawed because although high engagement (high touchpoint engagement) may be correlated with purchasing, this is behavioural loyalty and it’s not the same as emotional loyalty.

Brands talk a lot about engagement because it’s something that is, to some extent, under their control. They can put things in front of people in ways that encourage interaction – such as running a social media post with a prize for entering – that will achieve high engagement. If the brand marketer doesn’t confuse it with emotional connection, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Engagement is an interaction. Connection is a feeling. You “feel” connected to a person and, similarly, people “feel” connected to brands. And you cannot own people’s feelings. If someone says they feel angry, you can tell them they shouldn’t feel that way. But they still experience feeling angry. Therefore, strategies to achieve connection have to be different from engagement strategies.

A recent TRA study showed under half the population of Australians feel connected to brands in any category. Looking at the top five scoring brand categories, we see only three or four out of 10 people feeling connected to any category.

Common interests and belonging

We feel connected when we find common interests with others, we feel seen and have a sense of belonging

It’s a basic human need to feel connected, a part of something. That’s the reason loneliness is so threatening to health.

Our data shows that the stresses and strains of modern life have meant people have adapted to new ways of connecting with others. As families have become smaller and more geographically spread, as we work from home more and spend more time online, people have become very competent at finding connections with people with whom they have shared interests.

Therein lies the clue to how brands can forge better connections with people. When we asked people what made them feel more connected to brands, people talked about brands that had partnerships with groups or interests that they feel connected to, or which supported causes that they cared about. This mirrors how people develop their echo-systems of personal connections. We call them echo-systems because they’re literally that – an echo chamber where we see our interests and ideas reflected back at us. It makes it easy to converse, to cut the small talk and make the cognitive load low and the emotional reward high.

People like to connect with people whose interests they share. These connections are not only online and are deepened when live interactions are enabled. Live Nation is an example of a brand that understood this well. They combine support for and involvement with fan groups with the delivery of live events where fans authenticate their common interest. Live Nation has mined people’s interests to find surprising crossovers where subgroups of one genre are connected with subgroups of a totally different music style.

Bunnings Warehouse Parties with Peking Duk is another good example. Though Bunnings provided the opportunity, they allowed the shared interest of the music scene to call the shots.

"We're going to have a rave with Bunnings. We still don't know where so pick a spot, pick a state, pick a Bunnings. Where do you want to do this party?" said Reuben Styles, one-half of Peking Duk.

Connection is powerful but can be scary

Connection is powerful, which makes it scary if it’s not in your control. Undoubtedly, Bunnings laid down some guardrails here but there are lessons for how brands get involved in brand communities.

Too often, brands see their communities as top-of-funnel marketing and their role is to influence and trigger conversion. Whereas the most powerful communities are where the brand is not the centre of the community. Instead, it’s a participant, a facilitator or supporter and sometimes a bystander.

Letting the community navigate its agenda and course means letting go and that can feel scary. It can also make it harder to justify investment in a community. But communities of people with shared interests are where connection is made. The brand benefits are people feeling connected to everyone and everything that is part of the community, including the brand.

Brands doing it well are those that follow people’s interests

Brands are good at broadcasting to the many – it’s how they build fame. Broadcast communications can play a role in building a feeling of connection but only when the focus is on shared interest groups. For instance, getting behind a big sports team. Telstra’s work around grassroots sports is a good example of this. The Telstra work with grassroots local community sports talked to a deeper sense of connection with the community. The shared interest of the local community is expressed through local sports clubs.

Brands have also become good at personalised communications; it’s how they drive engagement and activation. But personalised communications do not have the emotional power of connection. In TRA’s survey, personalised messages were rated one of the connection, a space in between. To address this, brands can explore systems mapping people’s shared interests or what we call echo-systems. Doing so can help brands build a greater feeling of connection with people, customers and future customers.

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