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GeoFree BrandComms: Building Brand Communities Using Blogs (July 2004)

Recently researchers have drawn our attention to communities built around (and often sustained by) strong brands - brand communities. Our research adds to the current understanding of brand communities by exploring the notion of brand community being "non-geographically bound." While prior research acknowledges this characteristic of brand community it fails to, firstly, illustrate the strategic importance of such freedom and, secondly, provide directions for an operational, tactical, or strategic tool to truly build and sustain non-geographically bound brand communities. We refer to such communities as geographically free brand communities (GeoFree BrandComms). This research presents the conceptual underpinnings and characteristics of GeoFree BrandComms. Further, the use of Weblogs (Blogs) as a strategic tool in building GeoFreeBrandComms is explored. We then proceed to posit the applications of Blogs in Web-based marketing strategies that find their basis in strong brands and loyal customers.

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