Knowing nothing about Communispace previously, I thought this Case Study was a very intriguing look at a company who has successfully maneuvered into the market of providing "actionable" recommendations for managing a firms brand. After reading this article I am left with no doubt as to why Communispace has become a leader in their market place.
A large reason as to why Communispace has seen success in my opinion is their facilitation of information between the customer and the company. I know they were the topic of much controversy in our last class, BUT while reading the Harvard Business School Communispace Case Study, I could not help but draw a parallel between the active participants in communities created by Communispace and consumers creating ads from our reading last week. Obviously there are very distinct differences that set the two categories of consumers apart, however I would be remised if I didn't touch upon the core unifier between the two groups. The two groups likeness comes from their need to be heard. As I mentioned in my blog post last week, brands today are used (generally too much!) to define who we are and used convey a message about our beliefs and opinions, thus being such a big part of their lives consumers have started to say something personal about the brand in return. It is this need to be heard that made me draw a distinct parallel between the Communispace community members and consumer creators.
However, after expressing a need to vocalize their wants, opinions and general questions these two groups of consumers deviate. For members of the Communispace community participation is, again hardly about monetizing their time, but rather "about having a direct voice to a company, category, or brand they care about". For community members it isn't just about getting their ideas out their, but seeing that their opinions matter and will be put into ACTION. While consumer created ads might be airing their complaints or reflections on a particular brand through their personally created content, members of a Communispace community are able to give a truthful, open and emotional response that will actually be taken seriously. I think this is a primary example of a forum in which consumer grievances can be heard and responded to without an agenda. Companies are also able to maintain the element of control that is vital to their brand management. This platform works so well because consumers feel like not only are they being heard, but responded to. Not to mention corporations are gaining from this as well, as they are able to aggregate information, opinions and solutions to better build their brand.
Creating a community alone however is not a recipe for success. Communispace harnesses several other elements to strengthen their platform. One of those elements is the time component allowing for the generation and growth of a community. In a day and age where need for speed is so overreaching that if it isn't instant, it isn't, Communispace has the right idea of taking it back a notch and letting the data do its thing. As Diane Hessen said, "communities provide a continuous flow of information, not a snapshot in time". Rather than try and force the data out of their community members Communispace looks long term because it is the broad insights that develop slowly. However, Communispace provides several methods allowing companies to take the pulse of a community intermittently. Hardly the big picture, but tools such as Front Page Reports or Email Snapshots allow for an immediate assessment verses the analysis of long term trends. The other area allowing for the success of Communispace is their development of interactive, fun and engaging activities that members of the community perform to provide feedback for companies. If participants are bored and not passionate about their participation, they are not going to be valuable participants who will offer useful feedback. One of the more unique activities Created by Communispace to hold interest while gaining information, was to have a community create a virtual slang dictionary, which allowed Communispace to generate content for an ad campaign designed to truly resinate with their targeted demographic.
Clearly Communispace is doing some great things. Now I must ask, the case study ended on a cliffhanger, and it is not clear whether Communispace took on the WOM client Simmons, what would you do and why if you were Communispace. Knowing what you know about the company and the formative opinions of two Communispace employees, if you were Diane would you lead Communispace past the point of no return?
If I were Diane I would have lead Communispace to WOM products. Communispace had a change to test out a WOM campaign that would have garnered lots of future business. This WOM campaign would have been low risk as Communispace already possessed the communities to test this out in. I don't think it was the "point of no return". If Communispace's first WOM campaign failed their cost would be absorbed by the scale they possessed as a ten year old company, and they would not be stuck with some unusable resource they developed for one WOM. In all they should have and I hope they did go for it.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Communispace should have played it safe and avoided the turn for WOM products in fear that it would alienate the communities they've worked so hard to establish. It takes a long time fostering trust into these relationships with consumers willing to give you honest input and only a second to introduce something that makes them skeptical of you and puts up their defenses. I just didn't think that there were more disadvantages than advantages if the Simmons account was accepted.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said and the case said about making contributers passionate about their contributions. People want to feel that what they're contributing is being utilized and valued. I think Communispace has a great understanding of what the concept of community truly means and as you said "harnessing the elements" of the community that give it strength and make it successful.
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