With respect to Sports Communities, one things is certain – the obvious: These communities are largely passion driven. That’s a goldmine for brands to exploit when it comes to Digital. A sports brand is an extension of an individuals lifestyle. Its something larger. It elevates you. It drives you. If you’ve supported a sports team, you would know.

Few Hygiene Factors:

• Reply to every fan. Or atleast try. Fans will always post questions/ comments.
• Identify fans who will help you out with replies and drive them.
• Update frequently. Very frequently.
• Share what fans share if you think its really exciting.
• Help fans make a decision
• Always update insider news first.
• Host regular contests with give aways

Other not so hygiene stuff that helps:

• Reward individual members – feature them on the landing page of the community/ profile of the week
• Create a Fan Army – Find a set of members to be your champions. And keep building this base of champions.
• Recruit a fellow member programmes. Make sure the community then welcomes them.
• Take measures to Aggregate the best content onto your website
• Members driving votes programmes with a carrot at the end
• Offline Activities
• Allow members to determine the nature of Offline Activities
• Use members to organise/ guide and spearhead offline activities

The idea is to have thematic campaigns over time that make the community and brand association jump. Act like a mother who nurtures her kids. Be nice. Do no evil and always be entertaining.

This of course after you have figured out the sweet spot to build your community around.

Make every community a passion driven community. I think thats our ideology to designing social strategies. I think its the idea of passion. The idea of triggering passion. The idea of uniting people around something larger than the brand itself and then fitting brand attributes into the same is something worth considering for all brands. So far we’ve been able to do it successfully.

How to tickle that passion is another altogether. A new post. A new approach. Till then.

PS – i realised that i have used the word ‘fan’ a lot. Thank you Facebook platform for tickling the right ideas.

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This is interesting especially in the scope of India. There are a couple of points to note here:

a) A lot of Indians don’t have cars.

b) Majority of Indians don’t have extra money to spend on unplanned impulse purchases.

c) For Indians shopping is a like a picnic – a day out. Something noted by Kishore Biyani, the mastermind behind Big Bazaar.

This brings forth an interesting mix.

On one hand, Indians SHOULD shop more because of the ‘picnic’/ carnival association where the likelihood of getting attracted to newer things is higher.

On the other hand, there is no personal transport/ SUV to lug unplanned purchases back home. It is also important to note that Indians are not still comfortable with the new retail shopping formats. I for one get extremely confused when i enter a Wal Mart store. I entered one a couple of months back and i left without purchasing anything – i just did not know what to do. I would label myself as an evolved Indian consumer (not in retail albeit). I can only imagine the problems associated with the same for Indian consumers who are just exploring these formats.

A seeming ‘auto – pilot’ nature thus kicks in because consumers will also be a little intimidated in these new formats and stick to things/ brands they feel comfortable dealing with. Products and brands that give them a feeling of security in a completely new environment.

The lack of comfort should not be mixed with a tendency towards planning purchases.

Cross posted on my personal blog

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