The Loyalty Lock-In: How Community Creates Brand Champions

Hello and welcome to the show. Before we begin, apologies for any interruptions that you hear in the background today. We are still on the curated people who make curated hampers and who are in the corporate or individual gift giving space. In fact, I think today will be the final episode because we've been, we've come up with a number of ideas about how you can differentiate your business if you're in this space. And of course by extension those of us who are involved in other businesses, whether we own,

whether we sell eyeglasses or we sell chickens or turkeys or whether you're a Carpenter or an architect, we've come up with a number of ideas about how you can set your business apart from the competition that's apart from price. Because when you're you're in an industry that has a challenge of being commoditized, the major thing that people are going to use to tell tell you apart is going to be price. So you know you seem to be cheaper than the next Joe or the next Jane.

So we're trying to look for ways to escape that price trap and that has been the focus of the ideas that we have discussed so far. Now the reason why I'm going to bring this current conversation very close today is because when I came up with the challenge of trying to look for people, I'm trying to look at people in the hamper, in the created hamper and the gift giving space, whether corporate or individuals. I was trying to see how we could use sales and business development principles to solve a whole host of problems.

And I'm sure you've noticed that we've done. I haven't looked at the list, but if I was to guess, I'm sure we're probably done about 7 or maybe 10 podcast episodes on how we can differentiate the business alone. And that's not to talk about all the other business problems that they would have. And of course this is a podcast about sales in general and not just about people in the the corporate or in the individual space for creating curated hampers.

So apart from that, the regular questions that I get, whether you know, from running into you guys face to face or people sending me messages on Instagram or people interacting with content, which throws up more issues, that list of questions keep growing. And if I'm going to remain seated on this narrative, then we're not going to get much work done when it comes to the other questions. So today is going to be the final episode and we're going to look at how we can use community building for business differentiation.

Oh, by the way, let me clarify. When I say today is going to be the final episode, I don't mean today the podcast is ending. I just mean that today I'm going to bring it to a close on using people in the curated hamper space, whether they create hampers for corporations or whether they create hampers for individuals for gift giving. So that's what I mean today this case study comes to a close. So the final thing that we're going to look at, like I

mentioned, is community building for business differentiation. Now, First off, let us define community building. And of course I like the more general definitions because they're easy to remember and to implement. So in my opinion, I'd say community building is just creating space where your target audiences can interact with each other and also with yourself or your business or your brand. So just creating a space. Now that definition is wide enough to encompass whether you are creating spaces physically in somebody's living room,

because there are some businesses that do that. My favorite example of that that I keep talking about every now and now and then is Mary Kay. So Mary Kay the famous because their business model is built around having beauty professionals, I think, I think called beauty professionals. I can't remember what they're called anyway. But you take these ladies, you train them up in sophistication, etiquette, product knowledge,

business mastery. You train them up in everything. And then you have them going from people's house to house or people's office to office hosting these parties where people sit down and get to experience the makeup first hand. They get to see the eyeliner, the face, this, the lip that the blush, this the whatever. So they've been able to build a multi billion dollar industry off of this kind of sales activity for several decades.

I can't remember but my OK, well I shouldn't hazard a guess, maybe I should. I think it's from about 60s up until now, but this has been going on and on and on for a very long time. So yeah, so community building that would. It would the definition that I've given would encompass situations like Mary Kay, people who are going from house to house. So if you're a married man and you wake up one day and you know your wife has strangers over and a married kid professional, you know, don't get angry.

I mean for you seems like a nuisance. But for them it's nice me time they get to sit down, talk about self pampering, self-care, stuff like that. Yeah. So that encompasses definitions like that where people are showing up physically face to face in the space, or where people are doing things online. Because nowadays the idea of community building has left the whole thing of who are meeting up in church, or meeting up in the house, or meeting up at the bazaar or the market, and people are now meeting up in Facebook groups.

What else? WhatsApp groups? e-mail newsletters? What else? I can't think of anything, but my guess is maybe when was that one not augmented reality? There's the other one, virtual reality. Yeah, maybe when this whole virtual reality thing pops off, takes off for regular users like you or me. That might be another Ave. where people are meeting virtually to in communities. So that's what community building is from a business and point of view.

So you're creating a space, whether it's physically or online or offline, and you're trying to get your target audiences to interact with each other and also to interact with your brand. The reason why I should be doing that is because it creates an emotional connection. It also creates brand advocates because when people get together, I mean, that's how these Mary Kate brand advocates are born anyway, because you're there with the beauty professional, You test the product, you buy it and you see that it does want us for your skin or doesn't want the miracles for your acne or what makes you feel more, I don't know, empowered and desirable or whatever.

And these are the sorts of things that create brand advocacy. So that's the reason why when you know, you run into that family member who becomes enamoured with forever living or something, I mean, that's exactly how it's done. So forever living, they go to your house or they go to a church or somebody's office. They sit down, people talk about the product, they experience the product and then it creates brand advocates.

So we have an auntie who is totally mad about forever living or any of these things that you won't stop talking about it. This is how it was achieved through community building and you can do the same thing for your business as well. So creates an emotional connection to your product or service. It creates brand advocates. And then of course you can throw around exclusive benefits to people in the community. That's also to reinforce doing business with you.

So the aim of creating community is basically just to foster loyalty and like I keep saying time and time again on the podcast that loyalty is at the bottom or no, not bottom. Is that the foundation? Yeah. Is that the foundation of getting repeat business and getting referrals, which is absolutely important for any kind of business because dealing with repeat business, that's people coming back again and again, you know, they buy January for very much throughout the whole year and maybe they bring one or two people to come and do business with you.

Those are referrals. Dealing with those sorts of people are easier because you don't have to convince them again to buy. It's a softer sales cycle and it also is cheaper because it costs time and money to go around looking for new customers. So the more repeat business and the more referrals that we get, actually the better for us. So, yeah, the aim is to foster loyalty so we can get repeat business and referrals. OK.

So let's look at specific ideas for how you can build communities online. Now I'm going to give a caveat, the sort of caveat that I normally would, which is that I'm not a community building specialist, whether online or offline, my speciality is sales, especially personal selling, which is situations where you're having one-on-one or one to one, communications with individuals, whether it's physically or whether it's online, SMS, you know, whatever.

So that's my speciality. So I'm just tossing out some ideas that I think we can come up with using common sense. So for we can come up with private online communities where people get exclusive product reviews or early bed discounts. So maybe you have a newsletter community or a WhatsApp community or a Facebook community. People get to see what's coming down the pipe, the bike. So in this case, we're in Lent right now.

Easter is going to be the next big thing and then Muslims are going to begin their Ramadan fast also. So people who are a member of your newsletter your newsletter or your WhatsApp group or your Facebook group, they are the ones who will get to see OK Ramadan hamper coming out now it's going to it's going to consist of this, this and that or the Easter hamper blah blah blah, customize here, get discounts here, you know those sorts of things.

So we can come up with a private online communities. Yeah, the more creative the more creative the better. There are lots of people who are using WhatsApp business tools to good effect. Now, having a private online community assumes that you must have gotten people's e-mail addresses or phone numbers, or you have some way of keeping in touch with them because that's how you get them into these communities in the 1st place.

And so that's one reason why I keep hopping on for people who just focus on the sale. As you just collect the money, you say thank you and you let the customer work out, you know that that shouldn't be the case. We should always look for ways to keep in touch with people. So I'm cool with WhatsApp and SMS, but you know, the more the better. So if you have WhatsApp, you have SMS, you have e-mail. For people who are in America and Western Europe, you have their physical address, you know, so you can send things to them.

You know, the more options you have, the better. So for those of us who schooled in the UK, for instance, if that store, what's it called Not Next? There's one that is a big grocery store. They have groceries, they have clothes, they do photographs, they do Asda. No, not Asda. I've forgotten anyway. But for those of you who schooled in the UK, you know you get the gist. So you pay, they collect everything, they collect your phone number, collect your e-mail address to collect your physical address and then when is Christmas the, the that book,

what's it called? Catalogue. Yeah, the catalogue shows up at your doorstep. Christmas sales, 50% of this introducing this 20% slash on that, you know so you get the whole point. So the more sources of information or keeping in touch that we can get, the better. So that's private online communities. And remember, I said let's think freely. So WhatsApp, Facebook newsletter, you know, whatever you can get your hand on. If you're on a space where virtual reality is popping off,

then yeah, is it next life, next life or new life? I think there's some website like that. So yeah, for those of you who are more savvy about these things, take advantage of them. Then let's see, community building, community building, OK. Customer appreciation programs. What did I say about what was I thinking about customer appreciation programs? I lost my train of thought. OK, customer appreciation programs. OK, well, I noted here that you can share stories within the community.

Let's see what else? OK. Loyalty, reward programs. These are things where you're trying to reward people who have been with you for the longest. People in the airline space. They do this a lot. So you know, you've been a customer, you've flown the airline for five years and you've flown with them 200 times. So they give you this loyalty points, free flights to this or OK, no, they don't give free flights, more like loyalty points so that you can buy meat pie and coke in this lounge or something like that.

Yeah, that's more like it. Especially Nigerian airlines. Very stingy, don't give you anything substantial. So let's see what else. OK, so loyalty board of programs OK yeah. User generated content, yes. You can also try and use user generated content to build communities. This particular tip or tactic is going to work if you're if you're using WhatsApp, let's see what else. Instagram. OK Instagram is a good community building platform.

Facebook, So these sorts of things. So user generated content, That's where you get people to post video reactions. You know when they receive their hampers or when they send their hampers. Or customer photos when people receive their hampers. Because some people seem to do this, do this habitually anyway. You know, like my wife, when her. Her classmates, Her colleagues. Yes. When her colleagues sent her the hamper, you know, of course, was taking photos and sending it to them.

Oh, like, thank you. I love this. I love that. So there are ways that in community you encourage people to share those kinds of things. He creates authenticity and he also creates social proof so people on the community can see that, wow, OK, This girl received this and this. And this is not a scam. It's real. Oh, she received this and this and this for the narrow value of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, it's worth it.

You know, perhaps I should invest more. I should spend more you know or talk to people more so you get the gist. So yeah, get customer to send in video reactions or photos and those sorts of things. Then you can also do community driven contests and giveaways. That's after you have already committed created your community whether it's through your newsletter or WhatsApp or whatever, or your newsletter community. So it's giveaways, giveaways,

giveaways, all I say giveaways. That's like, should I say prizes, prizes and special stuff basically that you give to people. The whole point is because you're a member of this community, you're going to be entitled to certain kinds of benefits and so those are what the giveaways are going to be. So that will work well for Facebook, WhatsApp communities, e-mail, newsletter, so things like that. So the summary community building, it's a very good way of setting yourself apart from the competition because if people are locked into your community, then by definition they are not looking elsewhere.

And that's something that folks in the airline industry figured out a very long time ago. So if you're flying Dana and you have Dana loyalty points, I don't know if Dana Dana is a Nigerian airline. By the way, for those of you who are listening from other countries now, I'm not sure if Dana has a loyalty program. I think I recused to have some loyalty program. I don't know if that still exists. So if you're locked into Dana loyalty programs and you have already achieved, you know, 500

kilometers or 500 miles or something and that entitles you to be upgraded to 1st class once you reach 808 hundred miles or 800 kilometers or however it is that you you you measure it, then there's the incentive there for the person to keep flying so that they can get that chance to be upgraded to 1st class or upgraded to sitting at the VIP lounge or something like that. So when people are tied into your community, then by definition they're not paying attention to your competitions community.

So that's the whole scope when it comes to business differentiation and how you use it to set yourself apart from the crowd. Now there are other benefits of community building that I like to push, especially from a sales and business development perspective. And that is this. When you do community building, right, you're having all these people, when you're talking audience, all of them are just blending and gelling together and they're also interacting with you.

You're going to get a lot of insight and a lot of feedback because there's going to be lots of conversations back and forth that you're going to get good ideas to expand the product or to refine your product or things like that because you're getting authentic, real time interactions going on. So you know, people might be there chatting in the group like, oh, this was good, this was good. I wish they did more of that.

If you're monitoring the community every day you make a note, OK, maybe people want more of this. You now start sending them private messages. You can now send them private messages. Sorry about that. Call was coming through. So I guess I better wrap this up quickly so you can send them private messages, you know, to test out. OK. I noticed you said this. Would you actually prefer more of that? What do you find more valuable,

This, this, this or that? So it gets you to refine your product offering so that when you're sending out stuff, you're indeed sending out things that are much more valuable. And these are ways of creating products that you know are going to resonate in the market. And that's because your community has really helped you to pre test these ideas. So it helps you to refine your product offering. It also helps you to refine your USP.

You know, Niger Nigerians, you know say our unique selling point so he gets a sense of you now know why people enjoy doing business with you. So maybe you find out that your community with you because your hampers are, you know, more value for money. Maybe you stock your hampers with beans and Garry and honey and whatever. And so people buy a hampers because well, it's more value for money. And maybe you find out that people buy a hampers because your stuff is really luxuriant.

You know, maybe it's wonderful. Scented candles and body massage sessions, body oils, you know, stuff like that. So the way people talk about in the group, you're going to figure out pretty much like, OK, oh, this is my value proposition. This is what I need to key into. So I provide value. OK, I need to provide more value. Maybe I should add, I don't know, Khilishi or fried meat or whatever to my hampers or is a matter of Luxurians.

And then you might, you might now think, OK, maybe we should add something else to the Harper, maybe one night stay at the Hilton or something. So you get the whole point. You're refining your unique selling point. It also helps you to refine your ideal customer profile, your ideal customer profile. Those are the people that you should be running after to try and do more business with. Now as people are chatting back in the community, people are opting into the community and falling out of the community.

You're going to get a sense of, oh, OK from the community. It's people of a certain age, of a certain religion, of a certain class, of a certain occupation, of certain interests. You're going to figure out the demographics and the psychographics of the people who make up most of your community, and then it gives you a clear sense of who you should be targeting with your advertising and with your marketing. Then you're going to be able to tell your sales boys and sales girls that, look, we're going out, we're doing marketing drive, and I want you to only talk to these kinds of people.

Women between the ages of this and this, men between the ages of this and this, who look like this, who work like this, who are interested in this. This is our ICP. These are the people that we do the best business with. Don't waste time talking to other people. You're going to find out that you have really productive sales conversations that way. Also, when it comes to your Facebook advertising, your Instagram advertising, Google advertising, whatever, you're going to be able to target it.

If looking at the community, you can tell the people who buy your hampers are women between a certain age, men between a certain age, who live in this part of the city and who are interested in this and this and this and who are members of this club or this, whatever. You're going to be able to make your advertisements really targeted for the best results. So bottom line community building. So excuse me, bottom line community building is is good for business differentiation for a number of reasons.

It also is going to make your sales and marketing efforts a whole lot easier and these are avenues where building a strong band identity doesn't hurt. But as you can see that if you have some firm sales and business development frameworks behind, you can make the most of whatever business strategy that you are working with. Like I said, I'm not a community building, I'm a specialist. I just tried to come up with some common sense ideas, things that I've already seen.

If you're interested in these sorts of things then please look for a specialist accordingly that does these sorts of things. Community building. So thank you very much guys for your time and attention. Remember to connect with me on WhatsApp. I love to hear from you guys. The number is 08064662140, the country code is +234 and then connect with me on WhatsApp as well. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show and you can confirm the spelling of my name on my e-mail address from the from the link.

We're currently listening to this episode. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next recording where we're going to ditch people who are in the curated hamper space and then the gift giving space. And then we'll move on to the regular questions that we compiled, the traditional set of questions that we're rolling rolling over and over again. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.