Fostering Brand Community Through Social Media: A New Relational Framework for Targeting Connected Consumers

Traditionally wine marketers have used advertising to inform and persuade. However, wine marketers are realizing that relational and experiential aspects of wine consumption are important to understand. One way to develop brand loyalty is by building brand community. Online communities, such as those facilitated via social media sites, are now used to build relationship though customer interactions. Online community members share product information, knowledge, product experience, and identity. We argue that the next step in this progression is the use of social media to build brand community. Despite the strong emphasis in the marketplace today on the importance of social media, there has not been an examination of how social media can be used to build brand community. This seems a logical progression, as social media is now as influential if not more influential, than conventional media. An emerging method to achieve the “Holy Grail of brand loyalty” is through the use of social media to build brand communities.