Brand Communities and toothpaste

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re people really interested in joining communities for toothpaste? Our guess is disappointingly enough, no. Except dentists, it will be very few that will be interested in this product even though we use it two or three times a day. It’s just not an engaging product and people are not really passionate about it. All our discussed brands in this blog are represented on different social websites such as Twitter and Facebook. The problem though, is that these sites have a quite low visiting and following rate. Colgate is the brand that clearly tries to take advantages of touch points such as Facebook and use them more frequently than what their competitors do. The other companies are not relying on these social media sites but are trying to implement their communities and engagement with their customers on their own websites. Firstly, Aquafresh have created Nurdles (animated figures), which are used to communicate with the target group. These Nurdles help the consumers to identify the different brand elements. On their site they have several games and other fun activities that engage the customers, mainly the kids. They manage to create the collaboration among their consumers on a basis that on their website they can share information with each other, in addition to talk about validation of the brand. This in effect of discussing why Aquafresh is better and why they prefer them over the other actors on the market.

Colgate’s approach is a little different. They focus on their advertisements and try to capture the attention of their target by tailoring their communication using emotions and feelings. When they rolled out the campaign “bye bye les accessories” they wanted to diversify and relate to the lifestyle of the young consumers. They created a story that the target can easily identify itself with. Moreover, they also administrate a Facebook page called Colgate smile. Her it is possible to join in discussions and find oral care tips. In addition, customers can find different apps for mobile phones where you in example can upload you own Colgate smile, while at the same time look at other contributions made by consumers. 

Source: http://www.colgate.fr

Signal is as described, also present at different social media sites. But they also use their own website as the main touch point with their consumers. On their website they communicate how they would like to be perceived by their consumers. They clearly emphasize their corporate social responsibility program, an initiative they call “Signal Oral Care Service”. They appeal to consumers emotions and from this they are building a strong brand personality, which again is important when building their brand community. They identify themselves with a special segment, the emotional consumers. By taking this approach they are able to distinguish themselves from their competitors.  

Fluocaril has the most interactive site of the mentioned brands. They are trying to create a community by inviting the consumer to participate in surveys and express their feelings about the brand. Fluocaril share the results of the surveys and lets the consumers see and comment on them. All signs point in the direction of success for Fluocaril. They have a large customer base and on their site there are many of them who participate and leave comments. This culminates in a controlled community around the brand, which Fluocaril uses for their advantage.

The last brand is Email Diamant. With exception from their website, they have not created a special community for their consumers when thinking of social interaction between the consumers themselves, or between the company and the consumers. It exist no place where consumers can express or share thought arounds Email Diamant. Product and advertisement wise, they appeal to the consumers through the tradition and the expertise of the brand. What they are trying to do though is sticking with their originally packaging. From this they manage to form a relationship with many of their consumers which trust them. It shouldn’t be too hard for them to establish a community when having a customer base, which is as segmented as theirs.

So, to sum up, we see that all brands except Email Diamant have an approach towards building a community, but they are all doing it in different ways. In our generation it is almost required for a firm to be a part of the digital world and to have a platform for sharing. Our guess is, that is if they haven’t already, Email Diamant will engage in such communication pretty soon.

Sources:
Google images
All the brands websites http://theengagedconsumer.powered.com/2008/12/19/would-you-join-a-toothpaste-community/