Find the shared interest:

A route to community activation

and brand building
Received (in revised form): 28th March, 2013

DAVID AAKER
is the Vice-Chairman of Prophet and professor emeritus at Berkeley-Haas. He has received recognition for
contributions to the science of marketing (the Paul D. Converse award), marketing strategy (the Vijay Mahajan
Av^ard),and the theory and practice of marketing (the Buck Weaver Award). He has published over 100 articles and
15 books, including Building Strong Brands, Spanning Silos and Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant.
His books have sold over a million copies and have been translated into 18 languages. A recognised authority on
brand strategy, David blogs at davidaaker.com and HBR.

David Aaker

Abstract
A digital marketing programme designed to communicate a firm or brand will not in most cases get traction. Instead,
it is better to find the customer's sweet spot, discover what customers are interested in or even passionate
about and make the brand a partner with this 'shared interest'. Such a shared interest can activate customers and
create a community.The result can elevate a brand by creating energy; enhancing likeability and credibility; and
forming a relationship.The programme can be integrated into an offering, linked to the brand, or a stand-alone
sponsorship. If a shared-interest programme cannot realistically get traction, an option is to attach to an existing
programme.

Keywords
shared interest, digital marketing, social media, customer relationships, customer connection,
digital strategy, customer community

INTRODUCTION

David Aaker,
Prophet,
One Bush,
San Francisco.
CA 94105, USA
Tel: +1 415 363 0005
E-mail: daaker@prophet.com

How to connect with customers? What is

the secret to having an engaged, active,
'go-to' website with a meaningful audience? How to create an active social community when so many are already
established? The answer to these questions
involves changing the orientation of marketing, at least in part, from selling the
offering and firm to finding a shared
interest with customers, and pursuing that
interest area as an active partner. The driving logic is that customers will seek out,
discuss, and be engaged in what they are
interested in. And, with rare exceptions,
offerings or firms do not qualify.
Most marketing, communication strategies, websites, and social media strategies are
geared to support the offering, its value

proposition and points of differentiation, or

the firm. The content, as suggested in
Figure 1, is designed to flirther these goals
by providing practical information such as
specifications, new product news, and
ordering details. The problem is that customers are rarely interested in engaging in
discussions or communities about offerings
or firms. Brand news, in most circumstances, will not lead to ongoing discussions
and will usually not even break through the
clutter.
Focusing on a shared-interest area that
is customer-centred rather than offeringdriven, as suggested in Figure 1, is a very
different route for marketing to pursue.
Such a route, with its own motivation and
perspective, has the potential to generate a
connection and engagement that has

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FIND THE SHARED INTEREST

,[ y
related

^ ^ Community
<.>
...^,^1^

Community
, interest

Current/potential customers

Figure I

Creating a brand-customer link

direct and indirect benefits for the marketing programme and the brand.
In this paper, after the shared-interest
option is presented, there is a discussion of
exactly how the shared-interest route can
pay off. Finally, a process is presented by
which a shared-interest programme can
be developed and implemented.

THE SHARED-INTEREST ALTERNATIVE

A shared interest with customers could be
New York city adventures, healthy living,
rock cliinbing, sustainability, a college
football team, or anything related to what
is important and involving to customers.
It should reflect how customers spend
their 'thinking and doing' time, their
beliefs and values, their activities and passions, their possessions, or the places they
treasure. Ideally, it would be a part of, if
not central to, their self-identity and
lifestyle, and reflect a higher-order value
proposition, much beyond the benefits
provided by the offering.
The focus should be on the sharedinterest rather than on brand benefits. If an
oring is involved at all, it will be tangential
to the shared interest. Two successful efforts.
Pampers and Coca-Cola, illustrate this.
Pampers went beyond nappies by
'owning' the website Pampers Village,

which provides a 'go-to' place for all issues

relating to babies and child care and gets
over 600,000 unique visitors each month.
Its seven sections pregnancy, new baby,
baby development, baby toddler, preschool, me and family all have a menu
of topics. For example, under baby development there are 57 articles, 230 forums,
and 23 play-and-learn activities. Its online
community allows mums and soon-to-be
mums to connect with each other to share
their common experiences, issues and
thoughts about how to raise a healthy,
happy child. The programme demonstrates that Pampers understands mothers,
and works to establish a relationship
between the brand and the mother that
will potentially continue throughout the
mother's Pampers-buying life.
Coca-Cola partnered with the World
Wildlife Fund, who are engaged in major
initiatives to conserve water, reduce
carbon emissions and save the polar bears.
A visible Coke component is an effort to
spotlight the polar bears with research
(customers can contribute and receive a
virtual piece of arctic land from which
they can monitor bears) and promotions
such as the Polar Pick-me-up, where a
person can send a Coke to a friend. The
Coke Facebook site, Arctic Home, is the
go-to place for the programme, but there

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AAKER

are also regular postings on the Coke

Facebook site, which has well over 55
million 'likes'. The community provides
Coke with likeability, energy and customer engagement. It will resonate with a
segment important to Coke, which is
likely to be different from the segment
that responds to the humorous videos
around Coke 'happiness'.

WHAT DOES THE SHARED-INTEREST

PROGRAMME BUY?
Connecting with a shared-interest area
provides avenues to a relationship much
richer than that of an offering-based relationship, which, for most brands, is driven
by a functional benefit and is relatively
shallow and vulnerable. Among the
brand-building goals of the associated
shared-interest programme are those of
creating energy and interest; enhancing
likeability and credibihty; supporting a
friend, mentor or colleague relationship;
and forming and activating a digital community with real substance and traction.

Create brand energy and interest

One of the key challenges for most brands
globally is to create energy and visibity.
A disturbing and largely unknown fact is
that brands that lack energy throughout
the world have, for the last decade or so,
been losing equity' Energy therefore has
to be a brand priority. For most products
and services, it is not realistic to expect
new offerings to generate energy. An
attractive alternative energy source is a
shared-interest programme.
For Avon, for example, new offerings in
its cosmetic product line will not realistically create much energy or even interest.
In contrast, the Avon Walk for Breast
Cancer creates involvement, connects
with a shared-interest area that many of

the target audience have passion about,

and attaches a higher purpose to the Avon
brand that can lead to respect and liking.
Millions of women have participated
directly or indirectly over two decades,
and the programme has raised over
US$600m for cancer research. That is
energy. If you make hot dogs, it is hard to
manufacture energy. But if you focus on a
shared interest with kids, namely their
events and parties, and create the Oscar
Meyer Wienermobile (or more accurately
eight of them) to join their parties and set
up the hotdoggerblog.com site to track its
adventures, there is real energy.
One brand. Red BuU, which is about
high energy, tells its story through the
image of young people excelhng at, or
appreciating demanding physical activities
that attract attention and even amazement.
Red BuU connects to dozens of sharedinterest programmes exhibiting energy.
There are areas around sports like wakeboarding; competitions Uke the Red BuU
Air Race; events like music festivals; athletes like Ashley Fiolek (the motocross
star); and entertainment, video games and
connections to the rock and hip-hop
music world on their website. Then there
was the ultimate event where 8 miUion
people watched Felix Baumgartner rise
more than 38 km above the New Mexico
desert, jump off the 'Red BuU Stratos' balloon, and reach a record 1,335 kph on the
descent. With the pre and post-jump publicity, this may have garnered a biUion
quality impressions.The Red BuU scope of
shared interest arenas, captured in its
Facebook page which has 23 million
fans is overwhelming.

Enhance brand likeability and

credibility
Having a shared interest and making sure
that it has substance raises the brand way

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FIND THE SHARED INTEREST

above the noise emanating from firms

shouting 'my brand is better than your
brand'. The positive feelings associated
with the shared-interest area can lead to
positive feelings about the brand.
Further, people attribute all sorts of good
characteristics to brands that they like
and with which they share values and
interests.
The hypothesis that there wiU be an
image boost from a positive, involving,
shared-interest programme is supported
by theory and research from psychology,
which argues and finds that people have a
cognitive drive for consistency. The halo
effect, first studied in the 1930s by the
psychologist Edward Thorndike in the
context ofthe impact of a person's attractiveness on perceptions of other characteristics, has been appUed to brands and
marketing.- If one brand association is
regarded highly, there is a tendency for
others to be perceived as positive as weU.
The halo effect helps explain the positive
impact of celebrity endorsers and why
successful brand extensions enhance a
brand image. In this context, there is the
suggestion that a brand's credible involvement in a shared interest wiU affect the
brand's likeability and image. BasicaUy, a
person wiU tend to regard favourably an
entity that shares his or her values and
interests.
Hobart, a maker of high-end institutional kitchen equipment, switched from
communicating the latest product features
of its inixers, ovens and other appUances
and instead became a thought leader and
information source in regard to such
issues as finding, training and retaining
good workers; keeping food safe; providing enticing dining experiences; eUminating costs; and reducing shrinkage. This
programme had an effect on perceptions
of the brand and solidified Hobart's leadership role that lasted well over a decade

until it was bought and integrated into a

larger firm. Consider the contrast
between a Hobart that talks about its
products and incremental innovations
versus the Hobart that focuses on sharedinterest customer issues with a series of
substantive programmes. Which would be
perceived to be the most innovative, the
source of highest quality, and the most
authentic?
If the shared interest involves an area
closely related to the offering, there can
be a more specific impact on the credibility of the offering and the firm. The fact
that the Pampers brand is so knowledgeable and involved in the larger context of
baby care means the Pampers organisation
is interested in the customer and his or
her activities and issues, and thus can be
trusted to make dependable, high-quality,
innovative products.
A shared-interest programme can also
frame perceptions about a brand, and in
doing so divert attention from a negative
association. Distraction theory, from cognitive psychology, suggests that when a
person is distracted from a negative fact or
event, that fact or event wiU have a
reduced effect on the overaU attitude and
image. So if the focus is on the Walmart
sustainability programmes, attention will
be drawn away from any negative issues
such as iU-treatment of employees and
suppUers and sourcing goods from China.
When the Walmart brand is cued, the
associations around sustainabiUty have the
potential to compete with the negatives. It
is aU about controUing and framing the
conversation.

Form a friend, colleague or mentor

brand relationship
The concept of a personal relationship
can be a powerful metaphor in creating
and understanding brand relationships, as

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AAKER

the work of Susan Fournier and others

has shown.-' The existence of a shared
interest makes such a metaphor likely to
be applicable. In particular, it can support
a friend, colleague or mentor relationship
with the customer that goes beyond
delivering the functional product.
A brand that has a strong, substantive
shared interest may be like a friend, someone you like to be with, who is interesting,
helpful, and, of course, shares interests. If
the shared interest has a deep connection
to a person's identity and lifestyle, the
brand could even become an intimate
friend. California Casualty, an auto and
home insurance firm that specialises in
teacher organisations and other groups,
has a 'School Lounge Makeover' programme to provide US$7,500 to upgrade
teacher lounges for schools that make the
most compelling case. Only a friend
would take an interest in such a mundane
but important issue area.
The California Casualty brand can also
be a colleague, sharing goals and programmes. A founding sponsor and partner
in IMPACT, an organisation designed to
attack teenage distracted driving through
in-school educational and involvement
programmes, it acts as a colleague of the
school staff and parents to address a very
real and neglected problem with tools that
work.
Finally, the brand can be like a mentor.
For example. General Mills, which shares
an interest in gluten-free living with its
website GlutenFreely.com, is in a position
to offer advice and encouragement. The
brand has the knowledge and the community that someone with gluten issues
can turn to.

Stimulate a social network

A social community associated with a
shared-interest initiative often has the

potential to have a high level of social

activity, something that is increasingly difficult in an era of social media fatigue.
Focusing on what a person is passionate
about will motivate them to reach out for
information, to share experience, or
express an opinion. To see why, consider
the major reasons for being a social participant that were summarised in a pioneering study of word-of-mouth brand
communication done a half century ago,
which is as insightful today as it was then."*
A major sharing motivation is content
involvement. One goal is to share information that is 'newsworthy' because it is
intriguing, unlikely to be known, and
relevant to an area of interest. Nature
Valley, for example, has created Trail
Views 'street-view' style portrayal of
trails in national parks that for some are
close to actually experiencing the hikes.
Hikers and nature devotees can be
entranced by the films and stimulated to
share it. Another goal might be to relive
a meaningful shared-interest experience
such as a road trip or book that is
especially relevant to a lifestyle.
Another motive is self-involvement.
Sharing knowledge or opinions is a way to
gain attention, show connoisseurship, feel
like a pioneer, seek confirmation of a
person's own judgment, or assert superiority. With a shared-interest community, there
wiU be listeners others who will appreciate knowledge and expertise. Having
listeners is crucial for self-involvers.
Valvoline, for example, has a site that provides NASCAR racing information
including 'inside stories' from the track
and its participants. Having such inside
information, including rumours and
gossip, is the knowledge currency needed
by a person wanting to enhance a selfimage of expertise.
A third motivation is other involvement.
A shared-interest group provides a sense of

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FIND THE SHARED INTEREST

a shareainteresi
Develop or find a programme

New internal
shared-interest
branded programme

Existing external
shared-interest
branded
programme

A marketplace need?
Can the firm deliver?
Programme traction?
Worthwhile audience?
Brand/programme link?

Figure 2

Creating a shared-interest programme

belonging to a community that shares

chaUenges and goals as well as interests.
Knowing something usefiil about exercise
food safety, breast cancer runs or health
issues can motivate a person to reach out and
share the information as a way to express
neighbourHness, caring and firiendship.

HOW TO PROCEED
Creating a successful shared-interest programme involves two steps, as suggested
by Figure 2: identify a shared-interest area,
and then find or create a shared-interest
programme. Each step has substantial
uncertainties and challenges.
Step one: Identify a shared interest
that will engage the audience
The first challenge is to find a shared
interest in which customers are involved
and interested, if not passionate. It would
be desirable for there also to be a natural
connection to the brand, and for the
brand to add substance, thus being an
active and credible partner.
The search starts with understanding
the target group in depth. What are the
'sweet spots' in their lives? How do they
spend their prime time or how would
they like to spend it? What activities do

they enjoy and spend time on? What

possessions are important to them? Which
activities and possessions reflect their personaHty and Hfestyle? What places are special to them? What do they talk about?
What issues are absorbing their attention?
In what areas do they hold strong opinions? What information do they collect,
andfi"omwhat sources?
Clearly, supporting research needs to
look beyond conventional customer
research focusing on brand preference. It
rather needs to consider macro trends in
society involving issues and lifestyles, but
with the lens of the target segment. The
insight, for example, that baby care is
more interesting than nappies, or that
polar bears' pHght is of more concern than
enjoying Coca-Cola led to involving
shared-interest programmes. Another
starting point is the brand, its associations
and applications. A brand's use context
can trigger customer sweet-spot ideas.
P&G's Charmin, a toilet tissue brand, has
developed a smart phone app called
SitOrSquat that wl locate the nearest
toilet for some ten countries.
With an understanding of the customer in hand, there are three on-ramps
to the identification of the right sharedinterest programme. These are represented by the linking spectrum shown in
Figure 3.

Shared interests where the offering is an

integral part

The first on-ramp is to determine if the

existing brand can be repositioned in
order to create a shared interest around a
higher-order purpose than the functional
value proposition of the offering. When
that works, the offering wiU be fully integrated into the shared-value programme
and wiU be seen as a fuU partner that contributes assets and substance.

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139

AAKER

Disconnected
Sponsorship Only

Natural
Association

Integrated
Offering

Strong

Very Strong

"Fit;
Weak
Figure 3 Three on-ramps to a shared-interest programme

Kaiser Permanente, for example, repositioned its brand away from a focus on
healthcare (linked to bureaucracy and
sickness) to a shared interest in healthy
lifestyles (associated with control and
Wellness). The shared-interest programme
involves members controlling their own
health by accessing a wide array of preventive health programmes online and
through classes, which include areas such
as weight control, stress management,
insomnia, smoking issues, healthy eating
and many others aU supported by 'My
Health Manager', which can be used to
record and monitor programme participation. These programmes have their own
focus and objectives very different fi-om
selling compassionate staff and clean,
effective hospitals.
PowerBar was introduced as a companion to a shared interest in demanding
physical events such as marathons and
biking events. The original PowerBar,
positioned as an athletic energy food, was
distributed at bike shops and events usually involving running or biking.
Positioned as an athletic energy food, it
was a partner with those dealing with the
challenge. At events and at bike shops and
other suppliers of equipment, PowerBar
would be there and available. This core
idea led to participation in a shared
endeavour and created authenticity for
the brand.
Integrating the brand and its offering
into the shared-interest programme raises
the risk that the commercial interest of

the brand will be too visible. The everyday

solutions P&G site, for example, offers
expert advice on cleaning and other
areas, but the site is largely a vehicle to
promote brands with coupons and
advertisements and has a commercial
feel. As a result, the authenticity of the
programmes and the brand's motivation
may be in question. The challenge, then,
for Kaiser Permanente, PowerBar and
others is to develop a real passion for the
shared interest, to support that passion
with real substance, to communicate it
effectively over time, and to turn the
connection into an asset.
Integrating the brand into the sharedinterest programme has real advantages.
The brand is maximally leveraged to
provide credibility, the firm's assets are
accessed, and there is a strong brand connection a necessary condition for
ultimate success. So there is always the
yin and yan in developing a programme
finding the right trade-off between
the authenticity of a brand-aloof programme versus leveraging the brand
assets with a brand-involved programme.

A fit based on a natural association

A second on-ramp is to build or link a

shared interest on a brand association that
can provide a connection and a source of
credibility. There are a host of bases for fit,
such as lifestyle (Zipcars and urban lifestyle
living), an offering application (HarleyDavidson and touring on motorcycles).

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FIND THE SHARED INTEREST

an activity (adidas StreetbaU ChaUenge

a local three-person basketball tournament surrounded by a weekend party
with music, dance etc), a target customer
(Pampers and baby care), a country
(Hyundai makes and sponsors the Kimchi
Bus, a 400-day effort to spread Korean
cuisine), a personal goal (Tanita, a Japanese
maker of weight and body-fat scales, put
out a cookbook in 2010 of 500 caloriehealthy meals that sold over 5 miUion
copies), or values (Dove on redefining
beauty).
The fit should work the customers
should be comfortable with the brand
participating in the shared interest. Does
its presence seem natural? It is particularly
important to sense whether the brand
feels incongruous or strange, like a person
arriving at a party with inappropriate
attire or behaviour. Sometimes a fit will
feel forced and the brand wl come off as
being phony, with a contrived association
like a partygoer who tries too hard to
belong.
The basis of fit is enhanced if the
skills and assets of the brand's firm are
visibly and effectively employed in the
shared-interest programme. That would
not only potentially make the sharedinterest programme more effective by
adding substance and credibility, but it
would make the brand's link richer and
more authentic. Hobart was in that category, as its knowledge and contacts
associated ^vith its industrial kitchen
appliances gave it access to information
that could be leveraged in its sharedinterest initiative.
There are no shortages of examples of
shared-interest programmes that enjoy
brand-driven credibility enabled by a fit
of some kind. The Betty Crocker kitchen
and persona provides credibility to
BettyCrocker.com and the General Mills
Glutenfreely.coni site. The Valvoline

NASCAR information site benefits from

the fact that Valvoline is Knked to cars and
to car racing.
Conversely, the fit elements help customers make the association of the
shared-interest programmes to the brand.
Without such a link, the shared-interest
programmes would not achieve a primary
goal, to enhance the brand.

Disconnected sponsorship only

A third on-ramp is to find or create a

shared interest that has no connection
with the brand or only a remote connection. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and
the Red BuU Soapbox Racer video game
have little relationship with the respective
offerings. The brand when distinct should
not distract or be a liability, of course.
There is an intuitive presumption that
there needs to be a fit between the brand
and the shared-interest programme, in
part because of the heightened challenge
to link it to the brand in a way that is
memorable. But brands have overcome
that hurdle and successfully hnked to a
sponsored team or event that lacks a natural
association. They share some characteristics. First, they have a long-term commitment. The effective Olympic sponsors
such as VISA and Samsung have sponsorships measured in decades. Links bud
over time, and it is hard to do that even
in a few years. Secondly, they surround
the sponsorship with advertising and
complementary programmes that involve
the target brand. MasterCard, for example, supports its World Cup sponsorship
with a host of promotions and local
events. A major sponsored event becomes
an umbrella brand linked to a set of
brand-building programmes. Thirdly,
there are clear brand objectives connected to the sponsorship, which justify
the commitment and investment.

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Even with no visible connection, the

right audience can stiU Unk to the brand.
When the ad agency Leo Burnett opened
a New York office, it started a website
'New York Writes Itself, which aUows
New Yorkers to become scribes and share
stories about city life. Experiences, places,
people everything is in play. The
'Chairman', a 'New Yorker' played by an
actor, would, among other things, read
poems and short essays on video or in
person throughout the city. Amazingly,
there was no connection with Leo
Burnett, even in the interviews discussing
the initiative. However, the right people
in the advertising world knew who was
behind the effort because it was common
knowledge within the industry. This is
known as the shadow endorser effect.
There are two advantages of having a
sponsorship-only relationship, which do
not rely on any compeUing bases of fit.
First, relaxing the commonly-held
dictum that there must be some kind of
brand fit means that the search for a
shared-interest area that customers wiU be
truly involved with wiU be unconstrained.
Anything is eligible and thus a winning
idea is more likely. That advantage should
not be underestimated because the task of
finding a shared-interest programme that
the audience wiU value and be engaged
with is difficult, especiaUy when most
involving shared-interest areas are already
O'wned by others. Finding a shared-interest programme that stimulates and
involves is critical because it is the driver
ofthe programme objectives. If Avon had
been constrained to find a shared-interest
programme that had a fit with its business
or brand, it might not have come up with
the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a huge
success that added energy and visibiUty to
the brand.
Secondly, a sponsorship-only model will
reduce potential atithenticity problems.
142

Often there wiU be a tension between

authenticity and the desire to promote
a brand and offering, which is the natural
motivation for any marketing activity.
When the shared-interest programme is
weakly associated with the brand and
offering, the tension is reduced.

Step two: Create or find a programme

to which the brand could connect
With the shared-interest area in mind, the
next step is to create or find a programme.
One option is to create an internal,
owned programme. The other is to find an
external, brand programme that is already
established, and link to it.

Developing a new internal shared-interest

progrannme

An internal, owned shared-interest programme has compeUing advantages. In

particular, the substance, evolution and
investment can be controUed by the firm.
However, the advantages need to be balanced by the cost and difficulty of establishing a new programme, and risk that
the motivation of the firm may be suspect. The likely feasibility and success of
an internal programme should be tested
with five questions:
First, is there a need for a new shared-interest

programme? The more attractive a

shared-interest area is, the more likely
that others have already entered. These
entrants might not be competitor
brands, but other organisations. The top
recipe brands FoodNetwork.com and
AUrecipes.com, with impressive content
and strong brands, are controUed by
media companies rather than food
brands.
A key question is whether the existing
efforts could be either surpassed with

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something superior or could be neutrahsed with a niche strategy that is

more focused. Is there room for another
effort? What is missing? There needs to
be an opportunity for a new entrant.
Organisational assets and skills can provide an opening. KraftRecipes.com,
with over 80 million visitors in 2011,
leverages the credibility of Kraft
Kitchens, its Food and Family magazine,
an e-mail list of over 5 million, and its
legacy brands and recipes. Over 10,000
of its 30,000 recipes are based on Kraft
brands like Kraft cheese, CoolWhip,
Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia cream
cheese. Stove Top stuffing mix. Miracle
Whip,JeIl-O and others. Kraft also has a
capability to research macro trends and
customer motivations and behaviours,
such as what consLimers are buying and
cooking that is not within the comfort
zone
for
Allrecipes
or
the
FoodNetwork.
Second, can the firm deliver? A shared-

interest programme needs to have real

substance to add value that is in some
way unique, whether it be in content or
presentation. It also needs visibility, to
be one of the programmes associated
with the shared-interest area. During
the dotcom bubble, every brand wanted
to be the authority on something. Most
drugstore chains were going to have the
go-to health story but had no capability
of delivering, especially competing
against the likes of Mayo Clinic and
WebMD.
Also needed is a commitment to ongoing investment to enable the programme to be dynamic and timely. A
static programme will usually wither.
Success requires an organisational willingness to lend support for an extended
time period beyond the launch in
which there wiU be challenges setbacks
and competing uses of resources. It

helps if the shared-interest programme

is related to or driven by a brand's heritage or higher value behind a firm's
culture and strategy. Cliff Bar's commitment to its ongoing shared-interest programme around biking and rLmning is
based on is heritage around cycling and
running. As a result, its programme, the
Team Luna Chix (teamlunachix.com),
which brings together a community of
26 teams of novice and professional
female cyclists, runners and triatliletes, is
easy to justify.
Third, can the programme get traction?

To create a viable programme, it not

only needs to have substance and be
supported by commitment, but it also
needs to get traction in the market.
Even the best shared-interest programmes wOl rarely attract users by
themselves. A plan is needed to gain
enough visibility and credibility for it to
be considered by target group members
when the interest or need emerges. It
has to be relevant. The plan needs to
include methods to make the target
group aware of it and to drive them to
a trial experience. Neither is trivial in
today's crowded communication world.
The task is made easier if a brand's
existing assets, such as a well-trafficked
website, can be leveraged. The Sephora
site, for example, had a significant flow
of customers that provided a base audience for the shared-interest Beauty Talk
subsite (which offers 'real-time answers,
expert advice, access to a community,
and your fix to all things beauty'), this
in addition to the credibility provided
by the Sephora brand.
But gaining awareness and trial use is
not enough. The programme also needs
to find a way to be sticky, to create loyalty so that it has a base of users. One
route is to make sure that something is

HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 2045-85SX JOURNAL OF BRAND STRATEGY VOL. 2, NO. 2, 134-145 SUMMER 2013

AAKER

happening in the programme on an

ongoing basis. There is a reason to be a
regular participant. One programme has
in-house participants add material
when there is a dry period. Another
route is to accentuate involvement by
presiding a reason to participate. A passive user will not be as sticky as one that
is involved. There needs to be a reason
to participate.
Fourth, is the audience size worthwhile?
The ultimate audience size needs to be
meaningful to the business. Raw numbers, however, are not the ory criteria.
The quality of the audience counts as
much as quantity. Indeed, there is a
saying that it is better to be loved by a
few than liked by many. If the programme reaUy resonates with a group
that wiU remain engaged over time, it
may be worthwhile especiaUy if this
group is socially active and influential.
Even a relatively smaU group can provide energy to the brand, a customer
base on which to build, and influence
on others.
Fifih, can the brand connect to the programme?
If the brand is to be enhanced by the
programme, the two need to be Hnked.
If the programme shares the brand
name, the link wiU usuaUy be in place,
but the credibity and authenticity of
the programme may be chaUenged. If
the programme name does not include
the brand, a plan is needed to make sure
that the link is developed.

Find an existing external programme

The classic make or buy decision should

be on the table. If an established,
branded, shared-interest programme is in
place with substance and a strong external brand, the challenge of linking to it
to a target brand may be more manageable

144

than that of creating a new programme.

The use of an established external programme reduces the risk that it will not
get developed, be ineffective, lack internal support over time, or be overwhelmed by one or more competing
efforts.
Home Depot wanted a programme to
leverage its assets and expertise to help
the disadvantaged by building or rebuilding homes. The solution was to connect
to Habitat for Humanity, a branded programme with an established record of
success in building homes for those that
needed help. The challenge of linking the
programme to the brand is greater with
external programmes. One linking strategy is to become involved in the programme and to promote the connection
actively. Home Depot connected by providing visible and tangible support, with
building supplies, volunteers from its
knowledgeable staff, and with signage in
stores and on its website. For many customers of Home Depot, the link was
well-known. As an aside, it does not
matter if Habitat for Humanity is linked
to Home Depot because the goal is to
infiuence the Home Depot brand.

SHARED INTEREST THE BIG IDEA

The shared interest can be a big idea community activator and brand builder, especiaUy when the product and product
innovation flow lacks interest and energy.
It can be the foundation of a social media
strategy. The success wiU depend on the
intensity of customer involvement in the
shared interest, the existence of a niche
need for shared interest community, and
the abity of the firm to find or create a
compeUing programme with traction, and
Hnk it to the brand. Its success wiU be
measured by its abihty to gain traction

e HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 2045-8SSX JOURNAL OF BRAND STRATEGY VOL. 2, NO. 2, 134-145 SUMMER 2013

FIND THE SHARED INTEREST

with a worthwhile audience and to activate that audience.

The shared interest programme should
have an immediate impact by stimulating
customer involvement and purchase, thus
affecting the short-term financiis. Its
more important impact, however, is likely
to be enhancing the brand, building
long-term customer relationships, and
increased loyalty, all firm assets that will
pay off even though they are sometimes
not so easy to quantify or justify.

References and notes

(1)
(2)

(3)

(4)

Gerzema, J. and Lebar, E. (2008) 'The Brand

Bubble', Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Thorndike, E. (1920) 'The Constant Error in
Psychological Ratings', Jowmd/ ofApplied
Psychology,Vol.A, No. 1, pp. 25-29.
The pioneering work of Susan Fournier on a
personal relationship as a useful metaphor for a
brand relationship is best summarised in
Fournier, S., Breaxeale, M. and Fetscherin, M.
(2012) 'Consumer Brand Relationships: Theory
and Practice', Routledge, Oxford.
Dichter, E. (1966) 'How Word of Mouth
Advertising Works', Harvard Business Review,
Vol. 44, NovemberDecember, pp. 147166.

C HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 2045-855X JOURNAL OF BRAND STRATEGY VOL 2. NO. 2. 134-145 SUMMER 2013

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