Research Finds Striking Similarities to More Traditional Forms of Community

When he was in graduate school, Albert M. Muniz, Jr., used to drive around town in a beat-up, old Saab sedan. Despite the age of his vehicle, he was surprised at how many other Saab drivers– mostly complete strangers–would strike up conversations with him about his car at stoplights, in parking lots and at gas stations. It was then that Muniz developed his first interest in the concept of a community based upon a single brand.

Now an assistant professor of marketing at DePaul University, Muniz has completed the first-ever brand communities study, the results of which are being published in the March 2001 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

The study, conducted over a period of approximately eight months, involved observing and interviewing residents of a small, Midwestern neighborhood. He found that connections between people based on brands were not uncommon and that residents of the neighborhood he was studying belonged to brand communities centered on three different brands: Saab cars, Apple Macintosh computers and Ford Bronco sport-utility vehicles.

The study also examined how members of these brand communities interact in more formal brand clubs as well as on the Internet via non-commercial Web pages devoted to each of the three brands. Muniz and his research partner, University of Illinois at Champaign professor Thomas C. O’Guinn, found that these brand communities bore a marked resemblance to more traditional concepts of community.

“The brand community allows members to recognize that there are others out there like them,” Muniz said. “In many ways, these groups function like other cultures or communities would, including such processes as consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions, and the sense of responsibility or obligation that members of the community feel toward their fellow members.”

One characteristic that was found to have a particularly strong role in brand communities is what Muniz and O'Guinn term "oppositional brand loyalty." Through opposition to competing brands, community members identify what the brand is not and who the community members are not. This is a powerful aspect of the community experience for many members, particularly those in the Macintosh community, who fervently express their opposition to PCs and PC software giant Microsoft. The particular history of a brand is another important aspect for members of a brand community, according to the study.

Muniz said he was surprised to find how complex brand communities are and how many characteristics they share with geographically-based communities.

“There have been many studies on the decline of the traditional community in our society, but what brand communities suggest is that community might be showing up in other forms,” Muniz said. “More simply, brand communities are another way for people to find connections between each other.”

Muniz currently is wrapping up follow-up studies on oppositional brand loyalty and brand communities among users of personal digital assistants. The results of these studies are expected to be published by the end of this year or in early 2002.