Why Community is Your Brand’s Lifeline with Mark Schaefer

November 17, 2023

51:29

Are you looking to create an emotional connection with your customers? Have you ever considered the power of belonging to a brand? This week Mark Schaefer returned to Insight Out, to provide insights on how to create meaningful relationships with customers, and how this can lead to success. Mark was a young boy who felt isolated and alone at a new school. He tried out for the school play and found his place in the community, which ignited his confidence and personality. Through his research and experiences, Mark learned that mental health was an important megatrend in the world, and communities have the power to provide a sense of belonging and purpose. He wrote his latest book, “Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy”, Mark shares his research on the psychology of community, and how it can be used as an effective brand marketing strategy. He also highlights that most businesses miss the bigger opportunity to connect with customers on an emotional level, as opposed to a transactional level. He learned that creating emotionally connected environments in a community can lead to strong loyalty and trust with the brand and a much more powerful strategy than just selling products.

Meet Mark Schaefer, Mark is one of the world’s leading marketing futurists, keynote speakers, and university educator, He is the author of several successful books, such as ‘Known‘, ‘Marketing Rebellion‘, ‘The Content Code‘, ‘Return on Influence‘, ‘The Tao of Twitter‘, and ‘Social Media Explained‘, and his latest book ‘Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy‘, which seeks to explore the value of community and how it can be used as a powerful marketing strategy. He is the perfect person to explore if you want to learn how to create a loyal customer community and gain a competitive edge in the market.

Tune in to hear what Mark has to say about Brand Loyalty.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

How Mark Schaefer found a sense of community at a young age. (00:03:55)
Why it’s important to recognize the emotional connections and how they can be used to create a loyal following. (00:11:37)
Creating a purpose for people to gather around that goes beyond product differentiation. (00:15:45)
The difference between an audience and a community, and How Creating an emotionally connected environment for customers to foster loyalty and trust. (00:24:40)
How do brands learn about their customers? (00:31:13)
The leadership mindset in a community and how important it is to be seen in the community (00:37:45)
Mark’s vantage point about Chat-GPT

Notable quotes:

‘’Your long-term health and viability as a human being depend on meaningful human relationships. The conclusion of the study was loneliness kills’’ – Mark (00:13:10)
“An audience is why we’re able to sell things. However, an audience is also sort of like a cult of personality. If I go away, the audience goes away. If you go away, your podcast goes away’” – Mark (00:25:10)
“looking at a community through the brand Market value instead of a transactional value will make you more successful” – Mark (00:29:16)
“The key component of a successful community is safety” – Mark (00:38:10)
“Creativity is the single best business case for diversity ever because you combine boxes, you combine experiences, and perspectives” – Mark (00:41:45)

Resources & Links:

Mark’s Website:

https://businessesgrow.com/

Mark’s Podcasts:

The Marketing Companion

Mark on Social Media:

https://twitter.com/markwschaefer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwschaefer/

https://www.instagram.com/markwschaefer/

https://www.youtube.com/user/MWSchaefer

https://www.facebook.com/mark.schaefer3

Billy Samoa Saleebey