Business / Marketing
Community Building in Marketing
Apple and Nike succeed by focusing on authentic community building rather than superficial audience engagement. This strategy requires significant investment in time and effort, leading to lower customer acquisition costs and higher retention rates.
Source material: Why Apple and Nike Don’t Care About Algorithm Changes
Summary
Apple and Nike succeed by focusing on authentic community building rather than superficial audience engagement. This strategy requires significant investment in time and effort, leading to lower customer acquisition costs and higher retention rates.
Many brands mistakenly believe they are building communities by hosting events or creating online spaces that lack genuine interaction. These efforts often result in merely renting an audience instead of fostering meaningful relationships.
True community engagement hinges on mutual support and interaction among members, rather than passive consumption of content. Brands that fail to cultivate this depth of engagement risk high churn rates and dependency on external platforms.
Perspectives
short
Pro Community Building
- Emphasizes the importance of building a real community for long-term success
- Highlights that genuine engagement reduces customer acquisition costs
- Claims that authentic relationships lead to higher retention rates
- Critiques brands that focus on superficial metrics like audience size
- Argues that true community is about mutual support, not just content consumption
Critique of Superficial Engagement
- Questions the effectiveness of event sponsorships in building real communities
- Rejects the notion that large but inactive online groups constitute a community
- Denies that merely hosting a Discord server equates to genuine community building
- Accuses brands of misunderstanding the essence of community engagement
- Warns against relying on platforms for audience visibility
Metrics
customer_acquisition_cost
drops %
impact of building a community
Lower acquisition costs enhance profitability.
your customer acquisition cost drops.
Key entities
Timeline highlights
00:00–05:00
Apple and Nike thrive by investing in genuine community building, a strategy that most brands overlook. This approach leads to reduced customer acquisition costs and increased retention rates.
- Apple and Nike succeed because they invest in building real communities, unlike most brands
- Building a community is the hardest marketing strategy, requiring patience, consistency, and no shortcuts
- Once a community is established, customer acquisition costs drop and retention rates increase
- Many companies mistakenly believe they are building a community by sponsoring events or creating channels that lack engagement
- True community engagement is measured by mutual support among members, not just passive consumption of content
- An audience is considered rented, as platforms control visibility and engagement