"What's the end point of a fan club?" Suzanne Somers asked last month.
The zen-like answer is that there is no end point, just as there is no end point to customer loyalty. It just is. When fans want you to create structured membership for the Society of You, as Somers says so many of her fans have been requesting, it's time to listen.
Suzanne Somers has proven she's a successful salesperson, and her seeking an "end point" to fandom illustrates a strong sales orientation. The one-way-street mentality of sales. So, salespeople of the world, we encourage you to step out beyond the self and consider a higher potential: What's best for the community?
Which leads us to five obvious benefits of a fan club -- or in business vernacular: A community of fans, ambassadors, enthusiasts, evangelists whose affection for you is manifested in the desire to formalize a virtual relationship.
1. People who join your fan club (or create one on your behalf) are validating the emotional value you create. Evangelism often ensues when emotional bridges have been created and crossed. By way of membership, a fan club member essentially says, "I'm a believer!" It signifies ownership, a personal investment in your success. It's like the greatest chocolate ever created. Or the greatest lubricant ever created. That's why there's a fan club for WD-40. And as empirical evidence from Fred Reichheld indicates, brands with the most evangelism typically show the best revenue growth.
2. A fan club is a foundation for building loyalty.Fan club members self-select and formalize their sense of ownership of your brand by joining it. Now as "owners," they have, at the least, an emotional stake in your future. As such, they'll tend to be your most loyal and buzz-spreading customers. Suzanne Somers has sold products to some 10 million people on the Home Shopping Network, but she had to "borrow" the loyalty of that network and pay it a commission. Comparatively, Somers has sold stuff to one million people on her own website -- her own network. A million customers is impressive, but consider the value she or anyone else would create by establishing a personal network of 10 million shoppers. Fans fuel growth.
3. A fan club is a word-of-mouth ecosystem. Elaborate marketing campaigns are not always feasible, so the organic nature of a fan club can provide ongoing roots growth. For Maker's Mark, the company's 220,000 ambassadors (as of October 2005) provide ongoing marketing for the whiskey maker. Outside of the obvious word of mouth a fan club can create, it can also serve as a test-marketing forum for new ideas, products and strategies. A fan club makes it easier to test, measure and improve your products and operations because of the volunteerism inherent in fee-free fan clubs. Since fans care about your success, they can be an efficient early-warning system for problems, glitches and big-picture issues.
4. A fan club may not always disagree with your directions, but it will almost always support your outcomes. Just as your spouse or kids will never agree with your thinking or decisions all of the time, they still love you and support you... that is, unless you consistently betray them.
5. A fan club is a high-level strategic goal. Any organization, person or brand working hard to build word of mouth and evangelism will know it has crossed a threshold of success when a supportive fan club sprouts in the wild and attract members. Self-selecting members will find one another and organically evolve into a message-spreading medium. By some measure, they will become a marketing force of nature. Harness their freely given power to propel your mission. Ignore them at your own peril.
What fan clubs or communities dedicated to companies, brands or products do you belong to?
Let us know by creating an entry about it in our new, collaborative effort to document and categorize the world of fan/evangelist communities: The Citizen Marketer Wiki.
The wiki password? Collaborate.
http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/zen_and_the_art.html
About Me
- Jeffrey Summers
- I am the expert you call when you need to learn how to increase top line sales, lower your operating costs, increase your profit margin, hire and train better managers and staff, evolve your operation into more and better ways of doing business, buy or sell a restaurant, improve your service, engineer (or re-engineer!) your menu, market your business better and less expensively, keep yourself from going nuts because you have no life anymore, open more and better restaurants, don't want to have to give up your first born child to pay a consultant and have more fun! My mission is to enhance the quality of life for my clients by providing the best products and services to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. I take great pride in my clients, my company, my commitment to service and the products I sell. I am a recognized expert in the hospitality industry with over 24 years of success at planning and executing strategies for delivering dramatic results, a former "GM of the Year" for 2 major, full-service, franchises, an Award winning Multi-Unit Executive with 2 of the largest restaurant chains in the U.S., published author, husband and father of two.