Community-based strategies in action: building and sustaining a product differentiation advantage
Year: 2010
Type: preprint
Abstract: An important reason why individuals join groups or communities is to satisfy their needs for identity. \nFirms might exploit this societal tendency to gain a competitive advantage. Using the strategic \napproach adopted by Kiehl’s, a U.S. cosmetic producer and retailer, as a source of inspiration and \nillustration, this paper develops a novel theoretical framework to investigate how firms interact with \ncommunities to access privileged customers’ information, from which they can build a product \ndifferentiation advantage. We argue that by adhering and supporting a well-defined set of values, \nKiehl’s both achieves community membership and strengthens the sense of identity that its target \ncommunities provide to their members. These investments prompt reciprocal community member \nbehaviors, which the company channels into its customer knowledge development process. Finally, \nthis article describes how firm–community interactions can protect the differentiation advantage by \nturning products into symbols of the communities to which its customers belong.
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1514488393