Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Communities Contextualize Brands

Engagement Alliance advisory board members Alan Moore and Tomi Ahonen have received more rich praise for their book, Communities Dominate Brands, this time from Rob Kleine at Digito Society. Kleine writes:

Ahonen & Moore’s book is, at one level, an extended meditation on why the ubiquitious cell phone will be the ultimate tool for connecting individuals (via SMS, voice, IM, and for internet access).

At another level, Ahonen and Moore build the case that —as they parse it—communities dominate brands. My preferred parsing is that communities contextualize brands. Communities—whether you care to call them sub-cultures, social networks, or whatever—provide the context in in which consumption generally, and brands specifically, are contextualized; communities provide a context in which brands do (or don’t) make sense. The reflected appraisal process appears central to connecting communities, stuff (brands), and individuals.

... There’s much more to this book; I’ve but scratched the surface here. But these are the elements that resonated most powerfully with me. More gems are buried in the book. Give it a read. Find them yourself.

I think any author would gladly take such a smart, considered review. (You can read more praise for the book here, and here, and also here.) Well done, guys.