Monday, February 05, 2007

Community Sites Spur Loyalty

Brands such as Toyota are greatly enhancing consumers loyalty by creating media-rich websites to encourage customers to share their passion for the company's products. Toyota has created a website for hybrid owners to tell their stories about why they drive a Prius or other hybrid.

The site allows people to upload images and video and automatically converts the content to Flash 8 through technology from VitalStream Holdings. It's a sleek and compelling website that gives personality to Toyota and shows the faces of the individuals who are passionate about their products.

While some may question the value of "preaching to the choir," I'm sure many people who post their stories (11,000 and counting) have shared the website with friends. Enabling people to link to the Toyota site from their MySpace or other personal website creates an inexpensive viral network.

This strategy won't work for every brand (are people that passionate about Coke or their tax software?), it works for companies in industries such as technology, auto and fashion where brand loyalty and passions run high.

Posted By John Gartner at 09:25 AM
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