I discovered Levi’s ‘Shape What’s To Come‘ community recently, and immediately loved the concept behind it.

It’s a massive online community they’ve formed to encourage women to collaborate with and mentor each other ‘based around shared interests and passions, regardless of age or location’ – which isn’t uncommon (Mindbubble shares this sense of community) but what I find interesting is that although it’s from Levi’s, it’s as cleverley unbranded as possible; all designed to very subtley promote their new ‘Curve ID’ jeans – which apparently are all about shape not size, and the perfect fitting jeans.

It then made me start thinking about the subject of brand loyalty, fanboyism, whatever you like to call it, and the way brands are increasingly using this sort of campaign to encourage this loyalty.

This is especially important in times of a recession, when spending on ‘Luxury’ items like jeans tend to decrease over necessary purchases.

So is this a good or a bad thing?

On the one hand, it’s a shameless guise to get lots of women involved, get them feeling good about Levi’s, that will ultimately create brand loyalty and make them believe that Levi’s are better than every other jeans brand out there.

Especially if they become a heavy user of the community, and these connections and networks do have a positive impact on their ambitions and careers.

On the other hand, regardless of the commercialism behind the idea, no one can deny that global collaborative networks that encourage women to challenge themselves and follow their dreams and ambitions is a brilliant thing and many of us need that support network to make our dreams reality.

If it means we’ll buy Levi’s instead of Diesel, for example – well, we’re cleverer than that, surely?

Another example is the truly massive Cadbury’s Spots & Stripes campaign, centered ultimately on the 2012 olympics, tapping into the nation’s collective competitiveness, and engaging with the public on a much deeper level by getting them to choose ’sides’.

It creates discussion points about the campaign and brand at grass roots level – everything from challenge chocolate bars, to tweet-offs, to the games played in real life then posted online. I’m a bit of a fan of this one – it’s a great way of engaging the public with the Olympics and ultimately – with Cadbury’s.

Another interesting one is the Nike Grid – which encourages you to ‘run your postcode’ (if you have a central London one) you run through it, calling in at phone box checkpoints along the way, each run gets you 10 points.

Score the most points in a postcode to own it.

But you don’t just have to run solo, you can play for a team.

Again, creating this sense of community and fun, from a brand.

This is also cleverly tapping into the trend for people quitting their gyms because of the recession – “for many people, a run in the park may represent better value in the current economic (if not actual) climate.” (Irish Times)

Getting fitter, playing a game, and ultimately feeling part of something – is again all forming this brand loyalty and will ultimately mean you are more likely to buy into Nike than any other.

Brands openly encourage this competitiveness between customers – it’s the whole PC vc Mac thing.

It’s all down to psychology – you are defined, as a person, by the brands you buy, even if you don’t realise it, or don’t want to be.

You justify past purchases that you made because they were the best value/most up to date product that was out there, when in reality, it was because it fitted in with your self image:

“If you have to rationalize why you bought a luxury item, you will probably find ways to see how it fits in with your self-image.

Branding builds on this by giving you the option to create the person you think you are through choosing to align yourself with the mystique of certain products.” (From Youarenotsosmart.com )

So what do you think of all this?

Would you join ‘Shape what’s to come’ or the Nike Grid – because of, or in spite of, their brand affiliations? I’m really interested to know what you think!

Share on Facebook