IMPLICATIONS FOR HOW COMPANIES CAN USE VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

 Depending upon the objective, a virtual community can be applied as a strategic tool in e-marketing; as channels for relationship marketing; as tools for developing relationship commitment, building store image and loyalty among members. An overview of how virtual community can be used as a strategic tool in these areas is now presented. Virtual community as relationship marketing channels there are various points of contacts with the customer to implement relationship marketing like point of sale, customer service officer, postal mail, e-mail and Internet. Internet has unique capabilities which make it an efficient channel for relationship marketing. Apart from integrating three forms of communication, namely audio, video and text, Internet offers features such as interactivity, tracking personalization, customization and e-mail, coupled with customer information. Thus, it is possible to implement one-to-one marketing using Internet. For example, establishing an ongoing dialogue or a learning relationship with large numbers of customer segments or even individual customers (Zingale and Arndt, 2001, p8)

 A virtual community becomes main marketing infrastructure, several technologies of increasing sophistication (from database driven, to intelligent agents, to collaborative filtering, to rule based) are available to deliver high levels of personalization and customization to satisfy the needs of different customer segments and individual  customers.Virtual community when integrated with the organization’s website has the capability to increase the stickiness of the website by retaining customers. By incorporating interaction mechanisms in virtual communities, virtual communities can help in forming deep customer relationships thus leading to effective relationship marketing.

 To achieve customized one-to-one marketing a clear understanding of the needs of each individual customer is essential. This requires repeated long-term interaction with the customer. Through repeated interaction it is also possible to develop differentiation among the customers, a key requirement. Vendors employ various tools integrated into their website to differentiate their customers and personalize their relationships like personalized web sites, e-mail marketing or e-mail response management. Virtual communities by dint of their relationship enhancing capabilities (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997) can help enhance long-term relationships between the customer and the company.

 A virtual community provides repeated points of contact to the customers through various means which help in developing strong relationships over the web like facilities for interacting with other customers, posting and viewing customer reviews and informative content which draws the customer in into a new experience.

Virtual community as tools for developing relationship commitment among members Morgan and Hunt (1994) define relationship commitment as an exchange partner believing as to warrant maximum efforts at maintaining it; that is, the committed party believes that the relationship is worth working on to ensure that it endures indefinitely. Dwyer, Schurr and Oh (1987) identify customer commitment as the last stage in the process of developing relationships between buyer and seller whereby the exchange partners have achieved a level of satisfaction from the exchange process that precludes other primary exchange partners who could provide similar benefits. When the attachment to the community becomes very strong members go beyond their normal commitment to help other members of their community (Rheingold, 1991). Such consistent behavior over a period of time makes the relationship durable and consistent.

By JOSHUA HELENA M

BAPRM 42571