Community 2.0: Reframing Community--How Consumers Perceive Different Forms of Community and What's Missing

Michael Perman, Consumer Insights at Levi Strauss
John Winsor, Radar Communications

Michael: I am charged with understanding the future. About a year ago, we picked up on two themes:

1. Content Meritocracy--Ideas Win; they elevate your status
2. Searching for Community--we have legs on the ground -- somebody's first kiss, somebody's first day at school, somebody's first drink. People remember their first time

Our company is full of stories from the gold rush and James Dean, Marlon Brando, Woodstock, falling of the Berlin wall--you can choose Lenin or you choose Levi's. It's really important for us to know how these cultural themes emerge and coalesce. We have communities of fashionistas, of hard-working people around the world. Lots of communities. We watch and observe.

John Winsor: Project.. Community explored project.. go out to people's houses.. in reality and in virtuality. Look at the context of consumers' lives as they interact with the the community.

10 thought leader interviews
25 consumer reporters
Ages 20 to 45..
Lots of ethnographies.. Mind maps of communities. .real and virtual community.

8 Things to think about when exploring community

The following were quotes from people/reporters who talked about community and were captured on videos:

• Longing to Belong--humans are genetically programmed to belong.. .Videos.. I grew up to be part of a community. My parents were friends. I was friends with all my parents' friends' kids. I haven't found other parents I get along with here...I have no family in Boulder. I depend on community a lot. It's like an extended family. We haven't found a church community where we are. Community for me is very important. I grew up in a community where a lot of people worked there. Closeknit, sense of family. Sense of hope. You see things working out. the next generation does the same thing. That just resonates success to me. Community drives hope, sense of family, brings roots. Levi: what our brand needs to emulate. What are the societal norms the behavioral norms, the memes. If you want to listen to this deeply. People are trying to connect to what they know. In the digital worls, they're connecting with something they don't know.

• Going with the Emotional Flow--the connectivity of community.  It's that emotional connection. I really want to have feeling of belonging, of community. Online community can complement the real world community. The internet's fine to keep in touch, but for real live interaction you need to live in the real world. I was looking for women friends. There's a group called WINGS--women in need of going someplace. The virtual one is a great place to start. Inside out vs. outside in--it's really hard to do. Virtual communities aren't a substitute for physical communities, but an extension, or vice a versa

• The Martini Effect--Life Support vs. Mindscape I love the term living. It's active. What do you need to be among the living, to earn a living. We need each other. Because we need each other, we need each other's support. That's why I called it life support. Mindscape-escape/shape of the region.. escape and have freedom. Relying on the closest physical community; Martini--the olive--is you. you're at the center of the glass.. there's depth. at the edges, it's not very deep. going out to the edge of the universe. My ideal community includes the real world and opportunities to reach out to learn new things. Levi Strauss. We have 1200 stores around the world going onto 2000, we have community involvement teams in 40 countries..

• Virtual Metaphores recontextualize the language of communities. Before communities were physical walled cities... now its a spider web. Nodals and links and hubs. Like an Internet map. A hub with more links is more authoritative. The more links that it has, the more authoritative they are. A meritocracy built on nodes, hubs and links. Having a conversation and engagin. Engaging the consumer in stories. Rick: Trying to start a community with people who want to experience faith together and practice their faith together in a grass roots sort of way. In the faith community, people haven't been able to express their doubt or their questions. Another person: On MySpace, people can anonymously critique you. YouTube started out as sending people funny clips, now you can engage in a dialog thru YouTube. The evolution of metaphors.. Netflix/google/delicious.. Real community: houses/families, still has YouTube.  Rick and  Keith--Rick is a  Christian who wants to have a faith community in his house. Yet Keith is an atheist and wants to explore scientific things deeper, but they're both using the same metaphors.

• Leadership is a catalyst. A leader sets the scene--more of a producer or a director. We get these superenergetic leaders in a place where there isn't strong people, then they implode. Someone has to be a catalyst and facilitate. It's less leader-centric and more leader as resourcer and conversation facilitator and dialog. A group of people shouldn't be able to function unless everyone participates. If this person drops out of my life, there's something really missing. Levi: in a digital world, who's the mayor of Second Life, who's the head of YouTube. Yet leaders develop as people, as metaphors, as ideas? Do they need to develop at all. In a virtual community, everything evaporates at the end of the day and a new day starts.

• Grounded Transformation. Being grounded, having a point of view. Having a history of people lets you have depth. I'm not into small talk. I need to know something about people. You're not really controlling what context people see you. In your online community, you can edit yourself, choose which pictures to use, which video to use. My first day at my job, we have a blogger happy hour. I like to konw who I'm emailing. I know what their interests are. I feel like I want to see themm occasionally. Core values: team member happiness, serving communities, creating the best environment in the stores. Not my store, it's our store. We can create the best store possible together. Levi: Values are really important. What's key there is the definition of community--group of people rallying aournd a common cause. A theme to coalesce around. What's your reason for being. What's your give/get relationship? It could be altruistic, built into your brand or your existence. It costs very little to have a deep relationship online. It's easy to quit.. more trust, etc.

• Temporal Schizophrenia. Being in multiple places at once. Stitch and bitch community. Knit and be online, deal with my kids. Cellphone in the car good example of that. For me at least I feel I'm forced into real life communities, my daughter's school community. on the internet, you can leave if you don't feel comfortable. I feel like I could be in control. I weed out everything that isn't relevant. I only get the daily digest some days, but it's still something. You get flooded with info, and it's hard to tell what's good and what's bad. The Wright Brothers had to send away for books or write to professors and wait for answers. I could spend way too much time looking at stuff and figuring out stuff. I'm an info junkie. Goes beyond info overload to community overload. The common theme is one of control. Control of our lives and time and personal space.

• Collective Conscience. Awareness and responsibility to do the right thing. The world is flat book did a good job of explaining what is going to happen. If everyone has a voice, everyone can get lost in a crowd, but the collective still speaks. When the blogosphere found out about a famous reporter who was offbase, it spread fast. It was a million soft voices, but once they turn their heads, it gets louder and louder. I tsill think we're at the beginningo of the blogging and Web 2.0. Its user driven content. Allows people to create communities more easily. Anything that you feel there's a potential for a community you can create it. It's the ability to create a compassion. Onesneess. We all want to feel one--part of a world community. How can I help my fellow man or woman. How do I get there. I take steps. I am part of a community. If we take those steps, we have to become part of the community.

FIVE THINGS THAT LEVIS IS THINKING ABOUT

1. Best of Both Worlds. Blend the best of physical community with digital. Cozy magnetism. What kind of memory are you going to provide. You can't really go back to say I want to remember something that happened 5 years ago.
2. Provide the Ride. Enable consumers a ride on your brand's authentic assets with constant entertainment in a "mindscape fashion." For Levi, it's originality.. how do we provide an authentic sense of originality.
3. Let Go of the Steering Wheel. Let consumers the opportunity to shape, express and voice and contribute to something eventful. co-creation. how do you join forces with others.
4. Enabling the Leadership. Great communities require some sort of activist. Find the emerging citizens of greatness and connect with them.
5. Break the Third Wall. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Every once in a while he turns to the camera and speaks to you. Pierce the veil of anonymity that is prevalent in digital communities. Turn to someone and engage them. Surprise them.

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