Multi-brand retailer community model: How multi-brand retailers can create and manage strong brand communities

Department stores are struggling, yet a new breed of multi-brand retailers operating retail-as-service models are thriving. Brand communities are gaining popularity as a next differentiating factor in brand proposition, especially with direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands applying it so successfully and consumers increasingly searching for somewhere to belong, more often than not to tackle growing loneliness. Customers’ trust in brands is increasing, along with the need for brands to address various social issues, both at a local and at a wider social level. The current strategies for creating engaged brand communities, however, are not considering all these consumer behaviour shifts or the varied relationships that multi-brand retailers could incorporate to create more holistic, and therefore even more valuable, brand communities. This paper proposes a new multi-brand retailer community model with three important elements (human, local, brands) and describes strategies used to support each of them.