It is well known that qualitative market research is aimed at in-depth study of consumers' opinions and behaviours. At the same time, customer trust in a brand is an important component as well. Brand trust can be achieved by using a wide range of tools, including online communities in the broad sense (e.g. social networks, communities as a marketing research method, etc.).

In our article we will examine and analyse the Nutrition Club online community, its level of effectiveness, and the views of the community members themselves on this social experience.

Social media has long been identified as an important means for developing connections between a brand and its target group, but the depth and significance of these connections for building trust is still being explored. Today's world is unimaginable without social media. They are used in different ways, such as for messaging, for work, for shopping and for sharing goods. The use of and access to social media also continues to increase. Thus, it is no surprise that many companies are using them to promote their brand, track its “health”, create an image, and build trust in the product. Virtually every brand now has an account on one social network or another. But not all brands do an effective job of building customer trust, which modern research proves is an important component of brand success (Gifford, Newmeyer, 2019).

Why is brand trust important?

According to research, it is one of the main precursors of loyalty (Wahyuni et al, 2020). Repeated interactions and long-term relationships are also considered key in developing brand loyalty (Walden, 2000). Given that online communities (regardless of the interpretation of this concept, whether a social media group or a specially organised community for marketing research purposes) have a positive effect on customer attitudes towards the brand, we can say that their use increases trust, and hence has a positive effect on loyalty. Companies are beginning to recognise the importance of online communities and are actively incorporating them into brand marketing activities (Wahyuni et al, 2020).

In marketing research, the main objectives of the online community method are to study customer opinions, consumer behaviour, factors influencing the choice of a particular brand, product in the line, testing promotion, positioning concepts and specific advertising communication strategies. But also, one of the implicit functions of an online community or commune can be described as building and maintaining trust. The Nutrition Club is an example of such a longitudinal community that has successfully achieved these tasks. This community has been in existence for a year and brings together 100 active respondents, categorised into different segments based on their consumption practices in health and wellness area.

The Nutrition Club community effectively addresses its objectives through the following:

1. Personal stories of users - in the community, people share their personal experiences and opinions without being afraid to answer questions in complete sincerity. This openness undoubtedly builds trust in other members, the community, and the brand under whose umbrella it exists.
2. Support from like-minded people - under every post where a participant shares an opinion, others can comment and give likes. This creates a community, a sense of support, which also builds trust in the brand the participants are consumers of.
3. Maintaining anonymity - participants see only the name and avatar of others in the community, which creates a sense of security. A sense of security is cultivated by moderators who block the visibility of the response to other participants when sensitive topics are discussed, such as spending and saving money, or health issues.
4. Feedback - in the community, moderators thank participants for their answers and ask additional questions if necessary. This way, there is no feeling that the answers are written "in vain", on the contrary, community participants feel that they have been heard, their opinions have been carefully read through and incorporated into the brand development programme.
5. Monetary rewards - of course, the monetary element of being in the community cannot be overlooked. Symbolic payments motivate participants to use the community more actively and indirectly build loyalty to the brand that hosts the community.

One of the motives for people to join brand communities is to satisfy their need for social relationships. Especially when it comes to brands that they want to be associated with or that are desired by them (Schembri, et al 2010).

Thus, the use of the prolonged online community method allows for comprehensive brand development work: 

• On the one hand, to "keep abreast" and be involved in changes of consumer behaviour and therefore monitor and meet consumer expectations of the product and brand
• On the other hand, build brand credibility, i.e. lay the foundation for consumer loyalty.

It should be noted that for such online communities to work effectively it is necessary to keep them active, "alive". This requires regular updates of tasks aimed at exploring different aspects of consumer behaviour, including testing new product concepts, promotional materials, promotion ideas, etc. For participation in an online community to be not only useful for brand managers and marketers, but also to build consumer trust in the brand, assignments should be interesting and relevant to participants, touching on different areas of their lives that they want to talk about and share their experiences on.

To illustrate this idea, we can take an example from the work of the online community Nutrition Club. In one of the tasks, participants had to talk about their experiences of being in the community. In this task, users, both new and old, talked about their attitude to the community, which was predominantly positive.

"The Nutrition Club is a family! And I am happy to be part of this family, happy to meet like-minded people in this community" (Anastasia, 27 August, 2021)

"I was pleasantly surprised that you can talk so freely and at ease with people you don't even know!" (Nadezhda, 26 August 2021)

"The Nutrition Club's community is active, positive, full of interesting, caring people of different ages and social groups" (Dmitry, 26 August, 2021).

Thus, we can say that Nutrition Club online community is an effective tool in building trust of the company's customers and developing their loyalty to the brand. The most important thing is to be open and communicate with your customers. A brand's online community provides benefits to its customers by facilitating the exchange of information and strengthening customers' connections with each other, cementing customers' relationships with the brand, the product, the company, and other customers (Laroche, et al 2013). We can recommend that brands create such communities as they continue to prove effective.

Sources:

1. D.S.F., AliI.I., Wahyuni (2020) The role of online community in maintaining the brand image. In book: Advances in Business, Management and Entrepreneurship, DOI: 10.1201/9781003131465-95
2. Laroche M., Habibi M. R., and Richard M. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information Management, 33, 76–82
3. Roy Gifford, Casey E. Newmeyer (2019) Insights into LongTerm Brand Success, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 27:1, 1-18, DOI: 10.1080/10696679.2018.1534215
4. Schembri, S., Merrilees, B., and Kristiansen, S. (2010). Brand consumption and narrative of the self. Psychology and Marketing, 27(6), 623–637
5. Walden, E. (2000). Some value propositions of online communities. Electronic Markets, 10(4), 244–249.