Communal marketing refers to a marketing practice that incorporates public involvement in the development of an advertising/marketing campaign. A "communal advertising" campaign invites consumers to share their ideas or express their articulation of what the brand means to them through their own personal stories, with the use of print media, film or audio. The resulting "consumer generated content" is then incorporated into the campaign. Finally, the result of this collaboration is showcased, often in a cross-media campaign, to invite the extended community of like-minded individuals to share in the results, thereby creating a communal bond between the "brand champions as advertisers" and other individuals who have a natural affinity with what the brand has to offer. The end result provides the brand with a way to create a deeper connection with their core market, while also opening up new pathways to extend the relationship to new customers.
Communal marketing is not the same as viral marketing or word of mouth advertising, however, the end result of a communal marketing campaign achieves a high level of publicity within high relevance communities. These "communities" are extremely critical to the success of a brand, and normally follow the 80/20 rule, where 20% of the brand's customers account for 80% of its sales.
In communal marketing, the very act of reaching out to consumers to invite them in as co-collaborators and co-creatives, is a fundamental component of the marketing campaign. The construct naturally lends itself to other "communal" marketing activities, like "communal branding" and "communal research." The trend has been incorporated into consumer-based, "virtual" advertising agencies, such as Adcandy, which uses consumer-generated content exclusively.
Anytime a brand reaches out to its audience to invite them in to become co-collaborators in the development of an advertising campaign, they are participating in a "communal branding" effort. Whenever marketing decisions are the end result of communing with the brand's audience to help drive the development of a campaign, they are engaging in "communal research." For example, Peter Jackson, in the making of The Lord of the Rings, reached out to loyal followers of the book to help weigh in on some major directorial decisions.
The practice of communal marketing has been in use for several years with the emergence of communal forms of information sharing including weblogs, online message boards, podcasts, interactive broadband TV, and other new media that has been adopted by consumers at the grass roots level to establish community forums for discussing their customer experiences.