Price or product comparison services such as Bizrate (www.bizrate.com) are also in
this category.
2 Position– people who are in a certain circumstance such as a health disorder or in a
certain stage of life, such as communities set up specifically for young people or old
people. Examples are teenage chat site Habbo Hotel (www.habbohotel.com), Cennet,
http://www.cennet.co.uk‘New horizons for the over 50s’ and parenting sites such as Baby
Center (www.babycenter.com).
3 Interest. This community is for people who share an interest or passion such as sport
(www.football365.com), music (www.pepsi.com) or leisure (www.walkingworld.com).
4 Profession. These are important for companies promoting B2B services.
A further classification of communities is that of Armstrong and Hagel (1996) which
is arguably less useful and identifies communities of transaction, communities of inter-
est, communities of fantasy and communities of relationship.
What tactics can organisations use to foster community? Despite the hype and poten-
tial, many communities fail to generate activity, and a silent community isn’t a
community. Parker (2000) suggests eight questions organisations should ask when con-
sidering how to create a customer community:
1 What interests, needs or passions do many of your customers have in common?
2 What topics or concerns might your customers like to share with each other?
3 What information is likely to appeal to your customers’ friends or colleagues?
4 What other types of business in your area appeal to buyers of your products and services?
APPROACHES TO IMPLEMENTING E-CRMFigure 6.15CIPD forums – a forum operated by a company to keep closer to its
customers