Traditional fan marketing has tended to focus intensely on existing fans. However, relying solely on existing fans may make it difficult to achieve future growth and expansion. The "Fan Farming CX" solution involves researching highly engaged fans to analyze trends in how fans are created. This leads to cultivating not only existing fans but also potential fans. By nurturing these potential fans into highly engaged power fans who can become "partners" supporting the company or brand, the company and brand can grow together.
In the second part of our interview with Akiko Hirota, Senior Planner at Dentsu Digital Inc.'s CX Strategy Planning Division, about "Fan Farming CX," we also discussed the impact "Fan Farming CX" has on brands and companies.
Engaging with fans changes how brand value is defined
Q. What led to "Fan Farming CX" taking its current form? What kinds of cases gave you a sense of tangible results when promoting this approach?
Hirota: For example, with a certain long-selling food brand, while they recognized the importance of fan marketing, they weren't clear on what specific actions to take. So, we started the project by engaging with the brand's fans, rethinking the entire customer experience and the brand's very essence.
Engaging with fans this way changes the brand's value definition, which in turn alters the starting point and endpoint of the customer journey, as well as the necessary customer experiences. Furthermore, when viewed from the perspective of nurturing relationships with fans, the target audience requiring investment also changes. We identified segments like, "We hadn't prioritized them before, but actually, we needed to focus on these people," leading to a shift in marketing strategy. Gaining this tangible feedback allowed us to formalize the "Fan Farming CX" framework.
Q. So it's not just about "cherishing fans," but rather re-evaluating product value propositions by adopting a fan perspective. This might be particularly compelling for long-selling products. What specific marketing shifts occurred at that time?
Hirota: For the brand mentioned earlier, the key perspective was "nurturing fans through life experiences." We discovered that if people had happy childhood memories tied to the brand, they were more likely to purchase its products as adults with a special affection and become fans. So, in addition to regular promotional activities, we decided to focus on designing foundational experiences to nurture fans. We also identified adults who revisit the product later in life as a key target, considering what experiences would be effective for them.
Q. Currently, what types of products and clients are showing the most interest?
Hirota: When we first started offering this solution, we received many inquiries from brands that hadn't previously engaged in fan marketing, particularly those wanting to build a fanbase for products like daily consumer goods. Compared to digital products with robust customer data, daily consumer goods often struggle to cultivate fans, and many companies in this sector seem to recognize the challenges of fan marketing. For companies and brands that didn't know how to get started, yet felt too distant from CRM (Customer Relationship Management), "Fan Farming CX" might have been easier to relate to. Among these, the most common inquiries were from clients wanting to "create fan communities" or "engage in co-creation activities with customers." While B2C companies are currently our main clients, we believe this approach can also be applied to B2B companies.
Q. When you receive consultations, which scenario is more common: companies wanting to try fan marketing for the first time, or those who tried it once but didn't succeed?
Hirota: We see both cases. Some clients ask, "We're trying this for the first time, but we've heard it often doesn't work out. What should we do?" Others say, "We stumbled the first time we tried, but we want to rebuild and try again." We also get inquiries from clients at a more vague stage, saying, "We want to do something, but we don't know what."
Currently, we tend to hear more from companies that have maintained their brands for a long time or already have a large customer base. However, recently, we've also been consulted by companies with relatively new brands. We refer to fans who might support a new brand as the "fan-hearted developmental stage." We support these companies by helping them grow these fans into partners who develop alongside the brand.
Establishing a foundational strategy as your compass is the first step in nurturing fans
Q. In cases where companies tried fan marketing but didn't succeed, where did they most often stumble?
Akiko Hirota, Dentsu Digital Inc.
Hirota: There are two major stumbling blocks. First, the fundamental compass guiding community creation isn't properly established. Defining a fan development strategy requires careful observation and deep research into fans. However, upon closer inspection, many companies haven't done this thorough observation. If you neglect this step and rush into initiatives, you'll just end up with high operational costs and resources, resulting in half-hearted outcomes.
Second, nurturing fans is hard, hands-on work. Community management demands significant resources. Hosting fan meetings is time-consuming and labor-intensive. You also need to find employees who share the same passion for the project as the fans and secure their cooperation. Without employees possessing genuine brand loyalty and the facilitation skills needed to interact with fans, internal resources become insufficient, and fan nurturing activities struggle to gain traction.
Q. So, does that mean nurturing fans also requires passion from employees?
Hirota: Exactly. We coined the term "internal fan farming" to describe the process of boosting employee passion. Even when establishing guiding principles, if you don't involve the people who will be involved in future fan development and build them together, the policy document becomes a hollow formality. It's also crucial to inspire the employees of that company or brand.
When working on a project for one company, the employees harbored a complex, thinking, "There's no way we have fans." But when we looked deeper, we found core fans who deeply understood the company's appeal.
Looking beyond superficial fans and filtering to identify these more dedicated supporters reveals many discoveries. When such fans uncover the company's appeal—something employees might have intuitively known but never articulated—it becomes a catalyst for boosting their sense of pride in the company. At that company, sharing fan feedback in management meetings generated significant resonance. This evolved into a project to convey fans' affection to employees and ignite their own passion.
Therefore, moving forward, we aim to focus our support on "internal fan farming"—returning fan voices to the company to deepen employee affection. If the motivation of members involved in fan cultivation increases, it should lead to spontaneous actions to nurture fans. We hope to start by cultivating fans within our clients' own organizations.
"Fan Farming CX" not only increases new fans but also boosts employee engagement. For companies facing challenges in cultivating fans and creating communities, it offers a solution with valuable insights. By designing customer experiences that nurture fans, we can build happy relationships with new fans.
The information published at this time is as follows.
Joined Dentsu Inc. in 2011. Since joining, has been responsible for strategic planning across a wide range of areas, including brand development, new product/service development, and integrated communications. Has also been involved in supporting the development of multiple hit products. Seconded to Dentsu Digital Inc. in January 2020. Since then, has driven the development of proprietary consulting frameworks, conceiving and advocating solutions such as 'Fu-man insight lab®︎', 'Social Pain Compass', and 'Fan Farming CX'. While systematizing these as solutions, has led the implementation of customized solutions tailored to each company's specific challenges.
