Consider yourself a relatively recent graduate in Marketing, with varied education and experience in Marketing, Consumer Behavior, and Social Media Strategy. You have joined the Southeastern Headquarters of a boating firm, Malibu Boats, and you have been named on the New Product Development Team for new line of boats. See links below on your company and products. The company has a program called Malibu Ambassadors, but needs a larger and more loyal Brand Community. You see a major opportunity at your firm to be an effective trouble shooter and idea person, and you want to make your mark by attacking some key issues/problems and making some effective recommendations. Your instructor in college said to never waste your time on new products until you thoroughly understand the potential customers as well as you understand yourself, i.e., getting inside the heads of customers. This includes making your customers very loyal to your company via a new Brand Community. This will put you on a fast track for a promotion, if you can show management that you are an effective consumer behavior researcher, marketing problem-solver and program developer on this new team. Fully consider all the questions of the case, including What is a Brand Community? Why is a Brand Community useful for Malibu Boats? How would you build a Brand Community for Malibu? What are the Key Strategies to make the Brand Community work to increase Malibu boat sales and to build brand loyalty amongst your existing customers? Links on Malibu boats, their new M240 boat, and some links about the boating market https://www.malibuboats.com/ https://fortune.com/100-fastest-growing-companies/2019/malibu-boats https://investors.malibuboats.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/Introducing-the-All-New-Malibu-M240/default.aspx https://seekingalpha.com/article/4211672-malibu-boats-market-leader-surfing-wake-phenomenon? https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190321005481/en/Global-Leisure-Boat-Market—Industry-Analysis https://www.wakeboardingmag.com/malibu-boats/ https://www.owler.com/company/malibuboats http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/09/05/1566048/0/en/Malibu-Boats-Welcomes-TV-Personalities-Bill-and-Giuliana-Rancic-As-Ambassadors.html http://marinemarketingtools.com/gaining-buyers-boating-industry/3300 http://marinemarketingtools.com/6-types-of-first-time-boat-buyers-report/325 Links on Brand Community and processes https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulinaguditch/2018/11/29/why-building-community-is-critical-to-your-brands-success/#d5d5d7334580 https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/5-examples-brilliant-brand-communities-shaping-online-world/ https://www.mavrck.co/9-reasons-you-need-a-brand-community-for-your-most-influential-customers/ https://www.inc.com/anna-johansson/why-building-a-community-is-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-brand-and-how-to-do-it.html https://hbr.org/2009/04/getting-brand-communities-right https://www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2019/01/16/purpose-series-a-purpose-driven-brand-is-a-successful-brand/#5697fe3f437d
