When building a successful brand, especially a community brand, you need to understand your customers/members, plus all their deepest desires.
And just like selling technical superiority is a losing battle for customer loyalty or wide appeal, so too is selling the promise of “price go up” - whether it’s for a crypto project, or an NFT/Web3 one - in the long run.
Great brands go deep into the psychology of those they serve, and become about more than just price or technical capability.
Great brands look into a user’s why and then exceeds those expectations, which is what forms the “fundamentals” of the community.
In the non-crypto world, Apple is a great example of how to build a brand that forms a community identity around it.
In the crypto world, Ethereum and Solana have been leading the charge for their fervent focus on developer communities.
And so when you’re looking at your own community, what is it that’s binding all your users together? Is it price? Is it belonging? Is it something else? Find out what that is, and then double-down on it - especially during crises (like plummeting markets).
The more you make your brand about the community, the more the community will attach their individual sense of identity around the brand, and come to its aid in times of need.
Just note, though, that not all businesses or products require a formal community around it, but they can certainly benefit from them.