Does every brand need a community?
Sedge Beswick and Lauren Spearman battle it out.
LVL with me.
We’re back in the ring with another no-BS debate on modern marketing. Watch here or keep scrolling to read.
Two experts.
One question.
The only rule: no sitting on the fence.
This week’s debate:
Do brands really need a community?
NXT LVL contributors Sedge and Lauren go head-to-head.
🔔 Ding, ding, ding 🔔
🥊 In one corner: NXT LVL founder, Sedge.
Sedge says: Yes. Community is everything.
People trust people, not brands.
That’s why community matters.
It’s become a buzzword for a reason. People want to feel part of something bigger. They want somewhere to connect, share opinions, feel seen.
And when it works, it really works.
Look at Harley-Davidson. That’s a legacy brand with one of the strongest communities out there. You don’t just buy a bike - you buy into a culture, a lifestyle, a sense of belonging.
That level of fandom? Most brands would kill for it.
Community builds something you can’t buy: loyalty.
Your customers become advocates. They talk about you online and offline. They defend you. They bring others in.
That’s real impact.
Yes, not every team has the resource they want (and this is especially true for community teams), but no area of a business does.
If your audience is there, you have to show up.
Sedge’s TL;DR:
People trust people. Community builds loyalty you can’t buy.
🥊 In the other corner: NXT LVL contributor, Lauren.
Lauren says: Not every brand needs a community.
It’s the biggest marketing buzzword right now, but let’s be clear - not every brand needs a community.
A real community exists with or without the brand constantly driving it. If it relies on you posting, prompting, and poking it into life, it’s not a community. It’s just branded conversation.
Harley-Davidson is a great example of this! That community wasn’t created by the brand. It was built by people with a shared passion.
That’s the difference.
You can be deeply loyal to a brand without wanting to join a WhatsApp group, Discord server, or comment thread about it.
And if you think you can just “launch a community” - you’re wrong.
Having worked at Trinny London, I’ve seen what it actually takes. It’s time. It’s people. It’s strategy. It’s constant nurturing.
It’s not a couple of emoji replies and a poll on Stories.
If you’re not willing to properly invest, you don’t have a community. You have a comment section.
And honestly? That’s fine.
Focus on building a strong brand first. Because if there’s nothing meaningful to advocate for, no one’s building a community around it anyway.
Lauren’s TL;DR:
Not every brand needs a community - and most are faking it.
So… who’s right?
Community is powerful, but it’s not plug-and-play.
The brands that benefit from it most are the ones that already have strong identity, clear values, and something worth gathering around.
Without that, “community” becomes forced, under-resourced, and surface-level.
Some brands need it, some don’t (and some brands need to stop pretending they have one).
Your turn in the ring 🥊
What’s the best brand community you’ve seen?
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