From Community Measures Spoken Through Intuition, to an Era Spoken Through Data. 62% of Practicing Companies Feel Business Contribution. Meanwhile, 'Activation', 'Effectiveness Measurement', and 'Human Resources' Become Barriers.

The Community Marketing Promotion Association (Representative Director: Hideki Kojima, Location: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture; hereinafter 'the Association') and Community Marketing Research Institute Inc. (Representative Director: Akiko Nagahashi, Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter 'Community Marketing Research Institute') have published the 'Community Marketing White Paper 2025-2026,' the first industry research report conducted by a neutral research organization.

This research report is the industry's first to conduct a comprehensive survey on the awareness, initiative status, and reality of practice of community marketing among 2,066 business persons involved in marketing or customer success, and a total of 320 community marketing practitioners, supporters, and participants. This survey will also be the first phase of a fixed-point observation project that will be conducted continuously over the next three years until 2028.

This survey revealed that 42% are working on or considering community measures, and while 62% of those currently engaged feel a contribution to the business, the current situation where effectiveness measurement and organizational challenges have become bottlenecks in practice was also brought to light.

Does Community Marketing Lead to Business Results?

In recent years, as the number of companies aiming to build continuous relationships with customers increases, interest and initiatives in 'community marketing' are steadily expanding. On the other hand, the reality is that its practice still heavily depends on the experience and intuition of individual personnel, and it is hard to say that the background of success and decision-making processes are sufficiently shared and accumulated.

Under these circumstances, the question 'Does community marketing really lead to business results?' has become an important management theme for many companies. However, objective data supporting its effectiveness and knowledge contributing to decision-making have not been sufficiently prepared, and not a few companies find it difficult to make decisions to promote or continue the initiatives.

Against the backdrop of recognizing these challenges, the 'Community Marketing White Paper 2025-2026' provides the following values as the industry's first report transversally investigating the reality, results, and challenges of community marketing:

Visualization of Community Marketing Market Penetration
Based on survey data, it clarifies the current standing of community marketing on a fact basis.

Provision of Data Usable for Decision Making
Through the investigation results of practicing companies and cross-analysis by industry and company size, it presents implications directly linked to in-house strategy design.

Elucidation of Success Factors and Challenge Structures
Based on examples of practicing companies, it extracts implications and hints gained from the initiatives.

Through this research report, we will re-capture community marketing as a 'reproducible marketing strategy' and provide foundational data that supports corporate decision-making and practice.

Survey Highlights

This survey revealed the following realities:
- 42% are practicing or considering community marketing
- 62% of practicing companies feel business contribution
- Challenges are 'activation,' 'effectiveness measurement,' and 'lack of human resources'
- 43% of practicing companies utilize external support
- 56% utilize AI, mainly for planning and operational support

Contents of the 'Community Marketing White Paper 2025-2026'

This research report was created with the intention of being utilized for a wide range of decision-making, from the consideration stage of 'whether to work on community marketing' to companies in the phase of thinking about 'the next move'. It is structured to cover all the data, executive summaries, and case studies required when objectively understanding one's own standing and seeking investment decisions from management.

- Reality of market recognition and practice status
- Operational structure, KPIs, results, and challenges of practicing companies
- Cross-analysis by industry, business model, and company size (full report version only)
- Careers and challenges of community managers
- Behavior and purposes of community participants (full report version only)
- Reality of community support businesses (full report version only)
- Practicing company interview (Cybozu)