Getting Tribal
Who’s your Tribe? When we ask clients who their brand is for, usually they produce a lengthy catalogue encompassing most countries, all genders, several age groups, plus always tech nerds and “hunters and peckers” (IYKYK). Trouble is, if you are trying to fish simultaneously in every ocean, sea, lake, river and pond, the catch of the day may be something of a let-down. You won’t truly engage with anyone if you’re safe - blah, one-size-fits all, middle-of-the-road. Whereas a strong, clear statement of who you are for and - equally important - who you are not for is much more likely to drive interest and generate resonance. Your community needs to trigger emotions in people, even if these emotions are not all positive; better a powerful polarised response than no flicker on the needle at all.
Yes, you will turn some people off and forego sales among non-core groups, but the flip side will be a real passionate response among the core. Those will be your true tribe, and they will almost certainly ensure you are a darn sight more successful than anodyne alternatives. They will love you, join your community, become your biggest, most committed fans, and enthusiastically spread the word about what you do. What’s the point of having thousands of sign-ups from people who feel you’re just sort of ok? Will they engage on any meaningful level or tell their friends about you? Time and again we come across communities designed for “everyone”. The companies then spend most of their time (and quite a lot of their budgets) trying to figure out why no-one is engaging with what they are doing. Often they end up concluding that the whole idea of community is flawed. But that’s a bit like deciding your BMW is crap because it keeps driving straight into trees.
In a fascinating interview with Steve Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) Jane Wurwand, the founder of skincare brand Dermalogica, said “we realised we had to be prepared to piss off 80% or we’d never turn on 20%. And that 20% were always our tribe.” By the way, ‘pissing people off’ doesn’t mean you have to stay small and niche. Twenty percent of a very big market can be massive. In Jane’s case Dermalogica was acquired in 2015 by Unilever, and there are now over 100,000 skincare specialists using Dermalogica products in over 100 countries.
So, if you are considering building a community, before you do anything, get clear on who it’s going to be for and why. Don’t assume - or even hope - that everyone will want to join, as it will only lead to the sort of headaches that no aspirin can fix.
Other articles from around the web that we thought might be of interest:
We loved reading about how Scottish publisher DC Thomson has integrated community into their strategies to ensure resilience.
Gareth Wilson brought us another deep dive into a fab community case study, this time Duolingo.
A couple of must attend events as well - the first next week on 27th September at the RSA - Digital Community Leaders Report launch party with Steadfast Collective.
And the the Community Pros of London co-working day on Tuesday 10th October in central London. We hope to see you there!