Buried deep in our nature, is the need to belong. We achieve this through our family units, friendship groups, sports teams we support, cars we buy, and the list goes on. When it comes to products and brands, we purchase these items because we want to be seen as belonging to a certain type of group.
With the growth of globalisation and the spread of families groups throughout the world, more and more consumers are seeking out and joining 'tribes' in which to belong. Hence the rise, and rise, of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
In the past, marketers divided the market up into socio-demographic groups i.e. by age, geography, income, etc. Although this still has relevance, there is strong evidence that finding a 'tribe' to follow you has greater benefits for your company and brand, than dividing the market up into pockets of semi-homogenous people.
Patrick Dixon has presented a great short video on tribes. Definitely worth a listen. He talks a bit about how the 'old' form of marketing is no longer what it ought to be.
We no longer 'trust' the big corporates to tell us about themselves, we now 'trust the people who've been there, done it, tasted it...'
Does this mean we need to change the way we do marketing? Absolutely!
Does this mean the values and disciplines of the 'old marketing' no longer hold true? No! But, it does mean that they need to be reformulated to work within the context of 21C social culture.
Seth Godin has written a fantastic book on Tribes. If you do any element of social media, this book is a must read. He includes some great tips on how to build and lead a tribe of people, who are interested in what you have to say and do.
The New Rules of Marketing & PR is a great book, written by an experienced journalist, on how to do 'free' marketing in the 21C. He includes some great hints and tips on how to build a strong social internet marketing presence.
I do disagree with his perspective that the 'old' rules of marketing no longer exist. He seems to be confusing 'communications' with 'marketing'. The 'old' rules do still apply, they just need to be interpreted and actioned in a different way than before.
The book is written from an American perspective. Quite a bit is relevant to the UK, but some is irrelevant - especially if your business is operating within a limited physical geography.
Above all else, this book does give some great food for thought and is a wake up call for anyone who isn't using social media as part of their marketing strategy.
When starting up a new business, so many people say that they want to target 'everyone who will need my product/service xxx.
The reality is that if you try to reach everyone with everything, you'll reach no-one with nothing. People will buy something in order to satisfy a specific need or craving - they buy a specific product for a very specific reason. Some of the most successful products are those that get extremely specific about the person, or type of person, they are targetting. Two examples of this are:
Yorkie - not for girls
Kelloggs Special K - not for boys
What are your customers buying?
When asked what customers are buying, many business people start listing all the products that they sell, or the services they provide.
But, consumers don't buy what you're selling: they don't buy computers - they buy social networking or internet banking, and they don't pay for a plumber - they pay for a running water or a hot bath. It might take a bit of a mind-shift to move from talking about what you're selling to what people are buying from you.
Making this mind-shift will ultimately change the way you communicate to your customers - both in what you say to them as well as where and how.
My favourite example to explain this is in the field of aviation. Lufthansa are selling you a seat on one of their planes, but what you're buying is:
time with the family you haven't seen in so long, a week in the sun on a beach,
a bit of exploring on the continent,
an adventure in the jungle...
They've captured this concept really well in this bit of communication.
