TribalWorks

I went to the Yes We Did! An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand book launch yesterday at Rotman.  Rahaf Harfoush did an excellent job chronicling her time working on the Obama campaign and pulled out key insights which the audience could apply to their organization and brands.

One of the things that resonated with me was how she strongly believes in building the right strategy before jumping into social media.  I couldn’t agree more, the strategy needs to come first.

I look forward to reading the book.

I found this online.  It is a pretty cool video.  Enjoy!

Often we hear people talk about Tribes without fully understanding what they are and how they work.  The most common misconception is that tribes are just segments.  However, the key differentiation between a segment and a tribe is that in a tribe, the relationship between the members is very important.  Whereas a segment (no matter how narrowly defined) does not require members of the group to connect or communicate.

When you think tribally, you have to shift your paradigm.  Start thinking about how your product or service can best support the tribe instead of focusing on how to target a certain segment or demographic.  A Tribal Strategy should be more than a novel communication plan.  Here is an example of an article by Avi Dan in AdAge that illustrates the point.

As markets become more tribal, they must recalibrate from broadcasting to narrowcasting and reach targets more efficiently and more effectively through tools such as behavioral targeting and addressable TV. They must also adopt a more granular view of customers by making analytics the cornerstone of any marketing effort. Most marketers are still committed to traditional communication vehicles, primarily TV. But the lesson from the rapid rise of social networking is that people prefer to have a conversation and dialogue within their networks, not an interruptive, one-way communication through TV commercials. Marketers must learn to adapt if they want their communication to maintain its effectiveness with a suddenly harder to please consumer.

In the following sentence, he talks about targeting certain demographics rather than supporting tribes.

Most marketers focus on Gen X and Gen Y, with a combined buying power of $1 trillion, but ignore African-Americans, with buying power in excess of $1.5 trillion, and baby boomers, with $2.1 trillion. Hispanic buying power is growing at three times the national average and will reach $1 trillion in 2011; Asian-Americans spend three times as much as Gen Yers; and gay Americans clock in at $800 billion. Ignoring these segments will put undue pressure on your profitability in an environment resistant to price increases.

It has been quite interesting to see the rise of Tribes and Tribal Marketing in the lexicon of marketers over the last 8-9 months.  When we started this blog back in August 2008,  we were amongst only a few people actively talking about it.  Nowadays, Tribal Marketing is becoming a part of the active conversation for many.

Here are the Google Trends results for the search term “tribal marketing” [Click for larger image].

As marketers continue to search for innovative ways to reach their consumers, I predict that more and more people will be looking to Tribal Marketing as a part of the solution.

Clay Shirky Says Forget About Brand Control, Strive For Clarity

I agree.  Nothing more to say.

One of the things I discuss with clients is that the process of leveraging consumer tribes is often driven by marketing, but will require you to understand the impact within the entire organization.  Hence, we use the term Tribal Strategy to define our work - of which Tribal Marketing is a part.

Here are some areas of the organization that we consider, capture and revise in the Tribal Strategy plan:

• Operations:
  • Product design and development
  • Production methods and materials (i.e. going green)
  • Guidelines and processes for using Web 2.0 tools
• Finance/Budgeting
  • Ensuring the outputs of the Tribal Strategy Measurement Plan will be compatible with ongoing budgeting requirements
• Human Resources
  • Update/review job descriptions to include new required activities (i.e. events, online interaction, etc)
  • Do you require additional staff with relevant capabilities?

In addition, here are some other functions that may be impacted:

• Management Information Systems (MIS):
  • What data do we need to collect?  What are we missing? How do you translate it into the current reporting format?
• Planning: 
  • Ensure that senior management include Tribal Strategy in their quarterly/annual planning process
• Technologies:
  • What technology do we need to add to execute?  Should we bring technology in-house or should we outsource it?

Please keep in mind this is just a short example.  The actual areas of impact and key points to consider will vary depending on the organization and the situation.

Colloquy released its findings on a study looking at Motivations of Canadian Brand-Specific Social Networking.

A WOM Champion is a customer who is “actively recommending” a brand, in a conversation with a relative, in an email to friends, in a Twitter posting or a Facebook wall message. “The personal nature of the communication by a WOM Champion adds credibility,” says COLLOQUY Partner Kelly Hlavinka. “And a Champion’s endorsement is highly valued by marketers because it cannot be bought; it must be earned.”

When COLLOQUY asked more than 3,500 Canadians why they engage in WOM activity regarding their preferred products, services and brands to people within their networks, the top five motivations of WOM Champions were as follows:

• To be the first to discover new items: 71 percent
• To get free product samples: 66 percent
• To get smart about products/services: 66 percent
• To tell manufacturers what I think: 63 percent
• To share my opinion with others: 58 percent

The COLLOQUY research also revealed significant evidence of a direct correlation between reward program activity and consumers’ positive WOM endorsement activity. Here are some of the key findings:

• Loyalty program members are 127 percent more likely to be WOM Champions than the general population
• 31 percent of loyalty program members are self-described WOM Champions
• Only 15 percent of non-loyalty program members are self-described WOM Champions
• 68 percent of WOM Champions in loyalty programs intend recommend a program sponsor’s brand within a year
• Actively participating loyalty program members are over 3 times more likely than non-active members, and over 7 times more likely than non-members, to be WOM Champions

The research is certainly interesting and gives a good sense as to what motivates people to engage in WOM activities.  Also, I like the possibility of using a loyalty database to identify potential tribe leaders.  However, I don’t necessarily agree with the main conclusion:

“This research shows that a company’s loyalty marketing database is an under-utilized social network that marketers would do well to exploit in the pursuit of positive, profitable WOM activity,” says COLLOQUY Editorial Director Rick Ferguson. “Marketers should locate the Champions buried within their program memberships, find ways to encourage WOM activity and reward Champions for positive WOM behavior.”

Here are my 2 points of difference:

1. The database itself may not be the social network - in other words the members of the database may not necessarily be a network but rather a group of individuals with similar purchase behaviours
2. Activating the tribe is a bit more complex then just ‘locating the champions and incentivize them to display WOM behaviour’. 
   • The real question you must ask is “Why haven’t my ‘best customers’ started to engage in WOM activities already?”  There could be some fundamental issues from a marketing, product design/experience, customer service, etc that needs addressing first.

Most of our discussions with people revolve around using Tribal Strategy in the realm of Tribal Marketing.  However, it is important to know that a Tribal Strategy can go beyond marketing. 

Over the past few months I have gone into meetings with the intention to solely discuss our Corporate Development services and just happen to mention our Tribal Strategy practice area.  The people I met with immediately were interested in learning more on how tribes can impact their business:

• One person was a CEO of a mid-sized biotech company and believed that private investors and VCs often behave like tribes
• The other was an Executive Director of an industry organization looking at how researchers, scientists and buyers of intellectual property interact as tribes

By developing a tribal strategy both of the above organizations can leverage new ways to pitch to investors or connect people with various but complimentary backgrounds for the greater good.

I went to the SMCC Conference yesterday and I thought most of the segments were well presented. 

The key conference takeaways were summarized well by Alan Middleton’s 3C’s.  Alan is the Executive Director at Schulich Executive Education Centre and was the MC for most of the day.

The 3C’s plus my takeaways:

• Community
  • Almost all the speakers highlighted the need to work with and do work for the community
  • This fits well with the Tribal Approach whereby you look at supporting the tribe rather than marketing to it
• Commitment
  • In order for a sponsorship partnership to be successful, there needs to be commitment from both senior management and employees
  • Most of the initiatives discussed during the day included a strong commitment from employees to deliver their results (best example was how Scotiabank was able to get their employees on board for numerous events that they sponsor)
• Continuity
  • This goes for any successful campaign but especially sponsorship
  • If you don’t tell people you are sponsoring something, you won’t get the recognition you are looking for and deserve
  • Also, make sure you have an integrated plan especially if you are sponsoring a one-time or infrequent event

Sponsorship can be a part of a complete Tribal Strategy.  The key thing is to make sure you know how it all fits together and how it impacts your entire organization.