Marketing to digital tribes

What are digital tribes?

Tribes are social groupings, which are characterized as fluid, occasional and in constant formation. This was all formed and discovered Maffesoli. These so-called “tribes” have strong similarities in subcultures such as emotion, style of life, new moral beliefs and consumption practices. Us, as consumers, chose to be in several communities or tribes.

Digital tribes have three functions:

1. Sharing of functional knowledge
2. Place of social bonding
3. Creation of collective rules

Examples of tribes:

Tribes surround us on a daily life and they can be things such as Apple Mac Book users, this creates a user group and people apart of it are within a tribe. This helps distinguish themselves from others. These tribes share collective rules and behaviors. Another example of tribes would be Harley Davidson owners who all own and have a love for the lifestyle. Both of the above are examples of digital tribes and through these tribes, they will communicate with each other.

 

 

Digital tribes peer to peer communication:

These digital tribes can communicate with each other in many different ways and one way that is very evident for us to see is through forums and online groups on the web or on Facebook. As seen below, these are examples of peer to peer communication within tribes which I have taken examples of Mac users communities pages.

Most tribe communities and members will communicate through pages set up on companies sites such as Apples or Toyotas car page, through these groups tribe members will be able to ask questions and converse on topics relating to the brand products or service.

 

Tribes can also be utilized for product innovation and testing as these tribes are loyal to the brand and will know what’s best for the future in certain cases and listening to tribes gives them what they want as well.

According to the Brand base, all business must really get the buzz of these tribes and figure out how to connect with them and what are the factors that drive their online experiences and how they have changed marketing. Brands and companies need to start talking to these tribes which will help them understand what they want as tribes/consumers. These tribes can be used as a benefit for your company as well.

Difference between a market segment and tribe segment:

Marketing segmentation is a process where you split the market of potential customers into groups based on characteristics such as traits, needs, location, interests etc.

Whereas with tribe segmentation you have to interact with them and breach boundaries as they tend to stick to rules and not chose other products. You have to find out what they value most, which may indicate how you can help and sell to them. You can also seek out the boundaries of a tribe so you can understand them and thus be able to see what’s blocking their views in the market.

 

Digital tribes:

Companies like “Dove” are a prime example of brands that reach out to their tribes to get information and ideas of how to improve their products and service provided. They get onto both groups of women and men to talk about their products and what they are doing well and bad. As we can see from time to time, regular women are used in Doves ads to talk about their products and experiences with Dove. These women in these ads will be apart of Dove’s digital tribe. This is how a company can utilize tribes to their benefits. Video show below: