After watching this video of Seth Godin?s talk about tribes in a recent staff meeting, I began to think about what tribes I am in.
For the last three months, I have spent the majority of my free time rehearsing for a musical with a community theater in town. Two weeks ago, on a Friday night, I sat on stage in a cool theater with about 55 other people wearing a rehearsal skirt and Justin boots that might have been in style in the early 1900?s. We were all waiting patiently and listening to our director provide feedback about the musical number we just rehearsed. Looking around I thought, ?If this isn?t a tribe, I don?t know what is.?
However, I needed a discussion with a colleague to understand just how this tribe relates to what Mr. Godin had been talking about with regards to marketing. Here is what I learned:
- Tribal manager = the community theater company who depends on ticket sales to keep their doors open and quality shows to encourage people to buy tickets to and participate in future productions, (full circle).
- C-suite = The creative team who are responsible for managing the actors and crew in order to deliver the best product possible by making everyone rise to the occasion and settle for nothing short of their best.
- Tribe = Actors, singers, dancers, crew members and their family and friends.
- Followers of the tribe = the audience who takes time out of their weekend and pays to see a show.
As an actor in the show I am already part of the tribe. I follow the tribe leader and pay close attention to the cast blog, which is the main source for communication between the creative team, stage management and the cast. I want to be in the loop, I am a subscriber.
In addition to being an actor in the show it is my responsibility as a member of the tribe to invite others to join us. There are a few ways I have accomplished this. The first, and perhaps the most common is, by word of mouth. I have invited my close friends (especially those involved in the theater community throughout Houston ? a tribe in and of itself) and family to attend the show. Additionally, a few weeks ago, I went though all of my Facebook contacts and carefully selected those I knew would be interested in attending for one reason or another and sent a Facebook event invite. Now, I have not only served the C-suite, but the tribe manager as well. Besides, what is a performance without an audience?
Please accept this long-winded anecdote as a conduit to pondering your own tribes as Mr. Godin asks. Think about how the principles of the tribes you are a part of can be applied to your client?s goals.
The biggest lesson I take away from it is focus with regard to a target audience, literally and figuratively. What are your thoughts?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I am a recent college graduate, in my researching of marketing communication efforts in Texas I came across this posting on Tribes. The idea that we fit into different tribes is a great way for me to begin looking at the world outside of the walls of college. Graduates are put into a “group” of future leaders & society contributors, when really we are a tribe.
This tribe is very large spanning the nation, but we are not a fully connected or functional tribe, in truth we are made up sub-tribes according to our chosen majors. Its my belief the more connected with my tribe of graduates I become, over the next months. The better equipped I’ll be to understand the future target markets I’ll be reaching in the future.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your comment. I find Seth’s idea of tribes so fascinating, don’t you?
As a (somewhat) recent college graduate myself, I’m glad to hear that the tribe you immediately thought of was the “recent graduate” tribe. I think that tribe is a great one to think about. Just a few short months ago, you were in a different tribe (the X Univeristy Tribe). But now, although you will have that tribe intact forever, you are right – you are in a new tribe with members across the nation that are not necessarily connected.
I think what you are talking about directly is networking. While I would certainly encourage you to connect with other recent graduates, I would also encourage you to stay connected to your previous X University tribe as well. Additionally, don’t discount making a connection with “sub-tribes” because you think your discipline may not relate to one another.
With the current economic climate and the current climate of the marketing and communications industry, looking outside of the box and bridging “sub-tribes” from across the nation might be just want you need to do in order to create a new Super Tribe that will speak to the masses in your future target markets.