Companies and brands across the world have left no stone unturned in studying their customers and potential customers. Marketers have implemented various strategies to study the market, consumers and their behaviour with the purpose of increasing the sales of company products and services. While traditional marketing was all about sales, and to a larger extent, it is even today, much has changed. Companies now don’t just strive to boost sales but also establish a certain reputation of themselves among their customers by banking on certain morals, values and beliefs. The term Tribal Marketing undertakes similar efforts.
What is Tribal Marketing?
Tribal marketing is a modern and unconventional kind of marketing. It involves segmenting audiences on the grounds of shared beliefs, affinities and interests, instead of considering demographics such as age and gender.
Customers today don’t just demand quality and affordable products and services, but also like to have their brands hold the same opinions, values, beliefs and political biases as them.
Tribal Marketing focuses exactly on this. Instead of studying the demographics, tribal marketers study the behaviour and thought processes of the audiences. They try to understand what their customers believe in and what they despise. Creating content, narrative and messages revolving around the customers’ values and ethos helps them connect with the customers on a more deeper and personal level. This helps create a brand’s image and statement.
Tribal marketing mainly identifies and also creates communities and social groups around a product or service. For example, Scorpio from Mahindra & Mahindra has its own tribe consisting of people who associate with being tough and rugged.
This collective group or tribe share common interests, needs, passion and culture. Thus Tribal Marketing not only establishes a connection between brands and their customers but also creates links among the members of the tribe even if they are strangers.
Further, with the advancement in technology and the rise in various platforms, the bonding among the members of the tribe is rapid and long-lasting. It has helped the members, sharing common interests, come closer. This way, brands today are not just creating product awareness but also a culture of their own, thereby strengthening and expanding their customer base.
Apple is another brilliant example of Tribal Marketing. It has its own tribe that strongly believes in its iOS software and finds it impossible to work on any other computer software. Apple understands who its customers are and what they believe it. This has helped the company to structure its narrative in a way that suits its customers well.
With customers becoming more socially aware and mindful, there is a need for brands to identify this shift in customer behaviour and channel their marketing strategies accordingly. The adoption of Tribal Marketing is a huge step in that direction.
