Timothy Post.com

What if brands are the building blocks of social DNA?

Here’s an excerpt from James A. Taylor, Ph.D. article titled, “Tribes, Brands and the Fate of Consumer Marketing”

The Social DNA of Consumer Tribes
Consider the following question: If you had learned that Mitsubishi had put its cars in a hip-hop/gangsta film celebrating midnight street racing, drive-by shooting and gang rivalry, would you buy a Mitsubishi automobile?

The answer to this question depends upon whether hip-hop rivalry and its cultural trappings are icons for your tribe. Similarly, Jimmy Choo’s illustrious shoes, Viking appliances, Mercedes-Benz automobiles, heterosexual marriage, NASCAR racing, Seiko watches, Harvard University, Keepsake Jewelry, Mary Kay cosmetics, Heineken Beer, Tag Heuer watches, Best Buy appliances, Prescriptives, and even a product like Tide detergent help to define one’s tribal identity.

What should interest mass (or even massive) marketers is that the choice a consumer makes not to purchase any one of these brands depends on a desire to not misinform people about the tribe one belongs to. People in tribes: are highly disciplined in their brand preferences; are ready to change as new brands, services and ideas gain currency within the tribe; are acutely aware of their affinity group; and selectively seek relationships with members of their tribe. At the same time, tribal members: discriminate against the icons of other tribes; avoid information that offers insight into the rationale behind the behavior of other tribes; and avoid creating relationships with tribal outsiders……..

The social shopping websites should be providing us with a tool that enables us to identify which “tribe” we belong to and what are the brand icons for that tribe. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of tribes throughout the world. Each tribe assigns different brand icons for individual product/service categories but the product/service categories remain the same regardless of tribe. This makes scaling the web services that much easier. Get the product categories down and let the users determine the brand icons.

There are a couple features missing from the current crop of social bookmarking/shopping web services.

First, let each item I bookmark be separate from all the rest. I know it’s easier to create a widget that displays all the items in my account but that isn’t as valuable to me. I want each and every item which I capture to be discrete. I want to have embed code and a static link for that item. I need to be able to tag that item with key words. None of you guys are doing this right now. What’s the deal?

BTW- Phil Jacob and the anonymous from Nabbr who left the comment protesting that they weren’t walled gardens, the fact that each item bookmarked can not live on its own “in the wild” as a badge or widget is what I was thinking when I used the term walled garden.

Second, I want you the web service to provide me with a list of predetemined product categories. Bug Spray? Which kind do you use? Which kind do I use? Would I bookmark bugspray if it were not a prelisted product category? Probably not. If a category isn’t initially listed (how could they all be?), then users will have the option to create a new product category (contingent upon moderator approval).

Third, show me all the users who choose to be publicly listed. I like checking out Halley Suit’s StyleFeed. It’s interesting. I want to “waste time” voyeuring through people collection of brands which they feel define them. Give me demographic information about them. Mash them up through Google maps. Give me fun facts based on brand affiliation and demogrpahics.

Fourth, I want the individual items to be 3 demensional. Right now, the items in my accounts with StyleFeed, MyPickList, Nabbr, Kaboodle, Wists, etc are bland and honestly, boring. One demensional. Give me predetermined data fields which I can choose to make public or keep private which help me organize MyStuff. Let me add new data fields.

For example, we moved recently. One of my ongoing tasks has been to update the magazines I subscribe to about my new address. Have you ever tried to find the masthead for The New Yorker? It ain’t easy. So without the masthead how do I know what’s the number to call to change my address? What’s my account number? Each magazine does it slightly differently. How about the serial number on the Apple MacBook battery I returned last week?

I currently use a piece of software called “Wallet” which is similar to Apple’s Address Book but comes with fields geared towards serial numbers. What would be really useful is to have a manufacturer created data entry screen for every item. SKU, serial number, date warranty expires, customer service number, etc.

If I can continually add data, information, multi media attachments to the badges/widget then it becomes valuable to me. I also spend a lot of time grooming my collection. Just like you “groom” your address book every year.

Fifth, lastly, we need officially certified badges and widgets. Badges and widgets are what each item we bookmark becomes after we’re done. Marketers for brand name companies should be scrambling to create official badges which we can use in our brand collections. Charge them for it. Charge them alot. This is where you are going to make money. The money is not in affiliate marketing. The problem with affilaite marketing is that it creates the perception that there’s a conflict of interest.

There’s no reason why my social bookmarking/shopping web service can’t serve these above-listed multiple purposes, both public and private. I hope some of you guys are reading this and will make these changes because I can’t put photos in my address book nor can I tag items there either.

I have no way to keep all the things in my life organized. I’m counting on you guys to help out.

PS: The masthead to The New Yorker is at the end of the magazine. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they just wanted to be different. : )

// 08.27.2006 at 7:58 pm // Tagged webwidgets