Members of Cova’s brand tribes cannot be easily reached by traditional mass marketing. First, unlike traditional tribes, modern brand tribes do not occupy fixed physical space. Second, modern tribal associations are in a constant state of flux, with members free to belong to as many tribes as they like. As a result, the tribes remain largely invisible to those who do not belong to them.

Wipperfurth also raises fundamental questions about brand identity. If your brand is hijacked by a local community that has little visibility among mainstream consumers, there is probably little reason to be concerned. But if your hijackers belong to a highly visible counterculture and your product has traditionally sold to the conservative working class, you might have a problem. In such cases, Wipperfurth recommends that brands develop personas (masks)—as opposed to a consistent brand personality—that can be put on or taken off at will, depending on the target audience.

Crest Whitestrips serves as one of his case studies. Whitestrips was launched before there was much interest in teeth whitening products, and the brand manager at P&G decided to distribute the product over the web before making it available through retail, in hopes of generating word-of-mouth buzz. The company was able to determine from its website traffic that the product had become extremely popular with brides, teenage girls, young Hispanics and gay men, so it heavily targeted those groups with print ads, posters, and postcards. According to Wipperfurth, the approach led to a twelve-fold increase in the size of the teeth-whitening category in less than two years.

Applying Wipperfurth’s formula, however, may not always be so simple. McDonald’s in China provides a case in point. If you visit a large city in China at 3:30 or 4:00 pm, you’ll almost certainly discover school kids at McDonald’s doing their homework. Small apartments lead students to find an alternative place to do their assignments.

Clearly, McDonald’s has a problem. Should it indulge the students or chase them away? Says Bill Chidley, chief creative officer at Design Forum in Dayton, Ohio, “In a world of ‘any traffic is good traffic,’ this student influx should be a blessing. The risks are twofold. First, if the students discourage or displace other profitable segments from visiting McDonald’s, this is obviously bad. And second, if the students build an association with the brand as a place to hang out for this purpose, they may not use the brand in later life stages due to that association.”

Greg Thomas, director of research for the Zyman Institute of Brand Science at Emory University in Atlanta, believes that any disconnect between what a brand intends to convey and what it actually conveys to the consumer places it at risk of assuming a life of its own. In this particular case, he notes that “most businesses—McDonald’s included—are not so long-term oriented that they would provide free study space for 10-plus years simply to obtain future customers.” To McDonald’s great relief, no doubt, the students eventually do go home.

As do customers at Starbucks’ coffee shops. For many, the coffee bars serve as a “third place” between home and office. Although the Starbucks tribe may occasionally convene in this space, none of its members actually lives there. As Wipperfurth notes, "Signe Nordli, the cover girl for Playboy's “Women of Starbucks” issue, ...may drink her daily double, non-fat, venti almond latte, but she'll buy whichever laundry detergent happens to be cheapest at the supermarket."

It would be difficult indeed to imagine a modern brand tribe existing outside the economic infrastructure that supports more formal marketing. And membership in a local brand tribe does not preclude citizenship in the global village. In fact, it may encourage it. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, for example, argued that integration of the rational and irrational aspects of human experience was essential to the health of the tribal mind.

Given that modern brands originated about 100 years ago as bases for consumer trust, it would be surprising indeed if they were to cease serving that purpose. Consider automobile brands. People who purchase new cars can be reasonably certain that those cars won’t fall apart, and that if they do, they will be repaired under warranty. If any automobile brand were to acquire a reputation for shoddy workmanship, it would be finished.

Meanwhile, brands like BMW and Mercedes continue to market to individual consumers—bypassing brand tribes altogether. For many purchases, the certainty that accompanies blind faith remains a poor substitute for knowing with a high degree of probability that a product is reliable.     

[7-Aug-2006]