Tribe Management

Brand management is so 1999.

Brand management was top down, internally focused, political and money
based. It involved an MBA managing the brand, the ads, the shelf space,
etc. The MBA argued with product development and manufacturing to get
decent stuff, and with the CFO to get more cash to spend on ads.

Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world.

It starts with permission, the understanding that the real asset most
organizations can build isn't an amorphous brand but is in fact the
privilege of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to
people who want to get them.

It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to
connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to
build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because
it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a
story to tell and something to talk about.

And of course, since this is so important, product development and
manufacturing and the CFO /work/ for the tribal manager. Everything the
organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe.

Instead of looking for customers for your products, you seek out
products (and services) for the tribe. Jerry Garcia understood this. Do you?

Who does this work for? Try record companies and bloggers, real estate
agents and recruiters, book publishers and insurance companies. It works
for Andrew Weil and for Rickie Lee Jones and for Rupert at the WSJ...
But it also works for a small web development firm or a venture capitalist.

People form tribes with or without us. The challenge is to work for the
tribe and make it something even better.

Quoted from Seth Godin
<Tags> Seth Godin, connect, tribe, challenge

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