Traditionally, marketing meant mass marketing. A brand would have one message, one tone of voice, and one campaign at a time, and they would advertise that message and that narrative far and wide, indiscriminately. Then came along digital media and a cookie-filled world.
Brands could suddenly find out much more about potential consumers, and could adapt their messaging for each consumer. The Instagram ad you see might not be quite the same as the YouTube ad your friend watches. It was an era of personalisation.
Now, the buzz in marketing is all about community. We’ve entered a world of brand ambassadors and VIP rewards and exclusive loyalty programmes. Even supermarkets all now seem to have membership programmes, giving you discounts so long as you scan your club card at the checkout.
In the past year or two, these attempts seem to have been ramped up to a new level. Rhode’s pop-up shops had fans queueing up for over 5 hours to get their hands on product previews and access to their complete collection.
Things like Class Pass have been moving people from just going to the gym to joining yoga classes, F45 classes, hit classes, and so on. Nike’s membership programme similarly creates groups and communities through apps like Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club.
Sephora has its 34 million strong “Beauty Insider Community”, a space that lets consumers share recommendations and advice with each other, alongside attending beauty classes and building points that they can use for sample products and the like.
Everywhere you look, the focus seems to be on community, community, community.
I wonder how much this has been driven not so much by brands pushing community, but by consumers wanting it. Covid isn’t so much the elephant in the room as the bull in the china shop.
People of all ages — but particularly young people — are more socially isolated than ever, with fewer close friends, fewer places to go to where they can hang out without spending a tonne of money, and fewer chances to meet new people. I hardly think owning a Starbucks membership card is going to fix that, but I think a little part of all of this is driven by the desire to be a part of something. After all, brands wouldn’t continue pushing membership programmes if it wasn’t working.
The other aspect is convenience. For Gen Z in particular, we’ve gotten used to sacrificing ownership for access. We don’t own our music and films, we stream them. We don’t own a car, we rent a Zip car or get in an Uber. When I cycle to work, I find an ebike on the street and unlock it with my phone, then leave it somewhere near the office, enjoying the ease of a monthly subscription.
There are some grim realities underpinning some of these changes, of course. Home ownership is becoming a more improbable reality for young people around the developed world, resulting in the younger generations getting stuck in elongated cycles of bad landlords, badly-maintained flats and sky-high rents.
Instead of investing money every month into a mortgage, and by doing so building equity, the money vanishes straight into the pocket of some older landlord. Sometimes, we don’t own things because that isn’t an option.
But there are positive sides to access over ownership, too. With a music streaming subscription you have access to millions of songs and podcasts, as well as the ability to discover something new from the comfort of your bedroom or with the ease of opening your phone. For the same monthly price, you could only have bought a few CDs; you’d probably know less than half of the artists you listen to now. There are pros and cons, as with anything.
For marketers, community is a way of engaging a cohort (who are known for their short attention spans) over the long term. It’s also a way of building better.
By engaging with a community, a brand has access to real-time feedback and can use those community insights to develop products and features that people actually want. You could even argue that it’s a way of empowering both consumer and brand, and that co-creation leads to better outcomes for all.
Perhaps that’s an overly optimistic way of viewing things, but at the very least, 10% off is kinda nice.
See also:
The University of Michigan doubled down on D.E.I. What went wrong? (ny times)
I haven’t written much about universities here yet, although they remain a large part of the lives of many Zers. The New York Times recently did a deep dive into The University of Michigan and various controversies around their DEI program, which they’ve poured around a quarter of a billion dollars into since 2016. For Gen Z, I think there are a lot of interesting questions here (and some good insights from the students spoken with). As universities swell the size of their bureaucratic departments (despite disputes around how much they pay their teaching staff) it’s not always clear what’s actually best for students. Read more
A disturbing look behind the scenes at TikTok (thred)
In the US, TikTok is currently being sued by more than a dozen states for allegedly duping the public about the safety of the app. Some of the claims are incredibly worrying, including that officials at TikTok TikTok knew that there was “a high” number of underage streamers receiving virtual gifts for stripping on the app, that TikTok deliberately tweaked its algorithm after deciding that there were too many “unattractive” people appearing on the feed, and that the company was well aware that its app is interfering with the normal lives of adolescents, keeping them from “sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at someone in the eyes.” Given that an estimated 95% of smartphone users under 17 use the app at least once a month, and that according to TikTok’s own calculations it can only take about 35 minutes (or 260 videos) for someone to develop an addiction to the app, the case makes for some disturbing reading. Read more
Has Gen Z stopped wearing mascara? (vogue)
In Gen Z beauty news, it seems that the generation have been ditching mascara in droves, driven by celebrities and influencers like Hailey Bieber. Over the past few years, beauty trends have been moving towards more minimalist, “clean girl” aesthetics and away from the maximalist approaches of the 00s and 2010s, with mascara getting swept up in the changes. Read more
Agencies and brands are hiring influencers as business consultants (ad age)
The role of influencers is changing dramatically behind the scenes. Brands and agencies are increasingly turning to influencers for consulting roles, rather than public-facing marketing collaborations. These influencers provide insights into consumer behaviour and industry trends, as well as offering a deep dive into specific micro-communities. I’ve seen a few articles recently about how the era of the influencer is over. Given that sentiment, I find it interesting that many are adopting a much more corporate role. Read more
Do we look at ourselves too much? (thred)
An article by my colleague Sofia asking whether the modern reality of seeing our reflection tens if not hundreds of times a day is at all healthy. It was Fernando Pessoa who wrote in the early 1900s that ‘man shouldn’t be able to see his own face,’ and that ‘nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare at his own eyes.’ Now, of course, we’re constantly confronted with our reflection, and some are raising concerns about the effects of this. Read more
That’s all for this week! Make sure to subscribe for the latest on Gen Z and youth culture, and check out The Common Thred for a weekly roundup of the latest news, trends and thought pieces.
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