Dustice

Ingenious marketing. That’s what Seth Godin has always been about, and his latest move is just so brilliant - seems like it has the internet abuzz.

The topic (and title!) of Seth’s soon-to-be-released book is “Tribes”. A Tribe is (from what I can conclude from the Amazon blurb) an exclusive group of people centered around an idea, a product, or a person. I expect Seth to be arguing for the power of the Tribe in the internet age where a successful product can be far more than a consumer item - but a culture.

But anyways - Yesterday, Seth Godin offered me a chance to join his new “special, invitation-only online community”.

Exciting!

All I had to do was to -

• Preorder his book ($14 or so)
• Mail him my online reciept

And I would get membership to this “tribe for marketers, for leaders, for those focused on building communities or creating products or spreading ideas.”
But that’s not all! Membership is:

• Exclusive - Members had to purchase his smart, creative, analytical book! That means all the people in there will be smart, creative, and analytical!
• Limited - Membership will stopped being offered when enough people have joined.
• Numbered - Members are number based upon the order in which they join, which in his words = “prestige, first dibs on various assets and bragging rights”
• Perky - Members get the chance to win free tickets to the Tribes launch event and “a few other goodies”. He also wants your physical address to “send you something in the mail in October”

Now golly gee. He’s creating a Tribe around his book about Tribes! But this whole marketing ploy demonstrates just how powerful a tribe can be and what it takes to construct one.

From what I can deduce, A tribe:

• Is a community centered around an idea, a product, or a person
• Has members who participate by both discussion, and new innovation centered around their focus
• Is exclusive - members pay an entrance fee, this fee ties into the focus of the tribe
• And cultivates that image of exclusivity
• Appears beneficial to the members, offers special benefits based upon the focus

Can you think of tribes already in place? (Apple, Political societies, Religious groups, and Frats all come to my mind)

So yeah, I’m excited about checking out this community when it launches (to be located at triiibes.com) as well as seeing what Seth’s word about Tribes in his book (and seeing what I guess right!).

Thoughts?

— Oh, also

• Jeff mentioned this article from my del.icio.us, which I found from Grace, and noted the connection between high-end colleges and tribes