We Are All Weird

“The key element of being weird is this: you insist on making a choice.”

Key takeaway

Stand for something. That technically defines what makes you weird

“The biggest cultural shift that the internet has amplified is the ability to make an impact on your own culture.”

Key takeaway

The internet has empowered everyone, including the weirdos

“As a result, the mass marketer keeps missing the point. He’s busy looking for giant clumps instead of organizing to service and work with smaller tribes. Probably worth slowing down and rereading that sentence again, because our bias for mass is so strong and so ingrained that we often overlook it.”

Key takeaway

No longer focus on the masses, focus on a specific group

“As soon as consumers enter the marketplace, they gain power, because power comes from choice. Consumer power is a brand new force, and it’s growing exponentially as a result of more affluence running in parallel with more choice.”

Key takeaway

The more choice someone has, the more power they have, even if they are a consumer (probably why apple doesn’t provide a lot of choices)

“If you persist in trying to be all things to all people, you will fail. The only alternative, then, is to be something important to a few people.”

Key takeaway

You can’t please everyone so focus on pleasing a few, very well

“There are a billion “channels” of information and you can pick the one you want. There’s a long tail of channels, and at least one matches every person’s precise definition of weirdness (if there’s no match, go ahead and start another channel).

Key takeaway

There is something out there for everyone now, if you can’t find it then its probably a good idea to start it

“As soon as we remove physical proximity as a gating factor, the only barrier to weirdness is choice.”

Key takeaway

Taking down gates allows for more choice

“The key lesson: humanity and connection are trumping the desire for corporate scale.”

Key takeaway

People are resisting monetization unless it connects them to a person or idea

“Average is for marketers who don’t have enough information to be accurate.”

Key takeaway

Gather research so you can target the right weird

“Tribes are fueled by our never-ending desire to avoid lonliness. Weirdness (which used to be a shortcut to lonely) is no fueled by the very tribes that fought it.”

Key takeaway

People are always looking for tribes

“It’s true, of course. We don’t like the advertising that’s not for us, not about us, not interesting to us. But talk to me, directly to me, about something relevant and personal, and I love you for it.”

Key takeaway

Native advertising will work because it provides value to the consumer

“The challenge of your future is to do productive and useful work for and by and with the tribe that cares about you. To find and assemble the tribe, to earn their trust, to take them where they want and need to go.”

Key takeaway

Brands can lead tribes if they identify them correctly. Create it if people have not already formed if. If it is formed then join it.