The notion of a consumer tribeis similar, because this refers to a group of people who
share a lifestyle and who can identify with each other through a shared allegiance to
an activity or a product. Although these tribes are often unstable and short-lived, at least
for a time members identify with others through shared emotions, moral beliefs, styles
of life, and of course the products they jointly consume as part of their tribal affiliation.
The challenge of tribal marketingis to link one’s product to the needs of a group as
a whole. Many tribes devoted to activities like skateboarding or basketball are youth
oriented, and we’ll talk more about these in Chapter 13. However, there are also plenty
of tribes with older members, such as car enthusiasts who gather to celebrate such cult
products (see Chapter 4) as the Citroën and Mini Cooper in Europe and the Ford
Mustang in the USA.2