Outdoor Voices shows community only gets you so far

As a consumer, you subscribe to one vision or another: what’s your version of hiking out doors? What type of vibe are you about? Purist? Gorpy? High intensity? Meditative? But in all cases, the branded subculture itself is the main thing, while the role of physical goods is diminished. Their job is not to drive value, but to add another layer of de

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The keywords are not necessarily prestige and exclusivity but identity and belonging.Membership is micro. To prevent reverse network effects and maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio, brands often focus on specific customer sub-segments and overdeliver for them. This works particularly well for brands that sell easily commodified products. For exam... See more

In a saturated market where new direct-to-consumer startups are popping up left and right, customers “want to feel that they’re getting something superior,” said Krystal Melissa Wu, a community manager at Shopify. “Community is not something you can replicate or cultivate overnight.”

Delayed gratification is a feature, not a bug Performance marketing and paid social carpet-bombing, no matter how targeted, do not create a human connection that all durable brands have and that makes them durable in the first place. A quick rush of sales following a paid social campaign or a stunt should not be a sign of positive ROI, but an inver

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