A new Manchester United supporter is joining a worldwide community of millions with a heritage going back generations. They know what it means to be a supporter and who their community expects them to be. They’ll wear the team’s brand with confidence because the last thing a football team ever does is dramatically change what it stands for and who it represents. If a team moves to a new city, takes on a foreign owner, or moves upmarket, it’s a really, really big issue and generally a last resort.
In tech, even where we have a decade of cultural history to draw upon, it’s usually included several dramatic shifts in direction and character. More tech companies get acquired or fail in five years than IPO. Sometimes it’s a last resort, but more often it’s the nature of the industry to change rapidly to seek new opportunities and technologies.
That constant change means a supporter isn’t so certain exactly which community they’re joining. They’re not so ready to wear your brand.
But they might be prepared to wear a t-shirt like Bugcrowd’s, which mainly features a tech security in-joke (“My other computer is your computer”). If you can brand the merchandise with something that relates to the community they’re part of, rather than the brand of your tech company, you’re going to see better results.
They might be prepared to wear a tee or hoodie in a brand colour if you feel you can own that brand colour over time, and they may be prepared to wear the brand if it’s small and subtle. They might be interested in something truly unique — not just branded but completely new—like a new take on scarves, or hats, or jackets.
On the playing field of a sporting stadium, I’m sure it feels like the team with the most fans has an advantage. But remember, this is not about the team, it’s about the supporters. When trying to turn your customers into fanatic supporters, it’s not a numbers game, it’s an allegiance game. In the stadium stands, it’s the supporters of the underdog team who are most likely to shout louder, try harder, and band together in unity.
So when you’re planning your supporter merchandise, don’t be an economist — don’t decide to produce the maximum amount of merchandise at the lowest cost. Don’t keep it all in a warehouse, only bring it to trade shows, and then employ tradeshow trash to hand it out to every stranger to happens to wander by.
Tradeshow trash don’t represent your customer community. Lowest-cost scratchy Chinese cotton tees don’t make any customer feel like you care about their support. And seeing them being handed out to people who are clearly not supporters is the last straw in supporter alienation.
Instead, produce a limited quantity of high-quality merchandise. Make customers earn the right to wear it — not by tweeting about how awesome your products are but by really relating to your community — helping contribute to FAQs, helping other customers with a question, volunteering to host a customer meetup. Make other customers aspire to get one too.
Every team’s supporter community has a small set of hard-core, diehard fans at its very centre, and when you begin creating a supporter base for your tech startup brand, the first people to recruit are a small group of time-rich, no-friend, slightly mad customers looking for a chance to be the hard-core, diehard fans at the centre of a new team.
Uber Melbourne, by the way, didn’t give any of us tees at the party. Maybe they knew we hadn’t earned it and hopefully it knows we’re way too cool to wear it … yet.
Alan Jones is an ex-Yahoo product guy,@startmate@pollenizerinvestor/mentor, and co-founder of@thenewagencyAU.
This story first appeared on StartupSmart.
