Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Retail Prophet Consulting blog.
Facebook has become the ultimate online commune. Anyone can jump on a Groupon deal. There are no requisites to joining Foursquare, Flickr or almost any other web based social community. In fact, the web in general has in many ways become the truest expression of the idea of equal access and egalitarianism -- the democratization of everything.
But let's also not forget when high school kids were lying about their age just to get a Facebook profile because the service was exclusively for college students. It could be argued that those early barriers to entry are what fuelled the mystique and excitement around Facebook. Membership became coveted and cherished. The truth is that we like exclusivity. We relish having privileges that others don't enjoy. We all long to know "the secret handshake" that takes us where others can't go.
That's why I believe we're poised to see a gradual but steady shift toward a decidedly less inclusive web. This is not to say communities like Facebook won't continue to grow but that people will slowly begin to seek deeper, more valuable and ultimately more exclusive communities to belong to.
In fact, a number of communities already
require certain criteria of their membership:
- Path.com calls itself a "personal site" that limits users to linking with a maximum of 50 friends.
- Collegeonly.com picks up where Facebook began by creating a social network exclusively for college students.
- Asmallworld.net has been called "MySpace for millionaires."
- Beautifulpeople.com (Believe it or not!) is a site where users' photographs
are actually voted on prior to being granted access. That's right,
no ugly people allowed!
While sites like beautifulpeople.com may strike us as nothing more than tasteless elitism, they point to the underlying human need to feel special, unique and valued via exclusive membership.
Retailers on the other hand have inundated us with free memberships and loyalty programs. As a consequence, we begin to shy away from loyalty programs altogether. After all, if anyone qualifies, how valuable can it really be?
Some brands like Starbucks and Lululemon have hinted at a sense of exclusivity by creating a strong culture complete with their own product languages. Others, like Neiman Marcus and Saks, have excluded largely through pricing. Even sites like Gilt Groupe and Rue La La have built their businesses on a by-invitation-only model -- although getting an invitation isn't a challenge.
I would argue, though, that there's an opportunity to take the notion of exclusivity much farther, creating private customer communities that are so experiential, enjoyable and value-added that consumers would clamor for access. Unlike more banal retail loyalty programs, the potential exists to build members-only branded communities offering everything from social connections through to exclusive media, products and even live events. Imagine belonging to a branded social network so exclusive and valuable you'd be willing to pay to belong!
This runs completely contrary to the DNA of many marketers who have come to regard success as providing reasonable value to as many people as possible. In exclusive communities, by contrast, success lies in creating enormous value for only your very best or most influential customers ... the chosen few, as it were. It means creating deep brand experiences for some instead of shallow brand experiences for all.