Who is Your Tribe?
Brand,  Brand Identity,  Message

Brainstorm Your Brand: Discover Your Tribe

Dis­cov­er­ing your tar­get audi­ence a.k.a. your tribe is a crit­i­cal step to cre­at­ing a suc­cess­ful brand. You have to be able to tar­get the right peo­ple so you can cre­ate mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing that will res­onate with them and con­vince them to seek out the kind of trans­for­ma­tion you’re offer­ing through your prod­ucts or services.

Here are some tips to help you find them.

Define your brand identity

Before you can begin to fig­ure out who your tar­get audi­ence or tribe is, it’s essen­tial to under­stand the essence of your brand. What are your brand’s mis­sion and vision? What does your brand stand for? What makes it unique? What are your core val­ues? Answer­ing these ques­tions will help you to cre­ate a brand iden­ti­ty that will attract the exact group that’s look­ing for the type of trans­for­ma­tion you offer

Identify your target audience

Take a look at your cur­rent tar­get audi­ence. This is the group of peo­ple who are inter­est­ed in what you’re offer­ing and may inter­act with you and your brand but aren’t quite ready to buy. Who are they? What do they have in com­mon? What is their 3 a.m. prob­lem your prod­ucts or ser­vices can solve–i.e. what type of trans­for­ma­tion do you pro­vide? This infor­ma­tion will give you a good start­ing point for iden­ti­fy­ing your tribe.

Analyze your competition

Research your com­pe­ti­tion. Who are they tar­get­ing? What demo­graph­ics? Do they have a sim­i­lar tribe to the one you’re try­ing to build? Are they pro­vid­ing a sim­i­lar solu­tion or trans­for­ma­tion to their tribe’s 3 a.m. prob­lem? This infor­ma­tion can help you find gaps in the mar­ket that you can fill with your own brand.

Use market research

Mar­ket research can be a valu­able tool for dis­cov­er­ing exact­ly who your tribe is and what type of trans­for­ma­tion they’re seek­ing. There are a vari­ety of mar­ket research meth­ods you can use, includ­ing sur­veys, focus groups, and online ana­lyt­ics. This research can help you gath­er data on your tribe, includ­ing their age, loca­tion, income, chal­lenges, and interests.

Buyer Persona

Create buyer personas

Buy­er per­sonas are fic­tion­al char­ac­ters that rep­re­sent the mem­bers of your tribe. You can bet­ter under­stand buy­er per­sonas and tai­lor your mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing strate­gies to their needs by cre­at­ing buy­er per­sonas. Use the infor­ma­tion you’ve gath­ered from your mar­ket research and cus­tomer data to cre­ate these personas.

Consider your product or service

Think about your prod­uct or ser­vice and who it is designed for. Who’d ben­e­fit the most from it? What kind of per­son would use it? What kind of trans­for­ma­tion can they expect from it? This infor­ma­tion can help you iden­ti­fy your tribe and make sure that you’re mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing to the right group of people.

Test your assumptions about your target audience a.k.a tribe

Once you’ve gath­ered all of this infor­ma­tion, it’s time to test your assump­tions. Use social media, email mar­ket­ing, and oth­er chan­nels to reach out to your tribe and see if they res­onate with your brand. Pay atten­tion to their respons­es and make changes to your mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy based on the feed­back you receive.

Dis­cov­er­ing your tribe is a process that requires research, analy­sis, and refine­ment. By fol­low­ing these steps, you can cre­ate a mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy that res­onates with them and ulti­mate­ly dri­ves con­ver­sions and sales. Remem­ber, your tribe is not set in stone, and as your brand evolves, your tribe may change as well. Reg­u­lar­ly ana­lyze and adjust your strate­gies accordingly.

Togeth­er let’s cre­ate some transformation!


For more strate­gies on how to build your brand grab your e‑book today.

Shonda is the Taylor of Taylorberry Designs. She is a certified micro business branding strategist, freelance creative, writer, bestselling author, and mindset mentor for other creatives. Her preferred pronouns are she/her.