Using social proof and scarcity to market to the tribe Hyatt-style

In a previous blog I discussed the fact that marketing to tribes appears to be on the rise and attributed the change to the influence of social media.  Bottom line, social media has heightened the effect of group think and has allowed it to overwhelm individual thought. You can read the previous blog here...

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2018/03/is-there-any-individual-thought-anymore_14.html

Smart marketers have already noted the increase in effectiveness that comes from reaching out to tribes and have been exploiting it appropriately.  Or inappropriately as was the case with the Russian Facebook campaigns.  More here...

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-russians-sure-know-how-to-market-to.html

Now along comes Hyatt to demonstrate how tribal marketing can be used to differentiate hotel brands. 

Presumably after doing some target research, Hyatt identified two very distinct tribes for their Park Hyatt and Hyatt Centric brands.  Then they found a partner for each of the brands which would help them to attract more members of that tribe.  Makes sense right?

For Park Hyatt - an upper end brand - the common interest for the tribe was photography.  So a partnership was formed with National Geographic.  Copies of the magazine in rooms and by-invitation-only walking tours with photographers were part of the effort.

For Hyatt Centric - a cooler more affordable brand - music was the key, so a partnership was formed with Sofar Sounds - a pop-up concert company.  This campaign includes priority tickets for the local rising talent concerts which attract as many as 7,000 applications for 50-100 seats. (Chipkin, 2019)

It's important to note that both campaigns include an element of exclusivity available only to members of the tribe.  So they are using the persuasiveness of scarcity to some extent in their efforts.  But the bigger emphasis is on belonging to the tribe, which is an example of the social proof persuasion technique.  And of course both campaigns recognize the societal shift toward seeking happiness from experiences rather than things.

Given all that, I think they are likely to be successful.  Don't you?

Chipkin, H. (2019, January 17)  Partnerships Help Hyatt Differentiate Brands.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved January 22, 2019, from https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/330706/partnerships-help-hyatt-differentiate-brands.html