This is not for you – The power of exclusivity

I was always the last choice in sports. Athletically underwhelming
is what you might call it. There are some people that were not born
with an advantageous physical disposition and I was one of them. When I
would be picked last for the team, what everyone was trying to say is
“this is not for you.” My inability to excel in any sport (I tried
swimming, soccer, you name it) ended in viola lessons. Point in
case—there were significant barriers to entry.

The same is true for brands. Creating barriers to entry keeps the
customers you want in, and those who don’t matter, out. If you’re walls
are too short, intruders are going to dilute your brand and soon your
community will be reduced to rubble.

Here are a few barriers to entry:

Language Barriers – Think about having an in depth
conversation with your doctor or lawyer. They’ll probably dumb down
everything and put it into layman’s terms. If you were to enter their
world outside the patient room, you’d might as well be in Russia. The
professional languages of medicine, law and business keep those that
are unlearned, out.

Price – Think Hermes, Tiffany & Co., Porsche and other
luxury brands. Do you think they care about people that cannot afford
their products? That’s why they their media buys are where only the
affluent frequent or are interested in. Yacht magazines are more likely
to have a Porsche advertisement than your fisherman’s weekly. Luxury
brands don’t want to waste their time or money catering to people that
do not have sizable wealth. You won’t see deep discounts or buy one get
one because if you cannot afford the products / services to begin with
they don’t care about you.

Consider country clubs. Memberships can cost in the tens of
thousands of dollars. Do you think the affluent want their country club
letting your average Joe buy a membership at a discounted rate? Country
club members buy that barrier–that wall–at a high price.

Effort – Seth Godin’s Dip concept speaks to barriers of
certain professions. Doctors and lawyers have scaled the high walls
that surround their profession. The determination that fuels the
countless hours of hard work is how to survive the Dip. If obtaining
your doctorate was easy, then it wouldn’t be such an exclusive
professional community.

Building walls is important when developing a tight-knit brand
community. Diluting your message by catering to others outside your
target audience makes the entire...

To read more about the power of exclusivity, go to apointb.