In Group Favouritism

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⏱️ ~ 11 minute 17 seconds read

Mean Girls, I'm not going to lie. I love it. Love. It.

But it's not just the snarky, killer one-liners that make this early 2000's classic the cinematic masterpiece it is. For me, it's the unexpectedly acute exploration of group psychology and social dynamics that makes it such juicy AF viewing.

And it's why I love it as a marketer too.

You see, how the kids of Northshore High School treat each other is a particularly vivid demonstration of something that all humans are subject to, a little bias called In-Group Favouritism.

And it's effective stuff for marketers too, if they understand it well enough. It sits at the base of a stack of powerful biases that are hard wired into us and require significant effort to overpower or avoid, and these biases are well known to big brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson and Nike who exploit In-Group Favouritism to build armies of raving brand loyalist.

OK, so what the hell is it? 🫤 

I'll give you an example about myself to kick things off. Back in my grungy-indie-rock-loving high school days, my friends and I were a proper in-group (I suspect this is not unique).

We spent countless hours dissecting the merits of our favourite bands, their latest albums and mocking anyone who didn't share our love for this very specific subset underground music.

We were a textbook example of in-group favouritism: showing unmerited favouritism for each other and shunning all others.

THE SCIENCE 🔬 

OK cool, sounds like pretty standard-fair cool-kids stuff right? Well, you're not far off, but it’s much deeper than that and there's lots of studies that have proven its existence, and just how powerful and deeply rooted it is.

In the 1970s, the classic "intergroup discrimination" experiments were conducted by Henri Tajfel. Participants were randomly assigned to groups based literally (and knowingly) on the flip of a coin, and then asked to allocate points to other participants in a hypothetical game.

Despite there being no inherent differences between the groups, participants consistently favoured their own group, even when their team did not merit it.

Another study conducted by social psychologist Marilynn Brewer in 1979, found that people tended to rate others more positively if they believed they shared a common trait or identity with them.

In the study, participants were paired with either a stranger or someone who they believed shared their birthday. Participants rated the person they shared a birthday with more favourably, even though it was a completely arbitrary trait. 

This was further confirmed in a study conducted by Stanford researchers in 2000, that found that people were more likely to remember information about a person if they believed they shared a birthday with the person.

What can I say? Geminis rule! ♊️ 

This all has to do with a deeply rooted desire to belong to and sustain social groups. Some argue it's the foundation to our success as a species (I'd suggest it's also the reason for a few problems too).

HOW IT’S DONE IRL 🧐 

So, how can you make use of In-Group Favouritism? One way is to incorporate it into a brand's overall strategy. Let’s take a look as some examples.

Apple's 1997 "Think Different" campaign is all about celebrating individuality and nonconformity. This positioning as a brand for the "outsiders" and "intellectual misfits," creates a tribalistic sense of identity and ironically, huge conformity.

Fertile ground for the luxury tech category to be created.

Apple has successfully tapped into building and fostering the in-group identity of its target audience over decades. And well, the rest is loooooooooots of zeros in the bank.

Similarly Harley-Davidson has built a brand around the concept of rebellion and freedom, which appeals to a specific group of people who aspire to those values, and desire to exhibit them.

They may only be putting that leather jacket on during the weekend, but for that glorious Sunday afternoon they are fringe-dwelling rebels, who play by their own rules, warm their hands by a 44 gallon drum fire and knock back Tennessee whiskey straight.

Harley riders inherently remember, trust and respect other Harley riders ahead of any other motorcycle rider (and motorist in general), and they're deeply and passionately loyal to the brand.

The same could be said of Nike and their "Just Do It" campaign and eternal tag-line.

By positioning itself as a brand that champions the "inner athlete" in all of us, Nike has created a sense of identity and belonging among athletes and fitness enthusiasts, which has translated into $52B in sales and unparalleled brand loyalty in their category.

It might be easy to write this off simply great branding, but it's much more than that.

It gives them access to a tribe that they can hang their identity upon, it's tells a story about who they are, what they stand for, and what they value.

And importantly it's not just an expression to the world, but a confirmation to themselves.

The more firms focus on consistently demonstrating the values and identity inherent in their brand, there's a powerful flywheel effect with what's known as cognitive consistency (a theory that suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behaviour in harmony and avoid disharmony or dissonance).

This is basically the brand equivalent of pouring fuel on the fire ⛽️ 🔥 

Add in a healthy dose of "laddering", whereby a brand actively calls out their competitors on their weaknesses and most importantly how different and better they are from them - you've got a slam dunk brand strategy right there.

For a powerful example of this look no further than Apple’s iconic "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" campaign. It's an in-group favouritism, cognitive consistency, competitor laddering, layer cake of awesome. Yum 😋 

If the in-group identity offered  by a brand is clear, powerful and promulgated enough, once embedded, loyalty is near impossible to break.

Just try getting an Apple user onto an Android device. I dare you.

Outside of brand strategy, In-Group Favouritism can be deployed as a powerful tactical growth hack.

One company that has done this effectively is Dropbox. Now considered the OG of referral growth hacking case studies, Dropbox is mostly celebrated as an example of using the bias of social proof.

But for the referral program to work, they actually kicked things off using In-Group Favouritism.

The cloud storage company offered free storage space to users who referred their friends to the service. By incentivising existing users to bring their friends onboard, they cleverly positioned referring friends to Dropbox as a secret insider-only advantage, something of value to be shared with your closest friends.

And then on the recipients side, it was all about social proof; people were more likely to trust and adopt a service if it came recommended by someone they knew and liked. Wham, bam $7B market cap m'am.

HOW YOU CAN PUT IT WORK 🏗️ 

Now before you run off and start splashing "VIP only" stickers all over everything, it's important for brands to tread carefully when trying to tap into the in-group identity of their target audience.

If done insensitively or without a true understanding of the values and ideals of the subculture or social movement, brands risk alienating their target audience and coming off as clumsy, uncool and worst of all straight up insincere. And this is the stuff Twitter dunk-culture thrives on (Bud Light anyone? 🫠)

So let’s take a closer look at the practical steps you can take to integrate this bias into your marketing and build your own tribe of logo tattoo emblazoned fanatics.

👉 Start by defining your tribe. Who are they? What do they believe in? What makes them tick?

Do your research. Get to understand the psychological utility of your product and the identity that it affords your current consumers, especially your super-consumers, promoters and advocates. 

👉 Then, rethink your brand personality in a way that speaks to them and importantly, who they want to be. 

Integrate the psychological benefits that appeal to your target audience into your brand guidelines/ identity/ tone of voice or strategy (whatever name you have for it), to effectively connect with their underlying psychological needs.

👉 Finally, relentlessly double-down across all aspects of your user experience and communications to make them feel they're part of something bigger, something special.

Like all good brand guidelines this is not about logos and palettes, this is a lens through which you now see the world on behalf of your tribe. 

Your users will now feel this POV and have it reinforced for them through every interaction and experience from a Facebook Ad to the warranty booklet inside the box.

In-Group Favouritism is a powerful and unescapable force that affects our attitudes and behaviours towards ourselves and others. When used strategically and skilfully, it can be a powerful tool for brands to create unparalleled affinity and loyalty, baking in virality and an army of advocates who’ll actively take-down your competitors 🥋 

And as for my grungy indie rock-loving high school days? Well, let's just say that while I may have fallen victim to one of the most powerful human biases, at least I had good taste in music.

• What other brands have you seen In-Group Favouritism really work for?

• How do you plan to use In-Group Favouritism in your brand strategy or tactics going forward?

I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

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🙋 Got a question? I might just have some answers.

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Just hit 'reply' and let me know what's on your mind, and I'll share my answer with the community the very next week, including a special shout out (if you're into that, otherwise we can keep it anon) 🥸 

😂 Memes. Memes. Memes. Finish strong. Memes.

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