Does your brand feel like it’s something your customers want to become a part of?
Does your brand mean something to them? Does your brand stand for something they can believe in?
Thousands of Green Bay Packer fans became a part of something they believe in today.
In their first stock offering in 14 years, the Packers sold 1,600 shares of stock at $250 per share in the first 11 minutes of the sale.
As espn.go.com reports, “The stock isn’t an investment in the traditional sense: Its value doesn’t increase, there are no dividends, it has virtually no re-sale value and it won’t give buyers a leg up on the 93,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets.”
The Packers have been a publicly owned nonprofit since 1923. More than 112,000 Packers stockholders own a total of 4.75 million shares. No other NFL team is owned by its’ fans.
These lucky Packer fans bought shares to become a part of something they believe in.
Your prospective customers want to know how you fit into their life. They want to know how your brand’s meaning intersects their life and what it stands for. If your brand measures up, they’ll want to become a partner with you as well.
When you’re building your brand nation, test it against the Packer’s fans loyalty. Offer compelling reasons to believe in your brand. Offer values to live by, ethics, a movement, and a reason to be that your customers will want to become a part of.
These are the brand evangelists who will spread the good news about you and your brand.
These are the people who will become your brand nation.
Great example Jay, thank you. The Green Bay Packers, like Notre Dame University, have managed to create a sports brand that goes beyond local geography. Local Packer fans want to be part of the history, mystique and future of the team. Anything that’s part of the Packer brand nation, the colors, clothes, paraphernalia all give fans a way to belong and be part of something larger than themselves. Early Apple users felt that kind of kinship with others and their evangelism is, I think, one of the reasons that more people in the coffee house I’m sitting in right now are working on Apples than PCs!