Kathleen Firment,
strategist!
The ask:
Pick a subculture and learn everything you can about it.
The subculture:
Jimmy Buffett superfans, affectionately known as "Parrot Heads."
The methodologies:
Joining countless online forums, digitally befriending musicians that are three times my age, and listening to such much of Jimmy Buffett's music I could recite his discography in my sleep.*
*Ethnographic Surveys, Qualitative Interviews, Digital and Physical Observation, Artifact Collection, Secondary Research, Social Listening
As a lifelong Grateful Dead fan, I wanted to see if that community vibe translates to a new, more tropical, scene.
Read the coffee table book here:
Key Takeaways:
01: The party is the purpose.
Of couse, the music matters. Obviously. But nobody’s showing up 4 hours early just to hear songs. They’re tailgating. They’re dressing up. They’re becoming someone else for the day.
The ritual is the experience. The songs are just part of the
excuse to be there, and to be together.
Parrot Heads haven't stuck around all of this time because of Spotify playlists. They stuck around because the party never really ends.
Translation:
If people can participate in a brand, they’ll keep coming back.
If they can only watch it, they won’t.
02:
commit to
the bit.
One guy in a grass skirt is a spectacle, but ten thousand is a movement.
Parrot Heads buy in with the same willingness to let loose and be a little ridiculous. Because of that, the fun comes with a passion for goodness in the world, and for each other.
Translation:
People want a place where everyone else gets it too.
Community is everything.
03:
CATCH A VIBE.
Parrot Heads know what they're getting, and that’s why they keep coming back. Different city, different day, but the same feeling, same spirit, and maybe the same drunk guy in a Hawaiian shirt. That consistency builds a world to come back to.
Jimmy Buffett never chased trends. He built a world and stayed in it so that his fans could do the same.
Translation:
If a brand keeps changing personalities, people stop believing in it. Pick a world, stay there, and make it worth returning to.
That's it. That's the takeaway.
04: It's
five o'
clock somewhere.
The people behind the work:
Kathleen Firment
