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Building brand community: Learning from Etsy, Insane Clown Posse, and waxed moustaches

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Paul McNamara / Staff Writer -

Today’s consumers can ferret out fakery, said podcast impresario Jesse Thorn during an hour long talk at the Etsy pop up store in SoHo, in early December.

“If you’re faking it, you’ll want to quit,” Thorn said, noting the importance of authenticity in the marketplace.

Thorn, whose many credits include long running favorite Bullseye, Maximum Fun, and the immensely popular menswear blog, Put This On, was speaking as part of a ten-day lecture series presented by Etsy, a website that connects creative artists with consumers.

The series, along with Esty’s holidy pop up shop, is part of a broader strategy to bring the online shopping experience into the real world. In addition to hearing talks – dubbed “doses of inspiration” -- by experts in marketing, media, and small business, visitors could peruse the store’s products, which ranged from artisanal chocolate to moustache wax.

The series is in keeping with Etsy’s editor-in-chief Alison Feldmann’s advice: when it comes to a marketing strategy, the key is to identify a brand voice then focus on building a community around it.

Thorn’s talk “Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively, No-Fail, Guaranteed 1000% Success,” traced his rise from unemployed college radio host to the head of his small, but sustainable and very successful creation and distribution business.

“Care and try,” says Thorn. “If you’re talentless or lazy, none of this will work. If you’re talentless and lazy, you’re particularly out of luck.” It seems like it goes without saying, but it doesn’t. If you’re going to put content out there, it cannot be for its own sake.

Instead, as Callie Schweitzer echoed in a recent article for the Nieman Journalism Lab, dig deeper.

“There will always be a demand for a higher level of content that makes you think, react, and reflect on a deeper level,” she said.

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