Building the World’s Largest Exclusive Membership Club
Whether it’s a membership to Diamond Lounge, invitation only sign up on Gmail or getting into a popular club in New York City, we all want something not everyone else can access- something special. If access to goods or services is unfettered then the value generating power of those products is necessarily deflated. This represents the power of exclusivity and it drives lifestyle/luxury branding the world over.
Fuego Nation Online is a hybrid Open-Closed Network and it is the first of its kind on the Internet. It’s closed in that not anyone can sign up and access member benefits as is the case with sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc. It’s open in that anyone CAN request an invite and apply to get in on their own merit. We believe this provides the benefit of scale by reducing the friction created by ‘invite only’ business models while generating the brand power inherent in exclusivity.
Most online clubs generate exclusivity by legacy, offline means. They rely on symbols of material success like income level and celebrity. Fuego Nation Online breaks this antiquated mold by creating exclusivity around the energy that drives the world- individual passions. To us, passion is the great equalizer, capable of connecting individuals regardless as to income level, caste system or common prejudice.
At Fuego Nation Online, talent literally rises to the top. In our world what makes someone elite is the passion with which they engage and participate in the community coupled with the energy and devotion they engage with their passions. In a sense, we are creating a global meritocracy based on passion and believe the combination of all that energy and desire will be combustible– a true social change agent.
Though we see the value in exclusivity as a marketing concept, as articulated above, our application of the concept is more experiential and practical and we believe, more potentially powerful. We use exclusivity to separate the truly passionate from the posers and then we use that knowledge to distinguish between the truly elite and the novices (e.g. in our Mountain Climbing and Fashion Passion Spheres). If one is not truly passionate, after all, then they won’t have the energy and desire to fill out a simple passion card and apply for membership.
We apply exclusivity to leveling of content as well with the purpose of making it easier for adults to assess the relative merit and value of community contributions. This leveling structure enables someone to review only content of members ‘at their level or above.’ In doing so, we intend to help solve the problem of indecipherable user generated content and increase the discoverability of high quality content by levels of magnitude.
We extend exclusivity into the offline world as well via Fuego Nation Events. To attend Fuego Nation VIP events at clubs, restaurants and museums a member must have achieved VIP status online first. Once at an event, those in attendance have valuable data about one another which decreases overall anonymity and provides a psychic tethering mechanism to foster connections via commonality.
In the end, our market approach and strategy leverages exclusivity in the traditional marketing sense while deploying its functional application to create a more engaging and efficient user experience.
