what do the two greatest products ever created have in common?
(a thread that came to me in the shower)
first, what are they?
1) Sports
2) Religion
both have grown to billions of users, hundreds of billions in revenue, and lasted hundreds of years.
what makes them such hits? what human nature do they tap into
1/ “Us vs. Them”
humans are tribal. we enjoy the “us vs. them” narrative
we’re right, they’re wrong
we’re good, they’re bad
we win, they lose
oh and it gets turbo charged with sports because they are “local”. So you add on “locals vs. outsiders”
2/ Cooperation & Violence
a human alone is a weak creature. We can barely survive alone.
our superpower is cooperation. We can get together, and each do tasks that help the whole.
the other part of our human nature is violence.
Sports are the cross of cooperation & violence
3/ Gods vs. Men
we like the idea of gods.
higher powers. special beings.
sports and religions give us heroes that seem otherworldly.
this is why ppl “worship” Michael Jordan, Lebron etc.. and have absolute faith in “the man above”
4/ We love rituals
What do we do every sunday?
Some go to church.
Some go to the couch and watch football.
we love familiar rituals
5/ We wear our uniform to show what tribe we are on
Eg. wearing a cross necklace, or a certain headwrap
or
a jersey or tshirt of your team
They give us ways to pledge our allegiance to the tribe
any product can use these levers.
the Bolt founder is creating an “us vs. them” conflict against the “powers of silicon valley”
Social media creates “gods” (filtered, edited, perfect lifestyles) vs. us normals
Crypto is tribal as hell
TV shows create weekly rituals
many companies try to use these tactics in their marketing.
the thing about sports and religion is that these elements are baked into the product itself.
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