Community Before Customers
What Taylor Swift, Glossier, and Patagonia got right.
This is Part 2 of my 6-part GTM Playbook. Over the next many weeks, I’ll share my process for developing culturally relevant go to market strategies. I’ll give everyone a teaser but I’ll put the best parts behind the paywall. So, consider becoming a paid member so you don’t miss the good stuff.
Today, I dive into the power of community building, why it’s so hard, and the steps you can take to tackle it.
And in the spirit of community, over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing several interviews with brilliant brand founders who have built soulful communities from scratch.
These interviews will be made available to free and paid subscribers, so stay tuned.
Now, let’s get into it.
A great cultural strategy naturally gives way to the creation of a community strategy. If the cultural strategy answers “how does my brand identify, and where does it fit into culture?”, then the community strategy answers “why, where, and how does my brand belong?”
A community strategy creates a container for your brand to be experienced and shared among like-minded people — people who gravitate towards each other and naturally resonate with one another based on shared values, beliefs, desires, goals, tastes and preferences. The brand sets the tone, the community creates the music.
Original Creators Of Community Strategy
Speaking of music. When I think about brands that set the standard for community building, the first examples that come to mind are not traditional brands but artists who have become brands themselves.
Take Taylor Swift. I’m not a Swift stan, but you can’t be in branding and marketing and not marvel at her masterful approach to both. She’s filled arenas for years, creating a fandom that unites strangers in shared euphoria. Packed like sardines, they share bracelets and sweat and the experience of screaming the same lyrics at the same time. They recognize each other by their merch. Even Super Bowl commercials underscore her music’s unique power to bridge divides.
Of course, there’s Glossier, legendary for putting community at the center of their strategy, defining an era of “community-born” DTC brands. Glossier came by it organically, with the steady rise of Into The Gloss. Starting a global beauty brand was not the original intention; building a cult-like community of beauty and skin-obsessed girls-in-the-know was the aim. And Emily Weiss did this better than anyone. Building a brand and products with and for this community was the natural next step.
Patagonia is perhaps the longest standing example of a brand that was built by and for a die-hard community - climbers. While the product offering has expanded far beyond this niche, their core values remain, which has allowed the brand to build a global community of outdoor enthusiasts and environmental warriors who are values-aligned.
What do Taylor Swift, Glossier and Patagonia have in common? What is their special community-building sorcery? From my vantage point, I see a common progression in their rise from local to legendary.
They started with a personal conversation
Taylor Swift was discovered young, at 14. Her drive is undeniable, but her staying power is rooted in deep authenticity. Swift is, above all, a songwriter. Her lyrics are deeply personal yet universal. Her songs started a conversation with a generation, helping young people feel seen and understood.
Emily Weiss started a conversation about beauty for “It Girls”—but Into The Gloss did something more. It gave every girl a seat at the cool table. The blog was friendly, approachable, and unpretentious, offering insider intel and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives and vanities of the most beautiful people in the world. It was personal and universally welcoming.
Before Patagonia, there was one climber and his community, lacking gear fit for their skill level. Yvon Chouinard hand-forged climbing hardware that didn’t rust and pants that didn’t split at the seams, selling to his community for eight years before partnering to meet demand. He built one of the world’s most iconic companies out of a personal need for better gear.
All of them started small - in a bedroom, on a blog, climbing a boulder - with a deeply personal purpose.
The conversation hit a chord
In all three examples, it was their communities that shaped these brands' early evolution. Emotional resonance, high engagement, and organic sharing expanded each network. At first, there was no product to buy—only a feeling to connect to, a song to listen to, an inspiring story to read. These communities provided an essential feedback loop, sharing what they liked and what they wanted next, fueling each brand’s rise.
They leaned into their community to scale
Swift, Weiss and Chouinard had the same (right) instinct that I wish more founders had - they leaned into their core community to scale. They didn’t take their early adopters for granted. They continued to speak to them, seek feedback from them, and engage them in their creative process. When they eventually spun out product, they made it with and for their core community.
What can we learn from these legends? Taylor Swift, Glossier, and Patagonia honored what I consider the sacred rules of community strategy:
Community Before Customers
Start Small, With Intention
Contribute, Don’t Copy
Engage and Invite
Ignite Influencers
Let’s take a closer look.